Shiryatsya

any Y'all moved yet? If so how do you like the area?

She should chill out. If she does some research in her field before she graduates she'll be fine. Or she would be if she was science, I have no idea about language, either way though she should chill out

The place I'm renting come fall wanted the same information. They said it was for a credit check. I didn't put down my SSN number and Drivers license number and instead wrote down what banks I had accounts with and how much money were the in accounts and they were cool with that (but not account numbers). Maybe try that?

I dunno about Material Science but if this was Chemistry and you worked really hard during your summer things I'd be willing to bet you could go anywhere. That being said I'd apply to at least 2 safeties.

Im starting my PhD at age 20. I ... "left" high school a year early and plowed my way through undergrad.

I highly recommend not using the hyphen and just adding his last name after (or before if that's your thing) yours. Here is why: If your last name is A and his is B and you published a few papers as A a google search of your new name with a hyphen A-B will not turn up article with just the last name A where as a search for A B would (a search for A would turn up both). I'm not sure if this is true but I had a co-worker who went through this dilemma and chose A B rather than A-B and this is why she said she did.

I can only answer as to price, but traditionally Ann Arbor is more expensive (at least right next to campus) than Durham. I visited Duke (for chemistry not econ) and one thing that stuck out vs other places was all the grad student seemed happier than at other place (but maybe they just knew to hide the unhappy ones) Sorry that I can't be more helpful and best of luck

IMO it's not even close. Go with the funding. Jobs in industry tend to be a lot more about who your advisor knows, so try and do some research to see where people who graduated from North Western are now but funding vs no funding? I can't imagine going anywhere without funding.

I hate to ask, but are you sure it exists? I can't imagine someone would be carrer-ly suicidal enough to post something bad about their grad school advisor online, even anonymously. I mean for most advisors it wouldn't be hard to figure out who posted.

From his (her?) previous posts my guess is the latter is Boston college? But seriously neither seem that great for you, but the first one sounds even worse: The only prof you like might not take students.

I just accepted OSU's offer! I'm excited. I'm moving down there at the beginning of this summer. I'm pretty excited there are some really cheap places just east of campus (and the physics/chem buildings are on the east side of campus).

Not that anyone cares lol but I decided on Ohio State. Going there for one professor, this can end really well:-P. Guess I'll see Chemdoc and Crazychemist in Columbus.

Got admitted to: UT Austin, UNC, TAMU, Purdue, OSU, and Duke Rejected: MIT Visited all but Purdue Having troubles deciding between Duke and Ohio State :-/

I'd be wary of school 2. No TAing? Most schools require you TA for at least a year and for good reason... if you decide you want to teach later you need it. However being a profs first Grad student is a huge deal. While it is a big risk (and can take longer because of lab start up time) I've seen profs interacting with their first grad student 20 years later and it's pretty awesome to see. 1 seems like a bit of a risk... however if she was your favorite prof maybe its worth it. That being said seems like three (Columbia?) is the best choice. But I'm only saying that because it's a great school where you really like one prof and the other two seem to have red flags

Thanks for the opinions so far. Although truth be told I'm still nervous as hell and can't decide. Should I email former lab members of the Prof at school 1? Is that considered acceptable? Also I talked to School one and the Prof there and I would have funding to work in his lab for the summer. So then I figure the only way I wouldn't be able to work for him was if I royally screwed up. Also he works in the Physics dept (but takes chem and physics students) and I didn't meet any of other physics grads so maybe I'd click better with them as a whole than the chem ones?

didn't want to double post, was wondering if anyone had any advice.

Okay so first off I am a chemistry student. I visited a bunch of grad schools and have it narrowed down to two. School 1: Pros My favorite professor at any school I visited. He has great placement into both industry and the academic world, his group was big but had more than enough funding to support it and publishes like mad in a sub field I'm very interested in. He is taking grad student this summer, and told me if I come to School 1 I could join his group assuming I was able to secure funding for summer research (which the school said it would provide) and it went at least moderately well (eg I get along with his current group members, his lab has a high enough learning curve that he doesn't expect much data only positive reviews from other grad students) Cons No one else I'm super interested in. There are people I could work for but I'm not sure how happy I would be there. So if something falls through with the first professor It's way colder. Maybe this is a stupid thing to bring up, but I've lived in a warm climate for a few years now and much prefer it. The other grad students. While I liked the ones in my favorite professor's group the other ones a I met I didn't really click with (granted I didn't meet that many) School 2: Pros Has three professors I could be happy working with, all of them place pretty well into industry but none of them place well into academia (I have not yet decided on my plans for after grad school, so while this may not be a problem I'm trying to keep my options open). They all publish, but not nearly as much as the professor at school 1. Great campus +warmer than school 1 Didn't click perfectly with all the grad students, but met a lot of them and could see myself there and being happy with these people. Cons The Professor I want to work for the most isn't there Neutral: Both schools have offered me very nice funding, and I really liked the surrounding area at both. There are other minor pros and cons I didn't mention cause this was long enough as it was. Thank you for any advice or insight you may have.