CPol

Anyone else still waiting? Mine is still sitting at pending.

There are some programs in the U.S.A that do require you to have a masters prior to enrolling in PhD programs, although they are few. The course work difference between MS and PhD greatly depends on which program you are talking about. The point of the PhD as I see it is research. Masters is more similar to undergraduate studies in that there is a focus on class, granted if you are getting funding then you will most likely be do research while obtaining masters. The higher ranked universities (Top 5-ish) put really really heavy emphasis on research for PhD so I think there would be a bigger difference between their strictly masters program and strictly PhD program. The way I see the straight to PhD programs here is a blend of the two. The first 2 or so years you blast out most of the course work you will do and then spend the remaining years mostly on research. I don't have any experience with grad school yet, but from what I have seen looking at professors CVs/Resumes and such, those who received a masters degree at one place and a PhD at another did not have a 6year gap between receiving the two. The norm seems to be receiving PhD 3 to 4 years after Masters. I would also think that if you come with a masters they should allow significant course credit transfer assuming it was from an accredited university and assuming they thought the classes were on par with their own. So if I had to guess I would say you don't have to worrying about throwing away a year or two obtaining your masters only to have to go 5 or 6 years after that to get a PhD, but again this is only a guess.

They definitely are dragging it out. I thought it has been weird how the results have been trickling out. Most schools seem to blast out most of their acceptances and then follow with rejections. But the results have been a couple accepts, then a couple rejects and then some accepts again and so on, at least for PhD. It just seems odd.

Systems/HPC

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone out there was planning on enrolling at UNC this fall (Masters or PhD) or coming to the welcome weekend. I'm deciding between UMich and UNC right now. Actually leaning pretty strongly in favor of UNC, just seeing if anyone else had decided to go.

Just to add to the funding issue, I got accepted to NCSU for PhD and the acceptance letter stated that only 15% of the accepted PhDs actually got funding. Seems kind of a low percentage to me, but who knows. Guess it depends on how many they actually accepted. The stipend is for $16,808 for 9 months. No mention of anything for the summer. But if its only 15% of accepted PhDs then I assume Masters would be even less than that. Good luck.

I got in there, not sure if I will go. I went to undergrad there so I'm up in the air. Got an acceptance to UMich earlier this week. Kinda torn though cause I really like it here but Michigan is a bit better school.

No, I didn't have an interview at any point and also no, I'm an American. I submitted my application at the very beginning of November I believe and this is the first thing I have heard since. 790/540/5 on GRE. No pubs, but two pubs should be finalized in the next month and pretty solid research. Best of luck to you

I just got an acceptance email this morning, financial aid info to follow later. Now I have to decide if I can handle those winters... Good luck to everyone!