rooster34

I got what you were trying to say, it was you who missed what I was saying. As such, let me spell it out for you. If you take out a loan during grad. school the gov't has no way of knowing whether or not you are paying your room and board with that particular money or with your stipend. That is, if all the $ ends up in one acc't and then you write checks from it...

Thanks!

I don't think you can register for fall classes yet. Poke around in buckeylink; that is the best way to find things. You need an OSU username to do so. You can get one here: https://acctmgt.service.ohio-state.edu/Password.html. Also, this may help: http://www.gradsch.ohio-state.edu/Depo/PDF/New_To_Do.pdf. Good luck!

I could not agree more. If you are paying your own way, which I imagine is the case, then you should be able to convince them to let you back in. Be contrite, persistent, and polite but firm. Good luck.

Wow. I am just about speechless.

So you are using your stipend to pay rent and for food? Or is it the case that your stipend is paying off the loan balance and your loans are paying your room and board?

I couldn't agree more. I've been teaching for 5 years at a Public Ivy and I have zero tolerance for this kind of shit. I try to handle it via the syllabus as much as possible, but that doesn't always work. I have no problem, however, calling out some dipshit wannabe student for doing things that are inappropriate. There have been more than a few occasions where I've told a student that they cease the behavior or exit the classroom. I've never had a problem with confrontation. It probably helps that I teach math/stat and, for the most part, there is no way to justify having a laptop in class, I'm a 6'5" male, and that I spent 11 years in the military. The key is to be consistent and to put the smack down early. It is always easier to be a bit harsh up front and then ease up rather than the other way around (also good for parenting, btw!) Good luck as you strive to become the "avenging hammer of justice"!

I'll be moving to C-Bus very shortly and starting this summer. I've already set up my email, registered for classes, and spent a lot of time poking around on Buckeylink. I figure the more of the "housekeeping" stuff I know before I start the better off I'll be.

Could not agree more. Wow. Just, wow.

Thanks to all of the posters; there is a lot of great information on where to live. It seems like VV, Grandview, and Clintonville are the names I see mentioned the most. What I didn't see any information about was parking. I looked through the OSU transportation and parking website and there are a lot of different levels of passes. It seems as if funded grad. students can buy an orange faculty pass. From what I can ascertain, these passes range from pretty cheap (~$80/yr.) to really expensive (~$600/yr.). I think that the cheapest gives you access to the lot on Western whereas the most expensive allows parking on campus and in the garages on campus. Is it worth it spend a ton of money to get a surface lot and/or garage pass? That is, can you find a spot in either case or are you just wasting money? Any advice on the parking/transportation front is welcomed and appreciated.

The danger with relying on this program is that you have to make 120 payments (10 years worth) and work for a qualifying institution for 10 years. Most, if not all, gov't loans are paid back over 10 years to begin with. As such, if you don't use an income based plan you will have paid off the entire balance by the time you qualify. Now, if you, like me, have loans from undergrad on which you've already been paying, the story is slightly different. For the most part, payments made after 1 Oct 07 count. Do a quick google search and you will find more information.

In my opinion, it would be foolish to bypass UNC's dept. of biostats in the hope that you get into one of the others later. UNC biostats is excellent, both in reputation and practice. In the stat/biostat community, UNC is just as big, if not bigger, a name as Harvard, Emory, or Columbia. There is little to no advantage to getting the MS first. In full disclosure, I know someone in the program and my graduate mentor is a graduate of the program.

In short, be a contrarian. Whether it's grad school, investing, or just about anything, in my 35 years it has served me well. And now, as I head off to get a PhD at 36, I am once again being a contrarian.

From the above linked article on methodology: Response rates for the doctoral Ph.D. sciences were as follows: for biological sciences, 15 percent; chemistry, 25 percent; computer science, 46 percent; earth sciences, 29 percent; mathematics, 34 percent; physics, 31 percent; and statistics, 67 percent. No surprise that the stat departments response rate is the highest!

I really didn't see that many surprises; perhaps Florida being 27th after being in the top 10 recently. Of course, part of that is that, to my knowledge, they've never separately ranked the biostat and stat programs. Doing so inflated the number of programs being ranked and, as such, pushed some "top" programs down. As for UNC, my understanding has always been that the biostat is much stronger than the stat program. I will be interested in seeing how far UW drops over the next few years if the financial situation does not improve. As for the methodology, I couldn't find just how things were done. The link I clicked on took me to an old explanation. And I was disappointed that we weren't provided the treasure trove of information like that in the engineering rankings. Finally, it is dangerous to just look at the rankings. For example, Ohio State is 27th (3.5) but is just 0.1 from being tied for 22nd (3.6) and, I believe, 0.2 from being tied for 20th (3.7). Point being, there is not much difference between spots.

The Ohio State University!

I think that the op is probably not interested in biostat since they mentioned Michigan stat vs. Wisc. stat. At Michigan, biostat and stat are separate dept's. I think that Wisconsin is the better department. But, you have to make your own decision. Did you visit the two dept's? What did you like better about Wisc.? What about Mich.? Which dept. gave you a better feel? After all, you will be spending 4-6 years there! My advice, try to make a list of pros/cons and then sleep on it. When you wake up, remove the conscious mind and let the subconscious mind decide. It is almost always right, in my experience.

Right after I submitted the above post I got the official offer (TA + summer support this year) from OSU!

Any word, Joro?

Update Number 2! The best I can tell, here is what happened at OSU. They looked at all of my undergrad. work (even the stuff 13+ years old!) and that put my undergrad. GPA at 2.89, which is less than the grad. school required 3.0. In early Feb. the department submitted a petition to the grad. school. At that point, the petition should have been rubber stamped approved. But, that did not happen. Instead, my online status sat at "Referred" for two months. I spoke to the grad. school again today and, according to the grad. school, the stat. dept. didn't send the file(s) to the grad. school until last week after I spoke to the lady mentioned above. After I spoke with the grad. school, I called the dept. chair. He said that he'd spoken with the grad. studies chair and that I should expect an offer shortly. He apologized for the delay. About an hour later, I got a voicemail from the grad. studies chair telling me that she is working on an offer letter and that she'd send it to me shortly. She also apologized and blamed some of the communication problems on email problems. Furthermore, I got the impression that the stat. dept. believes that they sent everything to the grad. school back in Feb. Regardless, it looks like I finally have my offer! I guess it just goes to show you that sometimes being patient is not the best course of action and that being persistent is always good! Best of luck to those still waiting. Don't be afraid to call/email at this point. Really, what do you have to lose?

The best I can tell, here is what happened at OSU. They looked at all of my undergrad. work (even the stuff 13+ years old!) and that put my undergrad. GPA at 2.89, which is less than the grad. school required 3.0. In early Feb. the department submitted a petition to the grad. school. At that point, the petition should have been rubber stamped approved. But, that did not happen. Instead, my online status sat at "Referred" for two months. I spoke to the grad. school again today and, according to the grad. school, the stat. dept. didn't send the file(s) to the grad. school until last week after I spoke to the lady mentioned above. After I spoke with the grad. school, I called the dept. chair. He said that he'd spoken with the grad. studies chair and that I should expect an offer shortly. He apologized for the delay. About an hour later, I got a voicemail from the grad. studies chair telling me that she is working on an offer letter and that she'd send it to me shortly. She also apologized and blamed some of the communication problems on email problems. Furthermore, I got the impression that the stat. dept. believes that they sent everything to the grad. school back in Feb. Regardless, it looks like I finally have my offer! I guess it just goes to show you that sometimes being patient is not the best course of action.

In a word, no.

Wow, just, wow. I would be a little pissed, but I would probably just feel better about not going there.

Here's the update: I called the grad. school last week and spoke with a very nice lady who said she'd personally look into things. Apparently OSU considered all of my undergrad record. This stupid move put my undergrad GPA at 2.89, which is below the grad. school cutoff of 3.0. (For more info. on my situation, click here: ) As such, the department had to petition the grad. school to let me in. Apparently the dept. did so back in early Feb. Nothing happened for two months and, quite frankly, things would have stayed that way had I not called. The petition was approved yesterday and I have been admitted. Now I just need to get a hold of the department and talk $$$. Also, as far as courting me earlier, they invited me (along with about 20 others) to their grad. information day way back in early Jan.