fuzzylogician

Oh sorry, I hoped you would see my comment in time for you to change the title and for me to delete the remark.. I guess it's too late now:P

Can't really help you decide, but I just wanted to say that Berlin is an absolutely AMAZING city to live in! I also hear good things about Zurich:). I say go with your heart, especially since that's also where the money is. BTW: you do know it's "die Schweiz" (and consequently "in der Schweiz"), right?

If school B is in the same league as school A for your specific subfield then that is all that matters. If you're aiming for a job in academia, then the people who will interview you for a job will be professionals in your field who will know what your degree is worth and will not be starstruck by a fancy brand name. So, the ranking is comparable for both schools. There are good advisors at both, comparable collaboration opportunities, comparable funding, comparable locations, basically comparable everything. Department size is somewhat of a personal preference. You say you liked school B better during your visit and subsequent phone conversations with faculty there -- I say, go with school B then. Sounds like it has everything going for it that school A does, and then some.

I don't know about arrogance, but it just takes up much needed space from your SOP and doesn't add any information that isn't already in your CV. The SOP should add new information or expound upon existing information, not restate what the adcom members already know about you. The "proper assertion of strengths" is the "show, don't tell" rule. Your passion, enthusiasm and knowledge about your field should shine through your words and actions, not be literally stated.

Congrats on making your decision! Don't just click the "no" button for the school you're declining, you should follow up in person with whoever was in touch with you to throughout the application process - the DGS, administrator or potential advisor. Keep the connections you've made there, the professors there will appreciate the personal note and won't be upset you're declining, no school has a perfect acceptance record. I sent email last year, and got warm responses from everyone who received it.

This is the exact way to go. Most first drafts of SOPs I've seen start with a narrative of the person's past and background, and only get around to their current/future interests towards the end of the essay. To have a good SOP, however, the focus should be on your current and (mostly) future research plans, and it should be apparent what your interests are as early as possible. It's the same advice I get now for writing papers - don't recount the history of all your failed attempts and bad starts, tell me the path that succeeded and show me what you can do with it. For a good, focused SOP, you should be able to demonstrate that you are familiar with the inner workings of your field. Address strengths and weaknesses in current thought about your topic, or suggest a fresh way of looking at it; choose a project that is feasible in size for the degree you're applying to; aim to have similar interests/methodology/both as the researchers in the department you're applying to. Remember that you're not committing yourself to actually doing the project, you just want to show the adcom that you can think through the details of a possible project within your area of interest. Choose no more than 1-2 interests as your main interests and spend most of your time talking about them. It's OK to have secondary interests, but it should be clear where your interests lie. Aside choosing the right kind of interests to discuss, fit is also understanding your intended department's attitude towards things like collaborations, innovation, going in unexplored directions, doing quantitative/qualitative/theoretical/practical/etc work. Talk about things that make sense for that department. Mention anything unique that the program offers - resources, reading groups, any kind of opportunity like an exchange or a diploma. If it's not a school that emphasizes teaching, don't dwell on that. If you're not sure that you'll be encouraged to take courses at other departments, make sure before you mention "resources" that are not really going to be there. If you want to mention coursework in more detail, most applications will allow you to e.g. upload a summary as a supporting document or as part of your CV. You can also attached it to your transcript. Include a list of course names/numbers, the instructors, and a one-paragraph description of each course (+optionally, the grade and nr of credits, but that should be on your transcript; optionally2: the topic and short description of term papers you wrote for each course). All those details don't really have to be in your SOP, unless they're directly tied to your current/future interests. If you've caught the adcom's eye, they'll go look at your credentials anyway. Optionally: give a link to a website that contains all the work you're comfortable with the adcom seeing. It can be a simple googledocs-based site, I hear they are easy to make. If they're really interested, the adcom might want to know more about your work, and that's a great easy way to give them that extra information.

Since I was abroad and couldn't apartment hunt in person (damn visa regulations) I sent an email to my department's grad students mailing list. Got my email forwarded to friends of some of the grads who were looking for roommates, talked to a couple of them and finally ended up rooming with a graduate student from the department. A lot of students in my department live with each other, it's very convenient for many reasons, including having a generally similar schedule, similar interests, not being too crazy, having a steady income so you don't have to worry they won't pay their part of the bills, etc.. Check and see if your university operates a university-based apartment bulletin board that only students can access - that's one way to screen out some of the crazies. Other than that, Craig's List is always a good place to look.

If you change your mind before the deadline, you can just notify school A that you decided not to go there, and accept school B's offer. They're not going to like you for it, but they can't stop you. After April 15 you will have to get permission from school A before you can accept school B's offer. Again, that might be possible, but it's frowned upon and will likely ruin any connections you had at school A.

I'm also going to say school A. The advisor is the only unknown there, and that can be either good or bad, but it sounds like the experience you'll have with the famous advisor at school B could also make your life unpleasant for the 5 years of grad school. Yes, having a big-name advisor probably won't hurt, but it's not the only factor to consider. Unhappiness with the other advisor's mentoring style, more TA work (I assume you say that as a minus?) and a lower quality of life with more debt I think weigh more than having an unknown advisor. A young advisor can have pluses and minuses. They'll be inexperienced, so they might (likely) make rookie mistakes. That can perhaps be addressed by having a second advisor who knows their way around the procedures. You'll have a much better chance of molding the advisor-advisee relationship with this professor to your own liking; and they are going to be much more enthusiastic and involved in your research. You're going to be one of their first students, and your success will bear on their success. They will also be working towards tenure, so this should be one of the most productive times in their career. Again, it's hard to know what kind of advisor they will turn out to be, but the opportunity is out there to make it a good experience all around. ETA: since you didn't say - have you talked with any of the young advisor's current students (are there any? even students who only took a course and written a term paper for this professor)? They could tell you a lot about the professor's style which can help you decide if they're right for you.

As you say, it depends on the school. In general, you don't (usually) need to have a Master's degree before you can start a PhD program. However, if you present yourself as expecting to finish a Masters degree with the clear intention of dropping out as soon as you're accepted for a PhD, that might be a problem. Another potential problem is getting strong recommendations from your professors, if you drop out of their classes at around the same time. It seems that in order to avoid that you would need to at least register for Fall classes in 2010. Once you do that, it's sort of a shame not to do well in them; and once you do that, you'll have very little to complete the degree, and it's sort of a shame not to do that either. But, I do understand the difficulty, and I think that in general it should be possible to not finish the degree. But, I know nothing specific about your field of interest. On the other hand, I do in fact know people (all internationals) who started a MA and moved to a PhD degree after its first year, without finishing. That mostly happens because BA programs (at least in Europe) are 3 years long, and it's almost impossible to apply to a PhD before finishing them, because that means you're applying after only completing two years, where most seminars and small classes are taught/written during the 3rd year. People continue on to a Masters and then either do or don't (but mostly do) finish it before getting into a PhD program. I don't think it's that common in the States to start and not finish, but the precedent is out there.

The only university that offered me relocation funds was UCLA, and I'm pretty sure I could have gotten some funding out of NYU too, if I tried hard enough. It wasn't very common among the offers I got, most offered summer funding if they wanted to offer something extra.

Congratulations!

You should thank them regardless of the outcome, they did put in the effort and write you letters. I'm sure they will want to know your results. I know it's not much fun having to tell them that you didn't get in this year, but if you're planning to ask them again next year you won't be able to keep it from them eventually. If they weren't very involved in your application process, you should have a serious meeting with each of them to discuss what might have gone wrong. Get feedback, improve what needs work, and try again. Good luck!

Assuming that you only applied to schools that you would like to go to and are good fits, I think you should be mindful of your boyfriend's wishes. He's already moved with you once so he knows he doesn't like the surroundings where you are right now, and it's not like he didn't make the effort. On the other hand, you have a viable option at a location that he prefers. Seems like a no-brainer to me. An important part of your graduate career is of course the program you go to, fit, etc., but a no less important part is what you go home to. Your relationship will most probably suffer if he is unhappy, and that can't help but hurt your research as well. Bottom line, I think you should choose the option that gives the best work-home balance.

Have you talked with faculty and students at both schools (skype, phone)? If not, do so. It's not as good as meeting someone in person, but it'll give you an idea of what the professors are like. Students are likelier to tell you what they really think when there's no written record of it, so if you talk to your potential advisor's current students, they will feel more comfortable giving you a true opinion.

I understand that it's hard to walk away from your top choice, but I'll try and be the voice of reason here. Given that your goal is a PhD and an academic career, the question you need to ask yourself is whether or not Indiana can give you the training that you will need in order to be admitted to a top PhD program. If Indiana has good advisors and can support your research (=if it's a good fit), then I believe that you shouldn't be going into increased debt just to get a fancier name on your diploma. What will eventually get you admitted into a good school is your work, not (just) coming from a brand name university. If, however, Columbia offers significantly better resources/opportunities, which are likely to get you much better placement and funding as a PhD student, then I think the extra debt will be worth it in the long run.

Yes, it's perfectly acceptable to inquire about reimbursement. The place to ask is the department that accepted you. In my experience most universities offer some reimbursement, though not always enough. If you can combine your visit with visits to other universities in the same area, you are likelier to be reimbursed enough to cover the entire cost of the trip. In many departments it's customary for current graduate students to host prospective students, which is another great way to both save costs and get to see how students in the department live. You can inquire about that at the same time you ask about reimbursement.

Two pointers: make sure the department knows they're your top choice and you're inclined to go there. Say you're just waiting on the funding decisions before you make your final choice. Then ask if they can give you an estimate of when that will be. Contact current students and ask them if they know how decisions were made in previous years. They might have some insight.

There's a catch-22-like complication here. There are two possible funding-decisions-scenarios: - find funding for those who will be coming for sure first; (take care of your own type decision) - find funding for the undecided first (reel them in with the promise of money type decision). Point being, either is possible. Do you have information from previous years about how funding decision were made?

We'd need some more info before we can form an opinion. You need to do some leg work and figure out how much each degree is going to cost you, how much debt you are willing and able to take on, and how much you expect to earn after graduation (=how long it'll take you to repay your loans). Make sure it's worth it; in some cases it might be a better idea to reapply next year for a funded program. Aside from that, it'd be helpful for us to know: What is your degree in? How high are both schools ranked? How well do your research interests fit with the department's? How many professors work in your area of specialty at each school? What are your post-graduation career goals and how close does each option bring you to achieving them? Do you get along with your prospective advisor and fellow students? What's the average time to degree completion? What's both schools' post-graduation (academia/industry) placement record? Do you have a location/weather preference?

Yes, if you're sure then let the department know as soon as possible. This time of year departments go through a period of uncertainty, and you'll be helping remove some of it. The sooner everyone notifies the department if they accept or decline their offers, the sooner the department can decide what to do with wait-listed applicants and inform them of their status. If you have other offers you should maybe keep the second choice until you get the official acceptance from your top choice, just in case, though there's really no reason to expect anything to go wrong. Once it's official, inform the other schools as well. Again, same logic. Congratulations on getting into your first choice!

Sounds like school B is the hands down winner. I understand the apprehension of leaving everyone you know behind, but trust me, you make new friends and it's not like the old ones disappear. You should visit the department to make sure that you click with the people, but better funding+shorter time to graduate+better fit are hard to beat.

I think that once you establish that you are getting enough funding to live reasonably comfortably, then funding doesn't have to be how you decide where to go - depending on your preferences, things like a closer fit, location and weather legitimately come into the equation. Assuming that the MA offer you got from school #1 naturally leads to a PhD if you remain in good standing (including continued funding) then I think it's a serious contender. I would probably still choose school #2, mostly because of the proximity to the archive you require, but you might have other considerations.

Wow, that's great news! Good luck!

I understand that you put a lot of effort into your application, but you already have the result you wanted. So, congratulations. It's time that you put the application phase behind you and start planning your future at your chosen school. Save yourself the application fee to a school you're never going to go to, save the adcom the time of considering your app, and allow another student to accept an offer, who is likelier to accept it. I don't see any gain in it for you except for an ego boost if you get in, but you could be harming fellow applicants in the process.