marycaryne

@easybreezy I didn't have any information about how long it would take. Honestly I had assumed I missed the deadline already (going by something I read) so hadn't applied. The program director emailed me and said she was going through the applications and noticed I had not applied and wanted to make sure I didn't miss the application before she completed her decisions. So she was already reviewing the applications by the time I sent mine in (April 6th, same day she emailed me). I still don't even know when the actual deadline was, and I never heard about how long it would take to be notified. I wound up receiving the email about it on May 17th, and the letter attached was dated May 16th.

Just chiming in as well... I am going for my MS and was offered a TA. I had applied back in April after being encouraged to do so by the program director and received the offer a couple weeks ago. Since I was out of the country at the time, I didn't get a chance to sign and submit the acceptance until today. I do not know what the specific school/department's normal offering of the position is. I was only told that they received many applications for a TA, although it also did not specify whether they were PhD students, Master's students, or a good mix of both.

I applied for an assistantship at the beginning of April. I have absolutely no research experience. But part of the application wanted me to list all the classes relevant to the assistantship (which was pretty much every single class related to my major). I also have worked for almost two years as a visual merchandiser and the MS program I am doing is global merchandising. I found out a couple weeks ago I received the assistantship. I'm not sure how many applied, but the director did say they received a lot of applications for it. Research or not, I'm sure it helped that I already had my undergrad in merchandising and have already been working in this capacity.

Hey everyone! I've been completely MIA. Had a few trips within a little over a month. First traveled to Florida for a half marathon. Then went to New Hampshire for my graduation. Drove from there to Boston to fly out to Paris. From Paris we went to Chicago to visit some family and just got back yesterday. And now I'm sick and pretty sure I have vertigo. Yay!! Awesome thing is that on the day we arrived in Paris, I received an email stating I received a teaching assistantship that is giving me a stipend an in state tuition waiver for up to 10 hours for the fall semester. Since I am coming from out of state, I assume this means I will have to make up the difference. Not completely sure as the letter didn't make it very clear, so I'm waiting to hear back after asking. At the end of the fall semester, everything will be evaluated again. I had actually forgotten I had applied for the assistantship, so it was pretty cool to see the email.

On the leasing season, I'm with you. I've never actually heard of a "leasing season." The only thing I can think of is that maybe it just refers to apartments by schools where availability is more abundant once the students graduate and move on (e.g. the summer). I also am with you on the FAFSA. Good grief that was annoying.

We will probably move in July. FSU's orientation is on August 2nd and I would like to be there for it and to get a bit of a feel for the town before classes start at the end of August.

Thank you!! It means a lot! My parents, particularly my mom, go from one extreme to another. First, they think it's a guaranteed acceptance. And if something goes wrong, I must somehow not be good enough. When I got rejected from OSU my mom was immediately all "they would have taken you immediately if you had better grades...". Except I have a 4.0 and am graduating Summa Cum Laude (and did it working full time with a husband and two young children), so yeah. I obviously needed better grades. I've given up trying to explain it to them.

Most school requirements are a year, and if you've only been there since last June, you technically aren't at a year yet even if you aren't starting until after and so perhaps you can't actually be classified as a resident until you officially hit that year. I would call and ask about their residency requirements and if you can be reclassified once you hit the year mark.

My parents have been the same way about it. My mom was a high school drop out who got her GED neither she nor my dad went to college. As a result they are pretty clueless on anything that goes beyond high school. Everything I knew came from my late grandfather who attended university in Bolivia. They really think that acceptance in college or grad school is pretty much a guarantee. So it didn't even faze them when I got accepted into grad school. I mean they were happy for me, but they didn't even begin to understand any of the process that would have resulted in genuine excitement.

Trudging in here after a busy last couple of weeks... Finished my capstone course yesterday morning and am wiped out from it. Final grades are in next week and I know I have an A, but I will breathe that sigh of relief when everything is in and I can just sit back and wait for graduation.

I was going to post earlier complaining about all the food talk because I was super hungry, but then I had tacos and I was good. However I'm here now because I'm sad that you all aren't with me at FSU so we could have this awesome camaraderie already established by the time we all get there. Basically you all are awesome and I wish our schools were closer.

Wow that's horrible! Looks like you dodged a bullet with that school. Can you imagine what it would be like to actually get involved here? Congrats on Penn State!

How fast it goes can depend on several factors... How many other applications are currently under review, how much time they have outside of other obligations to be able to review, etc. A couple days after my application was complete at Oklahoma State, portal was updated to say it was under review. About two weeks later I received an email saying that the review was complete and I would get a decision soon. Two days after that, I received a rejection. They had a very quick turnaround time. When I applied to Florida State, I received an email on February 29th stating they'd be reviewing my application that week and I would hear shortly after that. But the week after was their spring break and I got no response. I didn't receive a response after that either. I received my acceptance on March 21st, three weeks after they informed me that my application was under review. I still have yet to hea from two other schools, although I have decided on FSU (it was my top choice). Some people are still waiting on decisions from programs they applied to long before yours. Yet other schools/departments have a quick turnaround time. With your application just now under review, you could be hearing something in a week or a few weeks. Now that we are at the end of March and decision deadlines are coming up, you may hear back sooner rather than later. But it can be hard to pinpoint and it can be a really maddening time.

I've heard something the Wreck Room previously catering to a goth crowd for a few years or so before. That was long before my time in OKC, however, so I don't know many details about it.

Keep in mind that college towns tend to be more liberal in general just from the fact that the population is made up mostly of college students coming from all kinds of backgrounds. So no one is really going to bat an eyelash at anyone being gay. I've been over to 39th St several times (I live only a couple miles away from it). The area itself is pretty small. There are a handful of clubs in a range of a block or so. There is The Boom, in which its Sunday gospel brunch is probably its most popular feature, but the drag shows in general are pretty fun. Habana Inn has a couple clubs, but the hotel itself is known locally for cruising the rooms. There's also the Apothecary 39, which has the potential to be pretty awesome as a more upscale/vintage style jazzy gay club. Except it used to be another considerably risque club and there are still remnant from that so it has this in-between confused identity crisis happening for it right now. Hopefully it will find its way. There's the Wreck Room which has a drag show, but the age requirement is 16+ before midnight and 18+ after midnight. For this reason, I know several people who won't go because of the whole teen factor. I mean it's something to do on a weekend, but I'm originally from Chicago which has a large gay district and 39th St just isn't very impressive to me. However, it is pretty progressive for a conservative state. I don't know any stats on how many people drive from Stillwater to Dallas, but I'm sure people do. Dallas is a popular trip just from OKC itself, especially considering the shopping is WAY better. Most of those I knew from OSU though made trips more to Austin for games.

Have you spoken with the DGS to get some concrete answers on your chances of getting in if you take those classes? It might help with your decision making.

In addition to the risk you mention in #5, I would also add that same word to #4. It would cost you $9000 and you'd still have that risk you won't be accepted. Honestly, it is a tough decision from my perspective. AU is obviously the ideal place to be, but having to spend thousands of dollars for only a possibility to be accepted next year and turn down guaranteed funding elsewhere would definitely give me pause. But if your chances of getting in as a result of taking those classes are quite high, it might be worth it. Then again, @irapplicant1776 brings up a good point that a couple of classes may not make much of a difference in how much you're offered in funding, if anything, even if you are accepted. So then you'd have a decision to make about how you'd pay for it if you did get accepted. There's a lot of pros and cons to be weighed here and I wish you the best of luck with it!

I know OSU offers grad student housing, with options in both furnished and unfurnished if I remember correctly. However I don't remember the cost. I just remember seeing it was an option when looking into OSU as a grad school option. It's something you might want to look into. I definitely recommend a car. Oklahoma in general is not very walker-friendly unless you just plan on staying in your immediate area. And being how VERY college town Stillwater is, you're going to want the car to be able to get over to Tulsa and OKC...which trust me, you'll want to go to. Not that either city is this amazing place to be, but there is a lot more to do than you will ever find in Stillwater. Also, I HIGHLY recommend the sweet peppered bacon cheese fries at Eskimo Joe's. The rest of the place is mostly just overly hyped, but those fries are one of my biggest vices.

In a way, it sounds like you've already made a decision to take your chances with AU. However, there is some wisdom with what others are saying... You already have a partially funded offer that you are willing to risk for only a chance of getting in at AU next cycle. And if that chance doesn't turn into reality, you're losing out on your current offers. Right now it looks like you're making assumptions based on a relatively vague statement AU gave you. After all, it's possible they will see some progress but that the school will still have more competitive applications next year. So I would suggest directly contacting the DGS as bhr suggested and asking very pointed questions about this, such as finding out a general acceptance rate on those who first did those courses vs those who are applying without them. And don't forget that at this moment it's really not FSU vs. AU. It's an already guaranteed acceptance with partial funding at FSU vs. only a possibility of an acceptance at AU next cycle.

Funny...my husband and I have talked about how we actually experience seasons here. There's really no such thing as spring and fall in Chicago so that is one thing we have enjoyed. But I do agree they are pretty short lived. It isn't long before you're going from spring-like temperatures to a blazing hot summer. It's one thing about Florida that I like. Even though it does get hot and humid in the summer, it is typically offset by an afternoon shower that brings about a pleasant evening. Here it's hot and stays hot and everything is brown because of the lack of rain. And yes, I can definitely remember that week. I used to work at Sooner Mall as the visual manager at the now closed Gap, and it was quite interesting trying to leave at closing because the area by our back door dipped, causing it to flood. We'd walk out with garbage bags tied up to our calves just to be able to walk through it. Had it been in the spring when the temperatures weren't cold it would have just been about the rain. But combined with freezing weather....UGH.

Although I hate cold weather in general, I know we have it pretty good here when experiencing winter weather. I mean it's usually still in the 50s here in December. January is usually the coldest month and then we start seeing the 50s again in February. Any snow is usually gone within a day or two because it doesn't stay cold enough for it to last...and that's if it even sticks to begin with because the ground may be too warm. We will get the occasional ice storm but even that isn't typically long lasting. All of our family still lives in Chicago and while my husband and I may gripe about cold weather to each other just because we hate it, we don't say anything to our family because we know everything there is much worse. I'm looking forward to Florida "winters" again (we've lived there for a year in the past so we know what to expect). I feel for you with Ithaca. FIT was one of the schools I applied to and the winters alone was enough to make me question my sanity in applying.

Although I have lived in OKC for the last 7 years, I am originally from Chicago. It's not only that the winters are prolonged up north, but it really is much more frigid. Sub zero wind chills are common, there is much more snow accumulation (to the point I laugh when the weather calls for a snow dusting here and everything starts shutting down), and more. I have a very heavy Columbia coat I wore regularly during Chicago winters. It has never once come out of my closet here in Oklahoma. We may have a couple days here and there that aren't very fun, but the winters here are pretty mild compared to the north.

LOL This is my inspiration for my future career.

Hey I'll be friends with you! Of course with my acceptance into FSU I'll be leaving OKC in a few months....but I make a pretty good friend I think.

It would all depend on how you word things. When I posted it, I just said was accepted into the graduate program for an MS in global merchandising. Now if I had gone how my GPA was the highest ever recorded in the history of GPAs, how I beat even a perfect GRE score, that I'm the most desired student and every school was fighting over me, and how the President himself wrote an LOR...then that might possibly be seen as braggy. Maybe.