Concordia

If this is money that needs to be borrowed, it will also need to be paid off. No idea what salaries are in this field, but carrying around $100k plus whatever mortgage and car loans you need to get by will put a huge demand on all but the best incomes.

I meant take the MS and transfer/reapply elsewhere. Presumably you're not bound to lifetime servitude at Institution X. Or is there something in your scholarship that amounts to golden handcuffs?

Presumably, you can apply to different PhD programs if your interests change during the MS, no? You'll have a year or two to make that decision.

If you do work at a desk, make sure it is the correct height and that your back will be properly straight. I've said earlier that the kind of seat that tilts forward 1" has a surprising amount of value-- it is the kind that pianists and other musicians use for hours of practicing. Otherwise, you're looking at whatever the good version of Aeron is this year, about which I have no opinion. Truthfully, I do most of my typing and much of my computer work in a deep armchair. The best, I find, have somewhat high arms, so I can face forward or put my legs over one arm. I'm still trying to find a library or common room that has a good one around where I am. Such a chair would be too heavy and expensive to invest in unless I had found permanent lodgings for the next few years.

If you haven't decided yet, that gives an opportunity for something vague. I withdrew 2 probably-successful applications (they'd been blessed by the faculty but hadn't gone through the rest of the python), and said in my e-mail where I was going. Each advisor knew that I had a prior relationship with the guy at Oxford, and so it wasn't a huge slap in the face to them. I couldn't claim a fabulous funding opportunity (the other obvious reason to go one place over another), but I did say I had "a nice offer" and left it at that.

Will an MS at Stanford prevent you from doing a PhD with the guy you like at VT?

Eight years? Whoo. Indentured servitude/Stockholm Syndrome. That said, IU has a fantastic music school, so there will be a lot of that kind of culture around if that is what you like. Whether it's enough to make up for Bloomington, I couldn't say, having never seen the place. Perhaps a viewing of Breaking Away might make the choice feel easier?

Sounds like your major brand identity will be from the PhD. To some extent, your master's is designed to get you into a good school for that, unless it is miraculous on its own terms. I have no idea what funding/employment is like in your niche, but if the free gig will get the job done and not make you miserable, that may be enough. Of course, part of that also depends on what you'd be giving up (education, contacts, social/cultural life) at the other place, but if money is tight the decision might be easier. Also, brand depends a lot on context and knowledge of your peers. I had to Google EPFL to see just what/where that is. Which doesn't mean that a subset of Europeans or computer scientists won't see it as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

It's sprinkled around town-- there is no single campus. Rather like Harvard, in that respect. Most of the colleges, departments, and student housing are in a .75-mile radius. http://www.mapaplan.com/travel-map/oxford-england-city-top-tourist-attractions-printable-street-plan/high-resolution/oxford-top-tourist-attractions-map-01-City-centre-detailed-street-travel-plan-with-must-see-places-sights-landmarks-to-visit-high-resolution.htm

Not for that reason. I am actually living in college-- just a bit away from my library and supervisor. Oxford is weird though-- your degree course, college membership, and so on have more to do with daily life than raw distance would.

YMMV, but my residence is between .7 and 1 miles between where I need to go most days, and walking 2-4 miles daily has been a real life-saver. If you're even slightly inclined to be sedentary, something to think about.

Now that I'm halfway through second term, I'm up to my neck with imposter syndrome, as my "transfer" documents have to be in by 4 weeks and I get overwhelmed when I look at the secondary literature. So much written, so much I haven't read, having been out of the academy for decades, and the uneasy feeling that everyone has either answered my question or proved that it doesn't deserve an answer. Luckily, my supervisor still thinks I have a good topic, and that it won't take too much effort to put together a sales piece-- a fairly short list of questions to answer, most of which I could roll off pretty quickly. There is always the question of what my primary sources will be, but I should be able to make a preliminary stab at something plausible. And if that all changes in the next six months, well, so be it.

Not having a kitchen full of empty carbs really helps. Not that I don't cheat-- sometimes daily-- on the nutrition, but it's different when you have to buy the pain au chocolat or the glass of wine rather than simply reaching into the bread drawer or pulling a cork. Walking helps, too. I lost close to 20 lbs in the fall term, because I was (for the first time I can remember) walking 3-4 miles/day. My residence to the library, about .7 miles. Maybe a mile from my room to downtown. 2 daily round-trips, and we're set. The calories burn while the appetite shrinks. I also have made an effort to join music groups (over-doing it, I'm afraid-- that is under adjustment), so I can meet people out of my daily routine and keep my brain full of something besides the reading.

You can usually put an extra bag in the hold, but it will be expensive since you're competing with Fedex for that space. It may end up being cheaper to rent a car or minivan for a few days to do the move.

I use SugarSync and find it fairly convenient. I suppose I also ought to get a hard drive to put on my bookshelf, just in case-- but I am too disorganized to make good use of it. The automatic backup/sync across all devices makes a lot more sense for me. Next term, I should also run by the IT office to make sure that I can get on the university backup.