Tidus

Had this issue myself. If you only have to do this for a couple of applications it might be worth contacting the departments to ask for clarification. Otherwise, like you said, there's no easy or official way to do the conversion, so my take on it is that there's not really any harm in airing on the more impressive side when you state your gpa so long as you're not completely misrepresenting it.

I've had some good success using transferwise.com to send money over to the US from the UK. It's cheaper than doing bank transfers and pretty quick and simple. Worth looking into maybe. p.s. if anyone wants to use an invite code to make your first transfer even cheaper let me know.

I'm literally in Scotland right now Spent all last night camping in the rain. Scotland's pretty ideal training but I'm pretty sure the weather in Seattle is better, at least in Summer...at least that's what I'm hoping.

I've seen a few places being sublet on the housing facebook group for around that price. I'm an international student too, so think I'm just going to try to grab one of them before I even move over.

Hi guys, sorry for the lack of responses to this for a while. Your replies were really helpful and I want to thank you all for that. For the sake of closure on this thread, I'm back to say I eventually ended up choosing UW. Super excited for the move to Seattle. Fingers crossed I'll get a chance to stop by Colorado some time later in my life for a post-doc or something.

All of the above. Not successfully yet though I'll add.

Thanks for the input I'd agree with this with the caveat that I don't think there's much difference financially. Both are funded, it's just the project most interesting to me at Boulder is only at the proposal stage. There's at least one already funded project which interests me if it doesn't get funded though. Seattle is also marginally more expensive to live in from what I can work out. That's a pretty epic photo. If Washington looked like that all the time I'd already have chosen I guess it's not just the outdoor options but also the weather combined with them. Then again, there's a lot of people saying they quite like the weather, particularly in Summer, so maybe I'm giving this too much of a weighting against Washington.

Yeah, UW has a "Future of Ice" initiative, Polar Science Centre and people working on polar stuff in a few other departments, so definitely is a good hub for things. Funding's guaranteed for 5 years I think, and is closer to $30k. Obviously not quite at feast levels, but enough that I'm not too worried financially. Definitely interested in getting involved with rock climbing too, so good to know about that. Don't suppose that it's any worse in Boulder though. Thanks

Hey, thanks for the pointers. Taking all of them into account I think overall Washington has a slight academic edge over Boulder for me, but it's still pretty close. There's a bit more certainty in the Washington program as it's a more established advisor and the department has a great placement record, while at Boulder the advisor is fairly new and the project funding isn't yet confirmed. Conversely I think I slightly prefer Boulder as a place to live, but it's pretty close again.

Thanks! Brisith/Seattle weather is probably better than I give it credit for. I can see why people would prefer it to it being super warm or super cold, it's just a national past-time of ours to complain about weather. The hills will definitely be good for fitness...then again everyone looked super fit and healthy in Boulder, so peer pressure to keep up might provide a similar effect.

Cheers ZrSiO4 Overall sounds like a pretty great endorsement for Boulder. Good to hear there's tons to do there too. A slight worry is 5 years being a long time to spend in a smaller city, but in reality it doesn't sound like I'd be bored. I'll probably message you with a couple of more specific questions about Boulder tomorrow. Nice of you to offer to answer them.

Hey geo-kids. If one of you could pick where I spend the next 5 years of my life that would be great.

Nope, definitely helpful to get some more info on the weather and biking. They're two things I'm putting more stock in than most people. I'm in Cambridge now, which is actually super biking heavy by British standards because it's super flat, and old, so not designed for cars. Really like cycling about here when it's warm/dry...and endure it for the other half of the year. Thanks a lot for the reply

Hey all, Was lucky enough to be accepted to Atmospheric / Oceanographic Sciences PhD programs at a few great schools. I've narrowed it down to two, and visited both, but am really struggling to pick a favourite from here. I even made a huge spreadsheet, tried to weigh this up quantitatively and one scored 72.3/100 and another scored 72.7/100. Some basic personal details: Primary field of interest is polar science, particularly sea ice and climate modelling British, with British undergrad and master's Likely (~75% chance) looking to stay in academia following the PhD Girlfriend will be trying to get a job and move to same location after around a year Roughly weighting my decision as 50% academic factors and 50% quality of life factors Academic factors: Washington is slightly better in terms of ranking and has a large number of polar scientists. Boulder has a number of research institutes in the area such as NCAR and plenty of polar scientists too. Advisers at both places seem great. Washington project fits well with my research interests and would be very flexible. Boulder project does not yet have confirmed funding and may not until a little into my second year. Is more or less my ideal project. More TA requirements at Boulder, as advisers aren't confirmed until end of 1st year. While both departments seemed great in this respect, I really liked the culture of the Washington department in terms of student/faculty interaction and from a general social point of view. Non-academic factors: Cost of living is probably fairly similar when compared to stipend, possibly slightly worse in Seattle. Boulder has pretty perfect weather (in my opinion). Seattle has weather seems like England, which other than an awesome few months in Summer would be nice to get away from. Particularly seeing as I plan on cycling as my main transport. Girlfriend would likely have to get a job in Denver if I went to Boulder, which is a decent commute. However, Seattle commutes are notoriously bad too. Both places are great for outdoor activities, but they're closer and drier in Boulder. Seattle is a big city, so seems better for nightlife/cultural things. Might have to drive/bus to Denver for some of these otherwise, but really liked Denver. Colorado has some awesome Mexican food. Big fan. For the sake or argument lets say girlfriend has no preference between place. If you made it through all those points then thanks for reading. Not sure what I'm looking for in terms of advice as I know this is a very personal decision, but any insight on the programs or locations anyone has would be really appreciated.

Those are really cool topics too. Likewise I should really learn more about oceanography at the lower latitudes. I'm secretly kinda jealous of people with specialities in those regions. Much more comfortable field trips. Still, yeah, polar stuff is definitely having a good time in terms of funding, and should for a few more years, so I'm not complaining.