Our older son received his first acceptance for grad school (physics doctoral program at Rice) today. Yay! He said the acceptance was kind of generic, from graduate admissions, not the actual department. What can he expect next? I’m assuming someone will be in touch about the upcoming steps, but I’m too curious to wait and see. I’m excited that he has an acceptance, but he applied to 6 or 7 schools, so I’m expecting it to be a while before he is in a position to know where he will settle.
Has he visited the program yet? Have they offered to pay for a visit? One thing my kid had to do is figure out which schools she wanted to visit if she was accepted (couldn’t visit them all). My kid also put together a spreadsheet tracking the stipends and fellowships offered, whether they covered her health care premiums, cost of living in the various college towns, etc.
He has only visited one of the schools he applied to and it happens to be in our state. The acceptance he received had little information, nothing about stipend amount, insurance, or a visit. He’s making the assumption that the stipend is what is found on their website. He’s hoping to hear more from them soon, with specifics. Is it common for schools to pay for visits? I don’t know if he had thought to track the cost of living of each area; thanks for the suggestion.
If the school isn’t willing to pay for a visit, I’d be wary. I’d assume Rice would. No one should accept a doctorate program offer without a visit.
Maybe he got a phone call acceptance and they are following with details? He should call and ask if they weren’t clear on when he would get details.
They followed up the next day with a second email that had more details and an invitation for a visit.
I wouldn’t necessarily be wary of a school won’t pay for a visit. Some programs do and some programs don’t. I do agree that students in most cases should visit the school, but there are other ways to visit. Sometimes the undergraduate home department will have small pots of funds for this (mine did). Often he can ask the department if there are graduate students with which he can stay to cut costs. My doctoral program did not fund my visit, but they did help me find some graduate students to stay with, and my department paid for my flight and food expenses. And they were super accommodating and friendly when I was there.
But I do agree that you should always ask, never assume. So if he gets any other offers that don’t have financial information, he can contact the contact information listed in the letter and ask when he can expect additional details. I would always ask if they fund a visit.
Thanks! He has a couple more offers now, so things are getting interesting.
best of luck to him.
may I advise that he visit the MOST competitive U’s that ALSO offer him the highest stipends.
the U where you receive your FINAL academic degree really matters when it comes to applying for jobs.
That is what goes on the top of his CV.
it is not fun living on a small salary for the next 5-7 years.
DS received his PhD at Caltech ,and though he misses the SCal weather [ he’s now in a cooler climate doing his Post Doc], he does not miss the years of having to watch his spending in an expensive city being a “poor” grad student.
^^speaking of stipends, also inquire about Fellowships. Sometimes those come out later.
generally, grad students have to apply for Fellowships.
Some very talented students enter grad school with a fellowship in hand, but most are expected to apply for them after their first year, or after they pass their quals.
perhaps “generally” true, but some Uni’s just give their own internal ‘fellowship’ money away with no other application needed. (My D received one of those, which came ~3/4 weeks after acceptance.)
In other words, it never hurts to ask the Department.
He has applied for a couple of fellowships, but I don’t know if he’s aware that there also might be internal fellowships from the school. One school did offer him some extra money to spend on his own research and he thought that was interesting. @menloparkmom , it is funny that you mention the school where you get your final degree is the important one- one of the schools that accepted him for grad school waitlisted him four years ago. (He declined the waitlist). Also, CalTech is one of the schools he is still waiting to hear from.
“one of the schools that accepted him for grad school waitlisted him four years ago. (He declined the waitlist). Also, CalTech is one of the schools he is still waiting to hear from.”
that is similar what happened to my DS- deferred then turned down at Stanford for UG- accepted for grad school.
he received his PhD at Caltech- a college he did not even think of applying to as an UG.
Dear son applied to and received a NASA fellowship after 2 years of grad school. Grad students are encouraged , and indeed even expected to apply for outside funding for the big $30000 fellowships- NASA, NSF, etc, etc- at many top schools to take the “burden” off the profs whose own research financially supports them.There are usually few “inside” fellowships.
And to be clear- those outside fellowships take the place of the stipends that grad schools provide. They aren’t given as additional $$ for students. But they do add to the luster of the students CV.