Stanford Waitlist

[RandomDood]

I know it's probably a bit early and highly unlikely (to say the least), but is anyone thinking about declining Stanford's offer? Of course, if you feel more comfortable you can PM me rather than answer publicly.

I'm on the waitlist, and I have basically no other funded offer, with only one more program to hear back from :-(

Thank yall in advance,

RD

Edited February 26, 2013 by RandomDood

[joss10]

i'm declining stanford most likely - hope that helps!

[soc2013]

I'm also probably declining Stanford.

[amlobo]

Thanks to randomdood for starting this thread, as I was curious about my waitlist prospects as well, hehe.  Did the accepted people get info on the visit yet?  I know it's in April... but am wondering so I can hold the date open juuuust in case I get good news before then...

[Darth.Vegan]

 wondering what kind of offers the folks planning to turn down Stanford got. In my experience on this board in the last couple years people rarely if ever decline Stanford because their funding packages (and the minimal work requirements that go with them) are basically unheard of. 

[AaronM]

It's actually pretty common. Schools in the top ten accept a lot of the same students. My profs have told me that these schools draw pretty heavily from their wait lists. While from my perspective it would be hard to turn down an offer from Stanford, I'm not weighing options from Princeton, Harvard, or Wisconsin. So keep hope wait listers!

[Darth.Vegan]

It's actually pretty common. Schools in the top ten accept a lot of the same students. My profs have told me that these schools draw pretty heavily from their wait lists. While from my perspective it would be hard to turn down an offer from Stanford, I'm not weighing options from Princeton, Harvard, or Wisconsin. So keep hope wait listers!

 

 

The funding from those schools does not even come close, especially Wisconsin, but yes I realize that's nowhere near the only consideration. 

Edited February 26, 2013 by xdarthveganx

[faculty]

Of course funding isn't the only consideration, but it's much easier to live in lots of places on a smaller stipend than it is to live near Stanford on a larger one. That said, if money is an important part of your decision, remember that there are so many variables in determining how far your stipend goes (the availability of student housing, whether or not you have to pay part of your health care premiums, opportunities for summer money, etc.)

 

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/

[magicunicorn]

I think every year online calulators get thrown around this forum talking about the cost of living...  one thing to realize is that often these calculators look at the cost that it would take to *buy* a home (which often is calculated as 1/3+ of the cost of living in a certain place).  Any home in the SF bay area will be much more expensive than somewhere else (over a million dollars in some areas).  As a grad student, you probably won't be buying a home but either renting in the local area or living in graduate housing... and often graduate housing prices are fairly comparable across regions.

 

The best way to figure out if a stipend for a certain school will be adequate to live on, is to simply ask current graduate students.  Ask them what it costs for their monthly housing (and what kind of housing is it?), what they spend on food, do they have leftover money to go on fun trips or dinners out, and can they afford conferences?  Also ask them what the department provides in terms of amenities like office/research space or computers to use, do they sponsor dinners/lunches with visiting faculty or fun social events -- all these little things add up to a lot actually.

 

The point of all this, is that its best to just ask current graduate students how they feel financially supported..  do they have enough or more than enough to live and be productive, and be happy.   

[RandomDood]

I was just wondering...Harvard accepted 11 for a cohort of 8...

So, how many students would Stanford offer admission to, if they are aiming for a cohort of 12? Is 17 a reasonable number?

I can't believe I might have to wait until April 15, I really thought I would have had things figured out by the end of February...

[bertiek]

As a grad student, you probably won't be buying a home but either renting in the local area or living in graduate housing... and often graduate housing prices are fairly comparable across regions.

 

I have not found this to be the case at all. Rental prices vary widely. Peek at Craigslist before making a decision. Rent in Palo Alto (Stanford), for example, is way more than rent in Nashville (Vanderbilt).

[magicunicorn]

...

Edited February 28, 2013 by magicunicorn

[SocioEd]

The funding from those schools does not even come close, especially Wisconsin, but yes I realize that's nowhere near the only consideration. 

Purely out of curiosity--heard that Harvard's package is around 30k; so how big is Stanford's package, if it's much bigger than that?

[Darth.Vegan]

Purely out of curiosity--heard that Harvard's package is around 30k; so how big is Stanford's package, if it's much bigger than that?

 

 

Let's just say that it's more than that, plus they offer at least some students some other funding perks on top of the base stipend. 

[Palito]

I have not found this to be the case at all. Rental prices vary widely. Peek at Craigslist before making a decision. Rent in Palo Alto (Stanford), for example, is way more than rent in Nashville (Vanderbilt).

 

I think Magicunicorn was commenting that the variability of housing prices in student areas tends to be smaller than the variability between cities more broadly, so comparing extremes -- Nashville and Palo Alto -- probably isn't that helpful, unless of course those are your two options.

 

@Magicunicorn, thank you for point making the point about program amenities (or whatever you want to call it). Funding, or enough discretionary income, to travel to conferences is one factor that I hadn't considered. That's helpful.

[soc2013]

Sorry, I'm having issue with the inline quotes atm.

 

For the person that asked, Stanford's visit days are April 4th and 5th.  

 

I have yet to see what Harvard's offer looks like, but Stanford's offer includes around 24k plus three funded summers (around 6k).  There are three years of required TA or RA-ships.  They also provide some extra start-up funds (2.5k prior to year 1, 2.5k at the end of year 1), as well as funds for conferences and computer purchases.  I know for a fact that Stanford provides the same funding package to ALL of its admits.  But NYU's offer is still better.  I don't think funding should be the deciding factor, though.

 

 

[SocioEd]

Thanks for the info! Yes, it should not be the deciding factor--still it's kinda of interesting to see how departments treat their students financially. So NYU's offer seems best in the nation...

Sorry, I'm having issue with the inline quotes atm.

 

For the person that asked, Stanford's visit days are April 4th and 5th.  

 

I have yet to see what Harvard's offer looks like, but Stanford's offer includes around 24k plus three funded summers (around 6k).  There are three years of required TA or RA-ships.  They also provide some extra start-up funds (2.5k prior to year 1, 2.5k at the end of year 1), as well as funds for conferences and computer purchases.  I know for a fact that Stanford provides the same funding package to ALL of its admits.  But NYU's offer is still better.  I don't think funding should be the deciding factor, though.

Edited March 2, 2013 by SocioEd

[FertMigMort]

Thanks for the info! Yes, it should not be the deciding factor--still it's kinda of interesting to see how departments treat their students financially. So NYU's offer seems best in the nation...

Wow, that surprises me. I had a friend admitted to NYU a few years ago that declined almost immediately after getting the financial package. It's better than Northwestern, Rice, or any of the Ivys?

[magicunicorn]

I think the thing with NYU is that its just structured really differently so in some ways it could result in a much higher stipend - but its not guaranteed. I believe they offer a straight fellowship of about $25,000 a year for 5 years (not including summer funding), but there aren't any TA/RA requirements for this fellowship.  In years 3-4, you can additionally participate in their teaching program (not sure if this is as a TA or if this means teach your own classes to undergrads... I'll write more on this later) for an extra $11,000 a year.  So if you did that, years 3-4 could be $36,000.  Additionally,if you win a fellowship like the NSF, they let you keep all the money on top of what you got - so it could potentially be like over $50K a year.  So in some ways, it could be more than others -- but without the add-ons that aren't guaranteed in writing, its pretty comparable, or less than, the Coastal private schools HYPS.  

 

@FertMigMort:  Here is probably what your friend considered... given that the teaching thing is extra (and not built into the program), it may involve a lot more work.  If you opted out of it, you'd be stuck living in lower manhattan on $25,000 a year.  Also, the really lucrative fellowship is pretty much the NSF pre-doctoral fellowship.. however, if you have a masters or any professional degree - or even just one full year of school after your undergrad degree, you can't apply for it.  Also, winning an NSF is a bit random/unpredictable and one should never assume in their financial plans that they will win one.

 

More about TA/RA stuff: Many programs have built into their funding a TA or RA requirement.  How much time does that take?  Again, ask the current grad students.  Usually, RA-ships are very little work, AND, they may even eventually lead to being a co-author on a paper depending on how much work/collaboration the RA-ship involves.  They also let you work closely with a professor - it can actually be a great set up.  TA-ships are harder to figure out.  Will you be leading one discussion section a week with 10 students, reading only 10 final papers?  Or will you be leading 2 sections of 40 students each and grading all their midterms and finals?  How much is expected?  Teaching your own class to undergraduates -- while an incredible experience for some -- will eat up a lot of time that could/should be used on your dissertation.  So its smart to just ask.

 

I think with funding - I've said this before, but just see how the current students live and ask them about how far their stipend stretches of if they are constantly worried about money.  Its easier just to ask a grad student what their monthly bills are like -- then trying to figure it out from Craisglist or an online calculator.  Ask about what kind of housing options the school provides for their graduate students and what the cost is, if you are concerned that the area is a high cost area (NYC, LA, Boston, SF bay area).

 

The question really isn't who has the best funding package, but rather, can you be ok financially with the funding package the school is providing, so that you can do your optimal work and not worry so much about funding (or trying to get more funding).

[RandomDood]

I just noticed someone posted a Stanford acceptance dated March the 1st.

Whoever that was, did you get accepted off the waitlist or did you just mistype and actually got the mail on February the 1st?

[RandomDood]

Hi all!

I just wanted to ask if someone who attended Stanford's open house in the last few days wanted to share his impressions :-)

Thank you in advance, best,

RD

[jrm1825]

I thought the visit days were great. All the faculty I met were congenial, and the grad students seemed happy and friendly. The campus is obviously stunning and very unique. Also really enjoyed meeting the other admits. Nevertheless, I'll be declining as soon as much registration goes through. Nothing bad at all to say about Stanford, just not as good a fit for me. Good luck, fingers crossed for you!

[gilbertrollins]

I didn't get Stanford, but I did meet a Stanford grad through a friend, and this person was one of the nicest and most supportive people I've talked to -- wicked smart too.  I get the impression they're a pretty tight family in the department, and have heard specifically that the faculty do a great job of professionalizing students.  Hope that helps.