Eigen

I'll also note that there seems to be a discrepancy between fields. I think in the STEM fields, if the program has a PhD program, a terminal MS is harder to get into. Talking to my professors, most think that MS students are there for such a short period of time, that they almost aren't worth the time to train- basically, they take a lot of classes, spend 1-3 semesters in the lab, and then leave. Even though they aren't funded, they just aren't viewed as so beneficial to the department as PhD students. Also note that in the lab-based STEM fields (I see you're in applied physics) while they don't have to fund MS students, they *do* have to fund your lab space (which is limited) as well as all of your supplies- which often way outweighs the cost of the funding of the grad student over the period you're there. Just some thoughts. As to telling them about the fellowship: definitely! Adding that you've recently received funding could only help, imo.

Honestly, I'd go with Penn State... If you feel more comfortable there (and your dual degree is ranked #2) you're not losing so much in reputation... It's not like Penn State is a small, unknown school either. I think a place that really wants you, and you think you will fit in better means more than rankings. I went to a school that was quite a bit lower ranked, but had really respected and well connected professors, and was a place I fit in much better. I have yet to regret my decision. But then, take my advice with a grain of salt, I'm in the sciences not the humanities- I don't know how different it is between the two.

Completely depends on the area of physical chemistry. Some are really attractive on the job market, some much less so.

Every area has overlaps with other areas... But you're either a physical chemist, an inorganic chemist, or an organic chemist, by and large. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: You really need to decide what you want to do before you apply to graduate school. With a low GPA and very little research experience, your only real hope is convincing someone that you're an excellent fit for their group and that it's what you really want to do. Flopping back and forth between 3! of the cannonical areas of chemistry will not do that. You should be able to target an exact subarea that interests you before you apply, in your situation, imo.

Do you guys get funded insurance? Maybe that's the difference. We either have to have an external plan, or we can purchase a plan through the school- but we don't really get much in the way of savings for our school plan. Hence, it doesn't matter what our funding is.... Being a student enables us to buy the school insurance policy. Generally, departments are likely to do whatever they can to help bridge funding gaps with an NSF or other nationally competitive fellowship. But honestly, for most of us grad school aged kids, a major medical policy is only about 2 grand per year- and the (likely) increase in pay you'd get with an NSF would probably easily enable you to get it.

What happened to organic chemistry? It seems like you swapped areas of interest, any particular reason?

I doubt it... But then, our health insurance isn't tied to our funding here.

For the prospective grad students that have asked me (I pick some up at the airport the night before) I suggest slacks/nice shirt. I don't think the tie/jacket is a bit more than is needed, but this depends a lot on the department. I work between our uptown campus and our medical school, and the dress codes are very different between the two. Uptown, you'll almost never see a professor wearing a tie unless it's a special occasion, and most are often in shorts/polo's. Downtown, almost all of the faculty and most of the grad students wear ties under their lab coats. If I was telling someone for our campus, slacks and a polo/button down shirt will put you at/slightly above the dress level for all of the faculty you'll meet with, and are professional without being overkill. If you were going downtown, I'd recommend adding a tie. Sending an e-mail to a grad student in one of the groups you're interested in working with is rarely a bad thing- it gives you a contact there, and you can ask what fits best for that program. If you aren't sure, you could ask the graduate coordinator- or ask the graduate coordinator for the contact info of a grad student in the department. I know here (and most places) there are several of us that get tapped pretty frequently to help with prospective students, ask questions, etc. Oh, and to add: I'd think it was really weird if a prospective grad student showed up wearing our colors/lapel pins. You aren't a student here yet, and you probably haven't committed to coming here yet. Heck, most of the current students still wear the colors/shirts/sweatshirts from our last institution.

It's 4-6 years, no matter what the starting point is. Several people in my year had MS degrees, and had to start out the same place as the rest of us. Courses can transfer, either from undergrad or a previous MS program... But most cap the amount of transfer credits. Our transfers system also requires submission to a departmental (and then college wide) committee, and the submissions aren't accepted until your second semester in the program. Most of them require near-exact equivalency of the courses- same book, covered the same material, etc. I suppose it also depends on the level of the course- here, 100-400 level courses are undergrad (with 400 being mixed/cross listed), 500-600 level courses are masters level, and 700-800 are doctoral level. We can only have a few of our required courses come from the 500-600 level masters courses. For an MS, we would have 24 hours of coursework (6 hours thesis research), but not all of the classes would have to be "masters level", as upper level undergrad classes would be acceptable for a few of that 24 hours. I suppose it also depends on what the course load is weighted towards... We only have about 18 hours that you could possibly transfer over, and all of our coursework should be done by the second semester anyway. The majority of the time is research- enough hours in the lab to get enough data and publications to defend. The rest of our 48 hours of required coursework are mostly practical sections (independent study/research classes), as well as seminar type classes, none of which could be transferred in.

You don't switch departments in grad school, per se... As others have said, different departments have different budgets, different entrance requirements, etc. You would need to apply to the business school, get accepted, and then either transfers (if you start there in CS) or go straight into the business department. Also note that you aren't just swapping between departments here- you're swapping between entire schools- School of Science & Engineering to School of Business- which makes the swap even more difficult. If the application deadline has passed for this year, you'll probably need to wait until next year. Tread lightly in asking at the school- ask in business first. You won't make any friends in the CS department if you start talking to them about swapping to another program right out of the gate, not after they've given you one of their few spots for this application season.

This is definitely not true for all fields. In my field, having a MS gives you no "head start" on your PhD, hence the time for MS+PhD will be 2-3 years longer than going straight for a PhD. I know there are other fields that are the same way.

A "20 hour" TA is typical around here, but as JustChill stated... It's not always a set 20 hours per week. As to the RA... This is somewhat field dependent. I'm not sure how the programs you're applying to work, but my wife is in a Neuroscience program, and the RAship there is paid for by your advisor... And so the workload is basically your research projects. You just get paid directly for that. Some programs, however, have RA positions through professors other than your major professor- and those seem to be about 20 hours as a standard load.

In the sciences, a highly regraded PI would be worth more than a prestigious institution, especially if you want to go into Academia. It seems like the usual TA is a "20 hour" assignment... But that doesn't necessarily reflect how many hours you'll work every week. Some will be more and some will be less.

We do cumulative exams instead of qualifying exams- basically, each month, they herd us into a room, and give us three tests (one in each major subdiscipline) that can be on anything. And I mean anything. The pass rate depends on who wrote the test- but usually it's not more than one or two people, and can often be none. We have to pass 6 of them over the course of the first three years. It's not so much difficulty (you have lots of chances) as tiring because your chance of passing each one is quite low. We also then have an oral presentation (we have to give a comprehensive literature review of a chosen field as part of our departmental lecture series) and something like the traditional oral exams, where you have to defend your proposed dissertation defense to your committee, including your work up to that date. Passing the oral exam (and all the rest) qualifies you as a candidate, and then you do your dissertation/defense.

I'm assuming this is the NSF GRFP? If so, the project your propose doesn't have to be the one you follow. They fund based on solid proposals, but they fund you, not your project.

It's great. We've been having sets come in the last two weeks- always a nice way to wrap up the week, taking the prospectives out and touring them around.

Nope, not intended to be defensive. Why do you so closely associate "doctor" with someone who's work deals with the body, I'm interested to know? It's only a fairly recent addition to the word's meaning, and holds no ties to its origins.

So do you also not call dentists or vets "doctor"? Because honestly, I doubt that's who they're screaming for when they ask for a "doctor in the house".... Context can be quite important in such scenarios. And just so we're clear, the word "doctor" originates from the latin word for teacher... And has been used in that sense for over a thousand years. In fact, if you look at countries around the world, the only consistent (and often legal) way to earn the title "Dr" is to have a PhD... Medical degrees confer the title in some countries but not others. Oh, and if you travel in Europe, make sure you do... Most countries (and the EU as a whole) uphold the legal right of holders of a PhD to use the title "Dr", and in Germany even go so far as to actually change the name of the person holding a doctorate to include "Dr".

In this case, it was mostly about how the person who originally asked for help responded. After 5 pages of berating anyone who offered anything other than "your cover letter looks great", I think he kinda brought it on himself. And it's not competition, because it was the search committees in his field that were doing the warning. It's not cruel to the applicant, so much as looking out for your fellow SC members, and making sure they have all the information they can prior to hiring. Academia as a field can be fairly harsh- it's easy to get a bad rep, it's easy for that bad rep to spread really, really fast. I think grad students are sheltered from this a great deal, honestly.

That does seem to be the method a lot of places- adcoms are more focused on finding their incoming class than they are deciding who they aren't going to admit. Especially since early offers hold a huge advantage in people actually accepting.Granted, I'm in the sciences too, so I can't speak to Humanities.

I'll make this my last post here as well: The alternative is that they (a) didn't know that the GPA would be a make or break factor (it might not have been in the past, dean's change) and (b ) they may have known it was a fight they would spend several weeks on, and still not win- making it not worth it for either the applicant or the department to drag out the whole process. They might have fought it out and still had to rescind the offer, but closer to a month after they made it than two weeks.

I'm sure you also noticed that they offer a *free* preliminary application to the program, right? And it's well possible that the dean of the college of humanities, arts, and social sciences has changed his flexibility recently in light of the budget situation the UC colleges are facing. I doubt they would have sent an unofficial acceptance if they thought he was usually uptight, wasting two weeks of application time for themselves and the OP.

I will note that the UC Riverside page does say this, specifically: And think what you will about my experience with graduate admissions. I've been here watching the machinations it takes to get people official offers from a front row seat for the last two years. I don't feel the need to convince you of my involvement or knowledge. It is my personal opinion that people here are exceptionally harsh and unyielding in their expectations of adcoms.

This. I'm not going to say the department was completely blameless, or did everything correctly, but lately I've noticed a tend towards calling adcoms/schools "unprofessional", "unfair", "harsh", "heartless", etc. if they don't do everything perfectly... And I honestly think that most of the people I see making these posts really have very little of an idea of how admissions works behind the scenes, or how many backs have to be scratched to pull together funding and official acceptances for an applicant.

Honestly, looking at it from the other end (my PI is one of the three prof's on our adcom), the administration can be really inconsistent about this. And there are always those deans who won't "discuss" the application, but will only look at it once an official offer from the department crosses their desk. My guess would be that in light of the (small) amount that the undergrad is below the cutoff, and the fact that there's a graduate GPA in between, the department thought for sure that it wouldn't be a problem... And then ran into either a new dean who wanted to do things differently, or the dean decided that he didn't want to approve this one without a fight. You can't really know without knowing what's happened in the past... I know we have cutoffs here, but our adcom wouldn't think it would hold up an otherwise good application. It all comes down to the dean, and then how much pressure/political capital the adcom feels it can expend to fight the deans decision.