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What is her education? What is her background?

You’re getting bad advice, I assume from other people who are applying to grad school. There are way too many applications and if there’s an anomaly which you do not acknowledge you will go in the reject pile at any good school. It doesn’t matter the explanation as long as it’s sincere. “I didn’t take it seriously and realized I needed to” or “I hated school and almost dropped out to work at Walmart but then discovered my true calling” are fine answers. Ignoring it is trying to hide it in the hope that they’re too stupid to notice and insulting the committee won’t get you far. Of course, make sure it really is an anomaly like C’s and D’s. If your first year average was a 3.0 and you raised it to a 3.7 it’s not an issue. I’ve been involved in the process at two top 20 schools.

Nobody can answer these kind of questions for you. You got in so clearly they think you're qualified and it won't matter to the future where you choose as long as you are successful. Are the financial offers similar after considering cost of living? Have you visited? They are very different places. Would you rather live in a city or out in the woods? What about snow? Ithaca gets three times the snow per year. What is your particular interest? Is there anyone who actually does something you find interesting? Experimental condensed matter can be a lot of different things. What are their exam policies and course policies and offerings? I would go to Cornell in a heartbeat if I had to choose but the next person who answers will probably say the opposite.

I can't tell you much about actually living in Woodland Mews but the place has a bizarre history. It was built as an upscale condo complex but the recession hit and they sold over 200 unsold units for next to nothing. The people who bought the original condos lost massive amounts of money when they started renting but that's not an issue for you. The location is fantastic. You can walk to Busch's for groceries and you have 2 bus routes, one on Main which takes you north to town or south to the mall, and one on AA Saline Rd on the other side of the complex which also takes you north to town or south to Whole Foods and the Meijer in Pittsfield Twp (only a mile or two). You have an easy bike ride to central if you do that. You can walk to the stadium in about 10 minutes. The units are not really old and they were built to be nice but the reviews seem to be mixed. Some of the units have issues because they were sold unfinished and quickly finished so they could be rented. Try to talk to people who live there to find their experiences but you really can't beat the location if the price is right. Besides, you only have to live there for a year at a time.

If I were you I would look here: https://www.thepondsatgeorgetown.com/ It's on Packard south of Stadium which means you are past the undergrad ghetto but still on a busy bus line and within easy bicycling distance, even walking distance if the weather's nice and you like to walk. If you don't like to walk it's probably too far. There is an area within short walking distance where undergrads live and rent is, in my opinion, unreasonable for the really old buildings. Then there is the ring beyond that where rents go down, buildings are newer, bicycling is okay, but walking might be a bit far. I would go for that. The Ponds is an example, you should also check Woodbury Gardens which is in the same area but a half mile closer. Then you have the really far away stuff where you really have to plan your day because you live too far to go home until you're completely done for the day, some don't get buses. That would be the case with the others you mentioned.

I can't tell you about the complexes themselves but Liberty Grand is far from campus in Scio Township. I think it's fairly new. There is a bus (route 29) but you'll likely have to slog through snow to get to your stop and you'll get a bus about once per hour. You can see the apartments from the xway and it is loud so I would make sure you're not signing for an apartment in the back facing the xway. It is not convenient to town and there is nothing within walking distance. If you have a car you can do your shopping within about 3 miles in Scio Township. Spicetree is almost to Ypsilanti, past Arborland, which is the most congested intersection in the area. Good news is you can get a bus (route 4) every ten minutes by walking out your door any time of day. The apartments get mixed reviews and I hear they are very loud, mostly undergrads from UM, Eastern, and the CC which is within a mile. Arbor Hills is near Spicetree but on the Ann Arbor side of the expressway so you get the same bus route but avoid the congestion near the expressway. You didn't say whether you will bring a car. You can't drive it to campus during the day because there's no place to park it but if you live away from town you will be able to use it for everything else and it would make your life a lot easier. If you do, my choice would be Liberty Grand because it's fairly secluded if you can get a unit up front away from the xway. You would avoid the nightmare traffic of the other places. It is very pretty, almost semi-rural on that side of town. If you don't have a car just going grocery shopping would be a nightmare and I would go with one of the others. I also wouldn't get stressed about having to do it now. The "filling up fast" thing is a marketing ploy, there are always apartments for rent. Of course, knowing what your life will look like is reassuring in itself.

I was rejected by the physics department at Wayne State University but accepted by the University of Michigan so I don't think there's any such thing as a "safety school". Figure out where you want to live, what you want to do, and apply. Ignore rankings because they don't mean much.

That's where the problem arises. A lot of new students rent whatever they can find from afar for a year and then move for their second year. Yes, there are always rentals available in August but it's more or less a crap shoot as far as what you'll find. Sometimes you get lucky and find a great place, sometimes not, but there is always something available. On the bright side, even if you don't find something you like in August you can always fall back on an apartment complex with a bus ride. Just make sure that the bus actually goes by the apartment because you will not be driving a car to central campus because you can't park it. The AA bus system is very good and you ride for free with a student ID but there are places you won't get a bus after a certain time of day and some where you won't get a bus at all. You should use the route maps while looking to make sure you can actually get where you need when you need. http://www.theride.org/Schedules-Maps-and-Tools

There are plenty of apartments within a short walking distance of central campus for that price. They will be in divided older homes, not apartment complexes. There is no reason to ride a bus if you're willing to pay $6-700/bedroom. Any apartment complexes are far from campus and a complete pain. The charm of Ann Arbor is living in Ann Arbor. Believe it or not, the best way to find a place is to just walk around and call the numbers on the signs. A huge amount of apartments are not run by large companies and are not advertised.

The MPA is public administration and will do you absolutely no good, it's not even related to what you want to do. If your interest really is ed policy then you should accept one of the MA offers. The chance might not be there later. An MA in ed and an MPP (or a dual degree) is a fairly standard path for a PhD in PP for those whose interest is ed policy but realize that you will probably need a couple of years of work experience post MA to get into a good MPP program. On the other hand, you might get accepted to a PhD program with only the MA if you can mix in some policy coursework and get the right kind of experience post MA. If you got those offers with your GPA you should consider yourself fortunate and grab one of them.

It's not clear what you're after. You say you want to " shore up my quant/hard science deficiencies and to bolster my long term career chances in areas of high finance (corporate finance/development, investment/portfolio management, etc)". You don't need quantitative skills to be involved in those areas. There is a very serious misconception that finance involves mathematics and nothing could be further from the truth. Successful corporate finance managers are managers. Successful portfolio managers are salesmen. Don't be conned into thinking that learning math will somehow make you better at managing money than the other 6 billion people on earth, it won't. Someone always has smarter people and bigger computers yet none of that allows anyone to predict the future. The performance of all portfolio managers is no better than chance. I'm surprised that in the process of teaching you all of those models of portfolio management nobody took the time to tell you that they're just models and they don't really work because the inputs require knowledge of a forward probability distribution that is time dependent.

It's not clear why you would choose to live on N Campus if you're a stats major. Yes, the apartments are fine and, yes, the buses run frequently and usually on schedule but it is a long way. You will go to central campus in the morning and stay until you are finished for the day. It is a pain. My daughter lived in shared housing around central campus and never paid more than $600/month. You can get anywhere in less than 10 minutes walking. There are always people looking for roommates and there are a lot of incoming grad students looking for housing. Look for a shared house or apartment in an older building. There are a lot of them.

3.5 miles west of campus is not a place that I would go out after dark. Did you visit the neighborhood at midnight? If you're along Mt. Hope, down to maybe Pennsylvania, you're okay, if you're near Kalamazoo or north of that it's not a place you will want to live. If the bike path is the river trail don't plan on ever coming home after dark, you will be mugged or assaulted. It's okay during the day but after dark it's taken over by prostitution, drug dealers, gangs, and homeless camps. There's a really good reason you got a 4 bedroom house for $850. Lansing is in the top 10% of dangerous places to live in the US. You are 4 times as likely to be a victim of violent crime in Lansing as you are in E. Lansing and twice as likely to be the victim of property crime. If you live alone and you are out for extended periods your home will be burglarized. If you are female, as your name suggests, I hope you are not planning on living alone.

The rules about resident tuition are very strict in Michigan. As a rule, anyone who comes to Michigan from out of state for the purpose of education will be considered an out of state student for the duration of their studies. Exceptions are: residency for 12 consecutive months prior to the first day of class, parents making permanent residency with permanent employment, proof of acceptance of permanent employment in state, or a spouse who is a permanent resident. Going for one year and then applying for residency won't ever do it. They will tell you that you can apply but you will be denied. Check their website for all of the rules.

Another thing I liked about it was that all apartments have private entrances directly to the parking area. You don't have to walk through a building to get to your apartment. I really isn't at all like any typical student housing.

Why not just live in Spartan Village? $650 includes all utilities plus cable and wireless. Unless you want a land line it's one bill. The one bedroom that I lived in was huge. Buses go through every 20 minutes all day. Depending on where you are on campus you might be close enough to walk. When I lived there it was a lot quieter than most places because it was grad only with a lot of families.

People have different opinions but you should visit. If I had a choice between London or the south side of Chicago I would be on a plane tomorrow.

Maybe you should quit thinking you're a victim and do what your advisor asks. Assuming you are receiving financial support, it's quite reasonable to ask you to show up to work. Assigning you to collaborate with another person is standard and a skill that you might need to develop. It sounds to me as if you think that you know better than faculty when, and under what circumstances, you should be awarded a degree. If they don't think your work is up to their standards you are not going to get your degree and I would honestly believe that faculty are a better judge of the quality of your work than are you. I don't know where you are but in the US contacting someone else to complain about your advisor is a really bad idea, I've never seen it result in anything except more problems. If you mention the word lawyer you may as well just leave now because courts give academic institutions extremely wide latitude in accepting students and granting degrees. You don't have a contract that guarantees you anything, it is entirely up to the faculty. The best thing you can do, if you haven't already burned all your bridges, is just agree to part ways and find another advisor. Unfortunately, there's a good chance that you now have a reputation as a problem and you won't find anyone else to take you.

Kalamazoo is a complete dump. Visit before accepting any offer.

Pretty much everyone.

I would be very curious if you could show me where a first year sequence in finance is even vaguely similar to a first year sequence in econ footballman. I've never seen such a thing. An econ student almost universally takes micro, macro, econometrics, and possible a methods course. A finance student usually has a micro requirement but that's usually business econ through the business school. They usually have a statistics requirement but that's never through the econ department.

Just one person's advice. All of this posting and asking for admission chances based on a GPA and test scores is just nonsense. You seem like a reasonably good student with pretty good test scores. Figure out where you would like to be based on research, location, etc. and apply and see what happens. When I applied to physics PhD programs I was rejected by Wayne State University of all things and accepted by 2 top ten programs. I have no idea why and really don't care. My daughter was rejected by Michigan State and accepted by U Chicago. Nobody can tell you what goes on in an admissions committee, they're all different, but I've actually witnessed a committee saying "we've got enough, let's call it done". They rejected the remaining people without even reading anything because they were tired and wanted to be done. The thought that you can somehow compare two students and somehow determine which is better is just plain wrong after you get past the top 1% that can get in anywhere. P.S. An MA in economics is not a starting point for a PhD, you will still be starting over as a first year student so you may as well apply to PhD programs if that's what you want. You also shouldn't plan on starting somewhere and transferring to a "better program". Not only is it virtually impossible but, again, you would be starting over.

In one program you study economics, in the other you study finance. As someone with degrees in both I assure you they have virtually nothing in common, not sure why people keep asking this question. Could you be successful in a mathematics grad program? If not, don't bother with econ. What are your interests? What are your goals? You need to think about those things and do some research in what you actually do in these fields.