moommoombaba

3 /4 unit is for people whose credit per quarter is capped at 10. i.e those who has TA/RA and those who go the 5 quarters route. speaking as a 2009 structural admit who graduated last june in 3 quarters, working part time with 15/16 units workload is just not possible. heck i don't even think working 20 hrs a week is a good idea with 'only' 3 classes. I tried working part time with 4 classes and it's just painful. You will be so loaded up with homework and projects that you will want some spare time to catch a break. some of the works are just plain time consuming. on average i spent 8 hours a day doing work not including lecture time. sometimes you can spend the entire day rushing deadline.... if i can pick again i would do 5 quarters because 1. lighter workload, more fun, more classes total. 2.you can intern over the summer and then the chance you would get a job after graduation will be much higher. this year a lot of grad couldn't get a job...

wow everyone is staying on campus? anyone is living off campus?? off campus housing is a better option for me and i was very fortunate to find a place to stay. I will be staying at my friend's house in PA just 2 miles away from campus. it's a very good timing too just when her brother is moving out

Grad plus loans is at 8.5% it's crazily high considering the type of the economy we are in. i just thought we are in a recession and loan rate would drop. i am offered 2/3 of my COA from Grad plus, but i am not taking out a single penny from it even i need some of it. instead i got a loan through an unusual mean (from a foreign bank, at 4.7%!!)

Not sure for Colorado but it's 6 years for California, where i am from, sorry that I forgot to mention it. i am surprised it would take 2 years longer in other state. otherwise what you said about the PE is true. hence i said 2 years of experience assuming you took 4 years (or more) for undergrad, in california anyways and in california there is no requirement of a board meeting. references and prereq's are simply reviewed with the application in their office

some schools don't accept anything other than what they ask for in their guideline. most schools do their app online now and the only hardcopy supplement they would accept is the LOR. check your school's guideline. however, you can definitely mention you are EIT certified in your SOP. If they want to see proof they will ask for it. but IMO EIT isn't that helpful in making you competitive, mainly because it is only a prerequisite to PE AND that it is a Pass or no pass exam. Now a PE is much better because it means you have had at least 2 years of experience and the ability to pass the test for the license.

i am surprised you are rejected from MIT considering you did research there. You have GREAT stats also. is it really that competitive there?? If i were you it would be hard to sleep on it but hey it is their loss.

i can feel you. i asked for LOR around june, boss was very supportive of it, then went on vacation during thanksgiving and first day of work after that was *bang* 'i am sorry but you just got laid off'. the only good side was i was able to spend much more time on my applications and essays. luckily right now i got employed again and my current boss is willing to keep me as part time during grad school, so the whole laid off thing wasn't so bad afterall.

well good luck to you!! You should be able to get loans, unless your estimated contribution is really high. I filled out my FAFSA too but my student contribution is way lower than the cost of living, so even i worked full time last year I am sure I will be eligible for some loans.. or they think just cuz we worked full time the previous year we would have enough money to afford grad school full time? i couldn't afford it even with my full yearly salary!! i dun know if they really look at the student contribution, i mean, it's not like we are getting free money, we just want loans which we are going to pay back eventually, so why does it matter if they THINK we COULD have high student contribution??

My boss at my current job let me work part time from home when i go back to grad school. I made my decision to go to stanford but i still haven't officially accepted the admission yet. i will probably do it over the weekend yeah that's definitely a right decision. I just can't see myself passing up the opportunity to go to a very good program at a very prestige school. btw from visitation day i heard that there are always very few numbers of phd applicants got accepted into each program, at least structural one is like that.. If i heard it correctly they say there is open spot only when a current phd student graduates. so this year there are like 7 new phd students or something?? not a lot.. it is definitely very competitive. I am not going to pursue a phd tho so i didn't confirm what he said. does that sound right?

I did just as well as I thought i would.. I got into all the programs that I applied to. However, at one point, I was worried that I was on the waitlist for my top choice because people started getting acceptance but not me. Nevertheless I received the admission letter later but found out the letter was dated way back among the first round of admission letters sent out, it just took more than 3 WEEKS to get to my place. Can you imagine how much anxiety I had for those 3 weeks? Financially though, I am not doing too well...

That's exactly what i felt when I looked at the cost yesterday after finding out I am merely on the wait list for fellowships which means i have high chance not getting anything. I will have a part time job working professionally but even working 20hrs per week i still couldn't net up half the tuition that i need to pay. I came from a public university and received very nice financial aid so I didn't have to worry about money. I could never see myself going to a private school. but here i am looking at the numbers. kind of thinking private school is not for the poor like me who is also not competitive enough to get fellowship. I keep wondering how impressive the other guys are to receive funding

isn't stanford cost of living higher than LA? so you would be looking at a bigger difference. civil engineering is a very experience-based profession. unless you have a phd, starting salaries won't be that much of a difference between BS and MS. 5k boost is not bad, wait 2 years and get a PE then you get another big boost. Moreover, Prestige school brand helps you little in civil engineering, for example, my frd with a MS CIVIL from Berkeley only has 55k starting. so your 65k starting is not bad. so that comes to the question ' is it worth it?' even though you are spending 1 more year in Stanford, but since you haven't taken any civil prereq so i wouldn't say its a waste of time. it would better prepare you for your future career. is the 100k difference worth it? to me probably not. but to you, if you family can pay for it, you should just take the opportunity to go to Stanford, not that many people can go to Stanford AND don't have to worry about money. I would go there if my family can easily hand me 62k yearly expense without asking any question. however if you are going to repay your family eventually then i would say it is not so much of an investment...

If your family can afford it, by all means go to stanford. while UCLA certainly is not a bad engineering school, I think its civil program is not as good as stanford or berkeley. When the money is out of the question, it becomes a no brainer to me to pick stanford. btw you should factor in the cost of living tho if you are looking at money.

Yeah I am donig MS only.. I know that if you don't get MS from berkeley you can't go for their phd there. not sure if that's the case for stanford Structural was fine. It was much more helpful than the berkeley's visitation day. They talked about funding and course works. We got a class syllabus of last year which highlights all the classes and requirement. Basically they said whatever structural area you are interested in they will have someone sharing that similar interest so you don't have to work alone. For funding, they said they sent out two types of admission letters earlier, one said funding pending, the other one said no funding. So i don't know if anyone in structural actually got fundings before the visitation day. we are talking about MS here. So they said package will be sent out 3/31ish that's why i asked when you got yours. My guess is they sent out first round of aid and i am on the waitlist if anyone decline it. I just hope i can get at least some money to help out. Are you MS? May I ask you roughly how much funding did you get? is it TA/RA and/or fellowship?

I am also wondering about the quality of the structural program between those 2 schools as well. I know overall civil wise they are both very good school but when it comes down to structural i don't know which school has a better edge. I went to both school's visiting day and of cuz both school said they are very good at it.. especially in seismic design. I think they are both very marketable to firms, at least they will give you very good networks DCI program is part of civil deparment right?? I am still waiting on the fundings for structural... when did you get your financial package from them?