plisar

Superstars rarely do

Papa bear, I always knew you missed your true calling. Maybe I can join the MFA movement in polisci, if I may: Calm before the storm, Harvard prepares to crush dreams, We will know soon, shush! Hmm, maybe I have a knack for this Haiku thing.

Why am I calling you papa bear exactly? I'm slightly disturbed now.

I'm waiting for you to come. We'll go to Ashley's next time your in town. Curry fries and beer, nothing better.

Congrats, but I wouldn't respond to an offer and immediately turn it down.

Michigan IR wait listed everyone apparently!

If you don't mind donating 300 bucks, they can't do anything.

Congrats MIT folks! Subareas and phone call times please.

Billy, Harvard could be another couple of days. Unfortunately, those of us waiting are just going to have to be patient unless you want to e-mail the DGS. Plisar.

Bigger than UNC...lol

See above edit of my early morning brain fail.

Just in case anyone actually thinks this is a possibility, Michigan has a top five endowment (only behind the ivies and Stanford). It needs the state budget like Bill Gates needs another billion.

The earthquakes are disturbing, but nothing as bad as the werewolves. Those bastards come out every month and really create havoc. I suggest buying a supply of silver bullets before attending.

The 15K is an eight month stipend instead of a 9 month stipend, so the monthly pay is definite higher. TA's (GSIs) make more than you will on your first year fellowship. Plus, Ann Arbor is cheaper than other places, but isn't in the middle of no where like Rochester, which is a major plus.

This is very common, especially in your field. At the program I run (a top ten program in electrical engineering) we only fund a percentage of incoming students. The rest find funding on their own.

His school is a member of the council. That is really heinous. Accept the offer but maintain all your e-mails. Plisar.

Yup, UCONN may be closing their graduate school. Bad news.

It sounds like your schools really want to review your files based on their constant contact with you. A lot of programs would not do this. However, it also sounds like you might be getting a little late at this point for turning everything in.

Some fellowships are university wide, but certainly not all. If a university has a block grant program for its departments, this money is used as "fellowship" but essentially it is just money departments can spend. To the OP, certainly, it is possible for a TA offer to be upgraded to a fellowship later on, especially if they are nervous that they will be unable to recruit you or if enough people with that type of funding decline their offers.

The above is good advice, but for those of us who got rejected from top programs this year, don't necessarily take it as a knock on your record, it could also be a sign of the times. I have been told by all my advisors that this has been the toughest year in memory for graduate admissions, period. Many of the top programs have cut their cohorts (Michigan by as much as 60%). Folks who would normally be competitive are simply not this year. And while one can do do a lot o shore up their record, there was no way for normally top condidates to anticipate a systemic collapse in higher education finances.

They tend to report late in the day...

You'll know when you have their acceptance mail in your email!

This is true, but having worked in graduate financial aid for over two years now, I am alarmed by your distinction between employee and graduate student, simply because it opens a can of worms. Most students are paid through TAs or RAs which are technically classified as part time regular positions. If the tuition waiver generated from these positions is considered pay, this would open almost all of them to your above dichotomy.