Mearsheimer's Minion

You're going to have to MA. You'll get into a PhD program somewhere if you apply, but if your goal is to get in "somewhere," you are already too far behind.

A "top 50" school isn't worth going to without funding. Top 10, maybe. Top 50, no. No school between 30-50 will be able to land you a job that can get you out of debt in any meaningful time frame.

You all are probably rejected. Their perspective weekend begins on Thursday. You *might* be waitlisted, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Moving from state-to-state only matters when you are already a resident of the United States. From your earlier posts, it seems that you are not, so you won't be getting your tuition waved.

You will not get funding from a UC. It is simple as that. California won't allow you to establish residency, which means any UC that admits you will have to shell out the full $40,000 or whatever for you each year that you are there. While they are willing to pay that for the first year while you establish residency if you are moving from within the United States, they won't do that for any year if you are coming from a different location. Better hope for Florida. By the way, you've been rejected from UCLA. I'm not sure why they haven't told you that yet, but their admissions process is well over at this point.

Just email the grad coordinator. They know there are differences in standards from department to department, and by asking they will think you are far wiser than the people who stress over not knowing.

I don't think there's anything to worry about. The three AP people left for idiosyncratic reasons, and the "Compton cookout" is just a bunch of silliness.

Everyone is over $20k, no? UCSD cut down on their number of acceptances this year to ensure that they could fund everyone competitively.

I have, and it's a simple matter of finding people in your subfield.

Myself and one other person from outside of these boards will be there you will be with plenty of company. We will need the extra bodies to stay warm. John Mearsheimer will be so pleased to learn that I am doing math.

Department philosophy, requirements, and the city you are about to move to. Everyone can answer those, regardless of concentration.

I hate to be a pessimist (as a minion of John Mearsheimer, it is clearly not in my nature), but a lot of the waitlists are built with the knowledge that a good percentage of the admits are going to decline admission. That is, even if I rejected all the schools I don't plan on going to right now, a spot will not open up at a tier two school--the tier two school already expected me to decline. Very, very few people on a waitlist ever get in.

It's a free trip. Why wouldn't you go?

You can always call and tell them about your other offers, and be willing to provide paperwork to verify those other offers. They may elect to increase your offer. Or they might not. You don't lose if they stand firm. You could win a lot by asking. That being said, the offers I have been hearing from Rochester admits are pretty solid. Given the economic climate and the next-to-zero cost of living there, I doubt they are going to up very many offers.

Does anyone have financial info on Berkeley?

They sent out all of their acceptances at least a couple weeks ago. Then, to prove that they are beyond silly, they sent out a mass email that had everyone's email address clearly visible. Brilliant!

I'm 90% sure I will be going there. I have to check to make sure there aren't any Alabama-style professors there first. Also holding out to see if I can get more funding. John Mearsheimer will be so proud of me.

The security dilemma.

Balancing behavior.

I'm in the same boat here...

I must credit UCLA for taking more than two months to turn around their applications.

Right. So apply to the PhD programs, save $40k a year on tuition, make $20k a year on a stipend, and then leave after two years. After factoring for how much you would have to take out for loans and whatnot, you're $140,000 better off than you were had you gone for a masters. Oops.

Is anyone else getting slightly irked by the student liaisons' emphasis on beaches and palm trees? I mean, we are talking about UCS frickin' D here. There are better selling points than that. A lot better. Leave the palm tree argument to some random Florida school.

More efficient, yes. But there are some selfish reasons to hold on to admissions. One, you can use them to get free trips around the country and meet people in departments you might want to work for later in your career. Two, if a meteor crashes into the department you were planning on going to (or some more reasonable equivalent thereof), you maintain some outs. That being said, reputation is important in such a small profession, and it doesn't hurt to get your name out there as one of the good guys.

I'm a little puzzled by what's going on with Emory. I have been admitted there under no uncertain terms. However, I am still getting interviewed. My impressions was that it was only to see how competent I am before they offer me a better funding package (which they teased in my admission email). I've also spoken and/or emailed multiple people in the department to discuss me going there. Am I different from the rest of y'all? (See what I did there? Yeah? Yeah?)