MPP_RT

I'm wondering about having a car in Austin. Is it a good idea for getting around outside of the university or does the city offer a an accommodating system of public transportation ? I am from car-addicted California and wonder if the CA-TX road trip would be worth it.

FYI, I just got a call from a second year student at LBJ asking if I had any questions about the school and left me with some contact info. Nice gesture!

Hey Sosh, I received my official acceptance letter today, along with some info about the intent to enroll and orientation activities. I receive the letter-sized envelope on Saturday, March 22 and I live in Southern California. I am a little confused, since they told me I didn't receive a fellowship, even though I am guaranteed a partial amount of funding for an external fellowship source. I guess I am going to have to do some phone calling on Monday to clarify what's going on. Hope you and everyone else whose still waiting on this info get it in your mailboxes soon!

For anyone flying to Austin to visit LBJ from the LA area, flights from LAX to Austin are only $179 right now on American Airlines via their website or cheaptickets.com. This is about $50 cheaper than what I paid when I booked two weeks ago. I'm a little sore, since they wont refund you the difference and instead have a $100 service charge for "changing" the flight, even though its the exact itinerary. How (un)American, Airlines :evil:

Wow, at least they gave you a date for a funding decision. My acceptance email just said, "By the end of March, you will receive official letters of admission from both The University of Texas Graduate School (received) and the LBJ School of Public Affairs (still waiting)...The LBJ School offers a limited number of fellowship awards. Students receiving fellowships will be notified of their award in their official letters of admission." I was emailed at the end of February, so this waiting is sort of killing me. But to keep it in perspective, the "end of march" is just a week and a half away. :|

Hey Sosh, I was about to put up a similar post regarding the official acceptance package and funding. I also received the letter from GAIC, which was nice, but not very informative. I really really want to start to make my final decision and funding will be the most important factor. In regards to the 60 percent of applicants receiving some sort of support, that seems pretty impressive. I wonder what their average amount of assistance is. Anyone have a clue? Damn, I need to stop obsessively checking the forum. This site is like cocaine to my Whitney. Oh well, it beats working at work.

Thanks for all the info Jay! I think all of my reservations about Austin have been quashed by the many people I have contacted. My friend from college (also from LA) in a psych Ph.D. program at UT absolutely loves Austin and the school. She noted that Austin is chill and that people are very gracious. I have been doing some research into apartments/housing near campus, and the prices are ridiculous. Let's put it this way, the price of a shitty studio in some of the more questionable parts of los angeles is equivalent to a newish, 1 bedroom in Austin on the UT shuttle route. In other words, the cost of living in Austin is dirt cheap compared to LA. Unless some of the other CA schools I'm still waiting on accept me and want to throw some money at me, I'm moving to Austin.

TTUJay, Thanks for replying to Sosh's question about the LBJ School Visit Day. I just booked my tickets to Austin for the April 9th session and am really looking forward to it. I think it's really cool that they went ahead and scheduled meetings with people relevant to your interests and needs. I've done enough research on my own, so I would be more than happy to allow someone else to do some legwork for me ? . Did the visit address any of the student activities/campus life/living in Austin-type topics or was it mostly academic? I

Wow, I am so glad to see I am not the only one suffering in silence over the MPP admissions process. I haven't been this anxious since senior year in high school. I feel everyone's pain. So far, I have been accepted at USC SPPD w/ a small dean's merit scholarship and the LBJ School at UT Austin (funding details to come, but I am entitled to at least $5k from a fellowship earned in undergrad). I am still waiting to hear on GSPP at Berserkeley, UCLA SPA, and KSG at Harvard. I don't expect anything good from Harvard or Berkely, but felt like giving them a shot for the hell of it. As far as I could tell from here, GSPP and UCLA have begun to send out acceptances since early this week, and I am feeling like I should just treat them as rejections at this point. Is this reasonable? I tried calling them today, but no one answered the phones. Since going to USC SPPD will require the sale of a kidney on the black market, I have pretty much ruled it out, so its looking like Austin could be it. The non-resident tuition rate is almost too good to be true. Any one else thinking about LBJ and has some more insight into the program, beyond the website and viewbook? I plan on flying out for the admitted students day so I can get some more in-depth info and feel out the city before making the final decision. Quality of life is a huge factor in my decision-making, which is one aspect that many people on other forums (autoadmit cough, cough) seem to not address. I wish everyone the best of luck and to try to cope with these few weeks of uncertainty, doubt, and anxiousness. My main coping mechanisms have been happy hour, friends, and iTunes. What about you all? P.S. For anyone in or from Austin, are the SXSW and ACL music festivals as amazing as indie blogs and PBS make them seem? I admit, part of my motivation for applying to UT Austin was the fact that Austin is the "Live Music Capital" of the U.S. --Rebecca