firefly28

26.

Along with UC Irvine, I'd consider University of Minnesota and SUNY Stonybrook. Horrible weather but good programs.

My broad research area is Political Behavior; I took a Political Psychology undergrad class along with a basic Psychology class. I didn't explicitly mention political psychology in my Apps, but the topics I mentioned are interlinked with the subfield.

It depends on the level of difference between the schools (and the level of difference of money). I'm not going to go to a school that only offers $13K a year to live on, no matter how good that school is, because I'd have trouble surviving on that little. Once you get beyond $20K money becomes less salient--I'd probably sooner take $25 at a top 10 school than $35 at a school that's not quite so high. I'm looking at some fairly competitive fellowships at universities that are within the same range, so choosing will be more difficult.

After student fees, you'll be right at the poverty line (http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/threshld/thresh10.xls). At least you'll probably qualify for all sorts of aid programs designed for the indigent.

Short of the person accepted posting a screen cap of the email, there is no way, absolutely no way that I will believe that someone with such a lackluster GRE score got into Texas. Definitely a troll.

Unfortunately I don't think that's all that uncommon among large public universities. There are a few decent fellowships but once you get beyond that, you're looking at living off a fairly meager amount of money. Chapel Hill isn't as cheap as some other college towns, too.

Ugh, I'd hate funding ambiguity. I've been offered a presidential scholarship at one university and am guaranteed 20K/year, with the possibility of a fellowship bumping that up by 5K/year, at another. Both schools are solid; the latter has slightly more name rec than the latter. So I'll need to weigh the difference in name recognition against being able to have "presidential scholar" on my resume. re food: I've never given much thought to the whole local/non-local matter. I can say this: my absolute favorite place to eat in Pittsburgh is a halal market that gets its meat fresh and local. The food is RIDICULOUSLY good.

Unfortunately not--food as the salient variable would lead to Bay Area schools, NYU, University of Toronto, and maybe Chicago. Well, and National University of Singapore.

Oh, I'll still be sure to visit the best restaurants around wherever I go--just fairly infrequently. I'm currently figuring out how to structure my diet to maximize health, minimize cost, and achieve the highest level of enjoyment (the all-important z variable). I'm figuring on eating various incarnations of wheat for breakfast--healthy, and a lot can be done to make it enjoyable. Eg boil it and throw in some blackberries or blueberries for a nice, fiber-filled breakfast. For lunch, I'm contemplating fruit smoothies. It'd be healthy and fairly cheap--hopefully not more than $2 per meal. Salads would be another option, or an occasional omelet. Then for supper, baked or grilled chicken or fish most of the time (I hope to create a few reductions and store them in the fridge). Probably sometimes with a fairly healthy side--sweet potatoes, lentils, etc. Not that I won't occasionally indulge--I have some good recipes for Thai curries, Indian dishes, etc. Basically, it's an adjusted Nash diet. The goal is to eat for an average of under $10 a day. Doing that would likely allow me enough money to eat out at a decent restaurant at least once a month.

Depends on what you like. For Indian, check out the Kashmiri food truck on the Pitt campus. It's the second one up on Bigelow. There's a reason why it's very popular among Indian students Also, Udipi Cafe in Monroeville is an authentic southern Indian restaurant. It's delicious. For middle eastern, there are several great choices: Salem's Halal Grill and market in the Strip is simply brilliant. Fresh, high quality meat and very affordable meals. They also do a few Indian dishes and have the best tandoori chicken I've ever had. Taza 21 in Squirrel Hill is a good shwarma cafe. Good wraps, delicious soups. For hummus, check out Greek Gourmet in Sq. Hill. They stock around a dozen hummus varieties, and make all of them there at the shop. Vietnamese: A woman runs a Vietnamese sandwich stands near a Vietnamese restaurant in the Strip during warmer months. Vietnam's Pho has the best pho in Pittsburgh--you can get it with tripe and tendon, which is positively lovely. If you drink coffee, I'd recommend 61C for the variety of kinds but Commonplace coffee for environment. Both are in Sq Hill. Chinese: American-chinese: Zaw's is the best in the city. In Sq. Hill. Bakery: Bubble Pi is an authentic Chinese bakery with buns, zongzi, etc. in Sq. Hill Rose Tea Cafe has authentic Taiwanese food. Yep, also in Sq. Hill. Thai: I don't think Pittsburgh has a great Thai restaurant. There are some good ones though. Thai Cuisine in Bloomfield is solid. I've heard good things about Thai Gourmet, which is down the road. One of the two Thai food trucks at CMU is good, the other is kinda meh (the friendlier operator has the weaker food, unfortunately. I still go to his sometimes). Chaya is a world-class sushi place, in Sq. Hill. It's also, as you would expect, very pricey. Website: http://www.chayausa.com/ South American: Green Forrest, in Penn Hills, is a Brazilian churrascaria, and a good one. Pricey. Chicken Latino in The Strip has delicious Peruvian chicken. On Sundays, they also have beef heart, which I highly recommend getting once (you probably won't want to order it again). Tango Cafe, in Sq. Hill, is a nice coffeeshop. Actually, I recommend it above Commonplace. They have some very yummy Argentinian desserts etc. Some other places: Mokabobs runs on Saturdays in the Strip during warm weather and has some terrific kabobs. S&D Polish deli has delicious perogis, hunter's stew, and other Polish treats. Luke Wholey runs a fish grill outside of his father's wholesaler. I highly recommend anything that he cooks, but especially his tuna--get it medium rare and enjoy. There's a good Turkish restaurant in South Oakland, I think on Semple Street. It has very tasty food. Finally, East Liberty has a good Ethiopian Restaurant (Abay). Definitely check it out. Oh and if you like tea, check out Te Cafe in Sq. Hill. Friendly staff, a great place to hang out, and a good selection of tea.

I'm more of a diverse foods person than a live music person--I'd rather sit down and eat lamb shwarma or a good pho alone or with a date than see a live music act (in spite of the fact that I've played guitar for 10 years). One of the things that attracted me to Austin is that they seem to be pretty good in terms of restaurants. Of course, it's not like I'll have the money to be eating out very often, so it's probably better for me to end up in a location which demands that I make most of my own food (as I'd sooner fast than go to a fast food restaurant). Vandy, Rice, and Texas were the schools to which I contemplated, but ultimately decided against, applying. I thought I'd be competitive but I already had 5 apps in and I didn't want to spend the $$ on schools with a lower chance of acceptance. As it is I do like both of the schools that have accepted me so far (and the two I'm still waiting on), so I'm content.

CMU is really good at interdisciplinary programs in general and I'd highly recommend any program there, above Penn (no knock on Penn, which is a good school). Plus CMU has better food around campus

Think of it this way: Right now, you can choose to accept or choose to wait. If you choose to accept A, and turn out to be happy, we'll give you a payout of 1. If you choose A and next month determine that the variables that you were placing high value on (particularly geographical distance) aren't as salient, and that another program is a better fit (or offers more money, etc.), then your payout is -1. If you wait, and in the middle of next month your opinion is the same, you could commit. Your payoff would still be 1. Your likelihood of regretting the decision within the window of decision-making would be considerably diminished. So, there's really no disadvantage to waiting.

The thing to keep in mind is that A LOT of people apply there. I strongly considered applying there, since it's a good school with faculty that match my interest and, going off the admissions data that I could find, I'd be very competitive. But given the number of applications they get, I think it's somewhat easy to just get lost in the crowd, even if your application really does stand out. With so many apps, the committee might look for something very narrow, or have some other heuristic to reduce the amount of time spent going through the apps.

Ah, thanks for the tip (sensitive skin razors here I come). I am regrettably awful at tying ties. Luckily, I'm in a church (LDS) in which every male who grew up in the church learned very early how to tie ties. Sometime I'll figure it out

That's why I'm thankful I have an automatic gmail checker for firefox--this way the second an acceptance (or that other type) comes in, I'll receive notification. Well, ok, it checks every few minutes, so there may be a slight lag. But I'll find out fast, which is nice. I received one acceprrance notice by phone and one by email. Does anyone have any interviews for fellowships scheduled? I have one; I think I'll go ahead and wear a dress shirt and tie (church attire, anyway). I'll also shave with a razor for the first time in close to a year.

Yeah, once you get outside of the really well known English schools and a few others, it does get harder to get an appointment in the US. Of course, if you don't mind relocating, you could probably still get funding and have a successful career. I'd certainly consider relocating to one of several countries after I get my Phd, if they offer a tenure track position.

I thought about Vandy and WashU as slight reach schools, but money is a bit tight and so I stuck to schools that I felt I'd have a pretty reasonable chance at. Vandy and WashU both have terrific departments, and both--especially WashU--are good at faculty placements.

I scored 4.5 on the AW section, too. I hated the question that I was answering (slightly less than the alternative question), and a good bit of my essay was spent attacking the underlying premise of the question. Now, I've written for a major university newspaper, I write for a pretty major podcast, and I got As in 3 writing seminars spanning my two majors. So, I am inclined to agree with the general consensus that the AW section isn't a good measure of one's writing ability, nor is it something that admissions are going to put much emphasis on, especially if one can provide a strong writing sample.

I only took through pre-calc in university, but I've studied calc on my own (thank you Khan Academy and PatrickJMT!), and I am now going through the vids on linear algebra and differential equations. I did take a stats course in college.

It's especially bad when the faculty member does something that no one else does. Pitt had Wenfang Tang, who does some very good work in Chinese politics and public opinion. He had a few grad students working with him, but then Iowa offered him a plum spot. So for now Pitt has no one that does Chinese politics (or East Asian politics in general). Plus, two years ago they lost their sole Africanist, and haven't replaced him. I made sure that I was applying to schools where some senior level faculty did what I was interested in, in part because of worries about faculty movement. It looks like UNC is contacting people by email now. I have not been contacted, nor has the website revealed anything about my status. Which probably doesn't bode well for me--I'm thinking wait list or rejection.

I called UNC last week and from what I understood, they'll be rolling out admissions next week but it could take several weeks, possibly even into very early March.

I'm not sure if I received early notice, in which case it may be better to hold off until others are notified, just in case. So, I'll hold off a little on that but I will note it when I see it pop up. It's a public university in the southern part of the US (I only applied to schools in the south and west, besides Pitt, due to weather). If you want, I could PM you the school.

Got my second notice of acceptance (from a good university, but not one that has been widely talked about in this thread). That makes 2/3. Still waiting on two others, one of which is UNC.