Possible upgrade to PhD, no funding, or partial funding?

[Trace]

My situation is like this: I have three acceptances. I applied for the PhD program in applied math for each of these schools. Each comes with its own strings:

• Northwestern - I was rejected from the PhD program but accepted to the masters program. They said that after the first year, my performance would be re-evaluated, and if I was doing well enough, I'd be upgraded to PhD status. Either way, at the end of the first year, I'd have an MS degree. Now, the first year, I'd have to fund myself: $45,000. That's insane. Furthermore, I found out today that apparently the success rate for the upgrade is 1:5. I'd have to do "at least as well as the median of the PhD students." However, it's probably the best school of the lot with the best classes and a good department structure. It'd be an expensive gamble.
• Stony Brook - Accepted to their PhD program but without funding. According to the results section on Gradcafe, it seems like no applied math applicants received funding. They're unsure about funding in future years, due to New York's state finance situation. It seems like a great program (ranked 7th in the nation, apparently), though it's very big (according to the website, 295 grad students, 35 "core and affiliated faculty," though not all of those are in the department. I think something like 20 actually are). It'd cost $18,000/year. Also, there's a website called "Stony Brook Sucks," which is a little offputting!
• UNC - Charlotte - Accepted to their PhD program. I will more than likely receive an assistantship, according to the director, but it's possible that I won't receive a tuition waiver (apparently NC is one of the few states where this could happen. He said ~70% chance that I get an assistantship, ~30% chance of waiver). The first year would be $16,000, but after that I'd likely get a waiver or at least be able to pay in-state tuition. The program is good but doesn't focus as much on the application aspect as I'd like.

So this is pretty much my quandary. Does anyone have any helpful tips? Thank you!

[chaospaladin]

Does 1:5 mean out of every 5 MS student, only 1 gets the upgrade? When you said 70% assistantship, 30% fee waiver, does this mean that you have a 100% chance of some kind of funding or are these % separate from each other and you have a 21% chance of getting both?

[Trace]

Yeah. He said that in the years they've offered the upgrade route, only one MS student out of five has been successful in upgrading to PhD status. As for the assistantship, there's a 70% of getting an assistantship at all, and a 30% chance that this assistantship comes with a waiver. So they're not independent (I won't get a waiver without an assistantship), meaning that I've got a 30% chance of getting both. Sorry I wasn't more clear!

It's worth noting that I really want to do some teaching during my time as a grad student. I think I would at Northwestern if I got the upgrade, and I would at UNC with an assistantship. I'm unsure about Stony Brook.

Edited April 23, 2011 by Trace

[chaospaladin]

What does the $16,000 figure mean in the UNC one? Is that the amount of money you would have to pay out of pocket? Is taking a gap year, retaking tests, and reapplying a viable option for you? What if you applied to more safety schools that had full funding once you get accepted?

[beanbagchairs]

If taking a *productive* gap year is doable for you, I'd take that. I am not sure if it is a good idea to fund your way through PhD. Earning the degree is hard enough. Dont complicate things further by going into debt/worrying about money.

If you dont want to take a gap year, I think going to Northwestern is a good option for you: (1)you'll get an MS after 1 year from a very good program, which puts you as a better candidate should you need to reapply for PhD programs (2)you may get promoted to their PhD program, which is awesome. If that is not the case, you can always reapply to other PhD programs.

Edited April 23, 2011 by beanbagchairs

[Trace]

What does the $16,000 figure mean in the UNC one? Is that the amount of money you would have to pay out of pocket? Is taking a gap year, retaking tests, and reapplying a viable option for you? What if you applied to more safety schools that had full funding once you get accepted?

If taking a *productive* gap year is doable for you, I'd take that. I am not sure if it is a good idea to fund your way through PhD. Earning the degree is hard enough. Dont complicate things further by going into debt/worrying about money.

If you dont want to take a gap year, I think going to Northwestern is a good option for you: (1)you'll get an MS after 1 year from a very good program, which puts you as a better candidate should you need to reapply for PhD programs (2)you may get promoted to their PhD program, which is awesome. If that is not the case, you can always reapply to other PhD programs.

The gap year is an option, though at this point, I don't know how productive it would be. I transferred to my current program, so I don't have a lot of contacts or great recommendations. I'm not sure I could get into something sufficiently productive for the gap year. For UNC, I'd have to pay $16K though I'd be making about that much in my teaching assistantship. So there's that.

[Trace]

Just heard back from UNC Charlotte. I got a $14.5K teaching assistantship but no tuition waiver.

[lyonessrampant]

First, I don't get why people were voting down chaospaladin. I bumped it up to level it out, but it seems like he/she was trying to provide good questions to help the OP. Second, I think I might also go for the Northwestern option. It is pretty expensive, which is scary, and the odds are not great for the advancement to the Ph.D., but you could leave with your MS and be more competitive, theoretically, for fully funded Ph.D. programs (as another poster said). The thing with the other two options is that you would be constantly worried about money, and that would impact your liklihood of completing your Ph.D. One thing to think about, though, could you do the UNC option and just stay until you get your MS and then reapply? That would get you new LOR contacts and let you strengthen your application (as you would do after Northwestern if you went that route and didn't get advanced to the Ph.D.), but it would be substantially cheaper than the Northwestern option. Maybe you'd get directly into Northwestern's Ph.D. program after that? They clearly see promise in you, so maybe having the space to do an MS and then reapply there would let you show that your potential is worth investing in. This option (get the MS and then reapply) may be your best bet. If I were you, I'd find out from UNC and Stony Brook if you can just do the first year or two there to get the MS and then make the decision at that point whether to stay there or apply to other programs. Good luck!

[Trace]

First, I don't get why people were voting down chaospaladin. I bumped it up to level it out, but it seems like he/she was trying to provide good questions to help the OP. Second, I think I might also go for the Northwestern option. It is pretty expensive, which is scary, and the odds are not great for the advancement to the Ph.D., but you could leave with your MS and be more competitive, theoretically, for fully funded Ph.D. programs (as another poster said). The thing with the other two options is that you would be constantly worried about money, and that would impact your liklihood of completing your Ph.D. One thing to think about, though, could you do the UNC option and just stay until you get your MS and then reapply? That would get you new LOR contacts and let you strengthen your application (as you would do after Northwestern if you went that route and didn't get advanced to the Ph.D.), but it would be substantially cheaper than the Northwestern option. Maybe you'd get directly into Northwestern's Ph.D. program after that? They clearly see promise in you, so maybe having the space to do an MS and then reapply there would let you show that your potential is worth investing in. This option (get the MS and then reapply) may be your best bet. If I were you, I'd find out from UNC and Stony Brook if you can just do the first year or two there to get the MS and then make the decision at that point whether to stay there or apply to other programs. Good luck!

I agree. I appreciate chaospaladin's questions. The thought of getting my MS and then transferring elsewhere hadn't occurred to me. Thank you! I suppose there are only two issues with it: For one, I've done the transfer thing before, and it's not fun. That being said, I could suck up the change in the name of future happiness. That said, the other issue is that I would really need to hop into research as soon as I got to the new place in order to be competitive when reapplying. In fact, I'd say the main benefit of not having to transfer is that I can take my time. Also, UNC made it sound like they'd be able to help me out tuition-wise after the first year, possibly getting a waiver or at least enough of a raise to make a dent into the tuition.

However, the thought of transferring wasn't one I had considered up until now, and it's one I'll think hard about. Thank you!

[XOwlfan]

UNC Charlotte is definitely offering you the best deal--and comparatively, Charlotte is less expensive than Chicago/Evanston. I say go for it! (Of course, I'm not in your field at all...but I'm older with a fair amount of debt, so I'm biased about the financial aspect).

[chaospaladin]

First, I don't get why people were voting down chaospaladin. I bumped it up to level it out, but it seems like he/she was trying to provide good questions to help the OP. Second, I think I might also go for the Northwestern option. It is pretty expensive, which is scary, and the odds are not great for the advancement to the Ph.D., but you could leave with your MS and be more competitive, theoretically, for fully funded Ph.D. programs (as another poster said). The thing with the other two options is that you would be constantly worried about money, and that would impact your liklihood of completing your Ph.D. One thing to think about, though, could you do the UNC option and just stay until you get your MS and then reapply? That would get you new LOR contacts and let you strengthen your application (as you would do after Northwestern if you went that route and didn't get advanced to the Ph.D.), but it would be substantially cheaper than the Northwestern option. Maybe you'd get directly into Northwestern's Ph.D. program after that? They clearly see promise in you, so maybe having the space to do an MS and then reapply there would let you show that your potential is worth investing in. This option (get the MS and then reapply) may be your best bet. If I were you, I'd find out from UNC and Stony Brook if you can just do the first year or two there to get the MS and then make the decision at that point whether to stay there or apply to other programs. Good luck!

It is probably prolixity following my every post (including this one) and voting down all of my posts so he can feel better about himself. He might have even created multiple alternative accounts in order to vote my posts down multiple times since each account is only limited to one vote per post and 5 votes per day. He even deleted many of his posts since they were all voted down since he is too embarrass. If I had to guess, he would probably delete this post too since he is too embarrass:

If someone cannot access the above post, then it probably means he already deleted it from being embarrass.

This is what prolixity wrote in case he deletes it:

Better retake that GRE and improve your GPA.

As you can see, all prolixity does is troll and contributes very little.

I agree. I appreciate chaospaladin's questions. The thought of getting my MS and then transferring elsewhere hadn't occurred to me. Thank you! I suppose there are only two issues with it: For one, I've done the transfer thing before, and it's not fun. That being said, I could suck up the change in the name of future happiness. That said, the other issue is that I would really need to hop into research as soon as I got to the new place in order to be competitive when reapplying. In fact, I'd say the main benefit of not having to transfer is that I can take my time. Also, UNC made it sound like they'd be able to help me out tuition-wise after the first year, possibly getting a waiver or at least enough of a raise to make a dent into the tuition.

However, the thought of transferring wasn't one I had considered up until now, and it's one I'll think hard about. Thank you!

Good luck with your decision. UNC seems to be the best option for you. Transferring to a PhD program after getting an MS seems like a fantastic idea since an MS can be used as a stepping stone to a fully funded PhD program.

Edited May 5, 2011 by chaospaladin

[prolixity]

It is probably prolixity following my every post (including this one) and voting down all of my posts so he can feel better about himself. He might have even created multiple alternative accounts in order to vote my posts down multiple times since each account is only limited to one vote per post and 5 votes per day. He even deleted many of his posts since they were all voted down since he is too embarrass. If I had to guess, he would probably delete this post too since he is too embarrass:

If someone cannot access the above post, then it probably means he already deleted it from being embarrass.

This is what prolixity wrote in case he deletes it:

As you can see, all prolixity does is troll and contributes very little.

Good luck with your decision. UNC seems to be the best option for you. Transferring to a PhD program after getting an MS seems like a fantastic idea since an MS can be used as a stepping stone to a fully funded PhD program.

Lol, dude you have a serious persecution complex. I'm too busy in lab, working on my PhD, to care about my reputation on this forum.