Accept Or Try Again?

[DorkRawk]

Hey guys, longtime lurker, first time poster here.

So I've had a rough acceptance season (all rejects so far) and I'm waiting on one last school. It was the bottom of my "safe schools" (ranked in the top 70 in CS, for whatever USNWW rankings are worth) and I'm not sure what to do if I get accepted. I think I could do my research there but it's not really standing out to me. I can't tell if I'm just discouraged because I don't want to feel like I might have to take my only option or if I have legitimate reason to be reluctant (assuming I get in).

I think that my options have been limited due to bad undergrad grades and my research experience being outside my desired area of research. I was thinking about taking my subject GRE and perusing research more closely related to my current interests and then reapplying to schools next season. So, is it worth turning down an offer (if I get it) to try to get into a better school after beefing up my application? I'm 28 right now and a little reluctant to put off entering my program for another year because of my age, but I don't want to make the wrong move because I'm impatient.

As we're getting closer to the end of March I'd like to have a good idea of what to do should I get the offer. Advice?

[chaospaladin]

Hey guys, longtime lurker, first time poster here.

So I've had a rough acceptance season (all rejects so far) and I'm waiting on one last school. It was the bottom of my "safe schools" (ranked in the top 70 in CS, for whatever USNWW rankings are worth) and I'm not sure what to do if I get accepted. I think I could do my research there but it's not really standing out to me. I can't tell if I'm just discouraged because I don't want to feel like I might have to take my only option or if I have legitimate reason to be reluctant (assuming I get in).

I think that my options have been limited due to bad undergrad grades and my research experience being outside my desired area of research. I was thinking about taking my subject GRE and perusing research more closely related to my current interests and then reapplying to schools next season. So, is it worth turning down an offer (if I get it) to try to get into a better school after beefing up my application? I'm 28 right now and a little reluctant to put off entering my program for another year because of my age, but I don't want to make the wrong move because I'm impatient.

As we're getting closer to the end of March I'd like to have a good idea of what to do should I get the offer. Advice?

What school are you waiting to hear from? Are you doing a PhD or MS?

[DorkRawk]

What school are you waiting to hear from? Are you doing a PhD or MS?

U of Oregon for a CS PhD.

[chaospaladin]

Hey guys, longtime lurker, first time poster here.

So I've had a rough acceptance season (all rejects so far) and I'm waiting on one last school. It was the bottom of my "safe schools" (ranked in the top 70 in CS, for whatever USNWW rankings are worth) and I'm not sure what to do if I get accepted. I think I could do my research there but it's not really standing out to me. I can't tell if I'm just discouraged because I don't want to feel like I might have to take my only option or if I have legitimate reason to be reluctant (assuming I get in).

I think that my options have been limited due to bad undergrad grades and my research experience being outside my desired area of research. I was thinking about taking my subject GRE and perusing research more closely related to my current interests and then reapplying to schools next season. So, is it worth turning down an offer (if I get it) to try to get into a better school after beefing up my application? I'm 28 right now and a little reluctant to put off entering my program for another year because of my age, but I don't want to make the wrong move because I'm impatient.

As we're getting closer to the end of March I'd like to have a good idea of what to do should I get the offer. Advice?

When will you find out about your decision? Are you currently doing research right now? Are you thinking of retaking both GRE and CS GRE?

[magisterludi]

I think part of it depends on your aspirations after completing your PhD. Is a degree from a top notch school that big of an advantage? Will you be able to accomplish your goals by doing really great work at your safe school? I would also keep in mind that 5+ years is a pretty long time. You want to make sure you're completely happy and satisfied with your decision. If you get accepted to the PhD at your safe school, maybe you could see about making it a Masters instead? Then you could get into the programs you want and they would take less time.

Best of luck!

[chaospaladin]

Hey guys, longtime lurker, first time poster here.

So I've had a rough acceptance season (all rejects so far) and I'm waiting on one last school. It was the bottom of my "safe schools" (ranked in the top 70 in CS, for whatever USNWW rankings are worth) and I'm not sure what to do if I get accepted. I think I could do my research there but it's not really standing out to me. I can't tell if I'm just discouraged because I don't want to feel like I might have to take my only option or if I have legitimate reason to be reluctant (assuming I get in).

I think that my options have been limited due to bad undergrad grades and my research experience being outside my desired area of research. I was thinking about taking my subject GRE and perusing research more closely related to my current interests and then reapplying to schools next season. So, is it worth turning down an offer (if I get it) to try to get into a better school after beefing up my application? I'm 28 right now and a little reluctant to put off entering my program for another year because of my age, but I don't want to make the wrong move because I'm impatient.

As we're getting closer to the end of March I'd like to have a good idea of what to do should I get the offer. Advice?

How much funding are you getting at U of O?

[qbtacoma]

As magisterludi said, your post-PhD goals do come into play when considering this question. I'll throw out there that getting any acceptances at all is a good thing, and given your assessment of yourself as a candidate at this moment you may want to take the offer. Do you think you will accomplish a lot with the research in your area of interest, like perhaps a publishable paper? In that case waiting might be good, but you're going to have to start in the application pool from square one - no one knows what your competition will be like in any given year, or if money for grad students will dry up. If you take the offer, it IS possible to transfer. Just a few things to mull over.

[beanbagchairs]

When you decided to apply to that particular school, I am pretty sure you have reasons to do so. Are those reasons still valid? If they are, I'd get an MS from that school an reapply for PhD later on. Hopefully this wont burn any bridges.

[DorkRawk]

Thanks for the responses, everybody. I'm reluctant to pursue another masters degree as I just finished my master's in HCI (and manged to get out of that debt free). I have considered taking some CS classes as a non-degree seeking student in order to develop a relationship with some more professors and better my understanding of concepts that I may not currently have a good grasp on. I don't know anything about the financial offers from OR. I know that I won't take the offer if I don't have funding of some sort.

I guess I feel like I understand the application process better now and feel like I could put together a better application, but I can't gauge how much better it will be. I look back on my application and feel like I could have better articulated my research interests and I feel like I better understand the need to show more abilities in that specific area rather than just showing that I have a master's degree and I've done research. I guess it's not so much reluctance about the school, but a nagging "what-if" feeling about what I could do if I tried again with the knowledge I have now.

But, I still haven't heard back from the school, so this is still all speculation.