anese

NY to Pittsburgh is about a 9 hour drive fyi, don't count on too many visits unless you can afford to take the plane. I say this as someone who attended CMU and now lives in NYC. My opinion is unless you really want to be a lawyer, go where the money is. Congratulations your funded offers; it is difficult to squeeze money out of NYU.

It is =/

Await your story sounds crazy and very distressful. I hope things work out for you. Remember with the financial crisis they could be making all kinds of tough decisions this year about cutting budgets.

I agree with this post. If you can afford to take the risk and ask for the copy then do it. Prospective students may not like to hear it, but graduate school is becoming more and more like a business. Sometimes professors are dishonest and will give you a bad recommendation. You have to protect yourself, and if you can do it tactfully and successfully then do so. The keyword being *if* not everyone has the luxury to do so.

Based on your interests I would say SIPA, but if you are really concerned about money you cannot go wrong with CMU. The cost of living will be so much lower. Less debt, and Carnegie Mellon has a strong presence in Washington D.C. Our alumni community is huge and you will find work, one of our graduates was recently on the Board of Directors for a Legislative Dept at WB. You can't go wrong either way. I'm biased though--so of course I would tell you CMU.

I should talk to my friend about this. He has a BS in MechE from CMU, and his first offers were definitely not for $50 grand a year, more like 30,000.

I realized after I commented on this that my knowledge is really in the humanities. I know that in the humanities at least, you should shoot for a doctorate, because while teaching jobs in universities are available for masters degrees, you will hardly ever get tenure without a doctorate and publications. I actually agree with you about the masters degree in CS, I know people who are making plenty of money with just the BS. Most who went back again were going for an MBA so that they could branch out a bit more in their work.

I just wanted to quickly point out that you NEED a PhD to do this. You might be able to find work at a cc, but even those are turning towards doctorate hires now. Certainly, a masters degree would really prepare you for any job where rigorous research-type work is expected of you. If you are willing to pay for the degree it will open up doors.

I'd say it makes you more competitive in the current economic crisis. Every single one of our doctoral perspectives for next year has atleast one MA, one has 2. Last year, none had MA degrees.

Congrats!

Hi, I took classes at NYU's last semester. Strong program but extremely small. They have 3 doctoral students this year. I think Washington University has a very strong program, but NYU has Sally Merry and a plethora of very strong faculty members in the Law school/Anthropology and Sociology to work with their students. Hmm...I don't know much about it I guess.

Honestly, I don't think you were quite prepared for what the demands of graduate school or the demands of a professor would be. If you have obligations on the East coast, i wonder why you applied to U-Chicago at all. This is a top history department, and the school has a reputation for being cutthroat. In my current program we have a stellar doctoral student who left U-Chi with the masters because it was so intense. Also had a former professor who left and went to Harvard because it was so intense. If you aren't prepared for this kind of environment and are considering law school just to stay close to your family, I would reconsider what you really want for yourself and your career.

Oh geez the traditional programs garbage. Don't let other students who probably aren't even in fields like American Studies or Africana Studies/African American Studies scare you off. When they go into their history programs or english programs, they'll find out that they are encouraged to take classes in those departments. They will also find out that there are respected academic journals, and some of the biggest minds in English and History are in those fields. I will tell you want a prominent professor in English/AS told me just a few weeks ago. If you are willing to publish the papers and create a name for yourself in AS, be your focus on literature or history, you will find a faculty position in those areas. You would be surprised how many of the major academic departments are drawing from AS but ESPECIALLY African American Studies. It's still true that in this case, the more prestigious the department, the better off you will be--but I really wish people would stop scaring applicants away from these disciplines. NYU alone produced two academic stars from their cohort this past year who went on into major history departments. So no, they didn't go on into the AS field to work right off, but they certainly went off to work.

Oh yes, my mistake, NYU is AFRICANA studies. But still a very good program.

I think you are right, U-Texas Austin.