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iowaguy

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Everything posted by iowaguy

  1. I disagree with your professor. University of South Florida College of Marine Science is not in the same league as Duke Nicholas School. I would guess USFCMS is barely known outside of Florida, I have never heard of it and I have been eating, sleeping, and dreaming about different Grad Programs for a year now. In the Environmental Health & Toxicology field, Duke has an NRC s-ranking of 3-32, and r-ranking of 2-22. (Those are the 5% and 95% confidence intervals.) As you mentioned earlier, South Florida is not ranked. In the Earth Sciences field, Duke has an NRC s-ranking of 21-52 and r-ranking of 37-91. As you mentioned earlier, South Florida is not ranked. Not trying to diss on USFCMS, but just stating the ranking facts about Duke as found in NRC's grad school rankings of 2011. It might be that being close to your SO is such a strong factor in your decision matrix that you decide to attend USFCMS. But otherwise, I don't see any logical reason to attend USFCMS given the pro's of attending Duke with a full stipend...
  2. In my sub-field these programs are similarly ranked, and I have a good fit with POI's from each university. Funding is similar. With program strength, POI fit, and funding being relatively equal; what are the pros/cons of Duke vs Cornell? Struggling to make a tough decision... Thanks in advance!!!
  3. I personally would not attend a university ranked 172 in the nation with an un-ranked department for my sub-field, given that A is an option.
  4. I've been accepted at a program where my potential advisor already has 10 PhD advisees and 7 M.S. advisees (no post-docs). This seems like a big lab to me (will I get enough attention?). Any red flags when a prof already has so many PhD students under him? Any specific questions that I should be asking of this lab? Thanks in advance!
  5. Anyone have business cards as a grad student? If so, what "title" do you put on your card? The book "Getting What You Came For" recommends business cards for grad students, just curious what y'alls thoughts were and if this is indeed a "necessity" or not... Thanks in advance!
  6. Take some back roads, listen to NPR, and enjoy the ride...
  7. iowaguy

    Ithaca, NY

    How bikable is Ithaca? Feasible to only have to drive my car when headed outside of town? (i.e. can bike to class during most weather - sidewalks/streets cleared off during winter?)
  8. iowaguy

    Ithaca, NY

    My only concern with Ithaca is the social scene for a grad student (I like the northern climate, and enjoy winter activities so think I would enjoy that part of life there). Seems like the town's social scene revolves around the undergrads... Thoughts? How easy do you think it would be for an older grad student to make friends with (and potentially date someone) that's not an undergrad? Here's what I'm looking at: Ithaca population ~ 30,000 of which ~ 14,000 are undergrads That leaves 16,000 people, many of whom aren't my age. Year 2000 Census says 5,882 people between the ages of 25-44. Not many to choose from for social activities...
  9. How exactly do you think a "professional" email to the admissions office would benefit you? I would just wait it out. If your app just hit the adcom 1 week ago, they probably haven't made a decision yet...
  10. Having spent time in both cities, I would personally move from Chicago to S.D. in a heartbeat. (S.D. is one of my favorite cities in the states, I also like Chiggy but not nearly as much.) In my experience, folks in Southern California are different than folks from Chicago, in general people are more laid back and friendly. You'll notice that (similar to Chiggy) many people living in S.D. aren't from S.D. That makes it easier to make new friends since lots of other people are in the same boat. Another tip is to see if your undergrad university has a club in S.D. (mine did when I lived in SoCal). This is a quick & easy way to meet "new" friends (who went to the same undergrad as you so you'll have something in common). YMMV. Best of luck!
  11. And also by cost of living of that particular city... $24k in Durham or Minneapolis is much different than $24k in S.F. or Boston.
  12. Would it be possible to add the new "rock-star" advisor on as a co-advisor? Maybe you could use the upcoming sabbatical of your advisor as rationale to add a co-advisor? I don't have much experience with this (take my comment with a grain of salt - YMMV), but am trying to figure out myself how to hedge my bets with a potential advisor who's close to retirement age by possibly adding on a co-advisor, so thought I'd throw it out for your possible consideration... I know a PhD grad whose advisor got severely ill for a couple of semesters and she added on a co-advisor which seemed to work out reasonably well for her...
  13. I think it's good that you're trying to keep a conversation going with him, but be sure not to "pester" him either. Profs are generally very busy. Don't ask him about stuff that you could find answers to elsewhere (procedures, etc - which you can ask the grad school or department admin staff about). I personally wouldn't worry about leaving a long gap between replies. I don't think constantly emailing back & forth all summer long is common procedure in this country, IMHO. I would carefully read the papers he suggested, and then email back in a couple of weeks with another intelligent research-oriented question (a particular detail about one of the papers you read, etc).
  14. My sister lived in New Haven during her grad studies, I have been there a couple of times. Awesome area (IMHO) but very expensive. Have you tried penciling in a spreadsheet with your monthly income & estimated expenses yet? Why do you need a car (especially one that you don't own) to live/thrive in the Northeast? Assuming you live within biking/walking distance of campus, you could easily bike down to the harbor, shuttle to the New Haven airport, take a train to Boston/NYC, etc... How often do you think you would actually use your car? Not having loan payments, property tax, car insurance payments (you probably have full insurance since paying off a loan) would save you hundreds per month (probably 20%+ of your after-tax stipend) and would make your stipend much more comfortable! One way to look at your car payment: how many times per month would you be using your car? How much is your monthly auto ownership cost? Then divide your auto ownership $ by your car usage and you can see just how expensive it is (in addition to gas) each time you drive your car in New Haven. Just sharing some thoughts... You're going to love New Haven!
  15. Is your top priority in getting a M.S. to develop into a good scientist with adequate funding, or to make friends in a large city and stress about not enough funding?
  16. Duke's 2013-2014 TA stipend for Arts & Sciences is $2,397.74/month. 9 months of TA is standard (if on departmental support) which equals $21,580 per year. If your POI has summer research support he/she can tack on another 3 months of RA at the same rate which then would equal $28,773 per year pre-tax. Duke also pays for health insurance ($2,160) and fees ($866) on top of this stipend. Cornell's published 9 month TA/RA stipend is $23,470. http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/costs-and-funding/stipend-rates
  17. Yale/Duke host a joint job fair http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/duke_yale_fair/registration.html http://environment.yale.edu/careers/fairs/DY12/ open to M.S. students of both Duke Nicholas School & Yale FES, so they apparently think they're on the same playing field with regards to the strength of their grad students. I personally think that, generally speaking, in the Environmental Sciences the exact name of your degree matters less than in some fields. Every program seems to have their own specialties, and in most programs your degree is basically what you make it (you can choose most/all of your classes). Many of my friends have been surprised that I wasn't applying to (*insert esteemed university name*) environmental science/environmental engineering/ecology/earth & ocean sciences/aquatic science/etc. program. But not all schools are strong in all of the different sub-fields. Some schools that I looked at only had a couple of professors researching topics in my sub-field. In the end, which of these programs (Duke vs Yale) best fits your research interests, and are there several professors (with similar interests) that you could potentially collaborate with? IMHO you don't want to end up at a university just because you think it is a top name in your field (and Duke & Yale are both in the top 5 or 10, depending which ranking you look at, so this is less of a factor here). You want to be sure that you will be surrounded by professors, post-docs, and fellow grad students that are also strong in your sub-field. You will likely learn more from your fellow grad students than you will from the formal classes/professors, and your fellow grad students will be a strong professional network for you down the road. So, best to be sure that many of them are also in your sub-field and share your same interests, IMHO.
  18. School B with more opportunities for career advancement!
  19. On #2, a good tip is also to plug & chug a number or two into your formula once you think you know the answer. For example, for yt/s , we could substitute "how long would it take a train traveling 50 miles (x) in one hour (t) to travel 100 miles (y) ? Well, obviously the answer is 2 hours, but is that what our formula gives us? yt/s = 100*1/50 = 2 hours. So we know our formula is good. Also, make sure you keep your units straight on these formulas. Per the question in #2 (in how many hours will the train travel...), you know that the formula must equal hours, so be sure that where you put your variables also makes for units in hours. yt/s would be miles * hours / miles) which has units of hours so that's another double-check. Edited to add: everyone's brain works differently on these sorts of problems. On many/most GRE quant questions there is more than one way to find the correct answer. Try to figure out which method works best/fastest for you on a particular question type...
  20. Is there a consolidated source that lists the impact factor for ALL journals (or those in a given sub-field), not just those by a particular publisher? I'm cleaning up some research from my M.S. and trying to figure out where to submit it. Thought knowing the impact factors for the journals in my field would be a good starting point, but that info doesn't seem to be consolidated anywhere...
  21. If the recently-graduated PhD picture is so bleak, why is the overall unemployment of PhD's lower than those holding a B.S. or M.S. degree? 2.5% unemployment @ $84,000 median income doesn't look so bleak to me... http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm
  22. Cornell Biological & Environmental Engineering - I see a few rejections showing up on the results board, any acceptances recently? Someone posted an acceptance on the results forum back in Feb but haven't seen anything since...
  23. iowaguy

    Ithaca, NY

    I see the Cornell grad stipend for 2013-14 is $23,470 for 9 months. How livable is that stipend for Ithaca? I'm thinking of possibly buying a house & renting out a spare room for some extra $. Thanks in advance!
  24. Where can one find these "calls for papers"?
  25. Has anyone successfully transfered credits from your M.S. to your Ph.D. program in a similar field? Any issues with doing so? Would you recommend that a newbie PhD student try to do the same? I have a dozen or so grad credits from my M.S. that I could in theory transfer (same field of study). I'm thinking this might cut down on the # of classes I would have to take in my PhD program and would give me more time for research... Thoughts? Thanks in advance!
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