Usmivka

nbl, I think you should contact the departmental admissions office and ask if all acceptances are out--if they are, you have your answer. The prof may know as well, particularly if they were angling to get you as their student. But if you weren't their top choice they may not have any insight as to what happened to your application, and they may have higher priorities than getting back to you about it. If you are set on a graduate degree, don't get into MIT, and want to apply again next year, you should consider what you need to do to strengthen your application. It also seems like applying to multiple schools you would be happy with would be a good step--even when you are absolutely confident in the outcome things can go wrong. There are some spring admits in certain programs if you aren't willing to wait a full year.

This is unfortunate, but not insurmountable. Presumably you were working primarily on classes and a quals project for your first couple years, so you haven't lost that much time towards PhD. I know a number of chemistry grads who have switched advisors at the end of their second year--in some departments it is even encouraged to rotate or work with other profs for awhile before deciding on a lab that is a good fit, so I think it is still possible to do quality work on a shorter timeline. If you have a while to figure things out, I'd start by zeroing in on some areas of interest and talking to profs that work in those areas--you don't have to keep doing what you have been, particularly if you find the physics overwhelming--I'm a physical chemist, I know the feeling!

If you are only moving 300 miles you ought to rent a truck. It will be significantly less expensive and less can go wrong. If you are bound and determined to get a pod, I had a pretty good experience moving cross country with ABF UPack, it cost me about $500. It is worth finding out where the pod will be dropped off if you aren't planning to pay the premium for door to door shipping (in my city the cost was prohibitive because street use permits were required too). Our pod ended up about 1.5 hours from our home where land is cheaper for the freight companies, and was dropped off immediately before a hurricane--because the storage lot was in a swampy area, several of the pods (although luckily not ours) were flooded. Also, some items were damaged by heat, since the pods are metal and fry in the sun. Be sure to itemize for insurance, the basic coverage provided with the pods is pretty minimal (a few hundred dollars per item, does not scale with actual value beyond $500) and won't cover replacement cost for anything big.

Hi DNAgyrase. You aren't alone. It may be that "keeping up" as you've defined it isn't possible--maybe we need to revise expectations of what is sufficient. I know I can't do everything that crosses my desk. One of the key things I've learned in my program is that I can't do everything as well as it ought to be done, and I need to engage in a little triage so I can focus on the most important things in making progress towards my thesis. Long days and hard work are par for the course, but I find them much more bearable if I focus on what I can and have accomplished rather than how much I should be doing.

But this isn't how it comes across. And people who ask for opinions on whatever subject deserve an honest answer, not just those you personally deem acceptable. Nuance doesn't come across well on forums like this, so unless you take the time to describe your positions and opinions in more than one to two words (as you did here but have not previously), it comes across as dismissive.

I'd suggest that uromastyx doesn't know any more than you. He's been going out of his way to put down and downvote folks asking about admissions to "brand name" schools, which I suspect is the reason for that response. I'm sure he'll downvote me for saying so, but that is my honest assement. See for example this

The easiest way to determine this would be ot contact the department and ask if all admissions have been sent. The folks who post on the results forum are only a small subsection of the total accepted class. I don't have specific experience with CS at MIT, but I can tell you that other departments do not follow the pattern you've described (although of course any department can run things differently). What I've seen in other engineering and science programs at MIT is that they send our their top picks early, then their definite rejections, and then spend a long time hashing over the folks in the middle, deciding who gets an offer or doesn't based on a lot of internal horse-trading between profs. Separating the almost from just-made it applicants is tough and time consuming. And if you are on a waitlist, you won't necessarily be informed quickly, and it can take even longer to resolve.

I'm not following you entirely, but if the funding is coded "miscellaneous" or some equivalent, then there are no restrictions on how it is spent. Most grants have a large portion earmarked for specific expenses (including salaries and contracting), and some excess (5-15%) specifically written in for miscellaneous use. This is how I was paid as an undergrad in a lab, albeit on an NSF grant. This seems like a highly specific question though, given where you steered the response. It seems like the best place to find the answer is to look at the NIH grant guide that covers all financial aspects in detail. If the answer doesn't spring out at you, contact the program office that the grant was issued under. Or even better, contact your departmental administrator, since s/he will have a lot of experience with submitting and administering grants. Since you are asking here, I'm assuming you are a grad student and want to bring in an undergrad helper for some period of time, but are trying to do the legwork before bringing the idea to your PI. It seems like your PI might already know the answer, or be able to easily get it from the grant administrators (at the university or at NIH) though.

Yes. Write it into the grant, possibly under "broader impacts" or whatever NIH's version of this is.

The University as a whole may have certain admissions requirements (minimum GPA, required coursework, etc). A department rarely nominates someone for admission that doesn't meet the requirements, but it does occasionally happen. I know a of only a couple instances.

In Engineering or the sciences, doing a masters in one place and then transferring will nearly always increase time to graduation. Be ready to commit and do well enough to proceed wherever you go, a transfer will be a pain in the ass. I think if industry and "connections" are your ultimate goal, MIT is a superior choice as an engineer given its cache and business spinoffs (MIT born businesses, grouped, make something between the 11th and 17th largest economy in the world). I don't buy the alumni network thing, Princeton isn't top on any lists I've seen (here is one, which has both PU and MIT in the top 10). If you remove law and business students/schools from consideration--its arguable how much you will interact with the old boys club as an engineer--then places like USC[alifornia] and big state schools break the Ivy stranglehold. And regardless, MIT is cross enrolled with Harvard and shares many events and facilities, so you'd still have Ivy connections. But if Princeton is the better fit for other reasons (again, advisor first and always), I know their grad stipend is awesome and students make bank while they are there. I'm pretty sure most MIT ME/MSs are funded, so I don't think the MS vs PhD admission should be a deal breaker over the more important issues of fit and happiness.

This is actually how I cope...sometimes I think he can see into my mind.

Quincy is 15-20 minutes by subway from downtown. It takes me longer to get home to JP, which actually is part of Boston, than to get to Quincy. It would be a horrendously long trip to BC though, the B line to BC is notorious as the slowest and least pleasant of the T lines. And if neither of you are drivers, you will either have to live close to the B (the corridor it runs along through Allston and Boylston is appropriately known as "student hell" to non-undergrads) or pony up to pay high rents close to BC. Also check out bus connections from neighborhoods you like, if you look in Watertown, Newton, or Brigham Circle there might be buses that get you there and avoid the B line.

Whichever one has the better advisor fit. You will be working with one primary person at either location, so how do your research interests mesh? Have you met these people? This, as always, is the most important consideration. Secondarily, what would your peers be like? I am continually blown away by the intelligence, engagement, and empathy of my peers at MIT, and they make grad school a lot more fun. Princeton also attracts great people, but it is definitely a smaller community, so the specific people in your program could make a big difference in how much you enjoy it. Visiting each program and interacting with students will give you a good fell for which is a better fit. Third, the city? One is in a major metro area, the other in a sort of sleepy university town. Do you prefer/dislike either environment? Other considerations include what MITs retention rate is for MS students continuing to PhD. The reason they only accept MS students is that MIT engineering is notorious for washing people out at quals who don't meet expectations. If you are confident in your abilities, this shouldn't matter and your PhD would end up coming from MIT, which is about the most prestigious degree possible in the engineering world. I'll point out that Princeton may be accepting you into a PhD program, but exactly the same things could happen--you could fail quals and leave with an masters. This is true of any program, MIT is just being honest about it. EDIT: you double posted this.

I used sub headings on portions of school and fellowship apps and no one had any issues with these. I don't think it is the "no-no" being portrayed here. But for 500 words it is hard to imagine subdivision being necessary.

1. Group housing 2. Less desirable neighborhoods and cities (eg Dorchester instead of Southie, Quincy instead if Cambridge) 3. Start a lease anytime besides September when every other student is looking and prices are highest 4. Buy instead of rent if you can make the down payment ~30% of the greater Boston area population are either students or involved in the universities in some sense (it's spooky in the summer...). That means a never ending supply of new renters. Add on top the housing crash a few years back and resultant credit crunch, and you have a lot of additional folks renting who might otherwise be (or still be) in places they own. Lots of demand, limited supply (not as many new buildings going up post bust), and prices go up even for the lowest quality units if they are close to the schools. Take some time to visit and decide what neighborhoods you would or wouldn't be comfortable living in, it may be that you can afford to live somewhere you are fine with but isn't at the center of the student melee. And the last time I checked, average rent in is highest in SF, and Boston and NYC are lower and usually pretty comparable, depending on who's rankings you believe and what year they were done--the point is, it shouldn't be a huge surprise that Boston seems at least as expensive, especially since NYC has rent controlled units while Boston does not. Also, Boston College is not in Boston, you know this right? It is in Chesnut Hill, surrounded by Brookline and Newton, two of the most expensive cities in the area. This could be part of your sticker shock.

It's a small city. It has easy access to the Cascades if you like to hike, there is a robust "outdoors" community, and the surrounding landscape is striking. There are some interesting paleontological and archaeological sites in the surrounding area that you can visit, if you are into that sort of thing. Because it is on the Columbia Plateau, the climate is pretty different than what you might think of for Washington. I'd take a look at climatologies on wunderground or some other weather site to get an idea what that entails, but the weather is much drier and more seasonal. I think the biggest cultural thing is the annual rodeo, but the one in Pendleton is better, although a long drive. Because it is a college town, it has more going on than comparably sized cities in the region, but that is still fairly minimal compared to any major city.

I think talking this over with your advisors is a good place to start, they may have good ideas and you may want a letter of rec from them to apply again if that is what you decide to do. If you don't think this PhD is going to help you towards your goal, then I think there is no reason to waste time. As soon as you have another option, move on. I do wonder though whether you could make it applicable, as WA suggested above. If you are working on extremeophiles, couldn't you focus on the cell biology or compounds of interest derived from the critters that might ultimately have biomedical or chemical synthesis applications for your thesis? It strikes me that right now you are most likely pre-qualifying exam (since you said it would be a 5 year program, despite already having an MS, and you are still taking classes), so you probably aren't working on "your own" project yet. You will have a lot of flexibility to develop a proposal to do exactly what you want once you advance to candidacy, but you may need to put in a lot of though and time to find your own funding and build a helpful committee if this isn't the current focus of the lab. You may find that your current advisor is very supportive of this, or you may need to switch advisors or choose a co-advisor. Since you are still taking classes, perhaps you should enroll in some extra-departmental classes (eg in a bioengineering or microbiology department) that do hold your interest--your academic committee will probably be supportive if you make a case for why class X is more useful to your education than class Y, or some such.

So does that mean you could put #2 to coding, or are they not detail oriented enough or some such? I know I never let REUs near my data entry or flagging even though it is my least favorite job, but if it is something you can safely entrust, this seems like a good option. If there really is some place where the pace of work by #2 doesn't affect your progress, then you haven't lost anything, but might gain something by keeping #2 on. The danger is when you are reliant on someone who doesn't complete what you need in a timely manner--otherwise you have to do the job yourself, plus manage the non-performer. Based on the "invitation," perhaps your PI could simply not invite #2 to continue next semester ("Thanks for your help, but we don't have work that is easily separated from...this semester")? That is waiting, which I still think could go really wrong, but that would only be, what, 10 weeks from now? Regardless of whether the solution is more active or passive, if you are the only RA, this is your job--the work quality and pace are your responsibility. I'd be very hesitant to let someone else stay attached that could decrease either. It might still be possible to identify a project that is more "fun" for #2 and direct them towards it and out of your hair.

That wasn't meant to convey any attitude. I originally wrote the comment assuming that bottle washing was a valid solution. I edited it when I saw that this wasn't in a science field (where there is always lots of important but tedious work like bottle washing). When I edit, I don't totally rewrite a post, I just add to it. It bugs me that you assume I was being flippant or dismissive of other fields--in fact I felt that a field like education was much less likely to have trivial busy work than my own, hence the need change my comment and elaborate in a more constructive way. So I guess we both rubbed each other wrong. WV, sorry to hijack the thread. I'm sorry about the situation, and think that ending this now will lead to less unpleasantness than allowing things to devolve. If you have to, perhaps you can ask your PI to step in and say that it wasn't really OK to bring in others/you didn't ask, whatevs to wrap up the issue. Then you can apologize profusely for not checking first and chalk it up to a learning experience--the white lie and taking some trivial blame might make things smoother for everyone.

If they are only contributing a couple hours a week and don't expect authorship, why not shove off the bottle washing on them? WAIT, not science, sorry! OK, I think you've got to be proactive here. Perhaps you should say that you realized the project is really not structured for three researchers and you and #1 have already invested a lot of time on it together and want to continue alone? If you have some suggestions for alternatives for #2, that would lessen the blow. I don't have great advice I'm afraid, but your advisor might. I agree, waiting it out is a poor choice regardless.

I'd be amazed if there were more than a handful. Business school is a business, and the trade off for a potentially lucrative career is that students are expected to invest up front. Individual schools may have competetive scholarships or partial tuition waivers, but unless you belong to a special interest group (with a dedicated society and fundraisers that prioritize funding professional programs...the criteria go on) there are likely very few nationwide fellowships or scholarships. In fact, I doubt there any fellowships at all (a stipend plus tuition).

Yeah, but for all you know it was his school plus one of the big state schools that were being referred to! It's common knowledge that for grad studies not all Ivies are equal. In aceademia a big research university and a Ivy aren't going to be viewed as that different by search committees (speaking as a former student rep on faculty search committees at both an R1 state university and a brand name private school). The real problem here for you is not academic snobbery but brand name recognition by hirers in industry--coming from an Ivy or otherwise widely known and respected school will count for a lot more in hiring and salary negotiation in industry. The unfortunate truth is that most folks in industry don't get the nuances of departmental strength versus name recognition at the whole university level, and assume that the name brand school puts out better workers, even if very weak in your field. And it is a fairly course understanding at that, a lot of folks you apply with will think of the schools in terms of what they thought of as prestigious schools from their perspective of as high schoolers or college undergrads--there is little recognition that a brand name college may not produce the same skillsets that public schools are geared for (industry ready technical skills) or that the same institution may be middling or worse in terms of graduate studies, and that this varies greatly by field. Business types (the ones making the hiring decisions) know and care a lot about brand name.

Advisor first and always, but if you are "tied" between advisors I'd go with the bigger school. You'll have more resources, more peers and social/cultural opportunities, and, if things go poorly, you'll have more faculty and projects that you can switch to if needed.

ETH Zurich is known in the US. TU Delft is not. If that makes any difference to you.