Deciding between two MS Statistics Programs

[ArnoldLayne]

Quick breakdown of the situation I'm in. So far I've been accepted to UT Dallas, UT Arlington, and Sam Houston State University for their respective MS in Statistics programs but I can't decide where to go. Sam offered me a great teaching assistantship with a great stipend that would essentially put money in my pocket when I graduate. UTA nor UTD have offered me anything beyond admission (most of their GTA/Fellowship positions go to all the PhD candidates).

The problem is: I have a great offer from Sam, but I don't really want to be in Huntsville, TX for the next two years. I think I would much rather be in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but they're not offering any kind of financial support at least for this year. It could be a different story if I'm able to get a GTA position. But I suppose the probability does exist that I'll never get a GTA position at either school.

In short: don't want to be in Huntsville, but great offer. I want to be in DFW, but they don't really have any good offers from the financial side. However, I'm not too concerned about the finances. I was able to get out of undergrad debt-free so taking out thousands of dollars of loans for grad school doesn't sound too awful to me, given that I actually have money in the bank after undergrad.

Help?? Thanks.

[bluejay16]

Cool! First off congratulations on getting into 3 programs. If it were me, I would decide based on where you want to be in the next 2-3 years. I'm assuming your program may lead you into the PhD route, so which program will be most likely to prep you for that? And even though finances may not be a problem now, in 2-3 years, if you come out and don't have connections to a job right away, the debt could sink in if you don't plan to go for a PhD program right away. In that perspective, I would go for Sam.

By the way, I'm from the DFW area, so yay for Dallas Mavericks! lol

Oh yeah, and another idea: visit the schools and talk with the professors and see what they think is best! Or email them about the program if you don't have the time to travel.

[ArnoldLayne]

Thanks for the post. As irritating and stressful as this situation is, I'm thrilled that I have multiple choices.

Here's some more information if it helps out at all. I did the initial post after studying for an OChem exam and was super drained. Anyway, here goes.

Over the weekend I visited all three campuses. Here's my thoughts:

UT Arlington: landlocked, not very impressed with the campus, and the department/classrooms seemed to essentially be in am office building. Pretty much the exact opposite of what I'm use to at Undergrad. Also, I noticed that I couldn't pronounce any of the TA or professor's names. Now don't get me wrong, I don't have a racist bone in my body; however, all the GTAs in the program are apparently older and of Indian or Eastern Asian heritage. Now again, I have nothing against any particular culture or heritage, but I just don't know how well I'd be able to connect to a 30+ year old Indian or Chinese man. Or even a 30 year old white man, to be fair. I left UT Arlington fairly disappointed at the age/ethnicity gap, but mostly at the age gap.

UT Dallas: looked like an awesome campus. It was really spread out, nice and clean and new looking. The building with the Stats classrooms/department was awesome and really eye appealing. It reminded me much more of my undergrad campus. I have no idea what the demographic breakdown of the department is but I assume it's probably not dissimilar from UTA's.

SHSU: great campus. I hate to say it, but I liked the campus a lot. Seems like a really good place. Don't know much about demographics there.

Now I visited these places yesterday, so naturally everything was closed and there weren't any faculty on site. But I am visiting Sam tomorrow afternoon to actually see the campus in action.

I feel as though this is a conflict of what my soul longs for and what the logical side of me thinks is right. Logically, it makes sense to go to a school where I can teach (one my biggest passions), and it's literally free to go there.

But I'm from Houston, and my soul is demanding that I leave and get out. I have always liked DFW, and I want to end up there some day. But it's more expensive there.

It's all very irritating, and I kind of wish I could have some kind of sign...thanks for the advice, I'd be interested to hear if you have anything else with a little more knowledge about me/my experience on campus.

I'm typing this on my iPhone, so I apologize in advance for errors or just plain silliness.

[ktel]

Tough choice. I had to make a similar choice of location versus funding, and for me funding won out. Having been able to do my undergrad degree essentially for free, I couldn't justify going into debt for a Master's if the option was available not to.

Sounds like your decision has been made that much more complicated by you actually quite liking the SHSU campus. Looks like you took Arlington out of the picture, so visit the other 2 campuses again and go with your gut feeling.

[bluejay16]

I really do enjoy living in the DFW area. I get what you mean about the UTA campus. Actually most schools in the DFW area attract international graduate students. I'm not too sure about UTD's math program having a similar ethnic/age breakdown but I found this statistical report on their enrollments from this past Spring. This is most likely your best snapshot of the ethnic/age ratios for the grad programs: http://www.utdallas....Enrollment.html

Hope this helps you! Here's another idea: try emailing a current grad student in each school to see what they think.

If it were me though, I'd go where it was free and then when you finish your program you can move anywhere you want to lol.

Edited June 28, 2011 by Janomaly

[ArnoldLayne]

Well I visited Sam this week, and there were some interesting facts that came to light. First of all, the demographics are pretty much the same. They told me I'm the youngest person (23) in their program by five or six years. And that my name is the easiest to pronounce. I think really ultimately it doesn't come down to an ethnicity-connection issue, it's really more so the age gap that I find distressing. Also, I had visions of having my own office with my name on the door etc. I was way wrong...the "office space" for the GTAs is one big room with a bunch of cubicles. That being said, I still have no clue where to go. I think in the end I'll go to Sam because I can get some legitimate teaching experience there, and it would be free for me. It's definitely not where I want to grow old, or honestly even where I want to spend the next two years; however, I just don't think I can rationalize $40k-$50k in loans simply so that I can be in the DFW metroplex.

I appreciate all the advice you guys have given. Feel free to keep on giving it.