greenpapaya

I think it's rather shocking that W. Laf would scare the #$%@ out of anyone. I'm finishing up my senior year here and I pleased with my decision to come here. Granted, it's not urban at all, but the Purdue community is the life and soul of the W. Laf/Laf area, so I feel it's a youthful area overall. One of your concerns was the amount of Asians/diversity on campus and I feel it is quite diverse. I don't know the demographics or statistics in that area, but I certainly have my share of friends from other counties including Asian countries. I don't know if my comments will help your decision process, but I just wanted to let you know the opinion of a person from inside the source!

A varied academic background would be great. I decided not to apply to my undergrad for grad school mainly because of that reason. You "exhaust your resources" as my research director has said. I agree. Besides, JHU sounds sooo impressive!

Rankings aren't everything if you aren't happy there! Do you think you will work as effectively if you are unhappy? For me, the answer would be no. I have a post-doc friend and she says your advisor is everything---if they have a great attitude, then life will be better for you.

University 4 also offered me a tuition waiver yesterday, so unless I hear anything else it seems like that's where I am headed. I finally heard from one of my AWOL universities and I was rejected. Now I just need to hear from the last one, which is my top choice. I know they only just made decisions 2 weeks ago, so I don't think there is a waitlist issue here.

I have been accepted at 4 different places, rejected from 1 and 2 are still AWOL however I am sure I will hear from one of them soon and the other is a waitlist thing. I am confused on what to do! I don't want to use student loans, so having funding would be important for me. (by the way, this is for biology masters) Programs: 1) University 1: summer funding ($3,000) but not assistance unless I am "amazing"---I don't really want to go here 2) University 2: won't find out about funding in June, but it will be enough to cover my tuition and living ($20,000) + separate summer funding ($2,500) 3) University 3: am in a pool of applicants for GTA with tuition waiver and stipend of $13,000 which would be awesome! 4) University 4: stipend around $9,000, will know more about tuition waiver this week University 2 and 4 have research I am particularly excited about. University 1, my future MP has a horrible attitude. University 3 didn't assign me an MP yet, so I can choose and will hopefully get an MP whose research interests me (which of course they have research I like---or else I wouldn't have applied!). University 2 has 2 NSF grants in the works plus I might switch labs to one with more funding, though research I am not so interested in. Would it be smart for me to bank on the ones without concrete funding? It's so confusing!

I am an undergrad at Purdue in the College of Science. I have grown up in Indiana, so I am used to what you might consider a "simple life." There isn't a lot going on in the West Lafayette/Lafayette area, but the campus itself draws a lot of activities. There are many musical concerts and bands that come to play on campus as well as plays and musicals, if you are into that sort of thing. Not to mention many famous speakers coming to give presentations (ie: Jane Goodall and the Dali Lama, etc...). You mentioned not shopping at big grocery stores like Wal-Mart in the city. There are many little international markets in the area where you can get unique ingredients (which I personally like because cooking is my hobby!) The campus has a lot of buildings close together, so it doesn't feel so sparse and overwhelming. There are a lot of green spaces, fountains and landscaping. All in all, I am so pleased to have spent time at Purdue. Sure it isn't as big as a city, but Indianapolis is less than an hour away and Chicago approximately 2 hours away (in good traffic) for your city fix. I will never regret coming here. Hope this helps! P.S. Small town doesn't mean lack of culture. It's what you make of it! The student body is so diverse here that it's hard to say this place lacks culture or interest....

Just sent the email to the graduate director and got a response already! He said it was fine and to let him know by April 15th. It worked!

I am in the same predicament. Thanks to the info above about the Council of Graduate Schools, I emailed the graduate chairperson for the department and asked about it, as politely as possible. They gave me 10 days in my acceptance letter! (8 left, in counting...). I haven't heard from my first choices, thought I have been notified that the decisions will be made soon, at least.