ukiitm

Wow ... if not for that winky, I'd have thought you'd have to be a really bitter person to have commented on the scientific community like that. :wink:

I'm an international student (with a master's from the US) that recently got accepted into the PhD program in Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. The offer of financial support includes a $24k stipend for the "first full year", and, in addition, something called a Dean's Fellowship. Now, I think the "one year" clause means that I would have to satisfy certain minimum conditions in my first year of study (like GPA, etc. - the usual I suppose) if I want the support to be extended into later years. Is my assumption correct? Has anyone else here received such an offer from Pitt or anywhere else and got this issue clarified? Also, does anyone know what the Dean's fellowship thing means (I did not apply for it separately, so I have no clue. Am not complaining though :wink: ). Edit: Previous subject - Pitt Bioengineering financial support.

Oh, and one more thing to add to my original post^ ... I had stated explicitly in my personal statement that I was interested in the cognitive science/neural engineering interface and had talked about my interest in the CNBC program. So I presume it must've been a faculty member involved in a related area that took an interest in my application? Also, in their offer, they say something about a Dean's fellowship in addition to the first year departmental stipend. Any idea what that means? The first year part means of course that from the second year on I'd have to find a lab that can fund me.

Pitt Bioengineering? For a master's or a PhD? What area are you interested in?

Hi, I've been a lurker here for close to two years now, and registered only recently. Did my undergrad in India and am currently in a bioengineering master's program in the US. I've lately become interested in cognitive science (I work in one of the Psychology labs here, modelling learning/memory) and have applied to a couple of PhD programs in the field (very interdisciplinary, so some are in Psychology, some in Bioengineering/Neuroscience/Neuroinformatics). I applied and got into the Bioengineering program at Pitt (thought my bioengineering background would help), but am interested mainly in the joint (pitt-cmu) program in cognitive science at the Center for Neural Basis of Cognition (cnbc.cmu.edu) with which Pitt BME is affiliated. Does anyone here have similar interests, and if so, based on pre-application research you might've done, do you know if the bioengineering program allows you full access to advisors in CNBC, or even Pitt Neuroscience. I know the bioengineering program itself has a neural engineering track, but they do more sensory/motor stuff than cognitive sciencey stuff. In short, how much freedom does Pitt bioengineering give graduate students, say in terms of choosing atleast co-advisors. An advisor in neural engineering with a cognitive science co-advisor in neuroscience/CNBC would be a great deal for me.