jrisingsun

I GOT IT TOO!!! THANK GOD!!

April cannot come soon enough!! Just a question for you guys... if I took my GREs in August 2005 (did my master's, worked for a bit, now going back to school in the fall) and I wanted to apply for this fellowship or the NDSEG or whatever else NEXT fall, would I need to take my GREs again?? They would expire in August 2010, right? Is there any way around taking them again, if I wanted to apply for these fellowships? thanks for all your help!

Lantern - I'm in your field, so I'm racking my brain to try to figure out what "small town" you're talking about (I'm marine ecology/biological oceanography) I was gonna guess Bodega Marine Lab because that's REALLY in the middle of nowhere but that marine campus is about two-plus hours away from the main campus, so when I saw your last post, I crossed it off my list! Haha, well, i'm not going to be able to get it, so I'll just quit trying. So here's my serious answer. I'm was in the same situation - trying to decide between two schools, one with a better advisor/probably better project but not in the location i want, and second with a still good advisor but probably not as great of a project, in a far better location. And I ended up going with the first choice. In our field - biology/ecology/etc - the advisor makes SUCH a big difference. I've noticed a bit of a difference in the relative importance people place on their advisors depending on field (science vs humanities), and I'm not sure exactly why it is. but regardless, in the life sciences, the advisor-advisee relationship is really important and central to your grad experience (and how long it takes for you to graduate). so my advise is to go with the advisor you want, rather than the location you prefer. plus, 30 minutes is not all that far away. it's like a regular commute! good luck! PM me if you want to chat offline.

I don't know... is it likely? I haven't heard of such a situation so I don't know how it might work. I know that the advisor said at the beginning that he was interested in my application but didn't have funding, so to go ahead and apply for the NSF. so maybe he didn't accept me because he didn't have funding? But it could also be because they just had more qualified applicants. It's a pretty competitive school in my field.

I applied for the NSF GRF at the suggestion of a potential advisor - and wrote my research proposal based on his work and what I could see myself doing in his lab. He didn't help me too much with it, but provided comments towards the end. But he did write me a letter of recommendation for NSF. And then, a couple months later, I get rejected from that school. :( BUT -- If I do end up getting the NSF, I'm going to have to email him to thank him for writing the letter of rec. Haha. I'll be genuinely thankful, but it'll be oh so ironic.

Is anyone else out there MORE nervous about finding out whether they got the NSF GRF than actually hearing back from schools? I feel like if I got the NSF, I could go wherever I want to go, especially in this current funding climate, most profs told me that they don't have money but if I can bring my own money, they'd take me. April cannot come soon enough!!

Stanford EE quals are definitely very tough. About half fail. And if you fail after the second time then you are kicked out of the school, or you can petition to be advanced to candidacy but that is somewhat of a process. But if you have an advisor identified, it really should not be too much of a problem. I'm not very familiar with the Princeton EE qualifying process. And I also do have to say, Stanford's reputation is very high and the overall prestige of the school and the department is very good. If there are excellent professors in both schools in your field, I would go to the school with the overall better program. I went to Stanford (different department) so I am a bit biased, but I feel like you really can't go wrong with Stanford as your choice.