liszt85

A few of my friends have got into USC with a 23K stipend and they say that they would end up saving about around $500 per month if they don't try to live a luxurious life. My guess is 22K should do just fine in LA if you are planning to support only yourself on the stipend. I have a friend in USC who lived on a $950 (after taxes) monthly stipend for a year because he had got only a 25% TAship. So don't worry about the money, I think you have got decent offers from all these places (check about NYC though) so that you can decide based solely on what might be the best research fit. Good luck!

2 people from my batch here, Physics PhD.

Oh that's great news. The professors I'd been talking to did mention that when they'd first come to the US, their SO's had been able to work due to their J visas. I do think however that its increasingly tough to get it issued from the embassy these days due to the present situation there. Obama does have restrictions in place.

Might attend Gatech for a MS in music technology. Need some info. I will have a $1500 per month stipend (before taxes). Would this amount (minus taxes) be good enough for a couple to lead a simple life in Atlanta (near the Gatech campus)? How much would a 1BR apartment rent for near the campus?

Hi, I've been admitted to the MS in music technology program at Gatech (http://gtcmt.coa.gatech.edu/?p=123). Its a relatively new program and I was wondering if anybody knows about how well regarded the program might be and how good my job prospects would be if I were to do this MS. I have been offered a tuition waiver and a $1500pm stipend. Would this amount (before taxes) be good enough for a couple in Atlanta to lead a simple life? How much do 1BR apartments near the campus rent for?

Yes it is. I received a similar email from UCSD, from a professor who I've been in touch with for half a year now, someone who even advised me which journal to submit my paper to (after it was rejected by JASA due to scope reasons alone), and she subsequently advised me on the rest of my applications too! It indeed is a sad situation in CA.

Not to mention the hour-long phone calls twice or thrice a day! (Had a great service provider that thought it was being smart by charging a somewhat high amount for free national calls. I probably used 4 times as much call time while paying that fixed sum.)

I met mine when she sang backing vocals for me at a pink floyd tribute concert that we did in my hometown. It was a summer break and I was studying about a 1000 miles (and a 50 hour train journey) away from home. We fell in love and had a long distance relationship with yearly meetings and goodbye tears for 3 years now. We're getting married in June and she's accompanying me to the US as she's finished her masters in Physics and has no specific plans for the moment. You can make anything work as long as your love is strong enough.

How well regarded is Psychology@ McMaster?

I'm in a tight spot and really need some reliable information. What's stopping me from accepting excellent offers is the fact that the F2 visa (on which my wife would accompany me to the US) has restrictions that strictly forbid the holder from working. Now I heard that things might be different in Canada. Is it possible for my wife to get a dependent visa (Canadian equivalent) which will also let her work in Canada?

She's very well trained in Indian Classical Music (voice) and that normally has a lot of takers. She also has completed her masters in Physics. So yes, she can tutor and her visa restrictions are indeed our biggest problem. I've heard that people do it but I've heard about the rare cases in which people have been caught and sent back to their countries and I don't want to take that risk. People get caught in the most bizarre ways. I heard this story from a friend in Boston (who attends Berklee). There was this international affairs staff member was who getting married and hence hired a band. There was this Israeli chap in the band. The person who hired the band had to report him because that was her job! The Israeli was sent back to his country. You never know who's going to come seeking your services, and its always a risky thing to do. I've heard that its possible to get your spouse a visa with a work permit if its Canada. Does anybody know about this? In that case, if McMaster offers me a place (there is a good chance they will), I might lean towards it.

I've heard from some (negative) but on prompting them via email. Some of them are cog psych @ UCD, UCSD (formal, without any prompting), UCB(upon heavy prompting),Minnesota. BCS @ MIT and Rochester also turned out to be negative. Info from these places also came after I bugged them big time.. I've never received anything official from any of these places. I wonder what they spend the $80 on. (I understand some of that goes into compensation for manual processing of the applications, but they get salaries for doing that too! It is only fair that they send official notifications to everybody regardless of acceptances and rejections).

Northwestern University: I need some urgent advice as I'm in a real tight spot. I plan to bring along my wife with me. Now my stipend is $20.5K per year inclusive of summer funding. After taxes that will come to around $1500 per month. From my search, I found that a 1BR apartment in a cheap area near NU would cost around $800-900. The remaining $600 would be insufficient to support two people in Chicago (as I'll have to pay for books and supplies, my wife's insurance, etc). I hear that we might get back all the tax amount when we file for tax returns. Is that true (I'm an Indian citizen)? Then does that mean that I will get the entire amount of $20.5 effectively per year? The professor also wrote to me and said that it was highly risky to support two people on one stipend and that if I must decline their offer due to this, they would understand. I however really have not many other offers left to choose from. One is Ohio State University but there are lots of problems there, low stipend and not a good research fit. The other is McMaster in Canada, again too low a stipend (but great research fit, and yet to hear from them officially). I was thinking that if a 1BR apartment is so costly, might I be able to get a cheaper studio?? A couple can stay in a studio (even if it means lesser privacy). How much do you think a studio could cost me? Do you have any advice for me and do you think I can make this work on such a stipend? Please do give me all the advice (on financial matters) that you can, I'll appreciate that immensely! What other expenses must I foresee? I'm freaking out now. I had counted on OSU to give me a fair stipend. Turns out that they offer just $11360 for 9 months and the professor who offered to fund my summers want me to work on a theme for the entire duration of my PhD that is far removed from my primary research interest! So unless I find somebody who would be willing to fund my summers who is also interested in what I'm interested in, OSU might not work at all. So basically I'm left with just Northwestern and I really really need to make this work and I don't quite see how I'll do that

^ I couldn't agree more. I'm myself from a country where students do collaborate or solve questions in groups, or even look up solutions on the internet but I'm fully aware that this is not the way things work there in the US! I wouldn't do any of this unless the instructor explicitly okays any of it.

Woah! My condolences :|

Definitely sounds positive. You may cautiously raise your hopes a bit Good luck!

Yes, I'd believe so! These GPA cut offs are not normally very strict ones.

So as I understand it, you want to be doing stats but if you attend Stan, you'll end up doing applied stats. If you are sure about your primary research goals and if academia is your career path, and if you're already sure that school ranked #3 has many opportunities, I'd say go for it! Unless of course you're able to find somebody right away in Stanford who would enable you to do similar work there. Yes, it being Stanford, there's a definite possibility, but I'd say make sure before you accept rather than going there with just high hopes and a song on your lips

Has anybody applied to this new PhD program? http://www.cogsci.umn.edu/ If so, has anybody heard from here? Also, please tell me about how good this program might turn out to be.. is it risky to attend if accepted since this is only their first year?

1) (Assuming that 1) fits your interests better than Stan) You are not nuts. If you get to do what you really want to do in a top 10 school, it wouldn't even matter! Stanford might be attractive but if your career takes a different turn due to your inability to study exactly what you want to study, it might actually be detrimental to your cause. Its a blessing to have a best research fit, a good funding situation and a top ranked school at your disposal. Make full use of it!

NOTHING tops your ordeal my friend, esp the Irvine one. How terrible!

Thanks for the info.. I'll get to know the exact amount today and I'll get back here and let you know so that you can tell me how easy/difficult life will be on that amount. My offer letter says that my funding is guaranteed for the first five *academic years* where one academic year runs from Oct1 to Jun30. Could anybody tell me about what activities graduate students who don't get funded for the summers engage in? I'm an international student and I might not be able to afford to pay for my flight tickets back and forth from home in the summer. I do hope I get to work on some project or the other and thereby have some summer earnings.. With a wife to support, every penny counts. Thanks for all the advice!

Since you haven't heard about financial aid, this is what you could do. In the event that you're not offered financial aid, you can request them for a deferral (for financial reasons) and then ask them next year for some financial aid when the economy is much better and so next year, if you still don't get into your first choice, you could go to this school, hopefully with full financial aid. Also, you could attend school #2 for the time being and reapply to school #1 next year while studying at #2. Is that not possible? What do you intend to do if you don't attend school this year?

I take back all that I said to you earlier in this thread. You do seem to be unrepentant. A thief is not one who stole and never was caught?! So you mean its okay for me to steal your new ferrari as long as you don't catch me and I'm not a thief if you don't catch me? :shock: Copying one solution for an assignment is one thing (not fine at all but lets leave it at that) but it looks like you're a habitual offender going by your statements.

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=16510 Use the cost of living calculator to get an estimate of the equivalent amount in NY. Edit: May not be very helpful. I tried. Suffolk county isn't on the drop down menu. However, Urbana Champaign 18K was equivalent to 39K in Manhattan! (So I'm guessing 18K in Urbana Champaign is a pretty good amount. Don't knw about 29K in Stony Brook).