DarkNeutron

I am starting at UNC this fall and the information posted so far has been quite helpful. I do have a couple more questions, though. First of all, I have been looking at housing and a lot of the apartments and duplexes don't seem to include utilities in the rent. Since I currently leave up in the northeast, not to mention having lived with my parents for my undergrad degree, I am not really sure what would be a reasonable estimate for budgeting. Any ideas? Also, I have seen some houses/apartments on McCauley Street that are really close to the computer science building (Sitterson Hall) where I will be spending most of my time, and with seemingly reasonable prices. I have to wonder, though, if the oddly low prices have to do with the coal-fired cogeneration plant down the street. Does anyone have any experience living on the street, or anywhere else near the power plant? Finally, after having commuted 45 minutes each way for four years and doing my own car repairs, I am starting to despise the infernal combustion engine. It probably does not help that my current car is unlikely to pass inspection without more work then it is worth. Does anyone know if using Zipcar would be a reasonable substitute to owning a car at UNC? I am planning (hoping...) to rent a house/apartment where I can take the bus (or walk) to class. Oh, and any suggestions for some good vegetarian restaurants in town?

PM sent. I would have just posted a link to my C.V., but I haven't gotten around to posting it online yet. Ah, procrastination...

Same here, although I am mostly interested in GPU global illumination (and possibly quantum graphics processing, once the chips are available). When is the visitation weekend for computer science, anyway? I can't seem to find that information on the UNC website.

Right now I am interested in GPU-based global illumination techniques. I just got accepted at UNC-Chapel Hill, so I hope to keep studying it there (assuming I can get this whole funding thing figured out...). If you are interested, you can find some of my early ray-tracing code (written in C# and OpenCL) here on GitHub. It is a bit rough around the edges (and everywhere else, really), because I was trying to learn OpenCL at the same time.

I have been very happy with my credit union, PSECU. This one happens not to have any physical branches, but I prefer internet banking anyway. Credit unions do have restrictions on who can apply, but they often quite lenient.

I just got accepted to the M.A. program in Computer science at UNC-CH (yay!), but I am a little confused about the whole TA/RA situation. (At least, I think I was accepted. The email actually said that they they "recommended [me] for admission to the UNC-CH graduate school". Is there a difference?) When I was researching graduate schools, one thing that appealed to me about UNC-CH was that they seemed to offer TA/RA positions to masters students, not just PhD students (I liked the MA+PhD path, rather then a direct PhD program). I got most of the financial information from the CS department website. It also says that most assistantships are given out right before the semester begins, not when you are admitted. On the other hand, the email I just received said the following: Does this mean that the assistantship positions are already filled for the fall, or only that they can't guarantee anything? Could this be an effect of the budget situation among the states right now? UNC-CH is my first choice school and I really want to be able to go there, but I am a bit concerned because the out-of-state tuition for the first year (before I can establish residency) will cost more then my entire Bachelor's degree. I am still going to look for outside funding, but it seems like it will take a lot to match a tuition waver. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I just got accepted to the M.S. program in computer science! I still have one more school to hear back from, but UNC-CH was my first choice anyway (already turned down by UMass Amherst). UNC-CH is supposed to be one of the best schools for computer graphics, so I am quite excited. I still sometimes wonder if I am really cut out for graduate level work, but I guess I should take my acceptance at UNC as a vote of confidence. The admission letter said that CS assistantships were a bit limited, so I still need to figure out how to pay for it all. One year of the out-of-state tuition will cost more then my entire Bachelor's degree... I hope to see some of you there.