TenuousAtBest

Columbus is a great city and very cheap to live in. There's so many things to do, and it's a very "young" city. I'm sure you'd love it. All things considered, the difference in ranking between OSU and Purdue is negligible. I wouldn't let that affect your choice.

Depends on what you want to do. If you're interested in academic jobs, then it's in your best interest to go to a better ranked school. Otherwise, I'd say take your funded PhD offer, and enjoy your grad experience ~$20,000 richer and with no debt. I really think your best option in to strengthen your profile and reapply if you're really concerned about the schools you got into. How sure are you that you'll be able to transition to PhD? If the GRE is keeping you out, then you'll have the same problem when you need to reapply.

Did you ask about funding? Some programs offer TA positions to MS students.

Congratulations! How many years is the fellowship? I think you're interpreting rankings too literally, they're more like clusters. Plus or minus a few positions doesn't really mean much. No one is going to look at your degree and worry about 5 points on the US news ranking. A&M and Purdue are very comparable schools.

You already got accepted, unofficially or otherwise. It's their time to impress you. You'll probably spend a lot of time talking with faculty and grad students. It should be very informal with minimal stress.

Penn State and Texas A&M have fairly intensive online masters programs. I know A&M's has largely the same coursework as the in-person degree. Maybe it's not exactly what you want to do, but it seems like a solid alternative if you can't attend a PhD program in New Jersey.

No rejection for me either. I've not very hopeful at this point, but who knows?

I've seen quite a few Michigan acceptances on the results page. Are this all for biostats or has anyone been accepted to the statistics phd?

Me too. Their teaching load is lighter than other universities I've heard from. He suggested a research group that he thought I'd really like. I wasn't seriously considering PSU until today, but my impression of the department really changed.

Definitely too early! Given the gaps between acceptances and the fact that they're doing such personalized emails, I think it's reasonable to expect more admissions in the next few days.

Me too. No good ideas yet. Let me know if you come up with something good!

Yeah I thought it was really nice. The professor who emailed me wants to talk to me about the department over the phone.

I got an unofficial admission offer to Penn State today.

I called the graduate chair's assistant and he told me they always hold a make up day later in the year. I want to say it's in March.

I'll be attending the to-be-scheduled makeup day.