Karoku_valentine Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 It's for the 9 month school year, but it's still a bit skimpy given that they have on campus housing for the $1300 a month. Although I don't think I'm planning on living on campus, it's still something that they expect at least some portion of the students to do. I am also unsure of what happens in the US when they say that the 'stipend' is $20,000 -- is this before taxes, in general? And how much taxes can one expect on this salary? If very little then it's definitely doable but if they take 20% or so it would be cutting it pretty close. During my graduate studies at UCSD, the stipend was before taxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CommonerCoffee Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 Make sure you look at the period of the funding. $20K for 12 months or $20K for the 9 month school year? If the latter, the possibility of working on campus during the summer as an instructor, TA, or RA for an additional $5-7K sounds much more doable. Are you sure they expect you to live in on-campus housing? Graduate programs aren't paternalistic about campus residency. Ask current students when you visit. Not everyone will talk financial specifics with you, but many will share rough information about their monthly housing, utilities, and food expenses. I wonder if you might be mistaken about the stipend ($1600/mo is low for the Bay Area, and at least for Berkeley stat PhD, it was $2250/mo in 2012), or if indeed students commonly take out supplemental loans or split costs with a partner to get by. Berkeley's email on the GSI/GSR positions: "Such positions provide a monthly salary (approximately $1,600 pre-tax) and carry with them at least partial registration fee remission." Seems pretty rough to live by from what I've seen in regards to apartment prices alone so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y.T. Safire Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 (edited) I just looked and there are 9 entries for fall 2015 Columbia biostat PhD decisions, with specific comments about fellowships and visits. Those are all fake?! They sent out some rejection letters already, but definitely not admissions letters or funding decisions. 15 applicants were invited to interview visit and 12 came last Thursday. None of us had any news about admissions. Edited February 8, 2015 by Y.T. Safire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wine in coffee cups Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 It's for the 9 month school year, but it's still a bit skimpy given that they have on campus housing for the $1300 a month. Although I don't think I'm planning on living on campus, it's still something that they expect at least some portion of the students to do. I am also unsure of what happens in the US when they say that the 'stipend' is $20,000 -- is this before taxes, in general? And how much taxes can one expect on this salary? If very little then it's definitely doable but if they take 20% or so it would be cutting it pretty close. That rate is before taxes, but you will not have an effective tax rate of 20%. It'll be closer to 10%, maybe less (mine is 6% in a state without income tax). Grad students pay federal and state income taxes on the stepped schedule like everyone else, but full-time students working as academic student employees are exempt from FICA and Medicare withholdings. Using an online calculator for an estimate and ignoring the FICA/Medicare lines, a student on a $27K stipend for 12 months in California would owe about $2074 in federal income tax and $484 in California income tax. University-owned grad student housing is often more expensive than comparable non-university housing even after accounting for bundled utilities, so I wouldn't get stuck on the $1300/mo rate until you talk to current students. That *might* be about right if you insist on living alone in a nice-ish 1BR, but sounds like an overestimate if you are willing to share a house/multi-bedroom apartment or live in a crappy studio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatsG0d Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Anyone know when Michigan and/or Yale statistics decisions are supposed to roll out? Last year, they seemed to have rolled out what would have been last week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dynamic89 Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Anyone know when Michigan and/or Yale statistics decisions are supposed to roll out? Last year, they seemed to have rolled out what would have been last week. No idea... I am waiting as well... So far I've only seen one Berkeley Stats acceptance, what's going on there?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bespoke Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) Speaking of Berkeley... for Biostatistics, anyone know if that's a wrap if we haven't gotten an acceptance yet, or is it quasi-rolling? Edited February 9, 2015 by Bespoke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisa8191 Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 feel like more master results come out earlier than PhD results this year... I think the results might roll out in waves... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatsG0d Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 No idea... I am waiting as well... So far I've only seen one Berkeley Stats acceptance, what's going on there?? There's a couple U of M acceptances out . Good luck to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TenuousAtBest Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 There's a couple U of M acceptances out . Good luck to you. I see two that came out today. It's too early to worry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatsG0d Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Was accepted to Penn State a few hours ago. The Director at Florida emailed me saying he was impressed with my application, asking if I was at all still interested in joining the program. I will decline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSc_in_SMC Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Congratulations, footballman2399! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatsG0d Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Thanks a lot! I hope that you hear good news from Berkeley and that you'll get accepted off of the Harvard waitlist. Given your already pretty stellar results, I would bet you'll have some very good news coming your way in the coming weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSc_in_SMC Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Thanks footballman2399. Best of luck to you as well! 17 applications could mean a lot of travel for visit days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatsG0d Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Thanks footballman2399. Best of luck to you as well! 17 applications could mean a lot of travel for visit days. No kidding haha. Luckily I work somewhere that offers quite a lot of vacation days. Based on my results so far, I kind of wish I would have targeted more schools in the top-10. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLHopeful Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I got into Chicago! Bonus 4.5k 'mccormick fellowship' for the first 2 years, very exciting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSc_in_SMC Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Congratulations MLHopeful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgbfan Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Congrats on your acceptances, CommonerCoffee, ML_Hopeful, and footballman! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatsG0d Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Thanks a lot! Good luck to you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatsG0d Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Looks like Yale came out today. No good news for me haha. Brand name universities... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dynamic89 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Looks like Yale came out today. No good news for me haha. Brand name universities... Nah Yale stats department is too small, you don't want to go there anyways Why didn't you apply to places like NC state and Cornell? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatsG0d Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Nah Yale stats department is too small, you don't want to go there anyways Why didn't you apply to places like NC state and Cornell? At the time there were some personal issues preventing me from those particular schools (that are no longer relevant--go figure haha). I also didn't think that I would be that competitive at top-10 programs, but it seems that I slightly underestimated my potential. I agree Yale's program isn't that great, but it would have been pretty cool to get into an Ivy League school. I guess I still have Columbia! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TenuousAtBest Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I got an unofficial admission offer to Penn State today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatsG0d Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I got an unofficial admission offer to Penn State today. Congrats! Mine was unofficial too. Email from a professor. Kind of cool that they do that actually. A lot more personal than "Congratulations! You have been admitted to XYZ." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TenuousAtBest Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Congrats! Mine was unofficial too. Email from a professor. Kind of cool that they do that actually. A lot more personal than "Congratulations! You have been admitted to XYZ." Yeah I thought it was really nice. The professor who emailed me wants to talk to me about the department over the phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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