HiFiWiFi

Message me any time! Regarding mailing them, since you haven't been outright rejected I would bet that you may be waitlisted or something? I really can't say whether it would be helpful or not to email them, TBH!

I am going to a terminal Master's program in the Fall. Stats on the program's page show that 7% of students (5 students) in the program (making no mention of if those are first, second, or third year students) receive an assistantship. I want a TAship for many reasons. I hope to teach some day, I was a TA (in what way I could be, mostly doing office work but sometimes helping in courses) in undergrad, and this program's assistantships come with tuition remission and health insurance, which I need in order to make this program affordable. This program has no requirement for an interview or POI (meaning I have no rapport with anyone yet) and all students are automatically considered for all aid. Do I wait and see, or would it be alright or advisable to reach out and discuss my desire to teach? I don't want to seem like I'm asking for special consideration over other students, but I feel like my combination of interest, need, and experience make me a prime candidate for an assistantship and I want to be sure I put my best foot forward to get one. I talked about my desire to teach in my SOP, and my LORs all came from people I TA'd for so they undoubtedly know I have a background. Should I just wait it out?

I'm looking at terminal Masters programs, and there is no POI in this case. The letter of acceptance came from the dean of the graduate school itself. There is a student services manager I have had minimal contact with. I received the acceptance email last week. It says funding information, if any is available, will follow though gives no indication of when. They do specifically state on the admitted students page that there is no obligation to respond to offers of financial support prior to April 15, but what about admission in general? I have no indication of if I need to respond, if I should respond, etc.? (I will only be able to afford this school if I am offered a TA-ship, otherwise I will go to my safety school [poor fit, but cheap] purely for financial reasons, but I can't make that choice for quite some time, so I have no "decision" to give either way at this point, but I don't want them to think I'm not interested! Also, would it be at all helpful or would it be poor form to reach out and discuss the situation regarding needing a TAship to make it work, given only 2-3 students in the cohort will be offered an assistantship and we are all automatically considered?)

Backstory: I was accepted to a Masters program a few weeks ago that said funding information would come soon, but didn't give any exact date or close time frame (despite requiring a decision for the program with in 10 days) and also didn't give me any idea whatsoever of how much might be available and how I'd find out. Wanting more information, I emailed the person who had contacted me and told me to respond if I had any questions, and asked when funding decisions might be available. In response I received a (no joke) nine paragraph response with the answer I was seeking in the first sentence then lots of being overly-defensive about the program, telling me that I needed to do this research myself because all other students do it themselves, I needed to seriously consider if this program was right for me because career-switching is hard (I'm not a career switcher . . .), etc. Thankfully I had been accepted to a more preferred program a few hours before receiving this response, so I was able to shrug it off. (Please tell me this attitude was out of the ordinary and not all grad program directors are so quickly put on the defensive when students ask a question?) "Problem": The school I very much wish to go to stated in the acceptance that "Decisions about financial support are made through a separate process. If selected for such support you will receive an offer directly from the program providing the funding." and said nothing more about funding or when I might hear back. I do not wish to bother anyone at all, because I don't want to make the impression I apparently accidentally made on the other program director, but my decision between this program and a much less desirable (bad fit) but cheaper in-state school will come down to if I am offered a TA position, and TA positions are only offered to 7% of applicants for this program. I'm unsure if I can express this fact without sounding like I'm making demands or asking for some special consideration (all applications are automatically considered for all financial aid) and, put it simply, I don't know how to approach programs about money. I need the TA-ship to make this doable, and it's the school I've always dreamed of going to. Do I wait and see where the chips fall, or what?

"This applicant is leaving their options open. I like it. Schedule the interview."

I talked on the phone to set up a future phone interview, including such statements on my end as "Let me check my calendar" and "Hold on, grabbing a pen really quick." and other such things, taking several minutes. I'd pulled over (not well) on the side of the road and another driver honked at me and the person on the other end of the phone call asked "Are you driving?" to which I happily responded "Oh, don't worry, I think I'm just blocking an ambulance or something." A+++ impression for the public health program! (I work at a hospital and our employee parking garage is near where the ambulance maintenance garage is, it was not an 'active' ambulance and in fact it had been a fellow employee honking to say hello, but I didn't think to say that until after we'd hung up.)

Odds are they will not be able to tell you anything useful; they don't make decisions and then sit on them for weeks, they probably haven't made the decisions yet. The communication you have should be to your current advisor. I'm certain he knows that some programs will take some time to respond, and you do have until mid-April. Politely tell him you understand the desire for a quick response and will respond as soon as you have considered all of the options available to you. On that note, with regard to making "a last minute decision without real thought", I recommend thinking through a number of "what if" scenarios regarding acceptances and funding. What will it take to pull you away from your undergrad school? How much funding from Y school will beat out the offer you have, and how much funding from X school would be out what you might expect to get from Y? Thinking through various hypotheticals can help you feel more prepared to make a faster decision when the time comes.

The school I will more than likely attend (the only way I'd go anywhere else is if the yet undetermined school offered me full funding + stipend, which isn't incredibly likely) has an admitted students weeked in mid-March. Because I have never been to that area of the country, let alone that city, I would really like the opportunity to see the city, get my bearings for the neighborhoods to look for housing in, get a feel for the environment on campus, and meet some of my fellow incoming students. However, the cross-country flight and hotel room would be ~800 bucks, and I'm not certain I can get the time off work. (Notable: I'm intending to quit my job soon anyway to prepare for this upcoming move, so if I could make the weekend work, leaving my job in time to go wouldn't be out of the question.) Has anyone gone to admitted students weekends? Any advice on whether it's worth the money or not? I almost feel like I just need to go to prove to myself that I actually did get into such a wonderful program and that it's not a mistake, but with expensive grad school considerations on the horizon, I'm not sure if it's worht putting out money I don't absolutely have to. There will be a new student orientation in August that I'm sure will cover basics of the campus.

The graduate housing information on the website is a bit confusing for UNC-CH; they list Baity Hill Graduate & Family Housing which seems aimed at families, then Mason Farm Graduate Housing. Some areas of the website imply both require families, others seem to say only Baity Hill requires families and Mason Farm you can be a single grad student. Then when you click on floor plans for Mason Farm Graduate Housing it pulls up a Baity Hill floorplan. Such a hassle! Anyone with info on Mason Farm for single grad students who like privacy, and would you recommend it? (Any other tips for affordable housing for a single grad student who doesn't need lots of space, but does want to live alone? Is there anything you must have? For example, here in Tucson if you don't have AC you will die a fiery death in the summer. Is there a similar requirement for AC in CH?)

@4theloveoffoodJust thought I'd update you since you asked earlier, I just received a UNC-CH acceptance email this morning! Good luck, maybe we'll be classmates!

This is for a scholarship, not an application. The scholarship asks for a two-page document which essentially is a SOP, but then a second, one-page statement laying out only how we plan to succeed in grad school. How on earth am I supposed to answer this? Truth be told my plan is to go to class every day, study every night, do lots of flash cards, and take advantage of any extracurriculars offered to me. But considering that's "how not to be a shitty student" I feel silly putting that in a graduate-level statement. What sort of things is this question actually looking for? The actual "prompt": "A statement no longer than one page explaining how you plan to succeed in graduate school. Specifically, how will a scholarship help you execute your plan?"

Basically you know how there was the SOPHAS app and then the supplemental app to the school? I'd answered a similar question differently on each app because of a difference in semantics, so they emailed me (from the grad school, not from the nutrition department) asking me to respond and clarify. The situation was SOPHAS asked if I'd ever been academically dismissed for any reason, including academic performance, so I said yes and used the box to explain about my first attempt at undergrad ~12 years ago before I found my feet in life. Then the supplemental app had only listed examples of things like cheating, honor code violations, criminal offenses, etc. so I'd said no on that one. I'd explained why I'd answered differently and they said (on February 9) "[We] have received the [corroborating statement from my undergrad saying I'm not a criminal] and this is what we need. We will complete processing your application in the near future." When I log into my supplemental app nothing is changed at all, there's no status listed, but since the admissions process is that the department refers your application to the grad school and the grad school then reviews it for the final decision, I suspect that I was approved or approved for waitlisting by the department and that I got caught up in the works by the grad program, thus why they were the ones contacting me, and now that I have answered in the most positive way possible (and presuming they'd not have reached out to me at all if it couldn't be remedied) and have still not heard anything back while, meanwhile, people are posting they were accepted I can only imagine I've been placed on some sort of waitlist or that my rejection is slowly on its way to me. In the meantime I have now been rejected by UW as of today, which is a bit of a surprise and definitely a blow to my confidence. I will not be surprised if I'm rejected from UNC, given the program's lofty reputation.

All these years playing Blizzard games have at least prepared me for something.

Anki is a free SRS program (spaced repetition software) that allows you to make your own decks, as well as share decks with others in your courses. It absolutely made me an amazing student in undergrad. Spending the time to make the cards yourself is great, and then you simply do your flashcards when you're riding the bus, waiting in line for coffee, whatever. I made it part of my morning schedule to lay in bed and drink some water/do flashcards to wake up slowly but productively each morning. Basically you rate how easy it is to answer a question and based on that it will space the cards out so you see them soon if you didn't do well, or later if you had it pretty easy. This allows you to actually learn the information, rather than just be reminded of it by flashcard cues. The Android app is free, the iPhone app is fairly expensive but I found it worth it! Computer version is free of course.

My interviews were via phone (common for the field) and acceptances were sent out 2-3 weeks later.

@Alexandra24 I applied to coordinated masters programs (3 MPH, 1 MS safety school) so that I won't have to worry about being matched to an internship. My bachelor's is in Nutrition but it was from a school that, while regionally accredited, lacked the necessary ACEND accreditation to be an RD straight out of undergrad. Considering everyone will need a Masters in the future anyway, I'm fine with the way I've done it. Having such a strong nutrition background I think helped my apps a lot. May I ask what schools you applied to? My current status: UNC Chapel Hill: Heard back but it's still in the air, I think I'm waitlisted but it's not clear. UMn Twin Cities: Accepted into the CMP UW Seattle: Accepted into the standard MPH program, interviewed via phone for the CMP and should hear back within a week on that. University of Utah: Doesn't review applications until March/April. WTF Utah, most of the other programs will require responses long before you even look at apps? So frustrating!

I'm considering two programs, neither of which will offer amazing funding I'm sure (funding info still on its way to me). One is a perfect fit but expensive due to out-of-state tuition. The other is passable, but not a great fit, but costs 1/3 due to in-state tuition. When I brought this up with a faculty member at my undergrad she talked about how her son, who was going to med school, got into multiple schools and basically approached his top choice and said "I want to go here, but Home State School is a better choice financially, can we negotiate?" and they promptly offered him the in-state tuition rate for their school. Obviously my programs (MPH in Nutrition with RD Training) would approach this differently than a med school or PhD program where funding is probably more available, but I'm curious all the same. Has anyone negotiated masters costs before?

Got an email from my top choice earlier this week. It's a two-step application process, there was a discrepancy between one question on the two apps. I clarified, they said thank you for doing that and they'd finalize the decision soon. BUT IN WHAT DIRECTION DONT LEAVE ME HANGIN (I can't help but get my hopes up because it was the grad school itself, not the program, that emailed me which means that the program sent them my application for review, but what if my clarification sent them in the wrong direction? ) I've been accepted into other programs that require a decision by February 23, I certainly hope "soon" is actually soon.

Any info about Chapel Hill NC? I'm told it's small but being in the triangle there are lots of options for going out in nearby cities.

I will likely be attending UNC-CH in the fall for a 2.5 year Masters program. I'll have a car but am hoping to cut down on my commute as much as possible, and I can move any time between now and August. My question is about housing. From the website it looks like the Mason Farm Graduate Housing is an interesting option, but I'm curious about 1) if it's actually a good option, 2) if it's actually available to grad schools without family, and 3) if there are better off-campus options? I definitely want to live alone with no roommates. I'm a minimalist and don't need much space so a studio is fine, but I do need a kitchen with all of the normal appliances, and living in a quiet-ish (non-party, basically) environment is a must. Safety, obviously, is something I very much care about as well. W/D in-unit is a major plus.