magic

Hey Gaeta, I'm also coming for Stats! Are you in the Facebook group for the new 2010 grad students yet? I'd love to chat

Where did you search? I cannot come until orientation week, so I think it's useless for me to search right now. (Bad idea to sign lease without seeing place first.) Is anybody else in this situation? I applied to 1 property from Yale Grad Housing by no reply to my application yet.

hi ahuang, i believe there is 1 more person in the results. he submitted in February and said it was his dreamschool, he said he would attend. that leaves the 3rd person .. don't know if that's any help. they may not be on gradcafe at all.

I was admitted. I'm sorry it took forever, it has been really difficult for me to decide. I will submit my decision to attend now. I'm sorry for waitlisters, not sure how many more offers Yale is waiting on at this point. I believe there are only 3 positions this year.

A student in my program told me a "nice" 1 bedroom goes for $700. Is that accurate? It's much lower than what Penn Off-Campus Services quotes (+$1000 if I remember).

I don't expect a 3 month summer vacation from either package. But with "no summer obligations" at Yale I can work right away on my research. On the other hand, if I had to teach at Penn in the summer to secure the summer portion of the stipend, then it's impossible for me to get away. If I were just doing research I would be able to fly in and out more easily. (I think)

I used an online cost of living calculator the other day. It said Philly cheaper by 7%, mostly because of rent. But when I check craigslist, anything I want in Philly is more expensive than New Haven. Ehh ... guess I have to track down contacts who've lived there.

I am starting to lose sleep from this decision (tormented for weeks now). UPenn or Yale? UPenn is the perfect research fit for me. Yale's research cannot compare (for my field). But Yale is offering: higher stipend, no teaching first 2 yrs, no summer commitment (i.e. very important time for my long-distance relationship). What to do, what to do?

Are the entries in the results page correct for the Yale stipend? 37K in 2010? (and it seems 36.5K in 2009) How did the econ department get so rich

Thanks sapling. I received my wait list letter. Sapling, do you happen to know what your accepted friend's financial package is? (the stipend and how many hours teaching) (I'm trying to figure if I should "wait" on the list because I received a really attractive offer at another program.)

I have 2 offers, 1 reject, 1 waitlist at Harvard, and 6 more schools to go. The schools all have the April 15th clause. But the accept schools asked me to respond ASAP. What deadline should I aim for, as a courtesy to the schools and the candidates they waitlisted? According to Harvard, the waitlist might not resolve until April 15. But they won't tell me details of the funding (how much money, how much teaching), so I cannot make an informed comparison of their possibility vs. the real offers. What should I do? Actually I was never keen on attending Harvard (not familiar with research/faculty, coursework respectable but not as comprehensive as I like). However, Harvard has the Harvard name. And ever since the schools started replying, everybody and their grandmother is telling me the importance of being pragmatic. Am I just at a weak moment, falling into the peer pressure? For comparison: I am thrilled about the 2 offers. One is a state school which is my favorite of all 10 places. They are not ranked high (~50), but I believe in their program, and several faculty do research in an area that really interests me (none of the other schools research this area). Cons: bad location, TAship is heavy at 20 hrs/week. The second school is an Ivy, where my advisor-to-be is a very productive, diverse, well-known figure in the field. Pros: location, Taship is very light at 10 hrs/week.

I'm sorry to hear. How many did you apply to?

Hi Synth, Only one school has results at gradcafe (4 rejects). My would-be advisor at this school is a frequent coauthor of my would-be advisor at the school that accepted me. I guess it's a bad idea to contact him right now. Poor first school ... they have a small enough department to shower each admit with attention, I hate to leave them hanging.

Thanks, guys. They were super nice, I had no reason to be anxious. Most of my schools did not reply yet. I wrote to one of them explaining I had an offer and want to respond soon (as a courtesy to the school and the wait listed candidates). Would you contact all the remaining schools using this argument? I'm paranoid the schools will find out from each other what's going on with me. I especially don't want the info to get back to the school that accepted me.

Thanks for all your hints so far.

Thanks, rock. Would you call the other schools, telling them the situation, in order to get a quicker response from them? I picture, they already have a sizeable list of who to reject, but haven't gotten around to the rejection letter because they're still reviewing apps. On the other hand, maybe my acceptance at school XYZ will influence their decision negatively (because that's a slot for the next ranked applicant).

They asked me to schedule an expenses-paid visit. Question 1) How to tell them I'm waiting on a few schools 2) IF my other choice schools accept me and ask me to visit, it's going to be hard to ask my boss for leave for each university visit (have to fly half way around the world). If I knew the other schools' decisions, I would coordinate one big trip, but I don't expect decisions for another 1+ month. On the other hand, how rude is it when someone invites you and you say "well, yes I want to visit, BUT ... AND ..."