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Posted

for those accepted at UCLA Statistics: have they sent you any more information about the visit day?   I was also surprised with the funding package... $20k for los angeles would be pretty difficult, especially if they expect you to live in on-campus housing for $1300 / month

Posted

for those accepted at UCLA Statistics: have they sent you any more information about the visit day?   I was also surprised with the funding package... $20k for los angeles would be pretty difficult, especially if they expect you to live in on-campus housing for $1300 / month

 

That's all they give you? How unfortunate. I'm still waiting for my decision, but I'm pretty sure I would decline them if they accept me knowing this.

 

Check out padmapper.com. It consolidates apartment listings across a plethora of web sites, including Craigslist. Looks like you can get a place near campus for around $900/month. That's not too bad, but still difficult living off $20k per year. Good luck to you.

Posted

Somewhat similar situation for Berkeley Biostats it seems. The stipend seems to be around 1.6k a month and I hear the area is pretty expensive. Anyone know how reasonable living off that would be?

Posted

Somewhat similar situation for Berkeley Biostats it seems. The stipend seems to be around 1.6k a month and I hear the area is pretty expensive. Anyone know how reasonable living off that would be?

 

Berkeley is in the Bay Area and is one of the most expensive places to live in the United States. It's 72% higher than the national average (source).

Posted

Berkeley results are coming out.  I got accepted this week - on Wed. 2/4, to Biostats masters.

Very happy! :)

Posted

Well I am not moving to Pittsburgh. CMU I'll see you when you call me to give a talk in the future.

 

Most positive way to deal with a rejection I've ever seen. Props.

 

Were all of you applying for the machine learning program? I had considered applying to it, but I wasn't sure if my interests in ML were definite.

Posted

Formally rejected from Stanford... but I didn't hear anything from CMU so that's good. 

 

@Ranger, I chuckled at your perspective - it is a good one.

Posted

Most positive way to deal with a rejection I've ever seen. Props.

 

Were all of you applying for the machine learning program? I had considered applying to it, but I wasn't sure if my interests in ML were definite.

 

I applied to that and the regular Statistics PhD. There's faculty doing some really cool work with casual inference that I'd love to work with if I wasn't accepted to ML program.

Posted

@TenuousAtBest: You were the one who was upset about their quant score on the GRE, right? It's nice to see that such a stupid test does not hold so much weight for a lot of admissions. Looks like all that hard work in those tough math classes really paid off.

Posted (edited)

Did anyone here recently take the GRE and use Magoosh software prep for it? My GRE (retake) is Monday. Long story short there was a software issue with the calculator and they gave me a voucher to retake. I'm in an accelerated Master's in Biotech program at Rush University in Chicago and literally didn't have time to study until now. I didn't do bad the first time, but I def didn't do good (~60% percentile); I'm a mathematics Minor by the way so I know I could have killed the math section. Does anyone have a Magoosh account I can use for literally less than 48 hours so I can take some of their practice exams and see their video explanations for a few problems?? I can't rationalize paying $80 for a 30 day subscription when I only need it for a day and a half. Please let me know. GKDubey@gmail.com or Gaurav_Dubey@rush.edu.

 

By the way I got denied an interview at Northwestern University for the Driskill Graduate Program in Life Science (they didn't use my GRE score or even look at it, they used my MCAT on which I got a 28). 3 Faculty members told me I have a very good chance at getting an interview. My undergrad GPA wasn't great (3.23) but I have a paper published in Neuroscience and my last semester GPA for this accelerated, research based Master's was a 4.0. A little disappointed but hopefully I hear from my other schools soon! No calls for an interview yet though. But I did apply on the later end of the application cycle. 

 

Hope to hear from someone soon about a possible Magoosh account!!

Edited by GroovyD
Posted (edited)

@TenuousAtBest: You were the one who was upset about their quant score on the GRE, right? It's nice to see that such a stupid test does not hold so much weight for a lot of admissions. Looks like all that hard work in those tough math classes really paid off.

 

Yes, that was me! I retook it after months of studying and got 1 point higher on the Quant and 7 points lower on the Verbal. I'll never understand that stupid test.

 

It hasn't hurt me so far! I asked all my letter writers say the score didn't represent my abilities so I'm thinking that helped a lot. I applied more conservatively that I would have had I gotten a higher score, and I'm starting to regret that.

 

By the way, are you going to the A&M recruitment day later this month?

Edited by TenuousAtBest
Posted

Most positive way to deal with a rejection I've ever seen. Props.

 

Were all of you applying for the machine learning program? I had considered applying to it, but I wasn't sure if my interests in ML were definite.

 

All my applications were Learning centric. At least that's my angle trying to get in to a PhD program. I like it and I can support why I like it, but no one's to say I won't find solace in developing theoretical foundations for Time Series analysis coupled with game theory lol. ( a bit of a stretch but WLOG)

 

I guess what I am trying to say is once I do get in to a program, I will decide on what I want to do based on coursework, networking with the people in my past, potential advisors I would want to work with, (old and new) interests etc.

 

Right now, just making sure I don't get anxious at all and roll with the punches. Plus the idea of rejection should not be demotivating. Remember the first B (or C or low grade according your standards) you got in elementary (or middle school or whatever appropriate point), yeah, well nobody gives a flying fudge about that anymore. No one is going to care CMU rejected me either, including CMU and me, in right about NOW.

Posted

Yes, that was me! I retook it after months of studying and got 1 point higher on the Quant and 7 points lower on the Verbal. I'll never understand that stupid test.

 

It hasn't hurt me so far! I asked all my letter writers say the score didn't represent my abilities so I'm thinking that helped a lot. I applied more conservatively that I would have had I gotten a higher score, and I'm starting to regret that.

 

By the way, are you going to the A&M recruitment day later this month?

 

Yep I'll be there. Kind of upset they have my shuttle leaving CS at 6:30 AM for a 1:00 flight though. I'm debating whether or not I should check out the nightlife and just suffer/sleep on the flight back home. How about you? Are you going?

Posted (edited)

Yep I'll be there. Kind of upset they have my shuttle leaving CS at 6:30 AM for a 1:00 flight though. I'm debating whether or not I should check out the nightlife and just suffer/sleep on the flight back home. How about you? Are you going?

 

Yep. I didn't want to miss my Thursday class so I'm getting in late on the 19th. I got lucky; My return flight takes off around 10AM.

 

I'd do it. If you don't go to A&M, it's probably the only time you'll ever be in CS. Besides, the best way to spend a flight is asleep.

Edited by TenuousAtBest
Posted

Same here. I think my flight lands at like 10:30 PM local time because I didn't want to take off an extra day of work if I didn't have to. We'll probably be on the same shuttle to/from CS haha.

Posted

Hi all,

 

I am posting this message in regard of Columbia biostats.

 

I talked to our admissions chair as well as my supervisor who is on the admissions committee. According to them, no admissions or funding decisions in regard of our PhD program are made so far and the posts on acceptance into our PhD program are beyond them. I am asked to make this post on behalf of them. 

Posted

Just decided to check the Harvard admissions portal on a whim. Turns out they updated my status yesterday. I've been wait-listed. There was a pdf copy of a letter dated February 3rd. I think official letters have been mailed out. Good luck everyone! 

Note: This is for statistics.

Posted

Just decided to check the Harvard admissions portal on a whim. Turns out they updated my status yesterday. I've been wait-listed. There was a pdf copy of a letter dated February 3rd. I think official letters have been mailed out. Good luck everyone!

Note: This is for statistics.

Posted

for those accepted at UCLA Statistics: have they sent you any more information about the visit day?   I was also surprised with the funding package... $20k for los angeles would be pretty difficult, especially if they expect you to live in on-campus housing for $1300 / month

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.

 

Somewhat similar situation for Berkeley Biostats it seems. The stipend seems to be around 1.6k a month and I hear the area is pretty expensive. Anyone know how reasonable living off that would be?

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.

Posted

I am posting this message in regard of Columbia biostats.

 

I talked to our admissions chair as well as my supervisor who is on the admissions committee. According to them, no admissions or funding decisions in regard of our PhD program are made so far and the posts on acceptance into our PhD program are beyond them. I am asked to make this post on behalf of them. 

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?!

Posted (edited)

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.

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.

Edited by frsp

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