CS PhD at Penn State (Accept vs Reject)

[mert]

Hey guys,

This week I need to send my decision to Penn State, which is the only offer. This is not about somewhere vs somewhere else, but accept vs reject.

Honestly right now I am totally demotivated about pursuing PhD. I think this is due to bunch of rejects I got from all the schools I applied except for Penn State. Plus, I am afraid of screwing things up and disappointing people who trusted me, and I don't want to waste some resource that can be utilized by someone else better. However, I really wanted to pursue masters or PhD in USA for years. As you see it turns into a dilemma for me and I have one week to solve it. Hope you can help.

These are some questions I have in my head about the school, city etc.

- How is pursuing computer science PhD at Penn State?

- Let's say PhD turns out that it is not my thing, then is it easy to switch to masters?

- According to offer, the school will pay ~$18,500 from August to May, and prof offers a summer job for $3000. Is this money enough to live in State College?

- How is life in State College?

If you can answer them or give some advice, I really appreciate it.

[Ancient CS Grad]

Life is too short to worry about whether you are good enough. Accept the offer. Penn has a good program and you can survive on the stipend in State College (There is a reason for the expression "Starving Grad Student"). The only way you will find out if Research is your thing is to do it, if not you will have a gotten a great exposure and you can move on to something that interests you more. Also you probably will be able to earn substantially more than 3K for the summer by your second year with a good industrial internship.

[Ville]

I sent you a pm to tell you about life in State College. Hopefully, it will help you make an informed decision.