origin415

Not a bad place to be stuck with

This years application season is coming to a close, I don't think it would be worthwhile to try applying to places now. If I were you, I would be applying to jobs to hold you over for a year until next years season. Math related internships to enhance your resume would be best. If you're GRE scores can be improved, study over the summer and take it in october. Do more research and focus your applications better next year with what you've learned this year. Write a better SOP. Apply to safer schools than you applied to this year. Apply to more schools too. Grad school applications are a crap shoot, I got rejected by two schools I considered in the safety range, and one school I considered out of it. Hopefully schools will loosen their belts a little and departments will be hurting less for money. Good luck.

The only details you give us to go by is the funding, in which case go for the funding. However since you are still considering CMU, I have to assume this program has a better reputation and better fit or something (looking at US News, CMU is 2 in AI, UIUC 7, close enough I wouldn't worry about it too much). However I still lean towards going for the funding, if you are going for you PhD its not good to have a big debt with your shoestring stipend. 24/26 had at least partial support, how big is partial? How much debt did they have upon graduation? Perhaps you could ask some grad students from there about this support?

Seeing as the 15th is mere days away, I hope that everyone has made or is close to making a decision. So where is everyone headed in the fall? I'll be attending, as my signature suggests, University of Washington. Can't wait to move to Seattle this summer! I hope there are still people around the forum to answer, instead of leaving after getting accepted...

The reputation of the department is important, the fact that the school belongs to a certain athletic conference does not.

Results search is meant to be anonymous and is only to let everyone else know when and what responses are going out. Please don't try to track people down. Its their decision, they will make it when they are ready. They know people are waiting.

Everything I've gotten has been normal usps mail. If you are abroad, this might be different. Ask the department, if its important you get it soon, say so.

They mean they can't give decisions over the phone. Its a department or university policy and it has nothing to do with your application.

If were talking about Linux too, then I'd also like to give my recommendation to it. Its got the same virus resistance as macs (as joro pointed out, this is largely due to their lesser userbase), but its free! Being difficult to use is a complete myth nowadays with distributions like Ubuntu. Its easier to install and use than Windows at this point. If you are fine with macs software wise, the only issue you'll run into is no Microsoft Office (and other commercial stuff like Photoshop if you are into that). OpenOffice has done the job for me my entire undergrad, and in mathematics we write papers in latex, which actually works much better in linux, but this could be an issue for you. Name an OS feature like spaces or whatever, and not only does linux have it, but linux probably had it first!

I own a thinkpad and love it. They're a great value as long as you don't care for the flashiness of consumer laptops (thinkpads are business oriented), and they're built like rocks: I've had mine for 2 years and it runs like it did when I bought it, my friend's thinkpad's cpu fan started going wonky last semester after like 6 years of abuse. It probably wouldn't be too expensive to fix, but he opted to get a brand new thinkpad. Only thing with thinkpads is they don't have top of the line graphics cards needed for modern games, but if you are considering a Mac, it doesn't sound like a problem for you. Macs are completely overpriced, you are mainly paying for the flashiness. Its silly. I have also had no good experiences with HP and avoid them like the plague now, they typically have the cheapest stuff, but it shows. The HP laptop I had before my current one crapped out a couple weeks after the warranty ran out (thank god for American Express extending warranties), and I've heard numerous similar stories from friends.

If you plan on going into academia, TAing is a plus, its good experience and you generally need it if you plan on applying to postdocs and such. Besides that and moving, everything you've said seems to point in Stanford's favor, though.

I doubt MIT would have a problem with your situation, and you should tell them about it. Tell them you want to accept, but if you get it, you'd like to defer a year.

Just from looking at US News, the ranking gap is 11 Cornell vs 14 UCLA, which is pretty much an ignorable gap, within the margin of error of any ranking system, but this could be different for EE specifically. And besides all this, your research is more important, and with the fit, your research will be better at UCLA. I think being the only student of the prof would be good, you'd get a lot of attention. While its high risk for a complete success, I find it hard to believe that even if you don't get that significant advancement, you won't be able to pull it together into something quality otherwise. Besides, you won't make any significant advances UNLESS you take chances like that. I say go for it.

PSU is not located on any outskirts, State College isn't near anything to be an outskirt of. Look at a map. As to whether its boring, well 44,832 students study there, and I'm sure they find something to do in their spare time. Unfortunately, it sounds like you can't visit in your time frame, which would be indispensable to decide. Also keep in mind that grad school is a lot of work, and it will be difficult to enjoy everything NYC has to offer while attending. That ranking gap is pretty hard to look past to me. Also, relative to the cost of living, PSU is the better deal financially. Which school has more research in your interests? The quality of your research is generally more important than the quality of your school for a PhD, so if CCNY has more of interest to you, it could be the better choice anyway. I think generally you weight on location should be, will I hate living there? If not, then its not an issue, other things are more important. If yes, then its a serious consideration.

How does your research interest align with the other departments? While having such a big name in your field at PSU is a huge plus, you shouldn't go based on one person, I think. Katok's website lists 6.5 students under him, so it may be difficult to get him as an advisor, and if you do get him, you won't get as much attention as you may want. Opportunities for your fiance will also be an issue at PSU unless she plans on working for the university in some capacity, as I understand there isn't much else in the area (there is a list of the biggest employers on the wikipedia page for State College which might help deciding). If not PSU then Wisconsin, I'd say. If you are outdoorsy people then you aren't going to be happy living neck deep in the suburbs, and Madison is a big enough town that you shouldn't have too big a job problem. Wisconsin is also ranked above the other two, though I know nothing about it in dynamics specifically.

There are crime statistics here: http://www.city-data...sachusetts.html http://www.city-data...New-Jersey.html New Brunswick is actually a bit safer (generally smaller towns have less crime, so this isn't surprising). I don't think BU has the advantage as far as jobs, as Rutgers is situated between New York City and Philadelphia, both of which are bigger than Boston (though I don't know where the most jobs are in condensed matter specifically). If Rutgers is similar or better in the research you want, I would go for it.

If you go to a school in a big city, you can always live outside of the city and commute in. Research commuter rail for your city, for instance NYC has LIRR, Metro North, and NJ Transit, and Chicago has Metra. If you got an apartment somewhere in the suburbs you could take the train in and out every day without worrying about traffic and parking. Then you'll just feel uncomfortable while you are at school, if at all.

Duke is not ivy league. Whether a school is a member of some athletic conference is meaningless as far as grad school goes, the program's reputation is most important.

You might try asking professors in that field for advice, they would know where what research is going on.

If you feel your research interests have changed and you'll not enjoy living there, I don't see why you should feel obligated to take it. Whats the rush in getting to grad school? Do some research and compile a list of potential schools to apply to next year, more focused with your interests as far as where you want to live and research. Use the information you learned from this round as an asset. From the sounds of it, you aimed a bit too high (no offense, I did too, its pretty easy to in these economic times), so focusing on schools about the same level as the one you got into will get more results.

I completely understand living on your own, if only because I've never done it (and hopefully will have an SO by the time grad school is over to mean that I never will again). Heck most of my college years I had people sleeping in the same room, 5/8 semesters (plus a summer staying in a national lab dorm). I've never had any bad experiences, but I fully intend to scrape together enough to get a tiny studio for myself. Anyway, to the original question, that is the whole point of student loans, to pay for the things you need while attending college like an apartment. I think its a bad idea to splurge on a nice apartment, especially if you are asking if you can pay off the debt you already have! You are going to have to pay these loans back after you graduate which will limit you financially, so plan carefully and live within your means.

I would go straight for a PhD over a masters if you are satisfied with JHU's program. Baltimore isn't as really as bad as you might think from The Wire or something, especially as the university is in a good area. How do your research interests align with those of the departments? JHU has a very small math program, so its important that you can find something which interests you there. I don't know anything about UBC.

For applied mathematics, I believe its a bit more important. The various subfields are further away from each other than in pure math.

Its going to take a bit more than 600 to not trash your app at top schools. Berkeley basically says not to bother applying unless you have over 80th percentile (then again Berkeley has a reputation for placing a huge amount of weight in the score). I completely agree with you on the useless of the test, in an ideal world...

Well I got into a top 25 program, so perhaps I know a thing or two. Then again, I got rejected pretty much everywhere else, so maybe not. Using the profiles on mathematicsgre.com, its pretty clear that the math GRE is not the end all factor in an application. However, the grad admissions director of Washington said it was likely that many schools were simply throwing out applications below some cutoff because they had so many applications for so few spots. Despite this, there are at least some schools which actually read the applications, it seems Northwestern is one by your story, and I can tell you Washington is another by the fact I got in with a 690. Here is another interesting result: http://www.mathemati...57&p=1640#p1640 a 700 on the GRE, but got into Yale, Cornell, Michigan, etc. with an ivy undergrad and lots of research. Getting a score that no school would look down upon (at least mid-80s percentilewise, probably) would be a very useful asset to your application, regardless. I don't think research interest is a big deal, not in pure math at least. Grad schools know that is very likely to change and become more refined as you learn more. I think strong letters of recommendation are extremely important. Make sure you get at least 3 professors who know you very well, take multiple high level classes under them. Doing research would be extremely helpful as well. I don't think you should apply with the intent of going for a masters if a PhD is your eventual goal, though I do regret not applying to any as a backup. I don't know anything about masters admissions, though.