<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>This would be my first post, been reading stuff on here since about two years ago ever since I decided to goto Graduate School in the States (From New Zealand btw).</p>
<p>It's a rather complicated story, not helped by the fact that I am from a UK system and not very familiar with how the US system works..</p>
<p>I finally finished my bachelors last year, and applied. I have been accepted to (so far, but I suspect the others are really just forgetting to tell me they have rejected me):
- UCLA
- UMich
- UW Madison</p>
<p>The problem I'm facing now, is that all three schools gave me MS offers without funding. Only UCLA appointed me an initial advisor, and all three schools are saying I can move to PhD at the end of masters provided that I:
- Find a supervisor
- Pass qualifying exams</p>
<p>So the question is, I'm rather confused by these offers. Are these offers normal to international students, where the school is basically not willing to take the risk of getting an unknown student straight into PhD and funding them? Or does this just mean I probably shouldn't bother going?</p>
<p>And finally, if I do go (my work as a consultant has given me some financial bones :P), what are my chances of really moving into the PhD track, and actually get funding after the 1st year?</p>
<p>Never knew the choice could be so hard :( paying 50k USD for the first year with a huge uncertainty after....</p>
<p>Thanks in advanced</p>