OregonGal

Another option to look into is planning on heading over early, and staying in a hostel for a few weeks while you try to find a place. Set up visits at potential rooming situations found via craigslist or wherever, but stay in the hostel so you don't end up in a sight-unseen situation. It'll be a bit pricey, but better than ending up in a really bad situation.

Yeah Coast is pretty much a no-go... It sounded like it was the females wait-list that wasn't really moving as they were expecting, they didn't say anything about the guys' waitlist. Mesa was my second choice, but it's only $10 more than RAR so at least I'm not paying a ton more on top of the longer commute. I'm just hoping that once I get in contact with my roommate I'll be able to buy some of her outgoing roommate's furniture.

It's true that a lot of schools like to see at least some quant/econ background; however it's not required AFAIK. How did you do on the quant section of your GREs? Is there any way you can parlay your work experience into highlighting quant skills (did you do any program analysis, track metrics for grants, conduct surveys, etc?). A lot of schools also have quant/econ boot camps for the summer before the program starts for those of us lacking or rusty with quant. I'm starting the summer prep program at my school in August.

E-mailed, which is funny since the website seems to tell you that you'll only get a phone call. When did you apply for housing? I put in for it April 8th so I was probably pretty high up on the general list (though halfway down the Rita list and not budging, apparently). Also, after looking at the floor plans I'm a bit happier about my Mesa placement. Not so happy about the 2+miles to IR/PS or having to buy furniture, but I'm in an 840 sq ft apartment with a 10x15 room and a patio

You might want to explore a joint degree program with those specific goals and a career transition. I almost went for the Public Diplomacy joint MS/MA degree program at Syracuse--their j-school is one of the best and their public affairs school isn't bad either. The joint degrees are M.S. Public Relations and M.A. International Relations, so it's not a straight-up journalism degree, but you could see if you could tailor the program. Some schools also allow students to independently tailor a dual Masters program (though it's more common to do MPP/MBA or MPH), so it's worth looking into if you know the school you're looking at has a reputable j-school and policy program.

Maybe it's because I come from a writing-intensive liberal arts/humanities background, but for me the idea of subjectively ranking people's writing is part of what's objectionable. Often there are at least 3 possible topics given for any paper, and in upper-division courses sometimes there are no specific topics given other than a basic subject--students choose their own research focus/thesis. That makes it more difficult to shake students out into rankings when you have a group of well-written, well-researched 15 page papers on different subjects. In my upper-division courses I often got a letter grade, rather than a rubric with x points for writing/research/clarity/analysis which makes it even harder to try and rank people within those letter clusters. It's just as hard as applying a curve to a tightly grouped set of scores. While I have no issues with an exam that included in-class essays being ranked/curved, I'd have a much harder time accepting the ranking of 15 different thesis/capstone papers without a detailed point breakdown to explain the rankings. I think it's completely acceptable to build in slippage with a small percentage for attendance/participation as you decided to do. A lot of my professors did and it's always been clear that either those points are a student's to lose through their own apathy, or that they're there to adjust grades a fraction of a percent to the professor's satisfaction.

Sigh... I got offered a spot at Mesa. I really didn't want to have to buy furniture EDIT: I called Housing to ask about this, since I had put Rita as my first pick, and it turns out no girls are moving out of RAR right now so I can't even decline and wait for a second offer; I'd probably get another Mesa/OMS offer before Rita opened up based on where I am on the wait list. Guess I'm buying second-hand furniture...

I've had varied experiences with grading methods. As a liberal arts major (history, international studies) I was not often in classes graded on a curve because the graded portions were often subjective--grading a research paper or an in-class essay isn't the same as solving an equation correctly or answering multiple choice questions. Usually in those classes the syllabi broke down the grades into portions (attendance (usually assessed via pop quiz), homework, mid-term essay/exam/project(s), final essay/exam /project) with a percentage grade assigned to each, and no curving. Now, I took a few econ classes with interesting results. In one, the professor told us since it was an international studies course he'd go easy on us and curve to a B instead of to a C as he would for his econ-major courses, and explained how the curve distribution worked (he hedged as others have mentioned, but I think that the hedge was predicated on your attendance--i.e. he would allow your final grade to be drastically lower than your final exam if you had poor attendance/homework turn ins). In another, the econ professor hadn't taught an introductory course in a decade and I was very, very happy he curved his exams because my midterm exam grade of 25% was a C--and then his final was a breeze because he over-corrected for his previous exam's rigor. My final note is that my engineering school friends had extreme grade distributions because their intro courses were designed to crush their dreams--a 10% was an A in one of their exams that I remember them agonizing over. In that class I think the distribution was by making the top grade 100% and adjusting everyone else's accordingly, so that if everyone scored the same then they'd all have the same grade rather than the usual curve. So I've seen everything--curved grade distribution, weighted non-curved grades, curve adjustments for bad tests/teaching, and redistributions for intentionally over-rigorous tests. I'm in favor of the objectively weighted grade myself, because then it's easier for students to see what they need to do to make up for blowing off an exam etc by seeing how deep a hole they dug in that subcategory, and therefore what their max possible grade is. It's also easier to justify when someone comes to you asking why their final grade is what it is when you can point to the syllabus and tell them that getting 95% on the final (worth 25%) doesn't make up for the missed 15% from never turning in homework.

If you're planning on heading back home for the summer, you can look for someone to sublet your place so at least you can keep your apartment and not pay storage. I think that's a fairly common arrangement for graduate students scattering to go home/work at an internship/do research.

Nope, that's actually reassuring that I'm not the only one... I'm assuming that there's a lot of people who asked for an August 1 move-in date so they may not have been able to call everyone in the span of a day. If I don't hear from them today I'm going to call them.

Hey guys, So I've been busily working on my debt repayment spreadsheets at work instead of my actual job (lol). Here's the updated versionof my cost breakdown-- I revised my estimate of cost increases because the UC system has announced a projected 6% tuition increase for the next academic year, and then I was conservative and projected 7% the second year of school. Then I started looking at my student loans, and I was actually figuring out the total amount wrong--I forgot that while my unsubsidized loans are deferred for graduate school they keep compounding. So I figured out what my undergraduate loans will be using the compound interest formula and realized that for my $15000 undergraduate debt I figured compounded daily, within the two years + grace period I'm going to accrue almost as much in interest as I have paid off on the loan principal since I graduated >.< It also let me see how much I'll need to put aside in order to pay off that interest before it capitalizes again. Finally, I decided to start thinking about how aggressively I wanted to pay back my debt and the various scenarios (ie, living costs and salary). So the third sheet shows what my take-home pay would be (after taxes, Medicare and SSI deductions) at various localities and salaries with the various payment plans, to see how much extra I would have for savings, retirement plan, etc. The final little table in the bottom corner is if I decide to "snowball" my debt and retire it at an accelerated rate, showing how quickly I could pay it off depending on how aggressively I overpay monthly. What the last spreadsheet has helped me look at is what pay scale I need to be aiming for based on the location in order to not quite live like a starving graduate student, hopefully have a studio or 1-bedroom, and be able to pay down my debt. It's also reinforced the compounding effect of scholarships and TA tuition remission on how much debt I will accrue and how that will affect my future standard of living.

That is an awesome career/degree description, IMO.

The cost of transportation really depends on a lot of factors--time of day (there's a rush hour surcharge for subway), type (subway is more expensive than bus), etc. I take the bus to and from work so that's $3/day, 5 days a week, for around $70 a month. If I go into DC on the weekend via subway or Metro that adds a few dollars. However the bus fare is going up in July so it'll be $1.60 a ride with the SmartCard (reloadable plastic fare-card, can also be used to pay for transit center parking). You only get a 50 cent discount transferring bus-subway but you get free bus-bus transfers. Subway fare is definitely spiking, unfortunately--there's also a lot of construction going on late at night/on weekends because they delayed upgrades/repairs until they needed to overhaul the entire system. That's part of the reason behind the fare increases. Now, for some commuters who tend to park at transit centers and take Metro into the city it's becoming equally or even less expensive to pay for gas/on-street parking and drive in. However, I would be surprised if you could find a studio or 1-bedroom near AU that is only $1200-1300; that's more the price a few stops up the Metro at Bethesda or Medical Center. If you're commuting from a Red Line Metro stop within the Beltway to Tenleytown, you'll only pay $1.70/ride excluding the rush hour surcharge.

Here's hoping we all get into RAR--I put my move-in date as August 1 as well though I may revise to August 3 since I've just booked my flight for that day.

I had a similar experience that there were several other people taking a test, but it was actually very quiet--we got ear protectors like airline tarmac personnel wear lol, and also we were behind a soundproof door/window so it was quiet other than the frantic clacking of keys.

Very interesting insight, Sigaba--and a good point that these days having some concrete skills to put on your resume can be the element which gets you the job. Also, it sounds like you went back for your PhD after your consultancy job. After you finish your dissertation, are you considering going back to consulting or are you planning on staying in academia? I'd be interested in knowing how your experience with the sector shift and the recession has changed your career plans.

I can't speak to GRE scores (I don't know the new scoring) but everything else seems pretty much the perfect the candidate profile /jealous. I'd say go for it--normally I'd say that going straight out of undergrad isn't the best idea but with 3 months at an Egyptian HR NGO, a Fulbright AND other international experience, you've probably got enough work experience/language experience and definitely stellar academics to get into the school of your choice.

As someone who has (with help) built a desktop, I can say this-- I don't think that I'd ever buy a Mac desktop, but I don't know that I'll ever again buy a PC laptop. All the things I value about PCs--the ability to self-upgrade/modify/individualize, the fact that some video games only come on the Windows platform--are things I value in a desktop. The things I value in a Mac--the performance, the battery life, the power cord that stands up well to being tugged (doesn't end up disconnecting from the power supply/motherboard *grumble grumble*), the durable exterior, tech support, sleek aesthetic--are all things I want in a notebook/ultrabook. I will probably be trading in my 3+ year old, still works perfectly MacBook (first metal unibody edition) for credit against a MacBook Air when I start grad school, simply because I want to have as light a laptop as possible which stands up to my (non-hard science) computing needs and I have a gaming PC for when I want something with some power behind it.

Oh Dell... that happened to me twice before I wised up and bought a MacBook so that I wouldn't have the power supply connector fail issue again.

No, I didn't sign up for language classes yet--we have to take a placement test to see where we end up. I was looking at the course descriptions though, and the IRPS grad Japanese language courses start at "low-intermediate proficiency" so I'm hoping I can place into that.

However, if you have applied for aid--especially at a state school--you may still be waiting a few weeks to hear back. They can't finalize aid offers with specific numbers until they have determined tuition rates for the next academic year, which doesn't happen until June or July at a lot of public schools waiting on public funding initiatives.

I don't know how! I registered for Tritonlink, and one day I was clicking through the registration site to see the class schedule and went "hmm wonder if I can click this register now" button and it worked. Turns out that was the first day classes were available too. I registered for the classes I was 90% sure were for first term first year--Managerial Econ, Quant 1, Policy Making Processes and International Politics and Security. ...as you can see, I'm a bit antsy waiting for the school year to start

Typically, "legacy students" are given preference but not over a more well qualified student--if Student A and Student B are equally qualified but Student B's parent graduated from University X and has a history of donating/season ticket holder/etc, Student B would probably get the offer. That policy varies from school to school but is I think a generally accepted way of doing things. There are also, as previously stated, a lot of scholarships either designated for legacy students or with preference given to them. My main caveat is that my perception has been that the "extra points for affiliation" method is used more in undergraduate admissions than in graduate positions--I would think that graduate applicants are a smaller pool, and because the process is a bit more involved than undergrad admissions an alumni affiliation shouldn't be the tipping factor in someone's favor. I don't think it's particularly "shady", I do think it's the way life works (a lot of people in this forum are targeting "name brand" schools because of the perception that they're more likely to be hired by certain employers, how is that kind of influence any different?).

So federal student loans are generally directed through the university financial aid office--they should be part of your financial aid package when you receive it, so long as you filed your FAFSA by March 1 (some schools it's a later deadline). ANDS is correct that Stafford loans--currently planned to go up to 6.8% unless Congress stops bickering and extends the interest rate reduction to keep it at 3.4%--only offer up to $20,500 a year to graduate students. Beyond that you'll be offered up to total cost of attendance (minus Stafford, grants, etc) in Grad PLUS loans which are currently offered at 7.9% and have no cap.

I called Housing a couple weeks ago and they said there's no backlog, but they will be contacting people no more than 60 days prior to move-in date listed on the housing request form. So, I should be hearing from them at the start of June (next week!) because I listed August 1 for my move-in date--which I may need to discuss with them, as I have an airplane ticket for the 3rd. AFAIK there's no facebook group, so all we've got is the FirstClass folders for housing etc. When I logged into Tritonlink I was able to register for classes, though I'm not sure if I should've been able to Managerial Econ is going to be awful, it's a 160-seat lecture at 8am on Monday.