jujubea

Grrr!

What about when you're talking about ranked versus essentially unranked programs? Does an excellent fit still make up for not being a school anyone's heard of?

I'm interested to see responses to this, too.

Aroma therapy candle - or! If you have any essential oils, like lavender, eucalyptus, chamomile, sandalwood, etc. you can put a few drops in the shower, and the vapors rise and you breathe them in... It's sooooo nice.

I have no idea how much a UCSB central fellowship is and no way of knowing whether my family can afford living there until I get that information.... My family is waiting in agony wanting to know where we'll be moving, and I feel powerless to help them...

How exciting...! Good luck you guys.

Lol. It's a good one. I might look into it later on now that I know about it though. Princeton not this thread. Although it really is a winner.

my acceptances period, but also specifically the "top candidacy" status of my acceptances.

-shrugs- I was honest in my postings there.

Does anyone know what the range of amounts is for receiving UCSB's "central fellowship" as a newly admitted graduate student? Or what is a typical package? They don't publish this info on UCSB's website, or anywhere else that I've been able to find.

Yay! Congratulations!

Yay! Congratulations, Autumn!!!!

For Boulder and Albuquerque, I have to reapply. For UCSB's Religious Studies program (the only non-comm program), I do not have to reapply because it is a combined MA/PhD program. It is also my dream beyond dream program, but I am still waiting to hear specifics about funding (besides what they've told me, which is that they've nominated me for the central fellowship, but won't know an answer for another month or so). It's also sadly the least likely to work out, because I have a family requiring at least a 3-bedroom home ... and that costs a pretty pretty shiny penny on the coast of California ... Much prettier a penny than we are even close to having. We're working on it though... partner's looking for jobs already and I'm praying to the gods of graduate funding that they hook me up with a sweet package. We'll see...

Thanks! I applied for the MA (but I intend to continue at wherever I go for the PhD). And I do hear that MA decisions tend to come out earlier than PhD decisions, pretty much across the board. Congratulations on Purdue!

Cutoffs vary widely, from what I've seen. Although I looked at Tier 1, 2, beyond, and not high enough to be tiered schools... so it might be different across only Tier 1 schools...

It's tricky because we have a family of four (and a half) .. and were hoping to buy a home. But IDK about buying in SB. Doesn't seem possible.

Ohhhh! Exciting hermes! Just think of your two-month-ago self. S/he is so jealous of how short your now-self's wait is!

My funding packages are three completely different ballparks .... I'm waiting on the exact amount for one, but assuming it's similar to others' in the past, it will be clearly the highest amount. BUT .. the funding amounts track with what I presume to be cost of living in the areas they're for. Albuqerque with the lowest Boulder, CO with the mid and Santa Barbara, CA with the highest How do you weigh the cost of living req's vs. what you'll get in stipend? Do you use city data? Some kind of published statistics about cost of living? How do you measure how far $1 will go in one city versus another? There will presumably be a difference in the type of funding, too. UCSB may be a fellowship with no teaching requirements, whereas the other two are TA-ships with responsibilities. How do you measure the value of not having to teach the first year or two? What is "more" money?

Whoa! Prodigy! When did you start your bachelor's? In what field?

Makes sense.... thanks!

Ugh, I hear you. I thought about that a lot - especially as a stepmom. Felt like so much was riding on me not letting them down...!

Thank you, tsgriffey! That was super helpful. Please do share if more comes up. And thanks again doobiebrothers It's a bittersweet acceptance, as it is the hardest to make work for my family. Just way too expensive out there! But we'll see what the funding package brings..

Hmm... well good luck! That would be awesome if we got to meet at the recruitment day! The person who notified me sounded pretty down. They said they had to give a LOT of rejections today and they were really bummed out about it. Hopefully that means they've gotten a good chunk of rejections out of the way already?

Oh gosh, I hear you. I am not looking forward to declining. I have conversed and personally met all the people I'm dealing with at my schools and they're all so respectable, I really like them, and genuinely would be honored to work with any of them. I was sort of secretly hoping that two schools would reject me so I could avoid having to decline offers. I'm really looking forward to reading more responses to this thread... Also - FuzzyLog, you mention specifically saying who you did accept an offer from. Would others recommend doing this too?

I recommend checking the online system. Do you know how to get into MyCUBoulder? It's different from the application portal. It has changed to say a final decision was made on my application, so maybe yours will too if it has been decided!