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Tabletop Joe

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Recently accepted Berkeley PhD in mechanical engineering. Very excited. I do have a question regarding funding though, and I hope this is not too much of a sensitive subject to bring up (ignore my post if it is). I will have a stipend just shy of $20K, and I was told I can expect to be paying around $800-$1200 / month in rent (expensive place to live). Assuming there will be some non-insignificant tax cuts to my stipend (thanks to California), this leaves me in a very tight spot to then be trying to pay for a year of food, clothes, textbooks, and any hopes of recreational activities.

Am I overlooking some detail? Did you all get better stipends and I somehow got the shortest stick? Not sure if I'm over-worrying myself here.

When did you receive this offer? Did you attend Visit Day?

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When did you receive this offer? Did you attend Visit Day?

My acceptance was smeared out over a period of time. I was contacted by a professor pretty early and informally offered admission. The formal admission came later, along with the funding offer and an invite to the visit day. I ended up having to reschedule my visit a few weeks later due to scheduling conflicts, but I did visit and Berkeley did cover expenses. Why do you ask?

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Recently accepted Berkeley PhD in mechanical engineering. Very excited. I do have a question regarding funding though, and I hope this is not too much of a sensitive subject to bring up (ignore my post if it is). I will have a stipend just shy of $20K, and I was told I can expect to be paying around $800-$1200 / month in rent (expensive place to live). Assuming there will be some non-insignificant tax cuts to my stipend (thanks to California), this leaves me in a very tight spot to then be trying to pay for a year of food, clothes, textbooks, and any hopes of recreational activities.

Am I overlooking some detail? Did you all get better stipends and I somehow got the shortest stick? Not sure if I'm over-worrying myself here.

From the Berkeley website for Financial Aid (http://grad.berkeley.edu/financial/deadlines.shtml)

Stipends range from $18,000 to $27,000 per academic year for two years, in addition to departmental support years which add at least two years of support in the form of fellowships and/or research or teaching assistantships.

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Hi,

Does anyone know when do we get CalNet IDs? After submitting the SIR form it said I should get the ID in a week, but I read somewhere that we won't get them till mid-May.

You first are assigned a Student ID number within a couple of days of accepting, and then there should be instructions to get your CalID set up. Any idea when we get our e-mail accounts?

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You first are assigned a Student ID number within a couple of days of accepting, and then there should be instructions to get your CalID set up. Any idea when we get our e-mail accounts?

Got it, done that. To create email account, go to calmail.berkeley.edu, select "Create Account" and login with your CalNet ID/password.

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Attending Berkeley IEOR for Fall 2011.

From chennai.

Mail me @kannan.jake@gmail.com

I think it will be nice if we both get in touch now :)

I am joining UC Berk for IEOR.

I would like to know about some options on living in Berkeley.

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Hey guys, I am also attending Berkeley in fall, for Linguistics. I was hoping to get into a student co-op, but I am not well-positioned on the waiting list so I don't expect that to pan out. I applied for residence in the International House and was offered a spot, but I am leery about that situation for several reasons - mainly the high price and crummy cafeteria food - though I otherwise really don't mind a dormy atmosphere and would rather like the opportunity to meet lots of people since I am pretty social by nature. Still I would like to explore other options while I can.

Anyway, I am 29, male, clean, quiet, and respectful of others' belongings and food. If anyone is interested in finding a housemate to get a place somewhere in walking distance of campus, do let me know, as I would be quite interested in discussing the possibility.

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Re: Finding housing

http://www.padmapper.com

Padmapper is a great way to see apartments close to campus (it aggregates Craigslist and other sources)

http://www.housing.b...testudents.html

On-campus housing is another decent option (it's convenient, expensive, and fills up QUICKLY)

http://berkeleystude...pective-members

The co-op system is a cheap, often filthy, and interesting option too

If there is someone planning on going for a couple of days to check out the area, i saw that there are nice deals on nearby hotels on http://berkeley.universityhotelnetwork.com/! Hope that will help in the future!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Anyone signed the dotted line on housing yet? Where are you guys going to be staying?

I'm planning on sub-leasing from a friend for the first month and then scoping out places in North Berkeley area.

Also, I've heard that downtown berkeley, or the part south of campus is not safe? Is that true? Or is just because there's a lot of homeless people there from what I've heard?

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I lived in Berkeley for a while and didn't find the areas south of campus particularly bad like people like to think. Certainly start off looking north though. Probably stay away from Dwight Av.. but I wouldn't say there is a berkeley ghetto anywhere.. haha

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  • 2 weeks later...

Anyone who has a housing offer from Jackson house and isn't going, please let them know fast - I'm first on the waiting list.

It's like admissions season all over again... the saying that getting into Berkeley is easier than getting housing at Berkeley seems true now.

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  • 1 year later...

am a pass out of National Institute of Technology, Srinagar, India... i was thinking of going for MS or preferably an MS, PhD in structural engineering in 2013 fall session.. i was a gold medalist (civil engineering) - 2011 pass out, with a good CGPA of 9.603.. plus i have a symposium pub in the earthquake engineering field as well..also, i m hoping of two more papers to get published this september.. i m currently working in the structural erection dept. of National Thermal Power Corporation, Ltd., at nagpur, India, at a super thermal power plant... and by the time i shall join the MS course, i.e. in august 2013, i shall be having a field experience of around 2 years. . . does the field experience really count?

my LORs would not be from IIT professors but from the professors of my college.. will that be enough?

what areas should i be targeting right now so as to ensure admission in a good university, preferably with a reasonable scholarship..

I am appearing for GRE in this october how far does GRE matter and whats the minimum required i should be aiming at?

regards..

Ahmad Wani,

structural erection dept.

NTPC Ltd,

Nagpur, INDIA.

mobile: +91-8275787368

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