Entangled Phantoms
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Posts posted by Entangled Phantoms
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24 minutes ago, Ryleigh Moore said:
Oh perfect. Thank you!
Hopefully the would not have posted that announcement if all the offers had already been made.
This will take a while to sort out. Not everyone in the initial offer group will accept a slot. The people next on priority should get a crack at those slots. If necessary, another wave. April 30th seems ambitious for finalizing all fellowship slots, but good on them for trying. One of my labmates got an offer in June in the last couple of cycles.
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3 hours ago, lambda said:
Ugh...good to know though.
I doubt anyone has any idea what STI-TEC has in store this year. This is their second time doing this and the first time was ... well .... not smooth. Just for fun, here is a recap of last year.
1. 69 fellowships awarded and on April 12-13 acceptances go out.
2. Folks in the top 200 but not selected got this message:- "As you know, your application was chosen to move forward to the final step in the process: the DoD Panel Review. We regret to inform you that you were not selected as part of the 2018 class. This year we planned to award roughly 200 fellowships and only 69 were selected due to the budget. You were in the top 200 and have been placed on the alternates selection list for the fellowship. This does not guarantee that you will be awarded the fellowship but serves as notice of your ranking and your potential in the unlikely event that the DoD will select additional awardees."
3. Folks were naturally like, "WTF?" I mean, DoD has just gotten a big budget increase. Some grad cafers called their representatives in Congress:
- "I called my congressional representative + senators, and they sent me an email of a congressional staffer Jain Thapa who supposedly works with budgeting on DoD matters. He responded to my email saying he would follow up next week."
4. Grad cafers also know how to do their research.
- "Reached out to the government affairs office at my university. Very odd they cut number of fellowships awarded given that NDSEG specifically is a subprogram funded through the AF University Research Initiative account, which had a $12M increase over FY17."
5. STI-TEC apparently hears from Congressional staffers that there are a lot of pissed off people out there. Puts out a tweet (which they later deleted) suggesting that negative comments might lead to NDSEG getting shut down.
6. Guess what? There were no budget cuts! STI-TEC was forced to send us this:
Dear 2018 NDSEG Fellowship Applicants,
We are writing to you today to retract a part of our statement regarding the selection of the 2018 Fellowship class. In our email, we reported budget cuts as the basis for the number of fellowships awarded. We would like to provide clarification on the allocation of funding for the program.
We incorrectly reported that the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) program has experienced budget cuts; however, the Department of Defense (DoD) increased the spending on the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) fellowship program compared to the previous fiscal year. In an effort to ensure that the program remains competitive with similar fellowships, the Department made programmatic changes to the FY17 NDSEG program that increased the cost per student. This increase in costs per fellow has, in turn, reduced the number of fellowships available. Moving forward, the Department intends to review the programmatic changes instituted during the FY17 fellowship class to properly balance the competitiveness of the program against the overall number of students that are trained in areas of defense relevance
We apologize for any confusion that our statement may have caused. We appreciate your understanding and your support of the program.
-The NDSEG Fellowship TeamAs it turns out, the cost per student increased soooo much that they went from 200 fellowship to 69!
7. Meanwhile, a lot of students outside the top 200 heard nothing.8. Professors at Caltech and UCLA went to town on STI-TEC on twitter because their students heard nothing.
- https://mobile.twitter.com/sarah_reisman/status/985645455051665408
- https://mobile.twitter.com/ArmaniLab/status/985630862631780352
Moral of the story - until STI-TEC establishes a track record of doing things in a professional manner, do not count on things working like they would at most other fellowship programs. Good luck to folks waiting on results. May you all have better luck than I did last year.
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1 hour ago, AnanjayaTyagi said:
Hello everyone,
I have received admits from both DUke and NCSU. In Duke I have been offered MS in ECE whose cost is $77,000 for one academic year but the program rank is in top 20's according to USNEWS. The other admit is from NCSU for MS in Computer Engineering. Now, though the rank of the program is in top 40's but the program cost is $45,000 ish. Living expenses are similar due to them being close to each other.
I am in a dilemma, whether to go for the better program with high cost, for which I will be taking loans or to go for the low price and okayish program.
Also, Duke has a very strong alumnus and reputation. It's ECE program offers various software courses of my interest.
My question basically is that which University is better in terms of placement? In which University will I get better returns?(keeping in mind the cost of the programs)
If you guys have more points that I should take into consideration, kindly feel free to post it.
Thank you
If you are going to pay that much money out of picket for a degree, you should demand placement data from both programs. That should answer your question. If they both dont keep placement data, I would recommend not going to either.
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9 hours ago, epi_hopeful19 said:
The CSG link is helpful and gives me a sense of what to expect.
The CGS resolution applies to offers of funding.
9 hours ago, epi_hopeful19 said:I'm aware that even if I decline School A, there's a decent chance I'd network with or collaborate with their faculty down the line, so I'd like to maintain good relationships with them.
I would assume they can be professionals about this especially since they are not offering you funding, but apparently there are psychos in some fields.
9 hours ago, epi_hopeful19 said:Closer to the deadline I was considering emailing School A to let them know I am waitlisted at a place that guarantees funding- basically trying to give them fair warning of what might happen. Good idea or nah?
No idea. In my field, if you don't have an offer of funding, that in and of itself, says that program has only minimal interest in you. Consequently, the only people disappointed when don't enroll are the people cashing your tuition checks.
If you have an offer of funding, it seems like a good idea to let the PI know. I wish I had done this.
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8 hours ago, PsyDGrad90 said:
Yes, waitlists are a thing, but that's why there's a (more or less) universally held deadline of April 15th, so that people have time to get all decisions in. The way students get off waitlists is when someone holding multiple offers releases one.
For whatever reason, a non-trivial number of people seem to wait right up to the 4/15 deadline before choosing one offer from two or more competing ones. Graduate programs don't automatically call the next stiff off the waitlist. I know because I got my offer on 4/26. Guess what? More than likely, someone on a waitlist that the school I committed to was made an offer after that.
8 hours ago, PsyDGrad90 said:Once you accept an offer and commit to a school, you are expected to keep that commitment. Same thing as in the real job market. If you sign paperwork formally accepting a job offer and pull it, that can definitely have negative backlash. It's not guaranteed, but some fields are a small world and taking that chance can come back to bite you later. It may vary in different fields, but my field definetely takes these guidelines seriously and reaffirms (and extends) them within it's own professional network of graduate training programs. Maybe other fields don't care as much.
I am sorry that you work in a field with such petty and vindictive people. You should probably add that caveat in your advice. Faculty and admissions staff in the science and engineering must be real sweeties. Personally, I think all it takes is a basic sense of decency and understanding to not hold a grudge against someone because of waitlist movement after the deadline.
FWIW, I called the prospective advisor at the school I originally committed to and let him know I got into my top choice. He wished me well and told me to notify he admissions staff and I did. A year later, I invited said prospective advisor to my current school to give a talk to the student chapter of our professional society. He was happy to come and did.
8 hours ago, PsyDGrad90 said:I also don't see how the CGS resolution does not apply:
Read the first sentence of the link you posted.
Advice on these forums can have big real life consequences. Please recognize that before spooking prospective students by talking about torching one's professional network and whatnot. This might be a problem in your field. If so, I am very sorry that you have to deal with this. Most of us do not.
- werfsdfgsdgrrre and spidy
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6 minutes ago, PsyDGrad90 said:
1. It is strongly discouraged to accept an offer and then pull it. This will burn many bridges within that school/department and may trickle into other potential professional relationships down the line. You don't want to be seen as someone unreliable.
What on Earth are you talking about? What do you think happens when someone gets off a waitlist? Moreover, OP's offer doesn't even come with funding. So even if the fuzzy rationale behind your advice was the CGS resolution, it doesn't apply. Even if it did one can obtain a release from the institution committed to.
And Jesus, stop with melodrama about professional relationships down the line and being seen as unreliable. Waitlists are thing. Schools know about them.
OP - please talk to some mentors or advisors at your current school. Take anything from randos on the interwebs (including me) with a grain of salt.
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1 hour ago, PsyDGrad90 said:
Overall, you're probably not going to find the answer on an internet forum. You need to talk to your wife, and you two need to agree on a decision, whatever it is.
QFT
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2 hours ago, herbivore said:
Also for what it's worth, I think my friend said that they had ~2200 applications submitted this year and are hoping to award somewhere between 200 and 300 fellowships. Provided what happened last year, though, I'm not holding my breath.
STI-TEC does presentations at large-ish engineering programs. Their rep said 100-120 was the target. I wanted to figure out if it was worth bothering with NDSEG this year and I specifically asked if there was any chance of returning to ASEE levels of fellowships (~200). Flat out 'no.'
Unless funding for NDSEG doubled or tripled since November, keep your hopes in the 100-120 range.
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2 hours ago, ScottyT said:
My 2 cents. The new contractor is pretty rough around the edges, but the number of awards was largely linked to an increase of cost per award (maybe some "startup"costs like building a website, but hopefully not graft).
The mid-March emails were a complete failure: with some actual awardees not receiving them, and revealed a lot of poor management. I think it was meant to be a nice status update, but ended up making their job a lot harder (probably led to a big spike in phone calls afterwards). I could be wrong, but I'd bet they just don't say anything until the awards are announced this year.
Thoughts?
I decided not to bother with NDSEG this year, but it seems like things were smoother on the website since there isn't a post complaining about an unsecure website (unless I missed it). Given all the problems last year, I expect they will play it safe and just announce winners in April.
While we are on the topic a website, boy are we giving STI-TEC some benefit of the doubt. Going from 170 fellowships to 70 is a huge drop! Support per fellow is at least $39k (stipend plus health insurance) but you also have coverage for tuition/fees/university overhead. So we're looking at $50-70k per fellow. That is $5-7M! I would have expected a much better website for that kind of money.
If they keep the number of fellows at a reduced level for all three fellowship classes, that is $15-21M in their pocket relative to ASEE. I mean, this is a for-profit contractor and a lot of them pull this crap with DoD contracts. The trick is to not make the grift less obvious.
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On 3/10/2019 at 4:52 PM, S-117 said:
Hello,
I have been accepted at 1 of the 5 universities that I applied to with an assistantship offer. However, I am waiting for a response from the other 4 universities, and I don't want the one that accepted me waiting because I fear that I will lose my spot or not have an assigned advisor. I have not contacted the university at all since I did not want to make any promises before officially accepting their offer. Should I contact them? and should I worry about losing my spot or not being assigned an advisor?
Thanks,
You don't have to make promises to anyone. Professors understand the applicants have applied to other programs. They are adults. Reach out to potential advisors at UIUC now. Tell them you were accepted and are interested in their work. There is nothing untoward about starting a conversation now and turning them down later when you have to make a decisions.
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On 3/9/2019 at 4:25 PM, NeoOzymandias said:
There is a banner on the NDSEG site saying "application status notifications in early April" but who knows with STI-TEC, unfortunately.
(Somewhat related I just found that the social media buttons on the footer of the main NDSEG site don't actually link to the NDSEG pages but are just placeholders.)
The SMART fellowship sent out semifinalist notifications at the beginning of February, but I believe that's run by Scholarship America instead.
LOL. The new contracter cracks me up. I see this year that they are hiding the number of 2018 fellowships awarded (69 after the new contractor took over) but still publish the number of 2017 fellowships awarded (~170 when ASEE was in charge). Almost as smooth as last year when they claimed that the NDSEG budget was cut and then recanted after angry applicants called members of Congress and the DoD and found out funding was actually increased for the program. Curious to see what shenanigans they pull in year 2. Last year's mistake was skimming too much off the top (100 fewer fellowships is probably a cool $5-7M in STI-TEC's pocket). Feel they need to scale down the grift a tad.
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11 hours ago, samkaru said:
I was wait-listed by MIT EECS and accepted to UCLA ECE with generous funding this year. When I applied, my bachelor's degree was not complete and my GPA increased significantly after the last semester to be near-perfect. One of my papers was also accepted after the application deadline to a very good journal. So I feel that if I continue doing good research, I'll have a generous chance of getting to MIT next year.
The problem is: does the prestige of MIT matter so much that it makes sense to hold out another year? I know that I could do more or less the same quality research at both places. I plan on being an entrepreneur after graduation, so I wonder whether the "name-effect" of MIT has a better impact when finding investors etc.
Yes, the brand name can have an effect. It can open door, but name alone won't net you funding. Ideas matter.
As far as getting into EECS, your GPA and publication likely did not matter much. It should not surprise you that plenty of people are waitlisted or rejected by MIT with near perfect numbers and first author publications. What can swing the balance is having a connection to a current professor who is looking for students. A lot of faculty would prefer to take an applicant who was vouched for by a colleague they know well than take a piece of paper with perfect numbers. If you think you can build that bridge to a faculty member over a year, then hold out for MIT.
That said, the actual faculty member in question matters more. If you have a famous professor at UCLA taking you on versus a newly minted assistant professor, go to UCLA.
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13 hours ago, crackademik said:
As someone who knows both cities pretty well. This made me die ? There's a reason people say Philly is the armpit of the mid-atlantic. Both cities have lots to do but as others have said DC is more expensive. That being said, college park is actually a bit cheaper than DC because it is still in MD and it's in PG county, which is another armpit. Temple is more integrated into Philly itself, but College park has a "college town" feel because it's not actually in DC and the entire city exists to serve UMD. If you're looking for super urban city feel then you should go with Temple. College park is definitely urban, but not like Temple. The public transport in DC is pretty good, but I would still want to have a car at UMD because it's not actually in the city.
Plenty of graduate students live in Tacoma Park or Hyattsville and trade a short commute to campus for easy(ier) access to DC. One does not have to live in College Park. In terms of pure location, I would take UMD hands down.
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8 hours ago, Dan123 said:
I got accepted with RA positions to both UIUC and Madison for PhD in mechanical engineering, and went to visit both schools. UIUC gave me a better offer than Madison and in general, I got a better impression of the school. With that said, Champaign as a town sucks whereas Madison is so pretty.
I feel like if I will go to Madison, I will miss on an amazing academic opportunity. With that said, those are 5(!!!) years of my life that I do not want to spend in a small sad college town. I did my undergrad in one of those towns and I am ready to live somewhere different.
What do you think that I should do?
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Research Expenditures (MechE / Engineering School)
2018 - $10.9M /$115.9M
2017 - $10.5M / $125.1M
2016 - $10.6M / $120.3M
2015 - $13.1M / $166.9M
2014 - $10.8M / $178.8M
2013 - $16.4M / $181.4M
2012 - $14.3M / $137.0M
2011 - $13.5M / $127.3M
2010 - $14.4M / $126.0M
2009 - $14.3M / $122.0MSource: (ASEE Profile data)
Reduced state funding and tuition freezes earlier to start the decade are finally taking full effect. If a school is paying you crap, chances are the school is not in great shape.
University of Illinois - UC
Research Expenditures (MechE / Engineering School)
2018 - $24.3M / $221.1M
<too lazy to look up the years between>
2009 - $17.9M / $207.8MSource: (ASEE Profile data)
I've lived in Madison and was accepted to UIUC (declined). Madison is the cooler city by far. But the decline at UW's programs is undeniable. It costs money to provide meaningful startup packages to new faculty and high enough stipends to attract top students. Cuts and tight budgets also hit things like career services. I would think twice before trusting my career aspirations to a school in a state that is hostile to higher education.
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On 9/29/2018 at 12:59 AM, Levon3 said:
I've met people with the fellowship in other programs who say it frees them from working for their advisor. That's what I'm asking: How often does it not? How much an an anomaly is my case, and is there anything I can do about it?
Switch advisors. Choose someone who doesn't care as much about integrating you into their lab.
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Remember, anecdote =/= data.
The surest sign of a "cash cow" program (professional degree programs notwithstanding) is that less than 50% of the enrolling students have full funding (tuition waiver + stipend).
An equally good sign is getting into a brand name school with subpar credentials and experience.
- DefEarRing and MettaSutta
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5 hours ago, Bodhicaryavatara said:
No, I have not even sat for the bar yet. I have zero criminal record.
I don't see how C+F issues won't be a problem when it comes to working for the UN or NGOs.
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On 8/31/2018 at 11:51 AM, Bodhicaryavatara said:
I have a law background and I'm pursuing a 30 credit terminal area-studies MA at Columbia in the hopes of breaking into international human rights/development focused on that region; I'm interested in employment at the UN or an NGO/nonprofit. While I was initially overjoyed at being accepted, I'm getting cold feet because I only got a small scholarship (applying for FLAS, so should hopefully get more). For those of you who have an Ivy degree, has the name/network/pedigree opened doors for you? Is it something that impresses public sector employers?
Does "background in law" suggest that you already have a JD? If so, people will pay much more attention to your law school performance than your performance in a cash cow MA.
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At least in engineering, Columbia is notorious for being an MS diploma mill. Great PhD program, but their MS program is meant to run as a cash cow. I would check to make sure your terminal MA isn't run the same way. % of MA students with assistantships and % of MA students doing a thesis are good barometers for whether the departments view you as more than $$$ signs.
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The folks at top-law-schools.com should be able to answer that question.
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14 hours ago, ExponentialDecay said:
Not that OP isn't posting bizarre threads and asking easily googleable questions, but none of that really precludes others from using these boards for their intended purpose.
It is easy to clog BBs with silly enough threads that other users feel that their Qs would get lost in the sea of spam.
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Um, I really doubt your temporary academic advisor is expected to become your research advisor. My department purposely assigns us an academic advisor who we are unlikely to work with so that the incentives are well aligned. For example, a research advisor could push you to spend more time in the lab without caring too much about how you are doing as far coursework, quals, and career development. You want your academic advisor to be a neutral sounding board until you are sure you jave found a research advisor you are willing to trust your career with.
You made the right choice. Relax.
- rising_star, megabee and anonymapp
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On 5/17/2018 at 6:06 PM, NeoOzymandias said:
Just received the following email:
Dear 2018 NDSEG Fellowship Applicants,
We are writing to you today to retract a part of our statement regarding the selection of the 2018 Fellowship class. In our email, we reported budget cuts as the basis for the number of fellowships awarded. We would like to provide clarification on the allocation of funding for the program.
We incorrectly reported that the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) program has experienced budget cuts; however, the Department of Defense (DoD) increased the spending on the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) fellowship program compared to the previous fiscal year. In an effort to ensure that the program remains competitive with similar fellowships, the Department made programmatic changes to the FY17 NDSEG program that increased the cost per student. This increase in costs per fellow has, in turn, reduced the number of fellowships available. Moving forward, the Department intends to review the programmatic changes instituted during the FY17 fellowship class to properly balance the competitiveness of the program against the overall number of students that are trained in areas of defense relevance
We apologize for any confusion that our statement may have caused. We appreciate your understanding and your support of the program.
-The NDSEG Fellowship TeamI love how the cost per student went up so much that the number of awarded fellowships fell by close to a factor of 3. STI-TEC probably found create ways to line their pocket when raising the cost per student on DoD. New outreach programs? Social media department for $5M? If DoD ever audits these guys, I would love to read the report.
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Can't you just turn down Middling U offer now and reapply to Prestige U this fall?
NDSEG 2019
in The Bank
Posted
To get people to stop calling. It is why they lied last year. STI-TEC is a for-profit defense contractor and not the NSF or a foundation like Sloan, Ford, or Hertz. Different values and different levels of interest in helping students.