miketakena

Just would like opinions about this: If you were given $ to do your PhD in a top US school (quite attractive terms see link). But you will be bonded to the sponsor university (with a low staff:student ratio, low quality of grad students [since best grad candidates head for the West] and lots of admin) as an assistant professor for 5 years. Would you take this deal if you already have a funded offer from the top US school? What are you reasons for "YES I will" and "NO I won't" sentiments?

Yeah... I agree with Minnesotan... You can always decline based on other reasons.. especially those related to financial aid package

To my understanding ... the reason for the April 15th deadline is due to the need for certainty associated with federal training grants/fellowship etc... but if the funding source is from the professor's own research grant, the offer can come anytime... especially if the professor's grant has dried up and is waiting for a new grant to be approved before being able to bring in a student.... Jun/Jul is the time when the results of the new grant would be known. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Well in this case, the professor might not take in any students at all!

Yeah.. Thanks for the input.. Anyone knows which is the cheapest return ticket out from Raleigh international airport?

JHU hands down ... you should go to a different university for your PhD .. varied academic experience is always preferred in an academic's CV

Would anyone care to share their essays with me? I am an international (thus not eligible for NSF) and would like to learn how to write a good proposal... I am in engineering mkoi_takena@hotmail.com

Wow.. xzjohn, I am impressed by your initiative :-) Hv you thought of talking with peers of current UAB professors... maybe the chances of success are higher... (i am not sure.. but maybe you try out in your next conference and let us know)... academics could take their peer's recommendations more seriously.. as opposed to someone who walks up out of the blue... BTW - do you get to attend these conferences for free? How much do you have to pay?

Yeah... funding would be less... but it could have yet cause a tsunami wave of applications (as you mentioned - the public picked it up only in Jan 08).... stagflation might be installed for next year perhaps (higher volumes of application and lower voumes of funding) .. but signs of it might have already appeared in this year's admission (my conjecture)

I think its not so bad for Fall 08 admission since the economic fallout precipitated rapidly only in early jan 08... Fall 09 admission would be difficult..

Hi Risingstar and Superboy, I have a solution that let you have your cake and eat it... What risingstar said about paying your bills with cash and not credit is absolutely right. What superboy said about starting early to invest for one's future is absolutely correct too... And having an emergency fund is the #1 rule in financial planning .... Thus, if you could just save up for an emergency fund during grad school... and any immediate cash outlays can be paid out using this $ (and then u hv to top it up later)... I bet you can't save too much of emergency fund over your whole grad school life... And if you do... you could then dollar cost average into no load mutual funds! Have your cake and eat it too!!

I do not understand about commitment and goals... pls correct me if I am wrong 1. I thought matured students should have better defined commitments and goals - made up their minds and have a good strategy... The disdadvantage is that once you'd graduated .... it might be harder to get a tenured track faculty position... 2. what age, in your opinion, is discriminatory? Above 35? or above 30?

Crow was never meant to be an omen of good sign, but as cognizants of knowledge we are not supposed to be superstitious right?

Hi, could you share a bit of "the flaws that could've been avoided"?

hey crossed fingers, which country are you from?

which country are you from?

In my humble opinion, i think this is absolutely fine... in fact it might allow faculty to have students free-of-charge... in this situation, the tables might even turn - faculty queuing up for you!

BTW, did u receive anything in writing?

Congrats! I didn't get anything from Duke yet. The professor said he would keep me posted... And I'd just sent Kathy an email to enquire.... getting really stressed up at this point. My application was rejected everywhere else...

Hey Alex (ahugs), have you heard anything from your schools?

I thought this is not a place to do congrats... unless u are congratulating those who hv been rejected... I hv 3 straight rejections so far .... 3 more to go... (2 not looking good at all... and 1 hopeful.. but again... its not over until its over... I wonder if all these are worthy the mental agonies...)

Well.. Getting yourself into debt before grad sch isn't exactly a good idea... my 2 cents worth...

Hi Minn, would you like to elaborate on "the only things"? Do you mean existing grad students or asipring grad students? What has the "ability to find money" gotta do with it (since grad students are usually fully funded... at least for Sci/Tech PhDs)?

I guess not yet... its not even end of March! I am still keeping my fingers crossed!

Hi ammar, did the professors with whom you've closely communicated with invite you for their recruitment weekends (so that you get to meet him/her personally and visit his/her lab)?

haha.. why don't u just wait for 2 days?