andrewrichmo

Curious if anyone thinks it would be a terrible idea to decline Columbia's offer and do an MA — see if I can get into Princeton or NYU next time around...? It feels like a bad idea, but a really regret not applying to Princeton this year.

Just a piece of general advice, mostly for people who haven't gotten started on their apps yet — get your application finished early! I ended up without a writing sample until after the fall semester, so I didn't apply to some of the schools with earlier deadlines. I got into Columbia, but I'm disappointed I didn't even take a shot at Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, or Yale.

Yeah, that's why I thought the nepotism thing sounded reasonable. But I guess it's more likely that it would be fake.

Anyone going to claim the "Hooray for nepotism" Yale admit? Definitely curious about that one.

So I took what looks like Columbia's standard stipend from 2009 (judging by this: http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/financial-aid-offers-for-phd-students-is-there-a-normal-amount-these-days.html) and plugged it into an inflation adjustor—one of the posters said the stipend was adjusted for inflation—and it looks like that would make it ~$24,900 today. I'm still holding out until I get the official offer, but if it's anything north of $20,000 I'm going to be thrilled.

Anyone have info on Columbia's stipends? I got an informal acceptance this morning, but it just says I'm getting "full funding," details to follow. I'm trying not to get too excited until I know I'll be able to afford it.