sswatson Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 I received a Gates scholarship to do Part III at Cambridge for next year, but my wife got into Teach for America and cannot get a deferral. TFA has graciously agreed to place her wherever she needs to be, though, so if I get a deferral to one of the places I applied this year, she can begin her two-year commitment with them while I go off to England. I have gotten into Duke and Penn (only the latter is offering a deferral), and I am waitlisted at MIT. Her TFA deadline is March 23, and I can be almost certain that if I were to get into MIT off the waitlist, it would be after March 23 (their initial estimate was "at least mid-March," but today I found out that they have not been able to make any offers to waitlisted candidates). So my choices are: (1) Go with the sure thing at Penn for 2010, or (2) Decline Penn, ask that my wife be placed in Boston, and roll the dice on getting into MIT. Hopefully that would be this year around April 15, when (presumably) they will get their last wave of decision notifications. Otherwise, I would retake the GRE and apply to as many different programs at Harvard and MIT as possible. (Note: presently my GRE is 880/97%). The MIT admissions committee has been extraordinarily responsive to my inquiries, and for that reason I think I have a non-negligible chance of getting in if enough spots open up. Also, they have already told me that they will give me a deferral if I gain admission, and if I do have to reapply I think that being at Cambridge will strengthen my application quite a lot. My question is whether anyone has an insight that would help me make this decision, and in particular I'd like to know whether my various assumptions are reasonable.
skibum1981 Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Chances are slim you'll get off the MIT waitlist IMO. You should contact them directly and ask the following questions: 1) Intended class size? 2) Offers made? 3) Students on the waitlist? 4) Do they ever take students from the waitlist, and if so, how many? Even if the numbers look in your favor, it's a huge roll of the dice...
skibum1981 Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Also, retaking the GRE would be stupid. That's not why you didn't get a spot.
hartshorneBoy Posted March 12, 2009 Posted March 12, 2009 Dude! Go to Penn! That's where I'm probably going. Or tell them to give me your Calabi if you have it. At any rate, if you do Gates, you probably would have a better shot at MIT, but at any rate if you go to either school you'll get a job and depending on your focus a Penn, a possible NSF postdoc. In your shoes, I'd hope to get an NSF (I assume you applied), then call MIT and say you have your own funding and go.
sswatson Posted March 12, 2009 Author Posted March 12, 2009 I thought of the NSF as my best chance as well, but actually MIT told me that the NSF doesn't provide "a significant financial incentive" for them, because it costs them something like $300K to put a PhD through grad school (and I calculate that the NSF only represents something like $90K for them). They did, however, tell me I should notify them if I got one.
hartshorneBoy Posted March 13, 2009 Posted March 13, 2009 I thought of the NSF as my best chance as well, but actually MIT told me that the NSF doesn't provide "a significant financial incentive" for them, because it costs them something like $300K to put a PhD through grad school (and I calculate that the NSF only represents something like $90K for them). They did, however, tell me I should notify them if I got one. I'd imagine that although they are saying that, they will put you on the "top" of the waiting list if you get one, i.e. magically accept you because "someone" has declined their offer. I say this since I've heard of people not even applying to schools, getting an NSF, calling the department they did not apply to, and getting an acceptance the next day.
sswatson Posted March 14, 2009 Author Posted March 14, 2009 Thanks for the tip; I was going to take what they said at face value. Incidentally, do you know when people typically hear back about the NSF fellowships?
tony Posted April 2, 2009 Posted April 2, 2009 But who will get an offer from MIT and decline it? If no one is doing that, even if you are top of the waiting list, you still won't get the offer...
kdilks Posted April 2, 2009 Posted April 2, 2009 But who will get an offer from MIT and decline it? All three people I know that have gotten accepted to MIT turned them down.
moe Posted April 7, 2009 Posted April 7, 2009 All three people I know that have gotten accepted to MIT turned them down. Turned down MIT to go where?
skibum1981 Posted April 7, 2009 Posted April 7, 2009 I'd def go to Princeton over MIT but not sure about the other two. Those are just for my interests however...
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