Usmivka

Already did above. The point was that the concerns voiced by others aren't unfounded. Also, if you bothered to read the posts of many above, you'd notice that they were written by people with long familiarity with Seattle and the Central District (ie more than your 2 years)--you can disagree with opinions, but dismissing them as the product of "quick judgements" and misinformation isn't productive. And as already stated, the major issue with encouraging students from out of town and no familiarity with Seattle to live in the CD with an all positives, no problems attitude is that they 1. don't necessarily know what they are getting into, and 2. it drives away the diversity you enjoy so much through gentrification (particularly the tearing down of those nice old homes and replacement with trendy townhomes bought with out of town wealth). Oh, and 3. the subpar public transit to more or less anywhere.

Not in Boston, all three at once are legal here. Link. Also, $1500 for a one bedroom is very close to average, not rare as stated in AbrasaxEos' post. It may be low for a particular neighborhood, but not for the city as a whole. In fact the average rent is largely up-shifted by very high rents in just a few swankeir cities and neighborhoods, like Cambridge, Brookline, Beacon Hill, and Back Bay. $1500 would be at the high end in many of the neighborhoods recommended above--finding cheaper takes patience and a willingness/sbility to move in anytime other than September.

I think most acceptances are out. The open house date has been set for the third week of March and meeting schedules are being set up right now based on prospectives' interests. I'd encourage you to directly contact the administration office if you need a difinitive answer.

Some schools actually are still making decisions. In my program, they select their top admits right away, then take a couple weeks of horse trading to decide who (which advisor) gets their favored grad student applicant. Only when that is done do rejections go out. It can take a lot of time to separate the "just made it" applicants from the "barely didn't." Other admissions systems can be used as well. For example, when my partner was applying to a biology related field, at least half of the final admits at the places she applied to were not accepted until April or early May. This is because the same pool of top applicants was accepted everywhere, and the schools had to wait until that group made decisions (and thus opened up slots at the places they decided not to go) before filling up the class. The decision deadline is April 15, hence some folks on the waitlist didn't know until late April. Further down on the waitlist means waiting for higher choice applicants to decline, hence the early May final decisions--the timing is something somewhat outside the school's control, hence the vague deadlines and lack of transparency. In this case the schools aren't being malicious--rather your fellow applicants are holding you hostage by not making speedy decisions.

Hopefully someone with knowledge specific about the departments will respond. I can only speak to the environment, but I sure love Seattle and the UW campus. But I can also see being really turned off by Seattle's weather or prefering the city oppotunities of the greater LA area. Maybe check out the city guide for more ideas about which community would be a better fit, assuming the departments/advisors seem equivalent to you?

I didn't spin it at all, I just spelled out why I thought my project had societal (not military) importance. It was carbon cycle/anthropogenic change related, and the Navy picked it up anyway. I think this was actually discussed in some detail earlier in this thread or maybe in last year's, but the folks reviewing your proposal are scientists (univeristy, private institution, government). They care about science first and foremost, then recommend you to DoD which sends you on to the relevant branch for consideration. It doesn't matter if your project is super in line with military priorities if it isn't a good proposal. It seems like good practice to put in a sentence or two that say what the pertinence is, as giles suggested, but I think more than that is just stealing room you need to make a fleshed out proposal in extremely limited space.

Good. As reliable as any--schedules are conditional, and you may wait 15 minutes. You can bike. 2am-ish. Not any more. I do think Phinney Ridge, Wallingford, and northern Ballard are quieter and cheaper than much of Cap Hill, but I've never found an apartment in the particular area specified by ComposerX that was within my price range. If I had, I'd live there in a heartbeat.

Way to revive a long dead thread. I grew up close to Sidney, BC, hence the spelling, no need to attack my credibility. It was the OPer that used the term "not strong," and only in conjecture--I'm fairly certain he did not intend it as a personal attack on you. At any rate, both he and I were speaking specifically to oceanography departments, not paleontology (where you are working) or mathematics departments (which is where UNSWs oceanography researchers appear to be nested). I focused on the global recognition of programs, and you seem to reinforce my point--a significant portion of the globally recognized work in oceanography that takes place in Australia is not coming out of Australian universities, perhaps because of the factors you identified related to publication and funding.

What do you mean by healthy? It is good for employers, certainly, just like the area around any large undergrad population. Any particular type of work? And I assume you mean Seattle's warm, dry summers and clement winters? I don't know how many times I have to convince people to look at a climatology for Seattle, it rains less than most big cities outside of the Southwest--it is classified as having a "Mediterranean" climate for a reason, and almost all the precipitation is concentrated in only a couple months of Fall. Okay, vented, and on to your question--balconies are about as common as in any other city I've spent time in, 30-40% of units depending on the neighborhood. More common in big buildings or neighborhoods with lots of older housing stock. I lived in 5 apartments while in Seattle, 2 had balconies (and 1 had a veranda, which is the same difference to me).

It might help prospective buyers/renter to evaluate your experience and how it could inform them if you said what sort of city you are living in. You have lots of great advice, and I agree with it by and large, but I know that where I am, my anecdotes are sometimes virtually the opposite of yours. I'm in Boston, and rental prices have gone up 7-10% every year, while condo units have shown slower but steady gains in sale prices since 2010. My homeowner's insurance is about half the price my renter's insurance was, and I only moved three blocks, so it isn't a difference in neighborhood--my insurance rep said that their formulas assume a renter my age in Boston is significantly more likely to make a claim than a homeowner, so the price difference in a city could depend heavily on how much of a "college town" you live in. And I do have duplicate coverage, but my HOA has master insurance that covers the structure including the unit and appliances inside ("walls-in"). I agree that checking on reserves and structural issues is always a good idea, but the same issue is true for renting--right before we moved into our last rental some kids upstairs had a house party that collapsed the back deck and ripped the back wall off three stories of the house--everyone in the house previously was kicked out for repairs and got minimal relocation assistance, so their out of pocket costs were about the same as a mid-size assesment. The owner didn't have enough money to cover his liability, so he ended up being a real scheister thereafter too, upping the rent massively, confiscating some occupants' security deposits with barely justifiable pretenses, and transferring all his cash assets overseas. And the sales fees and insurance and maintenance expenses and many other factors are taken into account or estimated in the above calculator. It sounds like emorygrad87 is doing what I did, and assuming a worst case scenario--even steady state in the rental and housing markets, plus taking a year to sell, would be an improvement over my baseline assumptions and the savings are still tremendous. I agree, as before, that 15k isn't enough of a buffer to be worth the hassle and risk. But even in the short term, if rent is much more than the mortgage then the money saved and used for other things now is worth more than the cost of floating the unit later, when inflation has decreased the real value of the debt and we presumably have higher paying jobs (if we believe economists that money now is worth more than money later).

I blamed our move (and thus my decision) on my partner, along the lines of "I had no choice in the matter!"

You may find useful as well, but I think your case is different in that you are actively considering the school still. I think the key thing fuzzylogician said above (from my perspective) is that "you should inform the school as soon as you can so that they can make arrangements accordingly." They very well may lose the opportunity to nominate anyone else for the fellowship if you don't respond fast enough (if it is a univeristy wide fellowship), but they should have asked you how serious you are about attending before they nominated you if this was a really big concern on their end. They might appreciate a realistic timeline from you though, eg "I expect to be decided by...".

Caveat, everything I say is based on Boston and assumign a similarly terrifying rental market. I agree that you should avoid preleasing for August or September. These places are often the most expensive and int he worst shape because they are geared towards undergrads. If at all possible, sign a lease in Winter or Spring. Selection may be a little lower, but prices will be much lower, and the landlords renting at this are looking for better, long term tenants. As such, they tend to be a bit more invested in you and responsive ot concerns. Also, padmapper seems to show things days after craigslist, which in my market means it is already gone by the time you see it. My first year out here I got sucked into the September housing crush, and places would be rented before I could arrive on site, even if I scheduled an appointment with the landlord within an hour of the posting--this happened several times in a row!

Seattle to Boston. About as far as you can go without a maritime leg. But each city is on one end of I-90. Prices go up significantly if you aren't going to/from one of their hubs. Also, as I mentioned above, I did not use door to door delivery, I loaded and unpacked at their warehouses. Another thing to consider, was the cost for your actual move date? If so, is your move date felxible? Prices double or triple around September when everyone else wants to move too--the service comes with a month of free storage, so there is no reason to fall into this trap. Finally, if you only have a few large items, I've heard from people that have had good luck shipping by Amtrak (they have a surprisingly affordable, but slow cargo service) or truck freight (you have to find and pack your own pallets in both cases). And if you are willing to get second hand stuff for $800, that is going to be much less of a hassle even if shipping was $300 cheaper (don't forget trucks and packing at each end!). You can probably even find furnished apartments or get stuff from other students in your program--folks in mine are always giving away stuff around September.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html Be sure to use the advanced settings to take into account things like security deposits, local taxes, etc. I also think their default assumptions for increasing property value are too high for most parts of the country, and the assumed rent increase too low. We bought a year after starting grad school, and it looks like we'll save 30-60k over renting in just those four years (depends on whether the unit gains value or not, and even greater savings than that if rents continue to rise at 7-10% in our area as they have been). But we live in a very expensive rental market where condos, and our unit was bought far under market value so we are very confident of selling it, so the math was more in our favor than it might be for you. Origination fees should be fairly minimal compared to the unit cost, but if your margin is only 15k it probably isn't worth the hassle and lack of flexibility that come with home ownership--for example you can't move quickly if your neighbors are shitty or circumstances change. I honestly don't think it is worth it unless the savings are something you will really notice (eg more than a few thousand a year) or it is your dream unit. Better to save your money for a home wherever you settle for the long term after grad school, in my opinion. Mortgage apps and house hunting were also essentially a full time job for a few months. Also, unless you can pay full asking price in cash, you will probably need to find a "non-conforming" loan (exceedingly hard to get post 2012 finacial reforms)--this is because most of us were previously in the work force (got W-2s), and when we switch to getting fellowships (1099-MISC) it is considered changing job type to "self-employed," and you are expected to have a 2-5 year work history proving sufficient income on the 1099s. Rediculous, I know, but try convincing the bank that your income is gauranteed despite the 1099 and you'll see how difficult this is. I had better luck with local credit unions that offered "portfolio loans," Fannie/Freddie and the big banks won't touch you.

Academics taking the day off?! What sort of craziness is this?

Congrats, looking forward to meeting you. Sounds like you have lots of other good options too.

Oceanography programs as a whole average around 6.5 years, but those stats (from NSF) are a few years old and based on a time period stretching back to the 90s--in other words they reflect the pre-recession status quo. Scripps and the other big oceanography schools are making a concerted effort push graduation times towards 5 years, of for no other reason than to keep costs down. The UC system in particular has been hard hit by funding cuts, so it is definitely to their advantage to keep times down (unless the PI picks up the full cost--most don't). I think 5.5-6 years is still normal (this is based on WHOI and UW, not Scripps), but those very long (6+ year) graduation times are becoming very rare. Other things that go into graduation times is whether you swap advisors, whether you are trying to complete a MS as well (if not 'included' with the PhD), and how many publications you are trying to get out. Another big factor is not saying 'no' to advisors and colleagues that ask you to help with projects that aren't directly related to your thesis. If you meet with your advisor right off the bat and the two of you set out clear expectations (including your timeline) you are less likely to get roped into a long degree.

But you are still going out of your way to make people feel bad. You've been unnecessarily dismissive of others without taking the time to consider their situations, and respond with mostly negative posts of only a few words (and in incredible numbers considering your post count and how recently you joined the forum). For example in this case, UW Tacoma and Bothell have lower admissions criteria than the main UW campus, and don't have GRE cutoffs. As someone with experience in the UW system, I think those are acceptable scores if other aspects of the application are strong--the whole point of those campuses is to provide opportunities to non-traditional students, who often have lower GRE scores. Finally, those percentile ranks are based on a fairly out of date score concordance table, and don't necessarily reflect conditions when cooljerri took the test. Yes cooljerri needs to work to improve those scores. But they are not an automatic rejection, which is what the OPer actually asked about. Also, I appreciate that you didn't like me calling you out in , but digging up to downvote seems uncalled for (although I did predict it in thread 1 : /). I think this this forum can and should be a collegial.

This is a requirement based on federal law and the employment status of grad students. Support that originates in public funds has certain strings attached. One of the caveats is that you are expected to be working on the projects funded by taxpayer money, not a) not "stealing" time/support by working on the side (obviously I disagree with the premise, hence the quotation marks) or b ) being taken advantage of by your university and forced to work multiple TA/RA jobs. This is going to be common across all grad programs where the funding originates from public funds. The way to get around this is if your money comes from a private organization or your university's endowment, but in either case they may (and often do) still write up a contract that specifies the same thing. So not that I've ever seen consequences more severe than being forced to quit a job or get booted from a program, but you are entering a legal contract when you accept funding, and are assumed to be abiding by the terms of contract. Additionally, if you are audited while receiving fellowship aid and working a second job, you could find yourself barred from using educational tax credits that you would otherwise have been eligible for. The way I normally see people get around this is to only work off the books, with no 1099 or W-2, but this is technically against employment law. I'm not saying you cant do it and get away with it (many do), but you should consider whether you feel ethically OK with this scenario.

Why try to revive this dead thread three and a half months later? The original poster only made one post, and application season is over, so not only is the their question no longer pertinent (if it ever was in this forum, still not about a physical science), but it is most likely they will never even see your answer, which still doesn't get at what they wanted to know.

My program is transitioning to a hard and fast cutoff at 5 years because of general economic woes, although the average time to degree previously has been more like 6 years. Even those of us with outside funding for a large chunk of our time aren't getting much extra leeway, a semester at most. Obviously this affects how much you can get done during your degree.

Well, better an internal audit than massive fines from the feds, the penalization level is high enough to effectively shutter departments at smaller schools.

Which USC? South Carolina or Southern California?

Isn't that true. Whenever we have visiting students they've all applied to the same 3-4 places, and they usually just came from some other recruitment weekend where they were all present together! Sometimes it seems like whole groups go to one school because they became friends during the many shared recruiting visits, and all decided on a place together!