Tidus
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Posts posted by Tidus
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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All of the above. Not successfully yet though I'll add.
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21 minutes ago, sjoh197 said:
Reading through your thoughts... it seems as though you find UW to be a better fit academically and financially... and find Boulder to seem more appealing to your active lifestyle.
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.
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16 hours ago, SickSlickensides said:
I believe UW has an artic science consortium - everyone seems to be well funded. It seems like you have everything covered very well in your bullet points.
Seattle is a great city to live in, but IMO, it's a feast or famine city. On typical UW grad student stipends (~$21k), you'll miss out on a lot that the city has to offer (restaurants / night life). The fantastic thing about being poor in this area is that there are a ton of outdoor activities. A 45 minute drive will drop you at many fantastic Cascade trailheads. UW has a "ride in the rain" contest every winter to see which team can rack up the most mileage bike riding to school/work. Great kayaking and rock climbing in the area & I'm sure locals would be willing to share/help with gear.
I don't know anything about Boulder - good luck!
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
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On 16/03/2016 at 4:32 AM, CornUltimatum said:
Check out crime rates in the city and near the University. This was also something I am weighing into my decision - especially since I am hoping to bike to most places which makes you a bit more vulnerable.
Other than that it looks like a tough decision ahead of you. I can't really tell you which way to lean because it just comes down to preference - everyone weighs things differently. I suppose if you're leaning more towards academia you'll want to pursue a strong research project opportunity - the issue here is, is Boulder's isa better project but not currently funded while Washington's is funded. Some other things to consider: Are these programs academically oriented or industry oriented? Does either program encourage you to pump out several papers to bolster your academic record? What sort of assessments does each program have for their degrees? Typically, how sucessful are your potential advisors' graduates - what do they tend to do? What affiliations and collaborations between other departments does each program have or have had? Networking is important for academia too.
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.
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24 minutes ago, Eita1989 said:
Good programs! Congratulations! My friend have been working in Seattle for almost two years. She likes the weather there even though it rains so often. As she told me, there are lots of hill roads……so riding a bike will be great fun as a sport.
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.
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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.
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Hey geo-kids. If one of you could pick where I spend the next 5 years of my life that would be great.
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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
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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.
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On 08/03/2016 at 5:16 AM, Eita1989 said:
Thank you~ I am interested in ENSO and PDO. Polar climate seems like a very hot topic in the next few years. Professors doing this research have a lot of funding. There are great chances in polar climate, I should notice that and try to know more about it before my application. However, it's too late now.
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.
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19 minutes ago, Miner 49er said:
Hey congrats! Just wanted to ask if you were in contact with Dr. Bitz before applying to UW? I might have to apply again next year lol if I don't get into my choice of schools.
Thanks
Yeah, I sent a few e-mails to her and got replies back fairly quickly if I remember rightly. I suspect it helped my application a lot to do so.
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Yeah, pretty sure all have gone out. They did all the visits in one weekend just now.
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7 hours ago, magnetite said:
@Tidus Are you visiting the earth science department? Do you know anything about their oceanography department?
I didn't get to check out the Earth Sciences department, even though their building is attached to the Atmospheric Sciences building. I know a bit more about the oceanography department. Sharing a room with a guy who's visiting both Atmospheric Sciences and Oceanography right now. He seems to really like it and says the vibe is very similar to the Atmospheric Sciences department, which seems to be really social and have a good culture for the way students work with their advisors/other faculty/other students. I can try to answer specific questions if you have any. Might be better to pm me depending on level of detail.
7 hours ago, Eita1989 said:Wow, first of all, congratulations! It's one of the top programs in our domain. In the application system, it says: The program to which you applied expects to make their admissions decisions by early April. And they haven't replied my email that ask for the application status.
May I know your research interest? I wish to start my future research on Mesoscale Meteorology or Physical Climate. Would you like to share some information about these as part of the UW program? Thank you.
Thanks
Perhaps there's a possibility that they would accept more students if enough people accepted offers elsewhere. I'd have asked for more detail on if there are waitlists or something similar if I was visiting the department again today, but I've just been exploring the city* seeing as it's the weekend.
My research interest is polar climate, primarily related to sea ice. I would be working with Cecilia Bitz primarily. Quickly looking through the faculty lists in the link below it looks like at least 4 people work on mesoscale meteorology, but by coincidence I didn't really talk to any of them in great detail about their work, so I can't really add much. Likewise, physical climate, as it sounds like a pretty broad topic. If you have some more specific questions I might be able to be of more help. Feel free to ask/pm me.
http://www.atmos.washington.edu/people/faculty.shtml
*Seattle's a really cool city for anyone who's not visited. Rainy...but cool.
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22 hours ago, Eita1989 said:
I applied for 10 programs, most in California. Until now, 1 offer, 1 interview, 1 campus visit invitation (I think it's another interview).
But I haven't received anything from the other 7 programs. I wrote emails to UW and UCSB since I saw someone has already been admitted on this website. No reply…… I feel anxious now
Are you applying to atmospheric sciences at UW? I'm visiting now so might have some insight. The bad news is that I get the impression they sent out all their offers a while ago. A tiny possible bit of good news is that from personal experience it's possible to not be in that batch and get still an offer if something new develops with funding (I was accepted only around a week ago). Good luck
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So it looks like I'll have the choice between LDEO at Columbia, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Boulder and very likely Atmospheric Sciences at University of Washington. Psyched to have been accepted to a few places, but having a super hard time coming to a decision.
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7 hours ago, stormgasm said:
Also, Tidus, I'd like to work heavily with ATOC, especially Darin Toohey. I see you're doing a little bit of oceanography as well. I'm finishing up my MSc in geological oceanography, so it's nice to see someone that's also interested in the ocean!
Awesome. Sounds promising with your application. So far Boulder is my only offer, but one I'm super happy with, so hopefully see you there at some stage.
I've done a little bit of atmospheric trace gas measurement work in my current job so would be cool to chat to Darin about it at some stage. Think I'd be focussing more on the modelling side of things at ATOC though.
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Mind if I gatecrash? Technically I'm an Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences applicant at Boulder instead of Geography, but planning to work on polar climate/oceanography, so kinda excited to find people looking to do similar stuff.
P.s. Saw Mark Serreze do a talk a year or two ago in London. Seems like he'd be a good guy to work with. Also good luck with the applications guys.
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If you're unsure about if you should submit a GPA, or how to do it, I'd recommend e-mailing graduate admissions at the school to which you are applying. I'm a fellow UK applicant here and in 3/4 of my applications they made it fairly obvious that I wouldn't have to convert to a GPA. For the fourth I went with something along the lines of:
"I am currently filling in the Educational Background section for my graduate application to [school name] and am a little unsure as to how to specify my GPA. My degree is graded on the UK scale, which as far as I am aware has no official conversion to the US GPA scale. If you could provide some insight into how I should complete this section it would be very much appreciated."
...turns out they told me to just enter in my degree classification in the end, but can't hurt to play it safe.
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56 minutes ago, RCtheSS said:
I almost have all of the regular cats' momentos, and have four rare cats' mementos!
I'm in the same position
Just a few more mementos and a couple more yard extensions left before I can get some closure and move on with my life.
56 minutes ago, RCtheSS said:That Tubbs though, what a greedy little guy.
Generous with the fish though. Poor Tubbs. He gets a bad rep.
P.S. Are you happy grad admissions? This is what my life has become.
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Converting UK average to US GPA for math grad applications (85% average/95th percentile)
in Applications
Posted
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.