v834

Hey CMC_Kid, I was curious if you heard about FA yet? If I recall correctly you were in the same boat as I was last year regarding admission but no scholarship. I defered as well, but I pulled my application a few months ago as I decided not to attend and didn't want them wasting time processing my application ( I wouldn't make the need qualification for scholarship anyways as I earn too much money in my current job and I won't attend without financial aid, not to mention it wouldn't be the greatest career move for me...5 years ago sure, but now not so much). I suppose I'm just curious to see if defering would have made a difference if I still qualified under the need requirement.

Yeah I spoke to Stephen Dougherty about it.

Yeah I won't attend without it, but I think I may defer since that can change things.

Seems like they've decided they can't afford to fund the program any more so it will have to become a cash cow masters (where people pay out of pocket) or die off. It really is a pity, since it seems to be one of a kind.

Yeah, I'm out without funding. All well, current life's not bad... Not sure I'm cut out for the normal world anyways.

Bad news guys. I got a response; it's posted below. That decision does include LEAP scholarships. We consider need and merit when awarding LEAP scholarships. We do our best to offer scholarships that provide the most relief for students with need, while helping as many students as possible. Unfortunately, the LEAP budget does not allows us to award aid to every applicant who qualifies. We had a strong applicant pool this year, and the decisions were difficult. Please let me know if you have any other questions. Sincerely, Steve Stephen Doherty, CAS '91 Graduate Programs Director Boston University College of Engineering 44 Cummington Street, Rm. 114 Boston, MA 02215 617-353-9763 ssd@bu.edu

Oh thank god! I immediately sent Helaine an email because I was so confused. I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one to get that email! Thing is, the autoresponse from Helaine says to contact the guy who sent out that email about financial aid or anything else related to LEAP financial aid stuff, so now I'm not so sure. I really hope that doesn't include the scholarship because I won't be attending otherwise. I suppose we'll see.....ETA: She is out of the office till tuesday, but if I get a response from her I'll be sure to post it here.

I've held off emailing because I figured news would pop up here sooner or later . Still, I'm getting rather impatient...I'll probably email next week if there is still no news.

Anyone heard anything on funding yet? I've recieved the letter, but it's radio silence on the rest.

I too suffer from serious imposter syndrome. I think it's pretty common. Since I'm a non-trad applicant it's particularly strong. Not to mention I'm still somewhat waiting because I haven't heard about financial aid. I would say distract yourself by planning for your new life. Especially if you will be moving! It can be a great distractor from the insecurities!

I wouldn't look at it as disloyalty to anyone, but rather integrity to yourself and what you want to do with the rest of your life. It's in your advisor's own best interest in the long run as well. Think of it this way, he is better off having someone working for him who absolutely loves and is passionate about what he is doing; he might not be happy that your are leaving, but he will be happy for you and ultimately have someone working under him who wants to be there and isn't there because they feel obligated. The person who your funding will go to if you leave (it's not like it's lost; it will go to someone else) will now get the chance to follow their passions and you get to work on something you are passionate about. It seems to me like it would be good for everyone in the long run. PhD is a big choice and a long track; it's best to do exactly what you want and are passionate about if you can!

While I get some of them, especially the "you look tired" one and the really nosy ones, the ones above to me just seem to be expressing interest in you as a person with things going on and I fail to see how they are insensitve, though I certainly understand that perhaps it's more that you are oversensitive, because I became that way myself. Just do a little reality check sometimes, because there is a difference between someone being insensitve and us being overly sensitive, even if they look the same to us in the moment. I swear I was getting to the point of being "OMG, you said hello to me! How DARE you aknowledge my existence while I'm applying to grad school! The nerve!"

Is it possible to defer for a year? You could take the new job and see how you feel and then decide after getting some practical experience if you want to go back. If you just graduated in 2010 I wouldn't look at grad school as now or never; you have plenty of time to decide and taking a little extra time might be a good thing.

Well, apparently you need to be a genius to know that you shouldn't go to Cambridge .

Yeah they are a bit. I emailed and she said they are behind, but that everything is coming and then she sent me my letter and curriculum sheet and told me the offical letter and financial aid will be coming soon, because I was afraid I wasn't recieving the emails (I had an incident a few weeks ago where email wasn't gettin through). Anyways, long story short is that we aren't missing anything, it's just taking them a bit longer than they expected. I'm hoping everything will start to go out the first week of April, but who knows for sure, perhaps they got more applicants than anticipated.

water slide

Hahaha! So this is the second time I'm going to grad school and it is again the second time I've applied to only one school. The first time was because I was only interested in that program. This time it's because it IS the only program that exists for someone with my background (and I've been admitted to both so no need to defend myself anymore). My boss "You should write your disseration on [program I am currently working on]" me: "Uh, I want to study electrical engineering and not of the kind that's even remotely related to this." Boss: "lalalalala you should go to MIT and write your dissertation on [current program]". Oi. My project is cool and all, but this program is his baby and his kool-aid ain't my kool-aid!

The offical letter, she said it would be later that week and that was the 5th. I dropped her an email and hopefully she'll get back to me today (Monday). Yeah I kinda though the financial aid would take longer than mentioned.

Strange, I emailed Helaine to see since she did say they should go out that week....

Ah okay good to know. I figured they might wait until they made all the financial aid decisions.

Have you gotten the official email yet? I haven't, but I'm wondering if they are just waiting till they make the FA decisions and will send it all out together. I'm starting to get paranoid .

Huh, seems like an early spring break...especially for Boston . The final deadline is today ( 3/15) so I imagine responses are going to be going out soon ( I hope).

Definitely not! I got some relief, but it required moving almost 7,000 miles away....and I still have to speak to my mom . I found out unoffically last week that I got in, but I'm not ready to celebrate because with my program, the real competition is on the financial aid, not the admission, so it's not much of a victory....yet, just a small step. Peopler do not get this. Meh. I don't know my plans, stop hassling me! Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. It's kinda like when someone dies and no one is quite sure what to say. Only this seems to last longer and it's our hope dying . Oh dear, perhaps she just reached the hysterical "OMG I HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING *insert verbal diarrea* " stage. My father did the whole "say the wrong thing" to me when I was getting undergrad rejections. By "say the wrong thing" I mean "say anything" of course .

Ugh, I've been there, but some people don't get it. My dad never had the luxury of changing his mind because he had a family to support and doesn't understand that I don't want to change my career because a single job has issues, I know every job has ups and downs and I've had more than one in this industry, I just don't freaking enjoy this work or lifestyle as a career to want to do it forever, which I think he gets sometimes, but is still stuck in the "suck it up mentality" until I remind him I have no external obligations like a SO or children. That said, I have to laugh, because if this thread shows anything, it's that there really isn't anything that can "Make you feel better" except an acceptance. I feel somewhat bad about people having to deal with our insanity because I'm well aware how sensitve grad applicants can get to anything. For awhile there people asking "hey how's it going, anything new?" was making me twitchy. I half expected to cut a b@#$ for saying hello.

Interesting stuff. I spoke to some people while I was there about bioelectrics because I couldn't get a complete handle on what it entailed which seemed to be a bit of everything from what they said. It sounds like you are interested in the same side I am; the imaging devices and applications. Very cool. Thanks for your input; I was coming from the same idea that it's better to have a classical eng background first, which is why I wouldn't do something like the photonics masters, but rather the emag/photonics concentration within EE, which would seem to be a better choice for industry since it doesn't read as a specialized degree.