flohimohr

Re: working with big names - I'd take a look at current PhD students and see (1) Who advises them; (2) If they have co-publications with the big-name profs. If you've been admitted, you can also just ask to talk to those profs. Whether or not they agree to speak with you is probably a good cue regarding how interested they are in your application and how willing they are to mentor incoming students. Personally, I'm a big fan of junior faculty because they tend to have more time and energy to spend on students (but I am a prospective student for F15, so I have no idea how working with junior faculty will play out on the job market).

If you are set on the Master's, I'd ask the program directly where and how students with scholarships get funded, for ideas of where you can apply for $. Some people must have funding, so I assume maybe there are some opportunities you can try for, at least in the second year...and I think NYU matches aid you pull in, if I understand it correctly. You can also try reaching out to academic departments that have high undergrad enrollment but few PhD students -- they sometimes need to expand their teaching workforce and so offer TAships to master's students. But this is not an opportunity available everywhere, not sure how common it is at NYU. If you think you could stay at NYU for the PhD and it's aligned with the master's, you could also try reapplying to the PhD this year (after starting the master's). In engineering disciplines at least, it's common for the first 2 years of PhD to overlap pretty heavily with the Master's coursework (+quals of course), and if the professors are the same solid letters of rec from them could really give you a strong application.

Sorry for the slow reply, but thank you both for your insights! Really helpful. In the end I didn't get the direct question, and when they alluded to where else I was applying I was able (as suggested) to emphasize why I liked that specific program rather than why I hadn't applied to so many others. I agree that ultimately, it's important to be in a supportive environment - thanks for reminding me of that

Hi all, This may be a slightly niche question but basically: in this round of applications I only applied to three schools (6 programs total) for personal reasons - wanting to stay close to my family and my partner, who moved to the area and started a PhD to be near to me. I am worried about getting an admissions interview question about what other schools I applied to. I have a clear idea of my research goals and how each program would fit my plan, but on the surface the programs I applied to are pretty diverse (Master's and PhD, academic and applied). I don't want to sound unfocused when I have to list the schools and the programs, but I also don't want to convey the impression that I am not serious about pursuing an academic career (or to make it sound like these schools are my second choice - they are truly top-notch institutions). Have any of you been in a similar situation? Advice on answering?