[WebEx meeting with faculty after admission offer]

19 hours ago, jonliu said:

Hey guys, OP here. So the DGS of the program (the one mentioned above as well as in a couple other posts, some of you may be aware) just emailed me and told me she had nominated me for a fellowship award designated for incoming grad students. Not sure how competitive it is but it's still great news nonetheless. The thing is, I have not accepted my offer yet as I'm still waiting to hear back from another program. So what should I write to her in response besides thank you? It's just a bit awkward considering I haven't committed myself to the program yet...

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!

May I ask which schools you are considering atm?

[Indiana University vs. UC Irvine]

On 3/6/2020 at 1:03 PM, Dwar said:

I'd say that you should go with the UCI option. TBH i think specific rank doesn't really matter as much as grouping, and i'd personally put UCI and IU in the same general grouping of 20-50 ranked schools. 

Ultimately though you should check with the UCI placement and look if you can see yourself happy in the types of jobs that their graduates generally get. 

It is mainly because you don't have any offer from Top 40(~39) schools. 

In reality, there is a significant gap within top 20~50 schools, in terms of placement, resources, admission chances, etc, 

No one puts Northwestern and CU Boulder, OR even,  PSU and UConn, in the same group. You should probably know better.