liszt85

Due to the first sentence above, you should probably be silent now. If you really find after getting there and doing a few courses that it would really be a better idea to do the other program, you can always try to explain to them nicely about it and switch. If you're on very good terms with the professors and if you've done well, I don't see any reason why they shouldn't let you switch.. especially if you've already done some of the coursework required and only need to take a few more.

You too, Anyli_t! A lot of people seem to be rejecting Northwestern's offer (and I thought their entering class normally has only 1-2 people, that's the impression I got from the page that had the names of graduating students each year and there never was more than 2-3 a year, sometimes just 1, I personally wanted very much to attend NU, just didn't work out.

Thank you so much fuzzylogician I'm all the more excited because I'll get to learn everything from the beginning, its almost like beginning a new undergraduate program but without all the unnecessary boring enforced core courses (only a few core statistics and methods courses..most others can be tailored to our interests, that's the best thing about grad school). I am however a little apprehensive about doing courses along with people who have had excellent undergraduate backgrounds in the subject! I hope I don't lag behind :|

Go to Columbia, graduate without debts! Columbia is not bad at all.. if it will allow you to graduate without a debt which few people manage to do these days. If you try to look too far into the future, you will never get to live your present. As of now, I believe that the best thing would be to go where the money is and Columbia is a great option if that's where the money is.

Stanford gets my vote. Also, job prospectswise, I really don't know if a MA in statistics would be better than MA in IPS. With the little (or no) knowledge I have about the two fields, I would place my bets on IPS. I could be wrong..and IPS being my guess, IPS from Stanford would outweigh Statistics from Columbia I know, weird body of logic, might not make sense. I do however want you to pray for me. Hope this qualifies me to be a recipient

Excellent! Congratulations, I somehow knew you'd go to MIT (no logical body of reasoning went into that, just intuition) Though I won't be a grad student in a Dept of Linguistics (I've declined the Northwestern offer), I will be working on language a lot. Hope to meet all you great linguists in the making, some day at some conference or something..

Decided on OSU! Anybody else in for Psychology (esp the cognitive area)?

Hi european, I'm in a very similar situation. I have just enough funding to live a frugal-comfortable life in Columbus, Ohio. I'll be going right after my wedding and my wife will accompany me. Its a 5 year commitment and I don't think I'll have the money to pay for tickets for the both of us to visit our country once in a while. What I'll do is, my wife is the one who'll miss India the most and I'll try to put her on a plane back to the country whenever she misses being here. I have a mother who lives all by herself in an unsafe neighbourhood. She is divorced and in India, once that happens, you don't normally date and you tend to live a lonely life. She refuses to move elsewhere (or even come stay with me when I've found a job) as she's attached to her house (lots of reasons for the emotional tie..). I cannot however afford to base my decision on all these factors. If something bad happens or if the situation demands that I return home, I just will have to find a solution for it at that time. There is simply no way I can make arrangements for all eventualities right now! So my advice to you is the same, forget about all of that and trust yourself to be able to find a solution if such things come up and decide now based on solely what your interests and future prospects are going to be. Looks to me like you should go for X if you're sure its a PhD that is your long term goal. Good luck deciding!

Thanks! I'm a litle apprehensive about the coursework. I have zero background in psychology (other than an introductory course during my undergrad). I hope they all start at basic enough levels. I'm a quick learner though, hope it turns out well. http://cog.psy.ohio-state.edu/documents ... ochure.pdf I was recruited mainly because of my interest and experience with certain concepts in physics (nonlinear dynamics, chaos, fractals, etc) because my prospective adviser uses a lot of that in his work (on memory, attention, language performance, etc)

You got that absolutely right and I thought the same too. So I opted for OSU because Columbus is a very cost effective place. Also my adviser (who is fixed because he is supporting my summers for all years) is very young and I'm probably among his first crop of students. He is very resourceful and friendly. He's even told me that my wife would be welcome to come spend time in the lab as its a very family friendly place. His daughter and wife keep visiting. He said we'd try to convince my wife that she should be applying to grad school too! (which is something that's on our minds too) He also told me that we should play cricket sometime (I'm an Indian and Indians love cricket). My work will be on memory, attention and language performance (all using concepts of physics and I'm a physics major. This work is highly mathematical too) and he's allowed me to work on projects outside his lab where I might get to work on music cognition projects (which I'm most interested in). Though music cognition is my primary interest, I've got advice that there aren't many jobs in that field and so the best thing would be to write a dissertation in one of the traditional areas of psychology while gaining experience in music cognition through these side projects. It looks like a good plan to me. So maybe its a good thing that the financial aspect took the choice out of my hands, it might all be for the best

The Professors there strongly advised me not to attend if I had only this stipend money to support my wife. They say there is no doubt that it is insufficient to support a dependent however frugal a life we lead and I've taken their advice. Northwestern's grad housing is very expensive. A 1BR costs ~$1300. Its almost equal to the amount I'll get for the entire month!

Hey, I have decided to attend OSU instead but before I'd decided to do that, I was seriously considering Gatech. I then registered with www.promove.com I live in India and they called me about 15 mins later! A very professional sounding, friendly person talked to me and noted down all my preferences. Its a free service. They will then make you a profile on one of their pages with personalized comments about properties that you may want them to check out for you. All you have to do is read his/her comments (will be personalized to your needs that you'd told them over the phone) and then check a box if you're interested. If you are, they will follow that up and negotiate prices, etc and will give you the best deal. They will also have photographs that are unlike the ones you see on craigslist. They will have the actual photos of the place. All you have to do in return is tell the housing company when you move in or when you go to visit (or send friends to check out the place for you) that you got their information from www.promove.com They have some agreement and that is how promove gets paid for their work. I think they're an awesome service and you should check it out!

GirlattheHelm, I admire your eloquence and agree wholeheartedly to everything you've written here. When I try to make this point to people, I'm not as eloquent. I'm inspired

Headed to the Ohio State University. Cognitive Area! Work will be on attention, memory, language performance, etc. Prospective adviser young, resourceful and extremely friendly! I think I made the right decision. Thanks to everybody here for all the advice offered, for sharing your experiences, etc. Good luck everybody, hope we all make the right decision!

$20.5K - $4.5K = $16K $16K/12 = $1333 After taxes (14%?) = $1146 per month. I will have a maximum of $10,000 with me from loans. Spread out over a 5 year period, this doesn't look too good. This will add $166 each month. So the maximum amount available to me per month would be around $1300. $700 for rent. $200 for utilities, etc. $300-350 for groceries. $100 maybe for books, supplies, for academic purposes. Extremely tight. Thanks for your input anyway..

Thanks rising star. I have however decided that the above situation is quite impossible. We can't go on for 4-5 years without an insurance for her. I had a friend in NJ who caught the flu and had to be hospitalized for a week. His bills came to $30,000 (I have no idea how and why.. the american health care system perplexes me) and he fortunately had a good insurance. I think I'm going to OSU. We've had arguments here about having to opt for our best research fit but it just has to be this way for me. OSU is not bad at all.. just a tad less interdisciplinary than NU and frankly NU would have been the best for my interests. I'm happy attending OSU and am glad that I've finally been able to come to a decision. There was somebody by the name of "dutchie" here, probably from AMsterdam who was on the waiting list at NU. If you see this post, this means that I'm going to decline the NU offer in all probability, so hope an offer comes your way soon.

Well, the department is. They've strictly forbidden me from taking up extra employment. Also, my visa only lets me work 20hrs per week. I'll be involved in research duties over the summer (15 hrs a week) and the department again has told me that there are strict rules regarding extra employment and that it is not encouraged. The real kicker is the insurance I'd have to pay for my spouse. It comes to around $4750 per year. OSU has a health insurance for couples for $209 per quarter. So its almost impossible for me to go to Northwestern due to financial reasons. So its looks like my choice is going to be OSU.

Hi all, My best research fit is at the Northwestern (see my signature) Linguistics Dept. However, their funding is a fixed amount of $20.5K per year (5 yrs guaranteed, years 1 and 5fellowship and years 2,3 and 4 TA/RA). As some of you may know (from the argument I had with rising star about a related issue), my wife would accompany me on a F2 visa (no work permit). Now the only consideration left for me is if I can make this work somehow. We are prepared to live as frugally as possible! A 1BR apartment costs around $900 (cheap ones) in Chicago. Evanston, which is closer to NU, is more expensive. Another major expense is the health insurance that I'd have to pay for my spouse (mine is a 100% subsidized one) which should come to around $1000-1500 a year (at the very least). So I'll be looking at around $1400 a month after taxes and this amount that I'd pay towards her insurance. I have no idea about how to make this work in Chicago. What advice do you have for me? The department has STRICTLY forbidden any extra employment. Under the table tutoring could be done by my spouse (who has a masters degree in Physics) but I don't think we should break the law! The other option I see is for her to apply to nearby, less selective universities (since she has had 0 research experience and her degree is from a relatively unknown university in India) for some program of study that will give her a F1 student status which will then allow her 20 hrs per week of work permit. THoughts welcome! Am panicking a bit.. if I'm not convinced I can make this work, I'll have to settle for the lesser research fit, OSU (PhD Psychology).

I believe that will do. I'm not sure though. You could also carry your offer letter with you. It will talk about "funding for 4 years subject to a good academic standing". That should be enough. I20 normally talks only about the first year if I've understood right. Nobody talks about 5 years of funding in the I20.

Hi all, I'm moving closer towards accepting the PhD offer from OSU. Need some more information: 1) My first year stipend is likely to be around $12960 for 9 months + $1610 per month for the summers. They are also expecting a slight increase in that stipend amount of 12960 after some review that is to take place soon. I do not know about the taxes that will be levied on my stipend. If there are international students from OSU who are on similar stipends, could you please tell me the approx amount you receive per month after taxes? I expect to pay around $500-600 towards rent. Another $100-150 for utilities. $100 more maybe for internet, phone, etc. I would also be taking private music lessons which will cost me some $150-200 per month. $400 for groceries. So I'm estimating my monthly expenses to come to around $1300-1400. Is this a good estimate? My wife will accompany me on a F2 visa and will not work. So she would be living on my stipend as well. 2) How much would a decent second hand car cost (post 2000 model)? Tell me about how car insurances work.. I really have no idea about the system in the US. 3) Are there nice places in or near Columbus my wife and I could travel to during the weekends for little pleasure trips? 4) Safe neighbourhoods for graduate students and families? I gather Clintonville is one such neighbourhood, from some of the posts here. Any other suggestions? 5) Any advice about other expenses I may have to consider. Any other advice for an international grad student with a dependent (spouse). My professor tells me about this great health insurance plan. 85% subsidized by the university and says it would cost me just $209 per quarter to pay for our insurance (both of us covered). Is this the only health insurance we'd need? Thank you!

My vote: Cornell Reason: No Debt + fairly decent career prospects.

I couldn't agree more with what's written above. Being a physics major, and only beginning to be exposed to the work of Pierre Bourdieu through a project that I did on musical preferences, I was led on to discussions about gender and the role of culture, etc. I then wrote a piece on homosexuality and evidence from recent research that there is very little, if any, effect of biology on such choices. I took evidence from work in linguistics (pronunciation patterns of certain vowels), sociology, etc to support that argument (which is nothing new anyway.. researchers have believed in this for quite some time anyway). Had some fun doing it, that's all. Pierre Bourdieu is a must read!

I love Linguistics and its a great opportunity that Northwestern's highly selective program has offered me. I do not know much about or have a background in Psychology but what I wish to be doing is music cognition research and for that, a degree in Psychology seems to be the most apt one. I think I would miss the music technology opportunity if I go for one of the other options because this is a good chance for me to hone some technical skills which I really wished to do. I believe I do not lack in creativity and originality of ideas, but what I lack in is technical skills to independently implement my ideas. The research that I published here is highly original work and the professors here have given me full autonomy as they don't understand this field, I've gathered knowledge about it through reading about it and then I've gone on to improve on ideas I've read about in recent papers. The implementing part though was done with the help of friends who were good at coding! I suck at it. Gatech tells me that they'll teach me everything that I need to know (I told them that I was no good at coding). So when I say I'd probably miss the Music Tech opportunity, its probably not because its my best research fit or because my heart would miss it the most but probably because of practical reasons. I will probably kick myself for not training myself in the technical aspects when I had the chance to, skills which are marketable in the event of jobs being scarce in the academia.

I'm not 100% certain but the professors there certainly seem to think that I'd stand a good chance of being accepted to places like the MIT media lab (Barry Vercoe's group does some nice work on music). So the research fit at places like these would be much better but I have also had excellent advice from people within the field of music cognition research that its best to suspend my extremely narrow focus right now to get an all round education in traditional aspects of Psychology and then I could use that to find good post doc positions in the field of music cognition and with that strongly developed all round background, I might be better prepared for the job market (tenure track positions) and once I get such a position, I could do any research I wished to. The MS program director at Gatech assured me that my funding would not be withdrawn as it has never happened before. The only problem with accepting this MS offer is that its a new program, with only 3 graduates so far. 2 out of these 3 have start ups now based in Atlanta and the other person teaches at a local college. The present students are people with undergraduate degrees in computer science and electronics and are people with 2-3 work experience in companies like microsoft, sun microsystems, etc. I would be thrown into an unfamiliar world of software developers (which is a major reason why they're able to find summer internships). Since Gatech doesn't offer me funding for the summers, and since I'm dumb at coding, I'll find it much harder to find work for the summer. Accepting the MS is fraught with problems of the financial kind but my wife and family ask me if it might be worth it to go through all of that now since its only for 2 years if this will mean more options in the future.. I really can't decide..

You've made very pertinent observations. So let me explain: 1) I *think* my primary goal is to do research in the field of music cognition. OSU would give me an education in cognitive Psychology and my dissertation would be on language research but I would probably do one or two projects on music cognition and learn the essentials of it from the famous guy at the school of music at OSU. 2) If I do this MS, the PhD programs I intend to apply to are the MIT media lab or IRCAM Paris, or Stanford CCRMA. Now research interests *might* fit much better at these places than OSU but then according to the advice of the music researcher at OSU, I really should not bother about that because it is important, according to him, that I get trained in a traditional area of Psychology while doing the odd music project because if my dissertation is going to be on music cognition, job prospects will be bleak as only 1-2 tenure track positions open every year (worldwide!). So what that means, I guess, is that I should work with this really friendly and understanding young faculty member who has an excellent idea about my background and career aspirations. He knows that my primary interest is music cognition and I even asked him if I could change advisers and he was extremely supportive but when I got an email from the music researcher with that advice that he gave me about the importance of focus on a traditional area for my dissertation, he said that it was sound advice and that he totally understood. So if I work with him, it will be research on memory, attention, language performance, etc using computational, behavioral and neuroimaging approaches. He has assured me of an all round education to prepare me for a career in the field. 3) Job prospects in India: With the PhD in Psychology, in case I have to return to the country, I wouldn't find a teaching job at a university. Instead, my undergraduate (bachelors+masters integrated degree) degree could find me a job (as that degree is highly valued by companies here) but the thing is, it would be some corporate job that I'll come to hate. If I do this MS and THEN go for a PhD (media, psychology, or whatever else), if I have to return here someday, the MS will get me a job in the audio/music industry or I can even think of a start up here as graduates of that MS program seem to be doing that a lot. These are jobs that will keep me happy. Though I want to teach and run a research lab at a university some day, my wife does not like the idea of settling down in the US (that might change) and she's okay with shifting to Europe. Again, if I have the MS, I can always find work in Europe but the same does not hold for the PhD. The PhD would find me work in the US or Canada. With the present economic scenario, and the uncertainties it has brought with it, I do not even know if I'll be able to find a job after my PhD (and post doc) in the US/Canada. So the MS would allow me to: a) find work anywhere in the world (not easy as that sounds but I do think its possible) apply to PhD programs, but I'm afraid these psychology depts may not want me any longer. Most of my acceptances have been based on some research I did which used concepts of Physics in music analysis and most of my prospective advisers found that interesting as they've begun experimenting with the use of physics in their own research.. so they like the idea of a physics major from a very reputed college in India. So I think that's my selling point at the moment. The PhD at OSU: a) Hopefully will turn out to be interesting for me (as these fields of memory, attention, etc do look interesting at the first glance and his research methods also look good to me). Also as the music researcher said, if I work on problems of memory and performance, etc those are the very basic processes that go on in music cognition that music researchers investigate. So once I do this PhD, I could find a good post doc position, now maybe in a music cognition field! With that kind of background, if I now get a job at a university, I could do all the research I wish to independently do. Assures a comfortable life for the two of us for the next 5-6, especially since we're going to be newly wed and facing life in the real world which is hurting at the moment due to the economic crisis. c) Gives my wife an opportunity to consider graduate studies herself as OSU is less selective than the other two (with her background, its difficult to get accepted to a program at the other two). She has a masters degree in Physics too. She could thus move ahead in life too while I do my PhD. Now what bothers me most is this: My mother got divorced recently but my parents have been separated for years now. She doesn't date (not common in India) and will probably live all by herself for the rest of her life. Our house is situated in a not so safe area and she adamantly refuses to leave as she is emotionally attached to the house as she designed it and got it built during a time when she decided it was time to leave my father after a lot of shit that she had to put up with and she did it while on a Rs 3000 salary with which she had to buy us food too (my dad earned a lot of money but all of that got spent on other women). So I really want to take care of my mother when she needs me and when that happens, she wouldn't want to leave her home. It is for then that I plan to utilize the MS. I hope you see the entire picture now. It is NOT my plan or intention or wish to work in India as there is nothing of my interest here. My life belongs to the west and the opportunities there but I really wish my mother would stay somewhere close to us (if not, with us!) during at least the last decade of her life so that we can give her a happy family life that she never had. My wife has a similar wish about her parents too who wouldn't budge even a little from this place too (our houses are separated only by a 8mile distance). So I think the best thing for ME to do keeping solely my career ambitions is to accept the PhD offer but with all such eventualities I might have to be prepared for, the MS looks good and it also offers immediate work in the field of my interest (whereas I'd have to wait for 5-6 years before I start working on music full time after my PhD if I choose OSU). This is the full picture.. keep the advice pouring in, it helps!