benmaterials

You need to carefully check what the terms of the unfunded PhD are at UCSD.  You should contact students at UCSD and ask them what kind of funding options are available.
1) Does UCSD offer a tuition waiver?  Even for a PhD without guaranteed funding, there should be a tuition waiver.
2) Are TA stipends easy to come by?  Are PhD students guaranteed a TA position, or is it basically guaranteed with a little bit of effort?
3) Have you been talking with professors in your department?  Are any willing, or interested in taking you on?  If it seems that several professors are interested in supporting you but are unwilling to commit until the year starts, you probably have a good chance at securing a position in one of their labs.
If you get positive answers to these questions, you should definitely go to UCSD.  The UC schools are great and a PhD (funded) is better than a masters in engineering by a lot.  You'll have a great time in UCSD, which I've heard is a very nice school to be at.
If you really have doubts about your ability to secure funding at the school, that's a big problem, and you should probably just do a masters in UW, provided that you are financially able to support yourself through the two years.
 

Hi all! Starting a History PhD at NU, moving from Oregon in August-ish. 
Moment I thought you all would appreciate: I'm setting up my NU email address and laughing at the idea of having an expected graduation date. 

Hey everyone, thanks for starting this thread @benmaterials! I just committed to the MS in Analytics program, and have started looking around for housing in the downtown Evanston area (off-campus). The only thing I wonder is how soon one should start the process.
I haven't seen a forum for admitted students thus far, so I think it would be great to start a facebook group for admitted grad students to connect, find housing, etc. 

Hey! I am heading to Northwestern as well, and will be joining the IBIS PhD program. However, I am planning on coming to the Chicago-area late July. ?

Committed to Northwestern!  Anyone else going there?  Anyone from the area and have any essential tips, recommendations, etc?

Hi!  I'm thinking about going to school at Northwestern.  Is anyone willing to give me a good rundown of how parking works in Evanston and the surrounding areas?  Is it guaranteed to be able to get a street parking permit, or would some areas/apartments only have the option to buy a parking spot in a lot by month/year?  How reasonable/useful is car ownership in Evanston?  I like the freedom to drive around to random places in the suburbs, and I would still take the L train downtown, and walk/bus to campus, so I'm mostly looking for a car to use once or twice a week, and occasionally on road trips to surrounding areas.

I'm with Hk328 on thinking that these deferments are for very special circumstances (and most likely relationships are not one of them, sry). Since this is something that they expect applicants to have in mind (family distance, relationships, etc), I don't believe a committee will give defer on such grounds, so ultimately it is up to you to decide.
There are some questions that you may ask yourself to find out where your feelings and motivation are (at least I considered these before making a decision):
-  if suddenly you find yourself without your partner after rejecting an offer (for any reason), do you think you would be happy with your decision?
- is the presence of your partner essential for you to succeed in your studies? usually, the first years are brutal and you don't have much time anyway
- do you think s/he would do the same for you?
- if you are rejected for asking a deferral, how do you think you would feel? 
- if you receive an offer and not get the deferral, decide to maintain your relationship and reject the offer, but next year you don't get an offer and your partner gets one, how do you think you would feel?
- if you don't apply (or enter) now, what are your plans to still be competitive for the next applications round?
- If ten years from now you are either 1) with this partner but without dream degree OR 2) with dream degree but without this partner, which one would you choose?
Don't need to answer here, those are just to help you to think about the situation.

@benmaterials Yea, that's what they basically said in the email. They mentioned that if a professor likes us, we will automatically be accepted. It sounds so Hunger Game-y... but grateful for the opportunity!!

I would advise against this.  I have heard that people who inquire about their status are often rejected immediately, rather than remaining on a waitlist.

There are a couple of strong applicants at my school still waiting for UCSB.  I'd hold out a little longer.  The visit weekend is the weekend of March 14-16, if you need to contingency plan in case you get in.

I can't figure out how to edit this; if it's possible someone please tell me how and I'll delete this post.
I got ACCEPTED (woo) to work with a computational mat sci professor. I didn't list him on my SoP, but we did have a skype conversation a few weeks ago that went quite well.

I don’t know with Berkeley in particular, but I would let them know that you can’t make it to the visitation. Maybe with that, you can learn more about Berkeley by talking with professors and current grad student on the phone or on Skype. But I would definitely let them know that you wish you could go, but have other plans already. However, you would still really love to learn more about the program. Good luck, and congrats on all your acceptances! 

I really considered it, especially because of Jennifer Lewis's lab actually! But I ended up deciding against it, mainly because she was the only PI I saw myself interested in there. I figured I should apply to places where there is a back up lab I'd be decently happy in, even if I do have one PI I like significantly more than others. It seems like a great program/lab though!

I do not know, but it’s in Feb, so there might be one in Mar too?  There’s probably another round of admits??  I have a friend from ASU who’s going to Cornell’s weekend.

I was just visiting a friend in Boston, and Boston U’s location is so nice!  That sounds like an awesome place to do grad school.

That’s awesome! Congrats on those invites! I have only been invited to one so far at Boston University. 

GA Tech in December, and UMich around Jan 9.  UMich has already had a couple rounds of acceptances and there will likely be more.  GA Tech second round should be at the end of January.

GA Tech in December, and UMich around Jan 9.  UMich has already had a couple rounds of acceptances and there will likely be more.  GA Tech second round should be at the end of January.

You should be competitive at all of the schools you listed.  I don't think you need to apply to any more safeties.  First round of acceptances/rejections for Minnesota, UCSB, UIUC, and Cornell went out last week, so if you haven't heard back, you're still in contention.  I'm not sure how schools assess GPA, but your GPA has improvement in your masters year, and I think that will cancel out any negative effect.  Keep me posted if you hear back, so I can see if we're going to the same recruitment weekends

You should be competitive at all of the schools you listed.  I don't think you need to apply to any more safeties.  First round of acceptances/rejections for Minnesota, UCSB, UIUC, and Cornell went out last week, so if you haven't heard back, you're still in contention.  I'm not sure how schools assess GPA, but your GPA has improvement in your masters year, and I think that will cancel out any negative effect.  Keep me posted if you hear back, so I can see if we're going to the same recruitment weekends

No prob! And Raleigh was an awesome place to live. Sadly don’t live there anymore after graduating. I know it is probably past the deadline, but the MSE department is pretty awesome at NC State, just FYI. The only reason I am not applying there is because I think it’s good to explore new places. I am rooting for you too!