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johnnieoz

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  1. Thanks Jennesy! We'll see if they have any immigration experts. :shock:
  2. California is not Oregon is not... I mean, in e.g. California non resident domestic students can become in-state after being there for a year. The same is not necessarily true for other states, e.g. Ohio (I think it was). There both non resident domestic students and international students cost the same, though funding ops are naturally different for the two categories. However, some state schools systems offer "waivers" to non in-state students, both domestic and international. This then makes them in-state students if not official residents of the state in question. The UC system does NOT do this for international students UNLESS they are certain kinds of visa, e.g. H1B and NOT the regular J1 or F1 student visas. The only thing UC has going for it is that all students regardless of origin can get up to 100% tuition reduction once they begin writing their dissertation. Unfortunately you need a lot of cashola before then...it usually takes 3 years to reach that stage. And that seems to be too much funding for them to contemplate. Anyway, the short of this is that Cali is one of the, if not the, hardest state school systems for int'l students to get their foot into. That's life.
  3. Dudgeonmaster. This is from the e-mail I got from UCLA. I specifically asked what my international student status meant: "Our committee members generally do not know about the applicants' ability to pay for their graduate studies from personal or other sources. They do not consider financial ability as one of the criteria for admission but will take it into account when they consider the admitted students for financial support packages. In the very few cases where this information has been available (e.g., a Fulbright or Conacyt-sponsored applicant) an applicant's independent means to support graduate student does not necessarily tip the scale in favor of admission though it could if they have to select one more applicant from a small pool of equally strong and interesting candidates. As you may know, we usually have a large pool of excellent and qualified applicants for a limited number of spots. Many of the applicants we reject are qualified for graduate studies and may even have the financial resources to pursue graduate studies. Our committee members evaluate applications in a holistic way and assess the relative likelihood of success in, and fit with our program. Their decisions are based on a comparison of the applicants they review. This year our applicant pool was larger than last year and we admitted less students than last year, making admission somewhat more competitive than in the past." Not sure what to make of it. Maybe I was never seriously considered, but if I had, this person seems to be saying that it would not have been a factor. That seems at odds with what your prof wrote.
  4. This seems to apply especially to those of us interested in the UC schools. Dugeonmaster's post at http://thegradcafe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=590 tells the tale. "have just experienced this first hand too. I am an applicant from the UK and I just received this e-mail from UC Berkeley, and I am stunned that the website gave no hint that this might be the case for international students: You will soon be receiving (or may already have received) a form email bearing my name, but I did want to write to you directly to say how sorry I am that we were not able to admit you to our program in Classics. As we are painfully reminded every year, the number of qualified applicants always far exceeds the number of offers of admission we can afford to make. In your case, there was an external factor that weighed heavily against your application from the outset. Because UC Berkeley is a public, state-funded institution, we operate with a restricted budget and a peculiar fee-structure. International students are much, much more expensive for us to support than students with US citizenship, because they can never establish "California residency" (thus qualifying for radically reduced fees). We can't afford to have more than a very small number of such students in our program at any given time. As a result, we often find ourselves in the position of rejecting applicants that we would otherwise be eagerly competing to recruit. With all best wishes, XXXXXXXX Associate Professor, Graduate Advisor & Chair of Graduate Admissions" -------- Not sure if this was held against me from the outset - maybe I wasn't qualified in other ways - but it seems to imply that this is a MAJOR problem. I know for a fact that there are currently several int'l students in the UCLA Soc dept, and thus the same logic likely applies.
  5. Thanks Dugeonmaster! This was kind of what I suspected...wish/hope they will be this upfront with me too. The UCLA people pretended that this was not a factor at all...
  6. Anyone with ideas on where us "rejects" can apply next year? I need a good safety state school and/or private school on the West Coast. Field: immigration. Particular Funding Situation: International Student, i.e. more expensive, esp in UC system that doesn't offer waivers for those forced to pay out of state tuition. :idea:
  7. Supersonicman: I just e-mailed the Soc Dept at UCSD today and asked for info. Three hours later, I get an e-mail from the Grad School Admissions folks not from the department. I was rejected. And then it told me to check the website, which just had a copy of the same generic letter. Of all four UC schools, only UCLA sent out anything without being prodded. And only Berkeley and Irvine actually sent out something from the department rather than the Grad Divisions. I am 0 for 4 and thus won't be joining y'all next year. Too bad. Good Luck!!! 8)
  8. Just got rejected from all four UC schools (Sociology PhD) and I'm an international student. One school's secretary told me that this was not a factor, implying that I was not admitted for academic reasons etc. Only when someone is admitted do they look at what funding they may have, how much they would cost etc. I am quite skeptical about this reply, but have no proof that I am right. Again, this is perhaps only true in Cali.
  9. :x What can I say? Just went 0 for 4 in the UC Sociology Programs I applied to. Good to know it is possible with my GRE score. Good luck to all! BTW, bri, where did you get in and what's your field?
  10. Immigration, specifically assimilation. All of these schools have great faculty and affiliated research centers.
  11. Yep! Rejected by UCLA last week and Berkeley today. Still waiting to hear from Irvine and UCSD.
  12. I am applying to four California schools starting next fall. My field of interest is immigration, so the schools in question are ideally suited. They are USC, UCLA, UCI and UCSD. Does anyone have any thoughts on GRE scores for admissions as well as funding at these specific schools or just in general? Just took the GRE today and managed a 660 V, but only a 530 Q. Research tells me the latter is not good, but not bad enough to warrant a retake while the verbal is fine. Thanks. :shock:
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