eternallyephemeral

I was also admitted to that program in lieu of PhD acceptance. At the time the tuition was $25,000/year with no possibility of funding and (it sounded) limited access to faculty supervision. Unless you're independently wealthy and don't have other options, I wouldn't recommend it.

Here is what I asked my POI and some of her students. You might need different things:
-Could I start reading up on things and preparing studies in the summer?
-How long do people normally take in the program?
-Do students go to conferences often?
-How is the competition for external funding?
-What is your supervisory style? How often do you meet with your students?
-Do your students have a lot of projects at different stages, or do they usually work one at a time?
-How do your students balance TAing, classes, RAships, research, and potentially teaching/internships?
-I asked a bit about going into industry, as its pretty common in my program. I talked about it more with the students though. Sometimes you don't want to go down that road with your POI.
-Do you prefer your students to work on campus? What do they normally do? Do students talk about their work with each other to get feedback/new ideas?
If you're not sure yet, you could ask what research they are working on that isn't out yet, what they're planning to do, or if they want you to come up with your first few projects independently. You could ask about collaboration with people at different schools, within the school, between their students, or across departments.
I hope some of that helps. There's probably many more things I forgot!

@fernandes: Great to hear! Taking on an extra side-job (they have lots of different names) is a great idea to make some extra money. It can help to break up the monotony as well.
You're absolutely right about the taxes, sometimes only your TAing positions are taxed and not any fellowship or scholarship money that you receive. I know for my school, I will only be taxed on TA income (I'm not sure about supplemental RAships, it may count to those as well), but not on external or internal scholarships or the money that pays tuition. These are all questions the administrators at your school should answer.
I agree regarding not knowing what you want to do. Many people are in PhD programs after spending years or decades of not knowing what they want to do. I think there's nothing wrong with focus on the cost and benefit of each degree, considering the increase of people getting advanced degrees and where you want to stand within that, and thinking about many different options for your future. In my personal opinion, people who do that instead of blindly following what they have previously done or what people say is best for them make better decisions that make them happier.
Anytime! Best of luck to you!

If you don't already know yet, you should ask about your exact first year funding offer and if you get a chance to talk to students ask if they think that stipend is livable. Also, it may be helpful to ask about how your POI works with first years specifically during the transition into grad school and starting independent research.  I've found that different POIs have very different views on how to mentor during this time.
Congrats on the offer! 

@eternallyephemeral: yeah, I've been trying to get as much information as possible so I can make a better decision.
In regards to getting a PhD and going into industry, multiple schools have something called Versatile PhD, which is an online resource to help humanities, social science, and STEM graduate students and PhDs in all fields identify, prepare for, and succeed in non-academic careers. I think that participating in this program and its events could help me prepare for possibly working in industry.
I will make sure I get everything sorted out about the taxes. Maybe they'll only tax half of my stipend, or something like that. So thanks for the advice!
Saving money before I know of my summer situation seems to be the smartest thing to do. I was also thinking that it could be possible to work a few hours per week on no-contract jobs (I don't know the best word for it, sorry) such as babysitting or in a catering company on Friday or Saturday nights. Of course I should not count on those, but maybe I could find something like those.
I really like science, learning and research, but I'm still not sure if that's what I want for my career. And yes, I also don't think is the worst thing in the world. I have a bunch of friends that are not certain of what they want to do with their career at their 20's as well. So thanks for the empathetic words.
 
Thanks for helping!

Here is what I asked my POI and some of her students. You might need different things:
-Could I start reading up on things and preparing studies in the summer?
-How long do people normally take in the program?
-Do students go to conferences often?
-How is the competition for external funding?
-What is your supervisory style? How often do you meet with your students?
-Do your students have a lot of projects at different stages, or do they usually work one at a time?
-How do your students balance TAing, classes, RAships, research, and potentially teaching/internships?
-I asked a bit about going into industry, as its pretty common in my program. I talked about it more with the students though. Sometimes you don't want to go down that road with your POI.
-Do you prefer your students to work on campus? What do they normally do? Do students talk about their work with each other to get feedback/new ideas?
If you're not sure yet, you could ask what research they are working on that isn't out yet, what they're planning to do, or if they want you to come up with your first few projects independently. You could ask about collaboration with people at different schools, within the school, between their students, or across departments.
I hope some of that helps. There's probably many more things I forgot!

Useful information above but it's also worth noting that there are many small (or even growing!) college towns with populations wayyyyyy smaller than 400k. A population that size puts you well within the top 50 largest cities in the US. Those can feel small compared to cities like NYC but can feel big compared to towns like Ithaca NY or Providence RI both of which have great schools! 
I'm not in grad school yet but I have lived in several cities with population sizes between 300-700k they all provided great career opportunities in psych and I personally never felt bored or without something to do. In a town with a population under 200k, I might start to worry about a lack of career enhancement stuff (and not having much to do for fun) but along the lines of what @eternallyephemeral said, I think it depends a lot on the institution and your personal career goals/interests. 
Generally I think the best way to get a sense for what it will be like in another city is to compare it to where you grew up and/or where you live now. If you're going to a city smaller than where you are now, you'll probably feel like there is less to do for fun, people are friendlier but maybe less open to "unusual" lifestyles, and the public transit is no good. If you're moving to a city bigger than where you are now the opposite will probably happen. Everything is relative!  
 
 
 

I don't know too much about the cost of living in Houston, but I am from a large, relatively extremely expensive city in Canada and I've been living on around $12k. For reference, the average one-bedroom costs $1500 and I pay $600 (I've got a roommate in a great place). If you know about costs in Houston, you could perhaps compare to these numbers.
As you mentioned, this is your 9-month stipend, and you could get some extra money in the summer through various means. Could you contact students that are in the program now and ask them if these opportunities actually work out? It's one thing for the school to say there are extra TAships or internships, but its another for the students to reliably get them.
I may be coming from another perspective, because I think that sounds like a middle-of-the-road offer and in my experience, it's difficult to get in as an international student, let alone to get sufficient funding. But the term sufficient could mean different things to different people.
 
The most important thing to focus on, more than the things your family might be concerned about, is whether you are prepared and willing to do the very long commitment of going through a PhD program. It's okay if you don't know exactly what you want to do. But if it requires a PhD and you're passionate about that job and about everything you'll have to do within the PhD, then you can get through the tough times when you don't feel great about what you're doing, and you're questioning what the point is.
I wouldn't worry at all about being 30, unless you have a problem with starting your career at that age. We'll live a long time, we hope, and you have tons of years to work. Starting later is very common and completely understandable.
 
Your job now should be to research jobs you may want to do, and if they are in industry, then look into the difference in salary between having a masters and a PhD. If it's a lot and you want the PhD level, it can sometimes make financial sense to be in a longer program. Adding the difference between a funded PhD and an unfunded Masters, if the PhD opens doors for you, it does seem worth it. That's a decision you have to make though, and it requires a lot of commitment.
 

Ignore the "Ivy League" label. Public or private isn't the question here, because some of the BEST engineering schools are public universities - like Michigan, Berkeley, UIUC, Purdue, UCSD, UCSB, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Minnesota, Texas A&M...)
What is the reputation of the public university in your field? Which university is it? Ask them where MS students tend to go after graduation - what's job placement like and do any of them go onto PhDs? Where you go for your master's is a little important for admissions to PhD programs but not terribly important. As someone said upthread I think people vastly overestimate the importance of institutional prestige for their MS program with respect to admissions to PhD programs.
Also, think about it this way. Sure, maybe going to Princeton or Cornell would give you a tiny leg up - but would that leg up be worth $120,000 over the course of the first 10-20 years of your career? Because that's just going to be the principal on your debt if you have to borrow for the entire thing. That's not even looking at the interest. How long is it going to take you to repay that? What will you have to sacrifice or delay to repay that kind of heavy debt?
It's true that there's a community between highly-ranked institutions, but that's true for ANY high-ranked institution, not just Ivies. For example, in my field, a person is just as likely to be respected if they got their training from Michigan or UCLA as if they did from Princeton or Harvard. That because Michigan and UCLA have top ten programs in my field and the training is roughly equivalent...in fact, UCLA and Michigan are ranked higher than my Ivy graduate school in my field.
Also, frankly, I find the concept of "lower Ivy" to be ridiculous.  All 8 of the Ivy League institutions are excellent schools. But typically speaking, when people say "lower Ivy" they mean Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, and Penn, and usually also Columbia. They usually are not referring to Yale (and never to Harvard or Princeton).


You know, I used to think the same thing. But I currently work in the Seattle tech industry. When I was looking for jobs (just last year), as well as when I idly browse jobs (this year for my husband, who's looking to move out here), I've actually found a LOT of jobs in the industry that ask for STEM PhDs. Most of those jobs are in statistics/math, in computer science, or in engineering. There are a lot of technology companies that are recognizing the value of research-trained PhD scientists on their staff, especially companies that are trying to develop innovative new products to stay ahead of the market. For example, at my very large technology company we have an entire division that's set aside for basic research and they primarily hire PhD-level researchers. I've noticed that most data science positions are preferring people with PhDs in the related fields (statistics or CS). My team is also made up mostly of PhD-level social scientists, and in my field, the PhD is a commonly asked for credential. Add that to credentials creep - you need a BA to do even the most low-level work in a lot of companies nowadays, and more challenging field-based work is for people with experience or MAs - and a PhD in the sciences and engineering is not as useless as previously thought.
I'd still give the general advice that you probably don't need a PhD to go into industry, and that an MS would be just fine...but I would temper that advice by telling the candidate to double-check by doing some job searching right now and see what kind of credentials are asked for in job ads that look interesting to you. You can also look at people's profiles on LinkedIn and do some informational interviews with folks in industry positions and see what degrees they have and what they feel like you need to have to succeed in their industry.
I also think it's not necessarily far smarter to get an MBA - it depends on what you want to do. In my company I think someone with an MS or PhD in a science field is just as likely to advance to a managerial position as someone with an MBA. For example, in my chain of command (UX research), my boss has an MA in my social science field, her boss has a PhD in my social science field. His boss (who manages our team as well as engineering/techical teams) has a BA in engineering. That guy's boss's boss has an engineering BA, and his - who's at the executive level and reports to the CEO - boss has an engineering BA. You don't hit an MBA until you get to our CEO in our chain of command. Lots of leaders in technical fields don't have MBAs and instead have a BA or MS (or PhD) in engineering/science/tech and some years of experience/climbing the ladder. Again, though, looking into this on LinkedIn and by talking to people will illuminate this more.

Ok...... you want to go into the industry and not stay in academia and honestly you have the wrong approach for that. I've actually done a considerable amount of research on what the best route is. Going PhD if you want to work in the industry is usually not typically a good idea for a few reasons. 1. It is generally considered too specific to be useful for job applications, unless you find the perfect job, so they usually won't want to hire you because they'd have to pay you more for the same work and they believe that you might have forgotten more general aspects of electrical engineering that are applicable to to job because you were so focused on something else during your PhD. 2. Based on salary data, having a PhD usually does not help much in terms of pay-scale and job advancement once in the field. Instead of getting a PhD it is far smarter to get an MBA, an MBA makes advancement to managerial positions more likely while raising your payscale considerably more than a PhD would. In addition, an MBA gives you plenty of fallback options (for instance you could go into business or more easily transition into finance or investment banking which is something a lot of people trained in engineering degrees do. An Ivy degree would definitely help you get into a better MBA program and an MBA would definitely help you when securing loans. Another mistake you made is going into Engineering Physics for your masters. While it is true that an Engineering Physics degree would allow you to apply for many engineering jobs, those with physics degrees instead of a specific engineering degree often start with lower salaries and there are indeed some jobs that only accept the Engineering degree. In addition, Engineering Physics is not typically ABET accredited, which can make a huge deal depending on where you went to school for your undergrad. If you do not have an ABET accredited bachelors and do not go to a school with an ABET accredited Engineering Physics program, then it will make getting a PE license more annoying if you wish to do so in the future (A PE license isn't necessary, but it generally increases payscale and there are some jobs that require it). An Electrical Engineering degree would have been far more marketable than an Engineering Physics degree. Next, it isn't good to overvalue ivy league schools in engineering, there are far better programs at state schools than at most of the Ivy's (GA Tech, UCB, UIUC, Purdue, etc) and many ivy's may be ranked higher than they deserve to be as a result of general prestige. The type of research you do (research fit) and who you do it with will be far more important in PhD decisions than whether or not you went to the Ivy in PhD decisions if you choose to go that route (for example, if you did research in a sub-field of engineering that doesn't even exist at one of the top programs then it would be far harder for you to get into that program than if you had gone to another school and had years of practice in the new program you want to get into). But again, a PhD isn't typically all that helpful in the industry, you should only really go after it if you love research for the sake of research or want a career in academia. If you are trying to use it to be more marketable it might be worth considering switching the type of program you are in for your PhD (for instance mastering in electrical engineering and getting a doctorate in mechanical engineering) in order to display that you are extremely well qualified in multiple aspects of engineering (honestly this choice is also questionable at best, it could  be an amazing decision depending on the employer and job you want). 

(1) Lower Ivy is used usually to denote an Ivy that isn't HYP. See https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lower_ivy But yes. I attended Cornell. 
(2) Yes, obviously going to a well-known institution will bring a certain academic pedigree to your application. However, the issue at hand is whether or not you should take a funded offer from an R1 institution vs. an unfunded offer from an Ivy. To me, it's a no brainer. A Master's degree from an R1 institution (all else being equal) is not going to be a hindrance to future Ph.D. applications and people seem to overestimate the influence of prestige of an Ivy Master's degree. Certainly, there are some programs that serve as feeders to other Ph.D. programs (Harvard's MTS degree comes to mind). However, when you consider faculty from R1 institutions likely received their Ph.D.s from Ivy's (if the general rule of thumb is to believed...that you end up teaching on the tier below where you receive your Ph.D.), LORs will *likely* be known by Ivy adcoms, you're not going into debt for it, and you likely get good research opportunities...a funded offer R1 is generally the better choice. 

Using self-funded Master's programs as a source of revenue is something a LOT of departments do, so you're not that cynical.
If you have a choice between a funded offer vs. a non-funded one, go with the funded one. An R1 highly ranked university will arguably give you as much visibility as an Ivy, if the department ranking/reputation is about the same (that is, if you're working with a Nobel Prize winner at Harvard vs. a no-name person at the R1...then things might matter differently) and you do good work. There's no guarantee in Ph.D. admissions. I have a Master's from a lower Ivy and got shut out at all the Ivies I applied to, so don't assume it will open *that* many doors. Your work matters a LOT more than name does. 

If you haven't yet, I recommend that you check this out: http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124708/
After looking at the numbers on this site, I was able to make a more informed decision.  When you look at the US News rankings, it gives you a single ranking.  Dartmouth's PBS program, which I'm starting in the fall, was ranked in the middle of the pack.  However, after looking at the numbers here, I was able to see that after controlling for 'diversity,' Dartmouth is a top tier program.  Of course, diversity is important, but for me was not a game changer.  In fact, the program is tied for 1st place for student outcomes.  So I wouldn't take a single number as an indicator of quality.
I think having a few metrics to look at will give you a better idea.  Of course, the most important factor is fit with your potential adviser.  I think if you are happy where you are, you will be more productive, which will result in a more impressive CV. 
I don't buy into the notion that you will only be able to get a great job if you go to a top ranked university.  I think what's more important is having a cohesive body of research that contributes to your field.  Regardless of where that research was conducted.
I hope this helped and best of luck.  Cheers!

In my personal opinion, the rankings at these schools are similar and that means that ranking is not as big of a difference in this case.
The fellowship would be good for multiple reasons, one for the prestige and also for the funding aspect. However, if the mediocre funding offer is offset by you wanting to live there, and it's enough to cover your costs, I could see these aspects balancing out.
The job prospects answer depends on what kind of job you are thinking of. You mentioned liking more applied research, but I don't want to assume that means you want to go so applied as to only be considering industry and not academia. If you're thinking about industry, I don't think that difference in school ranking will mean the difference between getting and not getting a job.
Those things being said, I believe that your productivity is highest in a place you would like to live, where you don't have to constantly worry about the cost of living there, and where you have a great research fit with a supportive and understanding supervisor. This means different things to different people, but these differences can be the difference between excelling in a good program and facing huge difficulties in a better program.
Ultimately, you are the one getting the degree and you should be creating your unique PhD path. I believe you will be good at a good school and at an excellent school, and that the opportunities available are the dealbreakers. If you have the opportunity to do what you want to do, if you have the opportunity to make enough money to live on, and if you have the opportunity to go into the type of career you want (as approximated by where the alumni go), then you made a good choice.
I'm sure some people will disagree, but it depends on your intentions imo.
Best of luck with your decision!

In my personal opinion, the rankings at these schools are similar and that means that ranking is not as big of a difference in this case.
The fellowship would be good for multiple reasons, one for the prestige and also for the funding aspect. However, if the mediocre funding offer is offset by you wanting to live there, and it's enough to cover your costs, I could see these aspects balancing out.
The job prospects answer depends on what kind of job you are thinking of. You mentioned liking more applied research, but I don't want to assume that means you want to go so applied as to only be considering industry and not academia. If you're thinking about industry, I don't think that difference in school ranking will mean the difference between getting and not getting a job.
Those things being said, I believe that your productivity is highest in a place you would like to live, where you don't have to constantly worry about the cost of living there, and where you have a great research fit with a supportive and understanding supervisor. This means different things to different people, but these differences can be the difference between excelling in a good program and facing huge difficulties in a better program.
Ultimately, you are the one getting the degree and you should be creating your unique PhD path. I believe you will be good at a good school and at an excellent school, and that the opportunities available are the dealbreakers. If you have the opportunity to do what you want to do, if you have the opportunity to make enough money to live on, and if you have the opportunity to go into the type of career you want (as approximated by where the alumni go), then you made a good choice.
I'm sure some people will disagree, but it depends on your intentions imo.
Best of luck with your decision!

In my personal opinion, the rankings at these schools are similar and that means that ranking is not as big of a difference in this case.
The fellowship would be good for multiple reasons, one for the prestige and also for the funding aspect. However, if the mediocre funding offer is offset by you wanting to live there, and it's enough to cover your costs, I could see these aspects balancing out.
The job prospects answer depends on what kind of job you are thinking of. You mentioned liking more applied research, but I don't want to assume that means you want to go so applied as to only be considering industry and not academia. If you're thinking about industry, I don't think that difference in school ranking will mean the difference between getting and not getting a job.
Those things being said, I believe that your productivity is highest in a place you would like to live, where you don't have to constantly worry about the cost of living there, and where you have a great research fit with a supportive and understanding supervisor. This means different things to different people, but these differences can be the difference between excelling in a good program and facing huge difficulties in a better program.
Ultimately, you are the one getting the degree and you should be creating your unique PhD path. I believe you will be good at a good school and at an excellent school, and that the opportunities available are the dealbreakers. If you have the opportunity to do what you want to do, if you have the opportunity to make enough money to live on, and if you have the opportunity to go into the type of career you want (as approximated by where the alumni go), then you made a good choice.
I'm sure some people will disagree, but it depends on your intentions imo.
Best of luck with your decision!

You're paying tuition. You don't owe them anything. It's pretty expected go to somewhere else anyway.

Fit? Checked
Money? Checked
Reputation? Checked
Placement? Checked
I see no reason to not attend this school. You may wait one year to apply again, but no one can ensure that you will get into a better place. And as you said, you may be the only one who get admitted; therefore you will have all the professor's support. That is awesome. For me it is not worth delaying one year.

I don't know about philosophy, but programs in psychology usually give offers to a very small number of people (5-7) so I can understand if someone is afraid of being identified by saying which program s/he *is going to decline* (especially if the decision is not that final). I don't see any problem with saying which program s/he *has already declined* though.

I think it depends. I think the rankings are good starting points, at the very least. It's good to know how often professors are publishing and publishing (and especially how often they publish with student co-authors). I also see that a lot of faculty members tend to come from the same top universities, so if you were looking for an academic career you might want to take that under consideration. For non-academic careers, I think name recognition is important (as is a good program alumni base), but if your school can help set you up with a dream research opportunity or internship, that's great. Fit is super, super important and I don't think you can pass up a place where you felt at "home," especially since it's a huge commitment. I'm of the firm belief that you'll flourish if you go to a school you're passionate about, with research you love, under an advisor you enjoy.
I mean, how much of a difference are we talking regarding rankings? 

I would say that while some offers have been extended, some of us are still waiting to hear back about financial aid/stipend stuff too. No one holds multiple offers purposefully or maliciously, but it does take some time to make a fully informed decision and go and visit schools  I also hate to say it, but even if someone turns down an offer, it doesn't mean the school for sure will pull people off the wait list. 
And as for your second question, I was invited to visit/"interview" at A&M earlier this month.

You probably won't have to make drastic changes. But if I understood your situation, you wrote the CGS-M proposal a year ago, before you were a graduate student and while you may have been doing completely different research. I wrote my CGS-M proposal based on 10 or so hours of background reading and research work. I feel like even a week as a graduate student and getting a start on your project is enough to give some new insight and perspective! Depending on your field, maybe some methods, numbers, references, etc. can be updated.
I don't think it would be a huge problem if it was exactly the same (after all, you're right, it worked before) but it's also very likely the same people that judged your CGS-M will be judging your OGS application (since both awards are judged at the University level only). Maybe they won't remember reading the same thing, but maybe they will! The OGS is a $15,000 award, so it's worth a few hours to see if it can use a tune-up, in my opinion!

Given your situation, I would first put all my effort into bettering my employment situation. Once that is stable and you're not working 7 days a week, then you can spend time trying to figure out what you want to do for a career. Right now, there are way too many options for anyone to really be able to help you pick a career. One thing that could help is doing informational interviews with people in those careers to find out what a day in their life looks like and what steps they would recommend you take to pursue a career in that area.

I swear by my Sorel's. They have a high initial cost but have lasted for years both internal sole-wise and external leather wise. I can stand inside a huge ice slush while trying to cross the street and walk out with dry feet!

I have a late-2011 Macbook Pro that lasted me through the last 2 years of undergrad and it was getting reeeeally sluggish into the second half of my 2nd year of my M.A., so over Christmas I replaced the hard drive with a 500gb SSD and maxed out the ram and it is GOOD. AS. NEW. I highly suggest exploring this option if your laptop is fine but super slow. When I did the migration and I opened my computer it was exactly the same as before (even remembered all my tabs in Chrome) but lightning fast. The steps involved were incredibly simple to do at home. 
 
I put a picture ledge from Ikea on the wall behind my desk, and my laptop sits up there out of the way in clamshell mode while plugged into my external monitor or when it's charging. I can also lean my keyboard up there when it's not being used. Yay desk space!
 
FLUX: I love this app (justgetflux.com). Use it on your computer. You put in where you live and your typical sleep schedule and it will adjust the white balance on your computer as the day goes on/after sunset, to make it more yellow. Lots of blue light messes up your internal clock, and blue light also stresses your eye muscles which makes them deteriorate faster. It's weird at first, but it is wonderful and beneficial. Especially if you're just reading, it can't hurt. My eyes got significantly worse over the last 2 years, so I'm doing what I can to help.
 
Other things:
Ear plugs! You can get plastic washable ones with a little case. I bring these around everywhere. Sometimes I just really need to block out sounds to concentrate. Space heater.  Electric blanket? A good quality pillow  Eye mask (in case your sleep schedule is off kilter but you still need some zzz's, or if you nap!) Extension cords/power bars - Target has power bars with an 8ft cord for something like $11 CAD "Daylight" light bulbs (as opposed to the 'soft white' ones)  A pillow with arms on it that you can use to sit in bed  Lysol wipes