Planning Admission 2021

[numenor]

1 minute ago, MildlyJaded said:

Don't think we'll be updated via acorn. Also. What does 'invited' mean? 

Apparently some applicants receive an update on Acorn hinting at acceptance before the official decision is posted on the SGS application portal. Essentially, it's an "invite" to register for the fall semester. I have absolutely no idea, just saw on the results page that someone had this happen and have been picking through other UofT threads to corroborate. Seems like a common occurrence though certainly not official. Was just curious... mine hasn't updated, and I haven't heard of any other UofT applicants receiving updates save for that one result. ?‍♀️

[futureplanner]

59 minutes ago, prospectiveplanner said:

Sorry for spamming the forum today but I'm waiting for news so I'm going a bit nuts and stalking it a lot haha!

I had another question for you fine people. Is anyone wanting to focus on accessibility in particular and know of a program that has a stream that focuses entirely on accessibility? I am yet to see the word "accessibility" actually listed under any concentration/stream at any program I looked at and it has slowly become my main interest in planning and design. When I do see something about accessibility, it's usually in the context of social/economic access to services/housing for marginalized/racialized groups, not actually physical access to tangible places. Think accessible children's playgrounds and parks, Changing Places washrooms.... buildings, campuses and transit using basic ADA regulations as the bare minimum, etc. Lots and lots of grassroots activism is being done in buildings/park accessibility by disabled individuals but I don't see much collaboration with planners going on, and it seems to be a problem that needs more attention and I would love to get into this. 

It's a fairly recent interest of mine and unfortunately I didn't stress any of this in my statement of intent. That's the one good thing about potentially not making it in this year - whole new statement of intent for a new focus! Thinking of where I could apply to that focuses a lot on accessibility planning and collaboration with disabled people.

I've never heard of anyone just focusing on this (or seen professors that only did research on this) but this is certainly something many planners and future planners are thinking about (I mentioned accessibility on my essay but that's not sole focus at all). Even the whole idea of 'complete streets' is supposed to ensure that there's space for everyone. I think that's something you could explore as your main focus (even if you didn't mention it in your admissions material at all.. in October during open houses all the schools kept saying that many students change their concentration after starting the program)

[prospectiveplanner]

6 minutes ago, futureplanner said:

I've never heard of anyone just focusing on this (or seen professors that only did research on this) but this is certainly something many planners and future planners are thinking about (I mentioned accessibility on my essay but that's not sole focus at all). Even the whole idea of 'complete streets' is supposed to ensure that there's space for everyone. I think that's something you could explore as your main focus (even if you didn't mention it in your admissions material at all.. in October during open houses all the schools kept saying that many students change their concentration after starting the program)

Good to know, thanks!! 

[anxiousplanner]

On 2/17/2021 at 10:10 AM, anxiousplanner said:

Age/Gender/Citizenship

28/F/US

Undergraduate degree/School/Year graduated 

BA in Geography / good state school / 2013

GPA - GRE  - TOEFL (for Int'l students) 

3.4 BA - No GRE

Work Experience:

7+ years total, tangentially related to planning. 3 years doing community organizing for a union, 3 years for a small business development program, 1.5 years for a company that builds innovation spaces. SOP tries to make the connection to planning (my interests are in economic development, inequality, & racial wealth gap), but I'm now doubting myself. 

Letter of recommendations: 

All former or current managers, no academic letters.

Schools applied to: UC Berkeley, UCLA, Rutgers (dual with MPP), UIC, USC (dual with MPP)

In: UCLA, Rutgers (dual with MPP), UIC, USC (dual with MPP)

Out: UC Berkeley

Wait-list: 

Awaiting: 

Results:

Lol, finally heard back from USC - in with 25% dean's merit, which basically brings it down to the cost of UCLA by my math (but minus the potential for establishing residency). Probably not a tempting enough offer to consider it, but glad to have all my results back. 

This year was brutal, and I'm so relieved it's over. To those of you still waiting, hang in there!! Cheering for you.

Now onto the next phase - decisions, moving, and actually DOING grad school!

[rio2sp]

27 minutes ago, anxiousplanner said:

Lol, finally heard back from USC - in with 25% dean's merit, which basically brings it down to the cost of UCLA by my math (but minus the potential for establishing residency). Probably not a tempting enough offer to consider it, but glad to have all my results back. 

This year was brutal, and I'm so relieved it's over. To those of you still waiting, hang in there!! Cheering for you.

Now onto the next phase - decisions, moving, and actually DOING grad school!

Congrats on your acceptances!! Amazing programs. Any news from UCLA on funding? 

[anxiousplanner]

1 minute ago, rio2sp said:

Any news from UCLA on funding? 

When I reached out, they shared that any funding offers would've been in the initial acceptance letter. I didn't get any aid, and it sounds like that was definitely the norm.

[rio2sp]

Just now, anxiousplanner said:

When I reached out, they shared that any funding offers would've been in the initial acceptance letter. I didn't get any aid, and it sounds like that was definitely the norm.

Ah ok, thanks for the update. That's very disappointing to know as an out-of-stater. Wondering why that's the case for many this year... was under the impression that Luskin had a decent supply of $ to fund students. Let's hope for the best

[MURPApplicant]

Hey all! I've been accepted to USC's MUP with the Dean's Merit Scholarship, which is covering 75% of my tuition. Does anyone know how much the tuition for USC's MUP program is? I know there are other fees on top of tuition sometimes. I've tried reaching out to them via email, but they haven't been responsive at all. It's been frustrating, since I'm trying to finalize my decision as to which school I should attend 

[MURPApplicant]

2 minutes ago, rio2sp said:

Ah ok, thanks for the update. That's very disappointing to know as an out-of-stater. Wondering why that's the case for many this year... was under the impression that Luskin had a decent supply of $ to fund students. Let's hope for the best

Adding on to anxiousplanner's comment: I also emailed Sean Campbell about funding a couple days ago, and he said that you have not been awarded anything at this time if your admission email did not mention any fellowship award 

Edited March 18, 2021 by MURPApplicant

[rio2sp]

6 minutes ago, MURPApplicant said:

Adding on to anxiousplanner's comment: I also emailed Sean Campbell about funding a couple days ago, and he said that you have not been awarded anything at this time if your admission email did not mention any fellowship award 

Thanks for the heads up!! Do they not offer scholarships/merit awards to incoming students? Why only fellowships? *sighs* Also the " at this time" seems a bit ambiguous. Sorry, small rant! It's been a long application cycle for all of us, hasn't it? ?

[MURPApplicant]

2 minutes ago, rio2sp said:

Thanks for the heads up!! Do they not offer scholarships/merit awards to incoming students? Why only fellowships? *sighs* Also the " at this time" seems a bit ambiguous. Sorry, small rant! It's been a long application cycle for all of us, hasn't it? ?

Haha we all deserve to rant after going through apps ? Seems like only a few students received a small amount of funding (5k ish) from UCLA according to GradCafe 

[rio2sp]

4 minutes ago, MURPApplicant said:

Haha we all deserve to rant after going through apps ? Seems like only a few students received a small amount of funding (5k ish) from UCLA according to GradCafe 

Only 5k....UCLA! SOS! ? anyways, congrats on USC!!! That's really amazing ?

[willplanning]

1 hour ago, numenor said:

Apparently some applicants receive an update on Acorn hinting at acceptance before the official decision is posted on the SGS application portal. Essentially, it's an "invite" to register for the fall semester. I have absolutely no idea, just saw on the results page that someone had this happen and have been picking through other UofT threads to corroborate. Seems like a common occurrence though certainly not official. Was just curious... mine hasn't updated, and I haven't heard of any other UofT applicants receiving updates save for that one result. ?‍♀️

Curious, where did you see this? I can login to Acorn with my application credentials, but I didn't get an email about it, and I don't know if I was allowed to log in previously.

[willlo]

3 hours ago, prospectiveplanner said:

Sorry for spamming the forum today but I'm waiting for news so I'm going a bit nuts and stalking it a lot haha!

I had another question for you fine people. Is anyone wanting to focus on accessibility in particular and know of a program that has a stream that focuses entirely on accessibility? I am yet to see the word "accessibility" actually listed under any concentration/stream at any program I looked at and it has slowly become my main interest in planning and design. When I do see something about accessibility, it's usually in the context of social/economic access to services/housing for marginalized/racialized groups, not actually physical access to tangible places. Think accessible children's playgrounds and parks, Changing Places washrooms.... buildings, campuses and transit using basic ADA regulations as the bare minimum, etc. Lots and lots of grassroots activism is being done in buildings/park accessibility by disabled individuals but I don't see much collaboration with planners going on, and it seems to be a problem that needs more attention and I would love to get into this. 

It's a fairly recent interest of mine and unfortunately I didn't stress any of this in my statement of intent. That's the one good thing about potentially not making it in this year - whole new statement of intent for a new focus! Thinking of where I could apply to that focuses a lot on accessibility planning and collaboration with disabled people.

University of Buffalo in upstate NY has a research center doing really cool accessibility work - http://idea.ap.buffalo.edu/

[prospectiveplanner]

15 minutes ago, willlo said:

University of Buffalo in upstate NY has a research center doing really cool accessibility work - http://idea.ap.buffalo.edu/

So cool! Thanks! I hope I can save enough to be able to apply to US schools next year... so, so expensive but so many awesome options out there. 

[urbanplanning2021]

Does anyone have an idea when (or if) we might hear from UCLA if we haven’t already? 

[MURPApplicant]

1 hour ago, rio2sp said:

Only 5k....UCLA! SOS! ? anyways, congrats on USC!!! That's really amazing ?

Thank you!! Congrats on getting into your dream school!!  

Edited March 18, 2021 by MURPApplicant

[MURPApplicant]

25 minutes ago, urbanplanning2021 said:

Does anyone have an idea when (or if) we might hear from UCLA if we haven’t already? 

Sorry, I don't have any idea  But I'd perhaps suggest reaching out to Sean Campbell. He's been super helpful and responsive!

[YeuxInfinis]

Hi, has anyone here received any financial aid from UPenn?

[YeuxInfinis]

I didn't hear many people on this topic saying that they applied to Upenn. Do you consider that the course is not so good or is too expensive?

[numenor]

4 hours ago, willplanning said:

Curious, where did you see this? I can login to Acorn with my application credentials, but I didn't get an email about it, and I don't know if I was allowed to log in previously.

A planning applicant who posted on the results page indicated that they received an invite via Acorn today. Others who have applied to different programs (MPP and MSW specifically) have reported the same thing—an update on Acorn before official acceptance via email/SGS portal. I was just wondering if anyone else had seen an update in Acorn... not that it necessarily means anything!

[mupp]

On 3/15/2021 at 6:54 AM, YeuxInfinis said:

How interesting. I'm from Brazil and applied at UPenn and Cornell, my interest is Land Use and Environmental Planning. I was admitted to UPenn early, but nothing financial sido for me. I'm still waiting for Cornell, but it's taking so long that I don't even know if I have a chance. ?

UPenn was actually my top choice. Congrats! You seem like a strong applicant, and Cornell might reach out to your later. I am considering Cornell, but not sure if I can get practical skills (esp analytical skills like environmental gis) from it... If you do not mind me asking, what elements of the program would affect your decision the most when it comes to concentration in environmental planning?

[skyline07]

Hello everyone! I would like to ask if you have any advice on choosing between UCLA and Cornell? Here is an international student and the cost of both is about the same in my case. I plan to go into academia later, which means I plan to apply for a PhD after my master's degree. I am interested in urban governance and local economic strategies. Both schools seem to have professors I'm interested in, but I'm not really sure which one is better suited to secure my entry into academia later on. Thank you very much!

[hayamate]

11 hours ago, YeuxInfinis said:

Hi, has anyone here received any financial aid from UPenn?

I received a very small amount of aid (around 10k). The program is my #1 choice since I want to go into transportation planning, but I received a more substantial financial aid offer from another program, which will allow me to graduate with little to no debt.

Unfortunately Penn is known to not hand out as much aid as other similarly rank programs.

[austinplanning256]

Georgia Tech folks - spoke with a current student yesterday and they said they received their funding letter a week after receiving their official admission letter. So we should get clarity about funding soon.