tripax

I can't say that is bad news for me, but I hate waiting...

Does UW have that sort of reputation? What do they usually look for in an applicant?

I know someone mentioned Bridgeport earlier, but I was wondering about safety. What is the crime like on the south side? Craigslist is listing places a lot less expensive than http://www.apartmentpeople.com/ranges.asp has. What is up with that? (I'm looking for places near UIC for a friend.)

Petral6, umm, thats exactly what I meant to ask. Thanks.

I know bringing up a subject like this on an internet forum is often a bad idea, but I have a question. Do (international) students studying the sciences (especially evolution and genetics in biology, and sometimes anthrocentricism in physics) have reservations about coming to the United States to study, where things like Inteligent Design and the Templeton Foundation (which does not seem to support ID, but otherwise supports the convergence of religion and science) play such a large role in what is best funded, the direction of policy, and what is being taught in the high schools (and thus, presumably, untaught in recitation sections)? I am not looking to flame or discuss how big of an effect these issues actually have on graduate level science programs, but rather if these issues are of a conccern to incoming students.

I'd say that while groceries are a bit more expensive than where I am in Ames, Iowa, housing is about the same, although the houses in Syracuse are nicer, with neighborhoods a bit more dangerous. The heating bill is higher, but you don't have to drive as much, since your car will be stuck in the driveway for four months during the winter when it snows. Sales tax is a bit higher there, but there are more thrift stores to buy clothes. Seriously, I am making about the same (higher stipend, but I pay half tuition), and I am able to save a couple thousand dollars each year, plus fly out to Syracuse to visit my girlfriend. So, I'd say 13.5k will do fine.

update about getting funding from start point of none: I talked with a professor in charge of funding, she was very nice, but she said up front that their would be no funding for me. She said land grant universities don't have much flexibility with these things, although if an opportunity opened up (like a prof got funding), she'd let me know.

I've found the advisor/student relationship to be very manageable even though the only professor who has worked in my field didn't like me when I was her student in class. We had at first a cordial and professional (although slightly tense) working relationship, but now things are more relaxed. Don't worry too much about having the relationship go sour and having noone to help you. There are only a few bad apples at any school, so as long as the advisor has a reputation of being nominally a nice person, you will still be able to work through initial personal differences if you remain professional.

of course, but "all ... kids from NJ, NY, and CT"?

I don't know much about the industry, but I know ISU is proud of its connections with biotechnology. They have an office of biotechnology (http://www.biotech.iastate.edu/) and a directory of nearby firms working in life sciences (http://www.industry.iastate.edu/lifesci ... ctory.html). Hopefully that is helpful. The city is fairly small, and entirely dominated by undergraduates. I like to compare the city to a factory which tries to efficiently get alcohol into students. However, I'm on the west side of town, and the east side is a little better, with an old town area with nice shopping and resteraunts, parks and trails, and fast access to the interstate where its 30 minutes to Des Moines and 3 or 4 hours to Minneapolis, Chicago, and Kansas City. The campus is very pretty, and they have good lectures open to the public. There is a hipster movie theater, a dollar theater and a regular cinema. There are two art galleries (I think), a large music venue, an indie music venue, and some bars that have concerts. Tell me what department you are going into and I can give you a little more information, and feel free to ask more questions.

This article talks about comparing private and public elementary schools and talks about the costs of private school http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/ca/197 Those prices seem really high to me; for example, here is the costs at the most prestigious private k-12 in my town. http://www.brownell.edu/aspx/ad_costs.aspx I think that a lot of inner city and Catholic private schools offer need-based scholarships to offset some of those costs. At least in my dioscene, this is true. In my expirience there is no difference between the quality of education at many private and public institutions. I went to inner city public schools in the midwest and came out having more classes in foriegn languages, math, and computer science than any of my friends in the honors program at the large state college. Many public schools use magnet schools and honors programs to give gifted students private school level classes, while having general education classes with a much more diverse group than the private school offers. /end opinion

Is this true? I would think that the students would be from Penn, Delaware, NJ and Maryland. Why NY and CT?

Do ask your department, and maybe ask payroll how you can expediate the process. I got my information to payroll early, but my department sat on things, and I didn't get my first paycheck (TA while getting masters in math) untill the begining of October (by mail). Changing that to automatic deposit has spead things up, but you might have to wait, especially if there is a small mix-up, as in my case. Otherwise, avoid mix-ups by being sure of what payroll and your department want, and communicating with them as to if you have the right paperwork in the hands of the right secretary, etc. :oops:

abcd: UIC had my friend's and my application listed as "decision deferred: manual review required" until they made their decision (both of us were accepted). I think that it means that the graduate college is deffering the decision to the department, but I don't know for sure. Good luck everyone. I'm too paranoid to post my profile until I know from all of my schools.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services designates Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) and Medically Underserved Area (MUA), and health care professionals can apply for a J-1 Waiver to work in those areas. To find out more, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services discusses it on a webpage here: http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/shortage/ and the page specific to dentistry is here: http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/shortage/hpsacritdental.htm If you seach google for "Health Professional Shortage Area" or "Medically Underserved Area," and lawyer, you will find lots of links to people who may rip you off, but probably know more about what is going on. Good luck again, and maybe this will be interesting, if not an option for the future.

Hey, she's not my girlfriend because I'm smooth, I practically needed a book to tell me how to kiss her. As a grad student, I don't do anything unless I've consulted some research and know that what I'm doing is appropriate. Hopefully a grad degree will make me a money pot (yeah right) and she'll assent to staying with me, if I can find a study on the best way to propose. Wish me luck. But seriously, outside sources (books and other peoples expiriences) help, if only to take away some of the nerves. Good luck to you, Bianca. I'm sure you've looked at a lot of options, but I know that sometimes health professionals with a foreign degree can get a job with less hassle on Indian Reservations and occasionally in small midwestern towns (if you want more info, let me know). My best friend's mom is a surgeon where she comes from, but she is only a general practisioner here (on a res in Nebraska). Many other doctors and dental surgeons in the midwest are from India these days; its fun to see cricket pitches springing up in secluded places. So, your girlfriend's degree might not go quite as far, but its an option.

How much information should I give the school when I ask for more funding? Do I need to tell them where and/or how much my other offer is? They are both top 20 schools, and I don't mean for them to try to outbid each other, I just want to know that either way, I could get some funding.

I've been accepted to two programs (so far) of about equal rank. One, however, did not offer funding. I am nervous about asking them for funding, when I am not yet sure if I would attend even if they gave funding. My decision is contingent on how my other apps go and where my girlfriend (fiance?) gets accepted. I have two questions: Should I wait until I know that I would attend the school if they funded me before asking for funding? What is the best way to ask for funding, an email or a phone call?

Babies: In my department (where I am a master student now moving on for a PhD in a tangential field), many if not most of the students are married or affianced (I think due to midwesterners penchant for marrying younger). Two that I can think of have had children, one was the woman, and she came back to school almost immediately afterward. The other is the man, and he, too, took very little time off. I think both want to finish before the child is too old to notice the move from school to a job (in one case possibly to a job back home in Korea). However the woman has family (parents or grandparents I think) who live in town to take care of the baby, while the Korean wife has had trouble with work (I think) due to her citizenship statue, and so she has had less of a problem staying home. Their parents have spent multiple months with them, however, which has helped. In conclusion, it sounds like it is difficult to start a family in grad school, as one or both of the parents will miss out on many important moments in the baby's infancy. Long Distance Relationships: As for long distance relationships, I and a few others are in them. My advice is to check out a good book on LDRs, we've just found one by Gregory Guldner, and to be very concious of the different issues that you will be facing. The best part of the book is giving you some confidence that things will be ok. To briefly summarize this book, you should try to decide how much contact you will have (email, phone, visiting) so that your expectations are the same. You should be comfortable with each others level of socialization. You should find ways to be intamate (even sexually, if need be) over the distance. You should share mundane things about your daily life (if only by email) to keep that close feeling and not feel like you are growing apart. The most oft repeated point in the book, however, is to remember that LDRs persist at about the same rate as any other relationships, so do not be discouraged (nor overly hopeful, I guess). note: LDR = long distance relationship

My friend on the Plateau (just north-east of downtown and of McGill) did not have one, nor was there a place to park one. Further north and east, having one is ok. The city is bike and rollerblade friendly in the warmer months, in spite of having districts named for "hilliness" (Plateau and Mount Royal). Many downtown buildings are connected by underground passageways and malls (its really something to see), so in the winter you can go downtown and hang out for hours and never go outside. I think that makes it more pedestrian friendly when it snows. Plus, if someone comes and visits, you can totally disorient them once you've figured out some of the underground shortcuts(?).

I totally concur. I speant a summer there studying French and hanging out, and the city is very easy to live in on a tight budget. Rent is cheap everywhere, and living expenses (groceries, etc) outside of downtown are normal. I lived near the Cadillac station on the Greenline (district: Hochelaga-Maisonneuve) and it was no prob. I had a friend who lived in a tiny studio on the west-side of Plateau, and it was dirt cheap (cheaper even than $250 (Canadian), I think). Another lived in the area south of the Olympic village, I don't remember what we called the neighborhood, but it was around Rue Ontario in the district of Ville-Marie. He said it was even cheaper there, but I think he was there because there were some other Japanese nearby. The town is full of free things to do, concerts, fairs, festivals, parks, trails, etc. It also is full of things to do that aren't free. Its bike and rollerblade friendly, too. I don't know about the weather though. People usually greeted me with Hallo (kind of a french-english hybrid) but then spoke in English, no problem. Its a very diverse city (just walk down Rue Laurent and bask in the diversity), my friends were a Bangladeshi-Canadian and a Japanese, both of whose French was as bad as mine, so English is no problem, although outside of downtown you will find that somethings are done with few words if you don't speak French. As for being an American, most people didn't care/notice. English speakers in Eastern Canada have various accents, so nothing was a give-away if you have an east coast or midwest accent, I think. McGill and Concordia sponsor lots of things for people to do, like art films, concerts, etc. The other nice thing is there is not much crime, and lots of young people with businesses that cater to young people.

I'm from the midwest, but have spent a good deal of time in Syracuse. Town-gown relations (that is the relationship between the city and the school) are mediocre, as is normal, I guess. The school is about three miles east of the city center in a neighborhood that used to be very rich and upscale. This makes it feel isolated, but it really isn't. I'm staying another mile and a half north-east of the school, and although there aren't any students here, both the school and downtown are accessible by bike. The school is near a large park that was bequeethed to the city by one of these rich former citizens, Thornden Park, and is near the artsy Wescott Street area. Otherwise, around the school the area is either students or relatively poor people (there are even a couple abandonned projects). Thorndon Park is nice, there is sledding and jogging there, as well as pretty gardens. Wescott, also, is cool, as is seperate from the bar scene, I think, so you can go there and get away from the undergrads for a dinner. The University is, I think, very liberal. There are lots of speakers and events that cater to the hippy set. There is some diversity, but more in the neighborhoods on the east side and on the southwest side of town than on the campus. The mosque, if you are muslim, is conservative. The black churches are great. The Catholic churches are nice too. I don't know about temple, but there are fewer Jews here than in the bigger east coast cities. The town seems liberal, but there are quite a few suburbanites, mall goers, and even some SUV drivers. Downtown Syracuse is great, and easily accessible by bike. There are a few streets that are better for going by bike, and downtown is worth going to. Also, so long as you aren't to far east, the town is relatively flat. The city has a population of something over 200k, but its metro is like 800k. It feels about the same size as Omaha, but has better busses than that city. Its busses aren't great, though. Crime, here, is a bit higher than in the midwest, esspecially violent crime and weapons related stuff. Near campus and Thorndon Park at night are a bit creepy, but you can feel it and avoid those poorly lit parts. Outside of those areas, there are usually enough people around that you should feel safe enough passing through all night. There are a couple of corners where you shouldn't go after, say, 1:00 am, due to random gun violence. The people are nice enough, just like everywhere. They honk more than in the midwest. They are also more straightforward, which is actually nice, because, for instance, you and your landlord will have an easy time voicing your complaints, etc. I've found the students to be a bit ruder than in the midwest, so I imagine TA-ing will be a bit more annoying, but that really shouldn't matter much. If you carry yourself like an adult, people in stores and resteraunts are great. And if you are on the east side, and tip decently (18%+) at a regular resteraunt or cofeeshop, you will stand out from the stingy undergraduates, and they will treat you very well. And people who notice that I'm not local are mostly charmed to meet me. The great part about the area (and most of central NY, including schools in binghampton, ithica, utica, etc), is outside of the city, the state is beautiful. Its old mountains, rolling hills, waterfalls, historic and artistic sights and towns (Seneca Falls, Cooperstown, etc), farms, orchards, skiing, berry picking, hiking, camping, etc. I love the weather, but it is at the intersection of like three different weather patterns or something. If you study meteorology, it might be interesting. There is a lot of rain. There can be a lot of snow, but it isn't bufallo, nor is it northern Minnesota/Wisconsin. There isn't any snow right now. But in the winter, there are some of outdoor places to ice-skate or play hokey. If you want a big city feel, Syracuse won't bring it. But if you like an established, mid-size town with lots to do, Syracuse is fine. Its 4.5 hours from DC and Boston, a bit less from NYC an Toronto. If you have any more questions, let me know.

I've spent a good deal of time in Ames, Iowa (Iowa State), Lincoln, Nebraska, and Syracuse, New York, and of the three, Ames is the easiest to get around without a car while Syracuse is the hardest. The reasons are: Midwest towns are flatter, so bikes work; smaller towns are easier to walk around in, its only four miles from corner to corner of town; snow removal is better where everyone has a truck and does there own neighborhood rather than wait for the city to get to it; College towns like Ames have free busing for students; and all bus routes lead to campus/are geared towards students needs. The reasons go on, and this holds for people I know in places like Lawrence, KS, Urbana-Champaign, IL, Manhattan, KS (Kansas State), etc. On the other hand, like another poster said, bigger midwest cities like Omaha and Kansas City have large suburban populations that don't care about public transportation. But even in a town with really mediocre busses, like Omaha, you can find places near the universities, Creighton and Nebraska-Omaha, where most everything is within walking distance (but the groceries are expensive in those areas).