grad_wannabe

Can I ask you both how you worded your negotiations? I've had two offers that are almost precisely the same except for length (three years v. five) and I'd like to see if I can get the three-year offer extended. I'm reticent, however, to garner a reputation as money-grubbing.

> I dropped about $400 in Bloomington between the visits and application, no more, because I also took off work. The director made it seem like there would be no problem with me getting in Man I feel your pain on that one. For one of my schools I visited campus a bunch of times, including a prospective applicants' open house and a public discussion group. I also met in person with two POIs, BOTH of whom said incredibly encouraging things ("i can imagine quite a few people on our faculty who would be really interested in your application" and "it just so happens I'm on the admissions committee, and this is exactly the kind of application we look for") only to get rejected. It stings. Heart goes out to you.

I saw one of these that actually said "those of you admitted but not planning to attend -- please stop collecting admissions and not declining for the sake of stroking your own egos."

I agree with the advice you've already gotten - do not accept this offer. don't do a PhD unless it's fully funded, with 100% tuition remission at the very least.

this doesn't seem that high. once you get to grad school, all of the classes are in your wheelhouse, so it's common to finish with a high gpa. I finished my MS with a 3.95. it is, though, unusual that they tied your fellowship to your GPA. none of my offers had such specific contingencies.

you might want to ask this over on the Comm board. lots of informed people there. ps were you at the recruitment week at USC in February?

Some through the sites, some through the coordinator, some you'd have to ask in person faculty or students. For example, one of my programs funds only three years, not five. I need to ask current dissertation-level students, and alumni, exactly how easy/difficult it REALLY is to get support those last two years.

YAY I love this thread! Like the above poster said, a school sweatshirt and a U-Haul rental. It's been a tradition for the past ten years for me to get a school sweatshirt the moment I've made a decision. In fact EEK I'm going to go get it right now! ebay here I come!

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I've had an admission fairy tale. There was one school I was looking at that only accepts four students a year. FOUR. It was SO competitive and the current students seemed SO ridiculously accomplished ... I thought the program was amazing but that I had a snowball's chance in hell of getting in. Didn't apply. After the deadline came and went, I became filled with regret that I hadn't at least TRIED. In a bout of anxiety over Christmas break (nearly a month after the deadline), I went to look at the website one last time, and bemoan "what could have been." Lo and behold, I saw that the deadline had been extended. ... to one week after I happened to check the website. I still had time. I whipped together one last application and fired it off. It came together in an oddly beautiful and easy fashion. "Surely my rec letter writers won't get my request in time ... it's Christmas, they're not checking their email!" To my surprise all three of my writers responded to my late "one last upload?" request on the same day. "Of course my GRE scores won't get there in time! Those take weeks!" Bizarrely, this time they got there in just a few days, in fact the exact DAY of the new deadline. Still, I thought there was no chance. I hadn't contacted any POIs or established any relationship, I'd never visited campus, I'd named only one POI in my SOP. BUT at least I tried, right? Imagine my shock when I got a phone call a few months later. Admitted with full funding. Fairy tales do come true.

I just interviewed for a DPhil. They told me that an admissions decision should come within 2-3 weeks, and the funding decision 2-3 weeks after that. I told them I had to let my American schools know my status by April 15th, and they said 'you'll know by then.'

placement of alumni travel funding quality/comparative interests of cohort

^ERR_Alpha I love your signature. Very apropos in the tumult of the application season.

Can anyone recommend a good timeline for finding housing? My current job contract will be up at the end of June, and classes start in NYC in September. I'm hoping to sublet my apartment in Boston during July and August and spend some time with family in California during the summer -- when should I look for September housing? I'm hoping to spend a week out at the beginning of July, is that too early/late? Also, I'm hoping to spend around 800/mo on a room in a shared apartment somewhere near Harlem, is that doable or a total fantasy?

some good ones today: Khan Academy.org Nuclear Physics Minor In Rocket Science, PhD (F14) Accepted via Postal Service on 9 Mar 2015♦ A 9 Mar 2015 KHAANNNNNN.

I work in the Boston area and love it here, Cambridge especially.

I've received my official package. Funding for three years, including summers. No work requirement for the first year, TA/RA responsibilities for years 2 + 3. Still not sure what I'm supposed to do for years 4 + 5. I have a couple meetings lined up with current students and alumni, hoping to glean some insight there.

To build on what another commenter said -- LA and Cambridge are very different cities. USC is near downtown LA. Lots of traffic, sunshine + heat, mexican and korean food are great. Ghetto dogs and burrito trucks parked on Melrose on Saturday nights. The city is spread out, sprawling away from the coast up into the foothills and down into the desert, connected by a system of long rippling criss-crossing silver freeways. Palm trees and mission-style architecture, ranch-style houses. The USC campus is generally full of people in flip-flops and t-shirts, riding bikes and skateboards. Lots of billboards, movie-type ads. It's an industry town. The sunlight is bright and hot and dry. Harvard anchors Cambridge in the north (while MIT anchors the south), a small, close-knit, walking village tied together through a series of even-smaller "squares" filled with New-American style restaurants with fireplaces and darkened underground bars. Cobblestone streets and colonial architecture. You can walk from one end of the village to the other in an hour. The Harvard campus is populated by serious-looking people in New England-style prep. Snowstorms and blizzards aplenty in the winter, crippling humidity in the summer, but in the fall the warm, gentle sunlight passing through jewel-like orange leaves turns golden.

According to this, in CS Harvard is 18 and USC is 20: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings Personally I'd go Harvard. That name will open doors that USC cannot.

My relationships with my letter writers are different: two of them are my current bosses and I see them all the time, so I let them know about every acceptance. (One of them sits next to me and I went barging into his office for one of them!) The other two letter writes are old profs, who I don't have as close a relationship with. I haven't updated them with any news yet. I'm planning to wait until I make a decision, and then get a tiny piece of school-pride swag from my ultimate program (a mini pennant, I think) and send that to each of them, with a hand-written thank-you note and a small gift.

I too am worried about this, especially since my current job contract expires at the end of June so it looks like I'll be unemployed for two months. That "deposit fee" of 1k isn't helping either. Right now I'm saving pennies: I literally started brown-bagging my lunch on Monday instead of going out most days, and stopped buying coffee at the work cafeteria and started drinking the regular ol' drip coffee in the kitchen. I also unsubscribed from every single J.Crew/ H&M/ Urban Outfitters mailing list I was on. I'm also looking at selling a whole bunch of clothes. I also canceled a trip to Europe I was supposed to take with friends this spring. We should have a "frugal moving" thread. Reddit is great for things like that. I found out there that you can ship stuff long-distances pretty cheaply via Greyhound -- yes you can get your stuff put on a bus and it arrives at your destination without you, you just go pick it up from the bus depot. Cheaper than moving companies. Ugh thinking about broker's fees and first-and-last month's rent is giving me agita.

Every school is different. I got an admission over a week ago to one of my schools, but I keep checking the results search and NO ONE has posted a single result on that program, neither admissions or rejections, for either the master's or the doctorate.

If the updates are significant, I'd go ahead and update him.

Similar here. Columbia = $1000.

is there any way you could find a research position?

a very cool program indeed! there's always post-docs.