mcampion4

Hello! I have looked at this site before to get help and tips on graduate school and applications, but this is my first time posting! I am an undergraduate senior in materials science at Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and I just finished my applications last night (U of I, Stanford, Berkeley, UCSB, MIT, and Northwestern... shooting for the stars, I know!). In casual conversation, it was mentioned to me from a professor that I would almost certainly be admitted at U of I with a 6k Hamers fellowship. While I was glad that I would probably be accepted, I was a little disappointed in only receiving 6k for financial aid. Is this normal for a first year PhD in engineering, and then better assistantships and fellowships will be available later? Or do I need to hope I get better offers from other universities? Thanks! Also, a little more about myself. I feel I am a very strong candidate for a PhD. I have 800 quant/600 verbal/4.5 analytical, 3.89 undergrad GPA at UIUC, 3 years undergraduate research (including coauthor of soon to be submitted paper), should be extremely strong recs from 2 profs from a research group, and the third will be good but not stellar. I am doing a coop at Sandia National labs from January to August on a materials research topic, and I am a white domestic male. Thanks! And I quickly looked for an answer/FAQ on google and this site, but if I missed it, just refer me to it.