EB456

Thanks everyone! I suppose it is 'the grass is always greener' syndrome. I think the regret has to do with fear of the unknown in moving to a new city, and regretting not getting to work with the prof I got along so well with at the other school. I guess the best approach now is to try to focus on the positives of the new school and move forward!

Has anyone else experienced regret over the decision they made? On Friday, I was still deciding between my two top choices. I wound up choosing the higher-ranked program that has a reputation for being really awesome to its grad students, over the lower-ranked program which has a professor I really liked in my home city. I'm now worried that I made the wrong choice. Has anyone else gone through something similar? How did you deal?

Living in NYC is pretty different than living in NJ, and if that's what you want to do, a reverse commute to Newark is possible. I'd say the best way to do the reverse commute is living near one of the PATH train stops. (A fairly frequent train that costs two dollars a trip.) If you live near the World Trade Center stop, you can take that train directly to Newark. If you live near the stops at Christopher Street at Hudson Street, 9th Street at 6th Avenue, 14th Street at 6th Avenue, 23rd Street at 6th Avenue, or 33rd Street at 6th Avenue, you'll have to change trains. You could also live near Penn Station (8th Ave between 31st and 33rd Streets) or Port Authority, which would allow for a relatively easy commute. Alternatively, you could live a subway ride away from these places.

People have had mixed experiences with EHS. Some are fine, but others are disappointed with the size, condition, and price of the housing. I don't have any personal experience with them, though.

UW Madison doesn't seem to make distinctions between PhD and MS students in the first years of the program, so I'd imagine the funding situation would be pretty similar for both.

What people were talking about is that certain places in parts of the Upper EAST Side (UES) are cheap, especially when they're not near the subway (or are near the 2nd Ave Subway construction). I think most of the Upper WEST Side (UWS) is still pretty expensive.

My understanding is that UW-Madison is in pretty rough financial shape. Lots of people in computer science have gotten offers with no guaranteed funding, and I've heard that they are losing professors because they can't afford to keep them. I have been warned to be wary about financial issues with UW-Madision. So I don't think the 'unspoken rule' of funding assumption applies here. But my information is second hand and could be wrong.

Why don't you try the "City Guide" forum? People have a lot of advice about Austin apartments in the Austin, TX thread.

One point of data: I was admitted to the UMass Ph.D. program in systems, not computer graphics.

People usually only layer under trousers on the coldest days of the year. If the weather is under 25 degrees F or so, I'd say. But it's a matter of personal preference. Keep in mind that the insides of buildings are generally kept pretty warm, and a lot of people find long underwear to be too warm to wear inside.

I don't know anything specific to that Northwestern program, but it is quite common for people to find out about an admissions decision before it shows up on a web site. I hope this helps.

I would pose the ethics/moral element something like this: Is it right for me to try to get admissions offers I probably won't take when there are other people anxiously waiting to hear from those schools? The ethical obligation would be to the other applicants. That being said, I think you're right. If I'm not 100% certain, I shouldn't foreclose the possibilities.

I have a bit of an unusual background for students in my field, so I decided to apply to a large number of schools with a variety of sizes of programs. I wasn't sure how my application would be received, and I figured at least one would have to accept me. Pretty early in the process, I was pleasantly surprised to get acceptances to several of my top choices (although I didn't rank my choices and have reasons I'd want to go to each of the programs I applied to). Now I've started getting interview requests from some of the smaller programs I included, almost as backup plans (although they do have a few things going for them that the schools I've gotten into do not). Should I keep my candidacy open at these smaller programs because I want to consider the things they do have going for them? Or would it be more ethical to allow them to release the slots to someone else, because the chance that I would choose these programs is small? Thanks for any advice...

I can't think of any places where humanities-minded grad students mingle. I would suggest checking out some of the lectures or events going on in the city in your field. You can find listings in various places, sometimes the New York Times or the New Yorker, sometimes in grad departments event listings, sometimes through bookstores, sometimes through word of mouth. There are always events going on. You might be able to find like-minded people that way.

I've just been admitted to UT Austin for grad school. I've never been there, and I've been reading this thread to try to get a sense for the neighborhoods. I've lived in very pedestrian friendly parts of NYC for the past seven years, and I haven't had a car in that time. I'm wondering if there's anywhere in Austin where I might find a place to live that's pedestrian-friendly (five minute walk to grocery store, drug store, and public transportation, for example). I wouldn't want to live with a ton of undergrads in a loud party area, but I'm open to options. Any thoughts?