Miss J

@laekkauai I am not that sure about Durham because I did not travel in the city too much, although from my public transport experience I will say the local community is mainly black, white and hispanic. In the Nic School the student body is quite diverse in my opinion, many international students and rather diverse background. Ecotoxicology track students are quite rare, each cohort normally have 5 or less doing that. Good luck for your applications!

Hi @laekkauai, sorry for the late reply! Which program are you applying for? I got into my choice of program (MF) and I am quite surprised by my education experience here; it is BETTER than I expected. Most teachers are very dedicated in teaching, at least in my program (MF, which is often grouped with ESC peeps), and Nicholas school is generally a very supportive community; I love my classmates (they are great)! I think the GIS classes are definitely one of the highlights in the MEM programs here especially if you plan to pursue ESC/WRM/MF program, take these classes (and even geospatial analysis certs) if you have the interest! Also, if you have any prerequisite requirements, I will suggest that you clear them all before the program starts (even though the school says you can have 1 prerequisite deficiency before semester starts); I took my calculus class at Duke for prerequisite, and I think it made my first semester here unnecessary painful when I had to juggle between school work, social life (barely afloat) and on-campus jobs, even though my calculus teacher was great. Duke typically gives financial aid information on mid March even though one gets an admission offer on February. In my case, I got both my admission letter and financial aid on Mar 23 (so don't panic even when you don't hear back by early March, there might still be chance!). I got only scholarships for my financial aid package, but I know many of my classmates got a blend of scholarships, work study and or assistantship. It is good to get assistantships in my opinion because you will have chance to work with faculties or other institutes like Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke Forest, Duke Lemur Center etc. In terms of Durham, alas I did not have much time to explore around town since beginning of fall semester so I don't think I can be a good person to describe the style of Durham. I think the living costs here are ok and Duke students can take public transports for free. There are many apartments near Nicholas School too, the lowest rent I have even seen is 267 per month when you share a 800++/mo apartment with two other people, while the highest rent I have heard is more than 1000 per month. I will say your expenditure will largely depend on your desired lifestyle. Personally I like Durham for its vast greeneries and small-quaint-town vibes, which is a stark contrast from big cities like New York. While west Durham has more student community, I heard that East Durham is not that safe with higher crime rate.

I got in with combined 324 GRE score, and my work experience very likely helped my application, because my undergrad GPA was definitely subpar (3.89 out of 5).

@wildwarbler I have also been admitted into Master of Forestry program! Have you received your financial aid package yet? Mine is 9000 per year merit-based scholarship. I have emailed them to clarify with my CSS IDOC submission and to appeal for need-based grant, hopefully they can have a few thousand more per year to spare... Any less debt is good news to me Also, did your acceptance letter mention any prerequisite requirements or something? I never took calculus and microeconomics course during university. If the school asks me to take up courses before matriculation, it will increase the financial stress even further until I will wonder if it is still all worth it Really struggling to choose between Duke MF (prestige) and University of Toronto's MFC program (less cost) now...

I have just been asked to have a Skype interview. Pretty surprising, since I have not heard from them for so long while seeing you guys being admitted since Feb, I thought I had already been rejected Good luck to your all's financial aid!

I am also still waiting to hear from all three schools I applied. I know one of the schools have already sent out acceptance emails so I am pinning my hope for the remaining two schools, although technically all three schools are long shots. orz

I have yet to receive any news from all three programs i applied too. One of the school has already sent out admittances so i guess things don't look so good to me. For another two schools, one announced they will release this week, while another school should be around mid March

According to the programs I have applied to, the decisions are normally only released around early to mid March (Masters of Forestry), so now I am still all chill. Not sure whether I will still be chill when March comes XD