migrationdude

So I'm on campus this summer. I brought my car from the East Coast and I think it was a very good decision to make. Basically, Stanford is liveable without a car, but the hassle is immense. You make up a lot of the gas money in savings on groceries for instance (look up the Milk Pail Market in Mtn View for a cheap place to get amazing produce). Otherwise you have to shop at JJ&F and Safeway (for the former, can you say $5 gallons of milk?). In terms of traveling around the Bay Area, you do not need a car to go to San Francisco or San Jose, even though it's much faster if you drive. You also don't need a car to get to and from either SFO or SJC. But if you want to travel anywhere else in the Bay Area (i.e. Berkeley), I think having a car is a necessity. It depends on how much you see yourself traveling at weekends I suppose. Of course, there is always the zipcar option for that, but do be careful when factoring in all the costs.

Just put mine in

I will be attending Stanford Factors: -- very good fit with faculty; -- great departments in fields connected to my interest (Stats, Linguistics, CompSci); -- very good funding (though when adjusted for cost of living stipend is not the best); -- LOCATION )))

Hey -- so I'm coming to Stanford too

I've also hyper-analyzed this. I always address someone completely unknown by their title + last name. If they reply and sign with their first name only, I will start addressing them by their first name. My reasoning is that I will only go as far as they are comfortable without being overly formal; at the same time (and this has not happened so far), should a professor get upset by my (otherwise invited) lack of formality, I would have serious doubts as to whether I could work with this person anyway. I guess I risk being "put in my place" by someone eventually, but this has not happened so far.

Okay, that's good to know, thanks.

For anyone who hasn't heard yet, the state of California is almost bankrupt: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/us/17 ... wanted=all Now, I'm an international student, and am completely dependent on institutional funding for my support. How safe would my fellowship be at a public institution like Berkeley? Could they ever renege on their offer? I mean, are these fellowships entirely connected to the California budget, or do they come from separate funds (i.e. endowments)?

I am getting more and more enthusiastic about this seemingly amazing little department, which seems extremely up-and-coming. It feels like they would give me a lot of research opportunities which may be unavailable elsewhere, including a chance to work closely with two very reputed scholars in two fields I want to pursue in grad school (race & ethnicity, and social networks). I will be visiting next week, but was wondering if anyone else has any thoughts or (for those who are already grads) has faced a similar dilemma.

Meh, did I say 23? I meant 13!

Damn me and my cellphonelesness! Congrats to all those who got in, anyway.

I'm 23 now, 24 in July.

Sorry, but that does sound like some sort of game. Harvard interviewed all its short-listed applicants for Soci.

Please do! I would really appreciate it!

Woo, sounds fancy. Still can't completely wrap my mind around a Southern progressive enclave, but the Triangle seems amazing. I'm more interested in the social part of gay life -- I'm up in Mass. right now, and over here everyone is super gay-friendly, but I'm miserable because there aren't that many guys to date.

Okay, UNC out!

1. As far as I know at least Canada has agreements with the U.S. Government, through which Canadians can take out U.S. federal loans (or a similar arrangement). Thus, Canadians (and Mexicans?) are less of a financial headache for universities. 2. I strongly believe there are no real "pools," unlike in undergrad admissions. I can't believe in departments setting goals like "this year we're taking 3 internationals," because of the totally idiosyncratic nature of the admissions process. If 5 extremely good international applicants are seen as good enough to gain admission, I am sure that the department will seek to find funding for them; I would think international student status would come up only in the borderline cases (i.e. if the university will only offer loans as financing, it cannot accept international students, as they will not get the visa, most likely) 3.Ad absurdum, if there were separate pools, make no mistake about it, being in the U.S. pool would be much better than being international. International student may have a certain degree of "exoticisim" going for them, but then they are expensive (bc. of visa requirements), ineligible for most national funding sources, and if they did their undergrad outside the U.S. they are likely to have a harder time adapting to their new university. My own feeling as an international has been that I always have to do a lot better than my American peers, only for me to enjoy the same chances as them.

I'm in a similar situation right now. I just got an offer to work with a very reputed professor in my sub-field; the only problem is he's at a lesser-ranked institution. Except for the rankings, everything would be great about this option, but I am wondering if I wouldn't be giving up better career opportunities at a top school.

Hi Etranger, My own feeling is that there are no longer applicant "pools" at the graduate level, given that most institutions fund their graduate students from their internal money anyway. The one difference may be at state universities, which may have certain restrictions imposed upon them by state governments. This being said, there are some universities where it's very hard for internationals to get funded (e.g. Michigan), but this doesn't mean they won't accept you if you're international. In other words, in some borderline cases it may be harder for international students to get funded, though admission shouldn't be much different than for U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

I'm saying no to UNC this Monday

I tried posting this on the IHOG forum but no one has even looked at it. Maybe people are more likely to respond with details if it's on this forum. Anyone?

Since I'm an international student, it doesn't seem like I'm eligible for most U.S. fellowships (except intramural ones). I'm lucky enough to have funding figured out to a certain degree, but still it would be great to know what (if any) fellowships would be available for later years in my grad career. I'm not talking about full, $30k/year fellowships (although those would also be nice ), but about the smaller awards that may be buried in some database somewhere. If anyone has any info it would be great to compile a list!

Yeah, you're right, the links were broken. Thankfully the internet is archived!You can copy each hyperlink and search for it on the "wayback machine" (http://www.archive.org/index.php). Here's an example: http://web.archive.org/web/200504212227 ... ichua.html

She is definitely a little bitter about grad school, as anyone would be after her experience. Still, I think someone like her is best situated to create a list of the most common problems with grad dept's.

This seems like the most comprehensive and detailed resource of questions to ask and pitfalls to watch out for: http://members.terracom.net/~dorothea/g ... ccess.html

Indeed, the term "intellectual nutsack" does sound a little vulgar. I've been asked about my stats several times during the past days over PM, and I figured some people really did want to know... I know I would have liked to get a rough idea a few years ago, for sure. I've been wary of sharing too much because of some bad experiences I have had in the past... a few years ago I was contemplating transferring (bad idea), and I was called a fraud on another board, which will remain nameless. Now, I completely agree with what you're saying, nyghtfalls. Fawning is not in order here, and I do not think I deserve all this attention. Right now I'm starting to feel under a lot more pressure to "prove" that those admission committees were not wrong by actually doing worthy research.