leappho2012

Just reposting this fine user's work to remind everyone we are probably stuck here until 2, based on the last couple of years.

Ha! I wanted to look up that table someone posted a few pages back to check that, thanks! I'm foolishly making a doomed but honest effort to prepare some slides for lab meeting tomorrow, so I'm trying to stick to only refreshing every... minute, and not looking back.

That's some high quality grfp stalking! NICE!

Yeah my (ultimately baseless) guess is that 2013 got taken down because it had to be updated to no longer be the current year at some level in their system, or something like that.

They might just be waiting until their offices close [to post the maintenance message] so they don't have to deal with infinity questions, e.g, "Will I still be notified if awards are posted tonight!?" and such... I just reeealy want this to be over!

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The upper limit on the amount you are allowed to receive is determined by your "expected contribution", which is the important number that pops out of your SAR after filling out your FAFSA. Actually, the ultimate limit is 20.5k/yr, but the summer will not cost that much. Say your summer registration yields a $5,250 bill on your student account, and your expected contribution is 3k, then assume summer living expenses (determined by BU) are set to 2k. Then Helaine will say something like "You can take $4,250 of need-based loan." Of course, all these numbers can vary, but that's how the process works. Another useful bit of information is that the 20.5k yearly limit will be reset in January. That means that for summer students, who, by receiving need-based loans during summer AND fall will come close or hit that limit before Spring semester... the limit will actually be reset at that point. Not the most ideal situation, but I think we all know that engineers aren't going to be phased out of the economy any time soon (/ever), and that the opportunities an advanced engineering degree permits are VERY likely to outweigh these costs in the long run...

ghanada, off the top of your head, what percentage of LEAP Phase2ers lock down a research or teaching fellowship, and completely free themselves from loan-based funding?

The need-based process is not hard at all. Once BU has your SAR you fill out a one page form with about 10 lines of information, sign it, send it back. Then about a week later it shows up in your "student account inquiry" at the student link (get to know it well, www.bu.edu/studenlink ... for some reason it's super retro html looking). Anyways, beyond that you just need to fill out the entrance counseling and master promissory note on the federal website (doing this once will last you the entire program). You can do these things before registering, while you have to wait until you know how much you will need to fill out the one page grad plus need-based federal loan application document I mentioned before. I've already done all of this for the summer term and my student account is paid for and settled. So if you have any questions throughout the process I may be able to respond faster than office-folk.

Hey, thanks for the response! At this point it is nice to know that SOMEONE got something - ZERO hard feeling to a future classmate. I've actually come to peace with the situation. I ran some numbers and it turns out that, for me at least (needing only 8 classes to complete photonics Phase 1), part-time no scholarship is financially equivalent to full-time FULL scholarship. So I'm not really losing much... Hoping to use the extra time towards lab training!

I had her for EK127 (MATLAB) while an undergrad... I'll just say, does not surprise me. The one time I emailed her I never got a response, as a student! She has a rep for loving LEAP students though (and she was always nice in person), so is surprising.

Sorry I forgot to add that I found this out via the letter of acceptance, specifically the attachment that calls for our FAFSA completion and lists Phase 1 requirements.. Actually Helaine told me prior to this, but everyone should have it there. Second paragraph.

Ooo nice. My advisor is actually Prof Hubbard of ECE. In my SOP I applied to EE with EMAG track, because I was nervous about over-specializing. Long story short, though, my love of partial differential equations and the quantum formalism led me to "follow my heart" and switch to the photonics track, which is essentially exactly the same for me with a couple convenient differences. I will look up Nawab though! I want to leverage my maths to get into a lab soon (as a volunteer) so that I stand a chance of getting the research fellowship for Phase II, after this apparent Phase I financial raping...

Sorry, I actually left the thread for a minute to go on a long, mind-clearing run, and like 10 posts happened while I was gone! I already live in Boston. I was an applied math undergrad at BU. Since I was planning to LEAP before I graduated, I just took a part time research position in math, and kept my undergrad weekend job of waiting tables in Harvard Square. Once I start the program (next month) I will be dropping my research (too time consuming and not related to photonics) and working brunches one or two days per week at the restaurant to pay rent (that's only a 10 hour work commitment... servers make pretty good, fast money in Boston, like 25-30/hr). Thanks to my math background I'll be able to finish Phase I by next summer, taking 3 this summer, 2 in fall, 2 in spring, and 1 in the summer after. Something to keep in mind is: taking 2 classes (or 1...) will get you part-time status, but taking three classes is financially equivalent to taking 4, or even 5 classes at BU, i.e. you are considered a full-time student and charged full tuition which covers up to 20 credits. I contacted my assigned advisor and Helaine. I actually haven't heard from either yet, so I'm not sure if there will be more to do. I shouldn't have to do anything... If i register for 2 classes only I'll automatically be billed part time. At worst I'll have to send an email. As for how many students... I actually had a 45 minute phone conversation with Helaine a few weeks ago where we discussed various things, including the expected number of new LEAPers this year. At the time she said 20 something had accepted thus far, with maybe 15 starting in the summer, but she was expecting 40-50 to be starting by fall. Finally, ghanada, thanks for the info! And cmc_kid, the Facebook page. I don't know what use I could be, but I do live within a mile of BU if you all need faces to present to protest whoever. I bet there have been 50 posts while I was writing this...

I've had to switch to part time. Is this make or break for anyone?

Dammit.

no. assuming that tomorrow (i.e. the next 12 hours) will bring the big reveal from Helaine.

Or like 20 clones of Nikola Tesla applied to LEAP too.

Ok that's just too many people. Either we are right about the misinterpretation or the LEAP scholarship doesn't exist any more.

Oh, I suppose I would also add: If there are any other LEAPers who are reading but not posting, and have received POSITIVE news about aid, please post and put us out of our miseries

Hey guys (or gals or whoever), This is my first post also, but I've been occasionally checking the thread since pre-acceptance in order to, you know, get a sense of what' going on. I got the same shitty email— let's be real, the one that says "We're giving you nothing, get a loan," right? i just wanted to make that public here as an attempt to provide comfort, since, It seems quite unlikely that 7 randomly selected leapers would get NOTHING, although I guess it's possible. After getting sufficiently drunk last night and putting this out of my mind, my sober self this morning agrees with the others posted above. That is to say that this email does not seem to consider the LEAP scholarship. On the eng website itself http://www.bu.edu/eng/admissions/grad/financial-aid/ the LEAP scholarship says, in huge letters, "NEED-BASED", below it. And this letter from Mr. Doherty explicitly mentions that we "may be eligible for need-based funding...". Now, the sentence goes on to say "need-based funding such as student loans or work study" with no mention of anything LEAP. However, I have one more point to consider that may settle some stomachs temporarily. I have some friends who applied to engineering PhD programs this season and they all had to MAKE DECISIONS by April 15ish, and many heard of acceptance long before aid offers. Therefore, for the sake of psychological stability, I have chosen to believe (hope) that last night's letter was a blast that went out to every accepted master's student to inform of decisions regaurding NON-need-based funding like the graduate research assistantships, teaching fellowships, and dean's fellowships that most regular master's students are hoping for, because most accepted students need to be making their final decisions this weekend. And according to my friends in BU's math PhD program (was applied math undergrad here), BU takes FOREVER to inform about aid. Long story short— there's still hope for some $$. I could be completely wrong, but the above makes sense to me, so I thought I would share it here. Of course, only more data will resolve this issue. A little "don't freak out" email would have been nice though. It's Marathon Monday here in Boston on Monday, which is why offices will be closed until Tuesday. (That's right, the colleges all shut down for the Marathon every year and students honor the runners by getting wasted early in the morning and cheering them on.) ghanada, I'm curious as to what this "crazy admin stuff" is? I'm imagining something between a person leaving unexpectedly and an all-out riot/ dictator rising power struggle...