bittergrrl

I don't know how the residence halls are, but I was visiting this past weekend, and the married student housing isn't bad. They're pretty much brand new, and they're like little apartment buildings. I know a lot of international students live there. But as the name implies, I believe they're only available to someone who is married or who has a family.

I agree re: Pasadena. I think it has to do with the 10 freeway vs the 210 and what time you're headed out on the road. I dated a guy who lived in Glendale (just west of Pasadena) my senior year and had no problem making it back to campus from there. Hardly any traffic at all - though I did try to avoid rush hour whenever possible.

CGU housing is definitely separate from undergrad housing. Each campus has their own dorms. I'm sure you've already seen it, but the CGU housing office has a good amount of information on finding a place through them and other sources in the area. http://www.cgu.edu/pages/1156.asp I can't really speak to rents, since I lived on-campus all four years.

I did my undergrad at Scripps - albiet a few years ago, so some things have changed. Claremont is great, but fairly expensive. "The Village" - as the quaint little shopping area is known - has some great restaurants, and some cute shops, but again fairly expensive. A lot of the houses near the colleges are owned by faculty, the colleges, or wealthy private citizens. Check then housing/apartment listings for the 91711 zip code to see what houses within walking distance are going for. When I was there, I heard a few grad students complain about the grad student housing.....but they may have redone it since I graduated. There are good places to live around there - both affiliated with the colleges and private. I would say check north of Foothill. I had some friends who rented a single family home up there for fairly inexpensive. There are areas nearby that are not great, but you aren't really going to encounter them unless you drive to them. Like most LA suburbs the area is sprawling, so as long as you know what to avoid - and it will become clear - you should be good. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll try to answer them.

well, I think it's reasonable to tell them that you got an offer that you can't pass up. A $20K Fellowship is hard to beat - especially for a place in the middle of nowhere. You could try to find out from them what the offer would be. I mean you know that the scores are on the way....you've already contacted ETS - what more can you do from your end? Are you comfortable enough with this professor to tell her that right now you're trying to decide between the two, and ask her if there is any way she can "unofficially" give you an "approximate" number for what your funding "might" look like. I mean they understand that people are deciding between offers right now. They know the score. If you're not comfortable asking about what the funding might be - you could ask if she might be willing to answer a few questions until the scores get there.....find out about the other comparision factors - like insurance teaching etc.....That way if you can't get an exact number - even if the TOEFL scores don't get there in a timely mannter (does ETS do ANYTHING in a timely manner) you have other reasons decline the offer. Others might suggest just going for it and telling them you've got an offer that you know they can't beat, so you want to free up a space for them. That's perfectly reasonable and brutal honest. I have a terrible complex about dissapointing people, so I try to let them down easy even when there's not necissarily a point. Hope that helps.

I emailed the professor and she emailed me back to tell me how dissapointed she was.....I hate disappointing people....but there's really no way it could have worked. Guest99 - Possible additional reasons you might be able to include: Funding Is there a difference in the funding offers? Health Insurance - part of funding reason Some schools offer full, some only partial coverage. I know this seems like a lame one, but if you're only making $14,000 a year every penny counts. TAship/RAship Do you have to work as a TA/RA for both? How many students will you be teaching as a TA? Talk to current students to see how much of a load this really is. Location Which location have you found better? If you haven't visited, check with people on the boards to see which they prefer. You don't necessarily have to list this as a reason, but it could help you decide. This is what I can come up with right now.....I'll keep thinking on it.

Yea that's definitely the right approach. I just feel so bad. They were so nice, but really there's nothing I can do. Thanks!

I need to decline an offer of admission. Long story short, my husband and I are both applying to schools, he didn't get in, but I did, so obviously we can't go there. I'd like to open the door for others who might be on their waiting list. The application was totally online - even the acceptance, so I can just decline that part from the Web site. I'm really looking for suggestions of what to say to the Department. They were so great and really nice through the whole application process, and I'd like to let them know "it's not you it's me - or more specifically my husband." Any suggestions? Thanks!

Another issue is that since this site is similar to whogotin, but not the same. 1. It took no data from last year's site. 2. It took no code from last year's site. Since the functionality of the application is different it's not stealing a site, it's utilizing an idea that is not being used. As for gradcafe only putting up an automated system after yuster did.....I can tell you that the effort that was going in to maintaining the results in a usable format was hell. It was only a matter of time before somebody volunteered to do that for our lovely barista. Yuster's claim on their Web site that they "index" results is a load of crap. Indexing is not what they have done. If you "index" you are simply providing a centralized means of searching and acquiring the data, not taking the data and putting it into your own database. And the data fails to be useful when there are duplicates which arise from people posting their results in multiple places, so really the "indexing" isn't a useful technical model anyway. Finally, if yuster meant to be a benevolent "indexer", what other source besides gradcafe and his own was he "indexing"? Did he go to the Who got in livejournal and catalog all of the results there? Did he try the Princeton Review site to "index" the posts people put there? The answer is no. He took the data from gradcafe because it was easy. This whole thing is such crap. I find it hard to believe that the antagonistic "guest" user here is applying to grad school. I would hope that my fellow grad students, with whom I will be matriculating, will be able to act like the adults they are rather than stoop to the level of this child.