keepcalm

I would say that the west of campus is actually considered to be quieter. Though I do know plenty of grad students who live to the east of campus who like it and don't have noise problems. So my impression could be a little skewed by what I was told when I started looking for housing. If you aren't looking on craigslist I'd recommend it. You can find places pretty cheap sometimes, though it may be a little early to find a place for August. Also you might want to sign up for the GradAd listserve, as people often advertise places/rooms for rent on there. You can sign up on the GPSA website (http://www.asu.edu/gpsa/) using a link on the right side of the web page.

In contrast, while it is ridiculously hot in the summer, I love the weather other times of the year. 90s in February, fantastic. There are plenty of places around campus to live. I live in a house two miles from campus (to the west) and it's been a quiet place to live that is still plenty close enough to campus that I can ride my bike. I would say, if you can, don't drive to campus. The parking isn't very close and it's expensive! You'll get a free metro pass that you can use on buses and the light rail, so if you want to live further you might consider getting a place close to the light rail line or a bus route. Most places in Tempe you can either take a metro bus or the orbit (the free Tempe neighborhood bus) to campus. Plus Tempe has a lot of bike lanes, making this an easy way to get to campus without having to worry about bus schedules or staying late on campus.

I think $600 for a single is probably average though you can definitely find one bedrooms for cheaper. I would just wait until May when you can come and check them out for yourself. You'll feel better having seen the place before signing the lease and there should still be plenty places available. I know people sign leases for August later than May (I did . . .).

Yay! I have funding and am definitely going to ASU! :-D

It didn't seem that bad when I was there! From the way everyone was talking it sounded awful, but it didn't seem so bad! Besides there are mountains and I'm actually ridiculously excited about seeing the sites in the SW!

Hmm. Each of my personal statements only listed one faculty member, and I got into 2 excellent programs and was waitlisted at 2 more. Though, this is mainly because departments only tend to have 1 person working with the particular approach I happen to be interested in.

I am very likely going to ASU in the fall! It just seems like the right place to be.

Congrats! That's great news, though I am a little jealous :wink:. Hopefully all our schools will come back with great offers!

Yeah, the desire to and the actual practicality of slacking off are two completely different things! I don't have a senior thesis, but I do have multiple 15-20 page papers for my advanced humanities classes, finals in advanced science classes, and research to continue (+ poster presentation)! I tell myself that I'll get through it like I always do, but I am getting very tired!

I feel that I am a little. My motivation is definitely starting to fail me! I've always taken a heavy course load, had a job and been active on campus, but this semester I am definitely feeling it! I'm a little worried this will carry onto grad school, but I keep telling myself this couldn't possibly happen! Here's to graduation only ~1 month left to go!

I'm kind of hoping that schools were just waiting to find out if students got NSF funding and now decisions will be made for the rest of us. It seems pretty unfair to keep us hanging such a long time! I know where I want to be, and I hope that I'll be able to be there next year, but without funding it will be difficult. Good luck everyone!

I'm still waiting too! I've been offered funding by another school, but my top choice has not made a decision yet! When I e-mailed yesterday I was told they weren't sure when the decisions were going to be made! It's getting pretty intense!

I'm waiting on funding too for my top choice program. Hopefully they'll make a decision soon, I'm tired of waiting. :| I don't think any of the other people I know personally applied to SUNY Buffalo, though a lot of that is probably because I lot of people either applied to big names or schools fairly near to my undergrad regionally. Good luck getting funding! I hope they let us know soon, this waiting is killing me!

Wow! Our thread has really dropped off in activity, so I guess I'll try to revive it. Have you guys decided where you are going yet? Do you have funding? I'm waiting on it and it makes me very nervous. Good luck to everyone that is still waiting for news.

Yikes! The city I live in now has a fairly low crime rate (though I'm one of those people who has never really worried about crime!) I'm excited about ASU and hope that's where I'll be in the fall. I am a little worried about the whole party school thing and hope I'll find a place to live away from that undergrad feel.

Ugh. I feel like I'm going to jump out of my skin! The longer I wait the more convinced I am that no funding is coming my way. I have a favorite, but I feel compelled to wait until I hear about funding. Gross.

I'm interested in bioarchaeology. I don't yet have a region that I'm overly attached to, though I do prefer North American groups. I'm mostly interested in the application of chemical analysis to find out about diet and mobility of skeletal groups. And it's another day waiting to see if I get funding . . . people keep asking me if I know where I'm going next year. It's frustrating to have no idea since funding is going to affect a lot!

I'm still waiting! I feel really silly because I want to be excited but feel really nervous about the whole funding thing! I'm in anthro too! What subfield are you interested in? I hope we get funding, it's going to be very hard without it!

Gross. I definitely want to avoid the undergrad party scene atmosphere! Though a mile or two wouldn't be too much to walk, the campus at the school I currently attend is about a mile across anyway! I basically want to avoid using my car as much as possible. I should be able to visit before I move out there but I'd like to get as much info as I can! I've been accepted to the PhD program in bioarchaeology, which is a part of anthropology. It's an amazing program so it's pretty likely I'll be there in the fall.

They have phones in Canada!?! lol, jk. I hope I don't have to end up waiting until the end of April! I kinda of thought this might happen with having a mix of US and Canadian schools, it'll be interesting to see how it all turns out. I'm going to contact the departments on Monday to try and find out what I can!

Bump! I'm very seriously considering ASU (as in, probably, yes, very likely to attend). Does anyone have any thoughts? Are there places close to campus that are affordable? I've been able to walk to my campus and it's made me pretty spoiled. I'd love to hear from anyone that has some info!

I don't know if this helps, but I got a 590 V the first time I took the GRE, which I felt pretty iffy about. So I decided to take it again, studied and a month later and got a 720 V. It is possible to pull up your scores. Plus having a high GRE score from the second time made me a lot more confident about my applications! I don't really know how important the GRE is to your field though. I wanted to have a high GRE because I knew my GPA, while good, was lower than the averages of accepted applicants at the schools I applied to. A lot of this was because I was changing fields, but I really wanted to prove that I was a competitive applicant. You seem to have a lot of experiences that would be beneficial to your application, but having a higher GRE score certainly couldn't hurt! Especially if you aren't confident about your current scores, I know I felt a lot better after the second time!

I wouldn't go that far yet. One of my friends just got accepted to a US school this past week and my last acceptance was less than 2 weeks ago. Plus it seemed like the Canadian schools I applied to had fairly late deadlines (though not super late, still in January). But I am pretty impatient to find out!

Whoa! May is really late! I don't know how I feel about that since you have to decide whether or not you want to go there in April!

I don't know. I think I might send some e-mails on Monday asking about status. I'm getting pretty anxious!