oooh drama

[smwentum]

I have a problem I was wondering, if you all had some inventive ideas or a lot of money to give me, either would be fine.

I applied to 5 schools, lets call them

A,B,C,D,E

In march I was accepted to A and B. B, was my second choice, and C was my first, even though I

hadn't heard anything from C for the longest time, I had a kind

of settled on the idea of going to B. I was correct in that

assumption, because I did get rejected from C but that was fine, and I

also got rejected from D with in a few days of each other.

So your asking, what's the problem, just go to B right? Well

hears the thing I asked A, and B about my funding, like last, week

because it had been a while since i had heard anything from them,

and they just told me they weren't going to give me funding. I was

really shocked, and pretty hurt at the same time. They didn't really

give me a reason, they just said they weren't going to give me

funding.

On the same day, in the same set of new emails, I got another email

from E, telling me that I had gotten accepted to their,

program, but with no funding. Now I was supper pissed, because I

just had not seen this coming, I asked the director at E why

I didn't get funded, and he said that "We liked you a lot, as

person, but you don't have of A's in your advanced mathematics

courses", which is true, but it feels like at the same time, why not

just reject me from the program, if grades were such a big issue,

then why accept me in the first place. Then he went on to say that

"we will make a final decision about your funding, once we see your

final grades from this semester,"

This experience has left pretty bitter to be honest :twisted: , a lot of the

people that I talked to before I applied to grad school said, that

especially for math and the other hard sciences, that it's pretty

much guaranteed, that if you were to be accepted to a school that

you would be funded, I guess I am finding out this is not the case

the hard way. I didn't apply for external fellowships, because of

this reason, and I am guessing I would have had a hard time getting

any because of my grades.

I think this experience has skewed my perspective on grad school

because, even if I go, it will feel like, that the program didn't

really wanted me (or believe that I couldn't get through the program),

I know that its hard enough just to be accepted, for them to pull

this crap and say they are not going to fund me is a lot worse.

Maybe the guy was right, if my grades weren't that good from

undergrad, then they will be even worse when I try to make the jump

to grad school.

In any case if I don't get funding from anywhere I do have a few

options anyway

1. Just go and shell out the money, and apply for fellowships in

graduate school (which seems like a bad idea)

2. Just wait a year, take more classes and apply again, (I could try

doing that, but after this time of applying I don't know if would

really want to)

3. Just quit, and just get a job, or finish up another degree (ie

finish my minor and comp sci or the other one in psychology) (it

just seems like a bad idea, I really like math, and after all the

stuff, of working on this stuff for 2-3 yeas, 2 confrences and a REU

If you all had some inventive ideas, or a lot of money to give me either would be fine, thank you for reading.

[omarayache]

check out ALL the profs websites...send emails to the ones you think you like (research wise). dont be toooo picky though.. also some of them might be willing to give you a TA position in case they dont normally offer RA positions. If you're sooooooooooooo close to getting ur minor in Comp Sci you might wanna try like the CS dept or like a general engineering department if they have any TA positions...

Although April 15 has passed and some schools might give you shit about it, but if you get lucky with a good understanding prof who gets excited about you getting excited about his research , it can happen.

[rising_star]

I definitely wouldn't shell out the money if you don't think these programs want you. The thing you have to decide is how badly you want the advanced degree. Are you willing to live your life without it? If so, take your third option. If not, your second option of taking more classes and applying again is the best.

[luvalicious]

I agree with rising_star (and omarayache's advice was good, too), and I'll add this: If you decide to go with #2 and re-apply, maybe apply to at least a couple schools, perhaps as safeties, that specifically say that everyone who is admitted gets funding. Never assume otherwise. Another thing you can do is talk to the schools you have been accepted to and ask what the chances/opportunities are for funding in subsequent years.

[hartshorneBoy]

I had this issue when I started my Masters in Math. What happened with me is that I, in a discussion about the year, was asked about my funding from her, and I told her I didn't have any, to which in a week later (when someone threatened to make me his student) she gave me a modest portion of her grant to work under her. This next year is my next year, and the Assoc. Head is giving me a TAship since he's now so low on teachers since our university just got the VIGRE grant (2.3mil/3 years, extends to 3.8/5, only research), and we lost so many TAs. Basically, try to stretch the options, really look. I applied for 8 scholarships this year, and ended up getting enough money to do my research in Italy over the summer with another university.

My end advice though is to not jump in without any funding at all...because you don't know how much they care if they don't give you anything.