grad_wannabe

No question whatsoever. Go with the full funding at NUS. ESPECIALLY considering you want to matriculate to the med school there.

For what it's worth, Columbia's b-school is ranked #8 in the US. Not Wharton, but not shabby.

Thank you!!

thread for newly admitted students:

I don't have any hard data at hand, but I know that administrative costs (including insanely high salaries for college presidents) are exploding.

Hi everybody! Just accepted the offer to do a PhD in Communications at the Columbia Journalism school. I've been told that PhDs at the J-school are really unlikely to land housing, and that I should look off campus. If anyone has that link referenced above, about a housing website other than UAH, I'd be grateful!

>I am 99% sure that I know which school I want to go but this hasn't stopped me from seeking advice from every single person I can on what they think I should do. It's pointless though because when they say something in favor of a school Other than the one I want to go to, then I just argue with them. Exactly the same here. I KNOW which program I'm attending, but that doesn't stop me from consulting with other people and then arguing with them when they disagree with my decision!

FWIW -- just heard my funding offer from Oxford. Zilch. Zip. Nada. No funding whatsoever. At least that makes my decision easier.

I was admitted to UCLA for a different program and they told me the same thing: they can offer ONE year of a stipend, but cannot afford to pay for out-of-state tuition for the first year (they can pay in-state tuition when residency is established after year #1). So basically I'm on the hook for a year's worth of out-of-state tuition, and then have to find my own living funding for the next FOUR years? I'm afraid that's quite untenable.

I put on SO much weight during my MS. It was all pizza, beer, chinese food, and leftover cookies from department meetings for two years. I'm determined, this time around, not to festishize the pursuit of scholarship above getting some exercise and watching my sugar intake.

Can you expand on that?

WOW thanks for all this help, everybody! This is precisely the guidance I needed!

Call and talk to them. I've found that the people I spoke with at my federal loan office were VERY helpful and supportive.

I've been bowled over at the number of people telling me they "don't believe in school" and that "the school of life is enough!" and my favorite, "when are you going to stop stalling, and start growing up and having a family?" As though I'm moving to NYC to begin a doctorate at one of the best universities in the country just to get out of having babies.

I applied for a doctorate at Oxford and was warned by quite a few people (including my rec letter writers) that pursuing a UK PhD would all but assure a very tough time in the US academic job market, while at the same time grooming oneself for an equally tough life navigating the bureaucratic/political nightmare that expats face in trying to get a work visa in the UK. I heard many stories confirming this from people who did their doctorates as LSE and UCL. i work mainly in communications/social sciences, don't know how it is in natural resources.