ankelley1127

I'll be attending in the Fall for a Materials Science Ph.D. if I don't get taken off Northwestern's waitlist (very unlikely). But i am really excited to go here, the city is amazing, I loved it when I visited in March and I've already been looking at apartments on the isthmus.

For the maters programs, I don't know. But for the Ph.D. program I was waitlisted and offered to be considered for the masters. I declined though as I can't support myself without funding. Also for the Ph.D. at Ohio State I have two friends in my undergrad who were both accepted, and one received a fellowship. Sorry I can't tell you more about the masters program, but all of us applied for the PhD.

I recently received two good offers from schools. School A gave me an 18k research assistantship (which I'd have to secure an advisor for) while School B gave me a 5-year 28k fellowship. The only problem is that A is where I'd much rather attend, but it is so hard to turn down such a good fellowship, namely because of the prestige from receiving it and being able to put that on a resume. I emailed school A telling them about the situation and that I'd much rather attend there, but the fellowship is making it difficult. Obviously they had already sent out all their fellowships with the first round, but a couple days later they replied with a $1500 signing bonus and a first year un-tethered RA (meaning I would have more flexibility in securing my advisor) while also moving me up on the waitlist for fellowships. So, in my experience, definitely let the schools know if you have different offers as it really can't hurt and it got me a lot that I would've never received if I hadn't asked. Just be courteous and not demanding, and don't get greedy if the offer isn't exactly what you want.

Thanks for all of the replies, the more I think about it and talk to people, the more I am realizing I talk much more excitedly about Madison and their research than NYU. It's going to be really hard to turn down a fellowship, but from everything I heard, it doesn't really make as much of a difference in getting a job as I thought. I loved Madison when I visited it and thanks, juilletmercredi, for telling me about your experience, because I realized my personality is much more inclined towards a smaller city. I haven't accepted the offer yet as I'm waiting on two more prominent schools, but this has helped a lot.

Thanks for the advice, I did love the town and I've been talking with some of the professors there whose research really fits with my interests. If only I could transfer the fellowship to UW-Madison, everything would be perfect. Ah well, I still have a few weeks to decide.

So I've been admitted to quite a few places for a Materials Science Ph.D. and my top offers right now are from University of Wisconsin-Madison, which I went to visit and loved, and NYU, who has offered me a renewable $28K fellowship. The RA from UoW-M is ~ 20K a year, but that doesn't matter much once the cost of living in New York is taken into account. UoW-M is higher ranked in the program, and they do have a lot of good research going on, but I'm wondering if graduating as a fellow of NYU will carry more weight on a resume for future job searches than just being an average graduate from a better school. I do have a few apprehensions about moving to New York as I did my undergrad at a small college town, but I do want more of a city experience for my Ph.D. I also feel like I would have a lot more options for travel and networking living in New York than Madison, although everyone there was so nice and the city has a lot going on for its size (plus it's hard to beat the craft beer scene there). Any insight or advice about this would be greatly appreciated, I have no idea which of these I will accept.