@intparent, seems rather like a red flag. The weekends DS went to were quite orchestrated. Students put on a spiffy talent show at one school and I know they went bowling at another. This, of course, was during downtime between student panels, various presentations and meetings etc. I would say that the smaller programs made more of an effort to individualize the visits so I don’t know if those were large programs your DD was visiting?
Also I get the feeling that the number of grad students they accept is largely driven by the departmental need for their services (teaching/TAing/grading classes–in fact as a second year grad student, he is grading a 1st year grad class) rather than by funding availability. However, this may be because in math at least, there are no lab costs so grad students are relatively cheap and simultaneously there are high departmental needs given that pretty much every UG takes some math while not everyone will take chemistry/physics etc.
Dunno, but she just got an email from one of the schools offering her a summer research stipend for the summer after her first year. One if the schools where she couldn’t get linked up with the profs in her area, though. Maybe her 3rd choice at the moment?
That brings up the question of what happens during the summer, esp during the first 1-2 years before they become attached to a lab/dissertation.
DSs stipend is $18K/9 months. During the summer, the students can request teaching/grading assignments for more funds but those are not guaranteed and not as much as during the year. He is pretty low maintenance/cost and saves some during the year to cover himself over the summer months. However, I expect it could be more of an issue for those students who have higher costs such as student loan payback, family etc.
whoa!
DS was pretty lucky, in that his PhD program is fully funded year round with a stipend of $30K, plus 3k for travel/ misc expenses, but a lot is also expected of PhD students at his U.
. He works the same schedule as the profs, with time off only during college breaks, plus a few weeks off during the summer.
This is his last year, and then after a postdoc, hopefully he will have a chance for a tenure track position, or a job in a scientific organization.
When D1 was interviewing at a school on the coast, she asked a 3rd year what it was like to live so close to a beautiful beach. The student said “Beach? Who has time to go to the beach? I’ve never even set foot on it.”
My son’s acceptance letter states that support for summer is normally provided from research funds by the student’s research adviser. His stipend is $28,800 & he has an additional 6K fellowship.
His visits were quite structured and were all “accepted grad student” days. Offhand I recall he was picked up at airport and driven to his hotel, then later picked up for dinner. Next day picked up for breakfast, then breaking out into multiple interview groups back to back, then lunch together, tours of various buildings, meeting grad students and various professors, a few hours of down time, then dinner together, and usually a more social activity. Some visits involved two days of activities visiting/interviewing/touring etc and others were only one long day.
I was very happy to find out tonight that my PhD student was accepted into the Biomedical Engineering program at Univ of Michigan. One acceptance is like a golden ticket!
Thanks so much! And to clarify (since it’s probably confusing), this is not my own son. I am new to a company that works with Chinese International students applying to American colleges, and though I have worked as a college consultant for some years, this is the first PhD student I’ve worked with, so I am happy and relieved he got in somewhere! He’s a really nice, dedicated young man (I do Skype sessions, so haven’t met him in person), and I know he will do a great job at UM.
All my Son’s weekend trips were meet and greet, but not just for accept d students.
The nice part of that journey was he got to know another candidate interviewing at many of the same schools. He asked this young man to be a roommate in grad school, and they’ve been together ever since.
Follow up re my daughter getting off the waitlist - she has since learned that she got off the waitlist not because another student had turned down the acceptance, but rather because a new source of funds became available, so that her advisor-to-be could offer her a (funded) spot.
My S got an offer from UCincinnati! We are so relieved. He seemed to like the professors he spoke with there. I suppose there’s a chance he could receive more acceptances but we are happy to have one in hand!
Do all schools have a typical admitted students day or meet and greet day? Obviously my S just got an offer so perhaps he was on the “B list” but I did not even see any admitted students day on the calendar for this school.
There does not seem to be a lot of standardization in PhD admissions!
All but one of son’s schools offered 2 weekends for interviews, and meet other current students and applicants. His safety had a Skype interview. If you couldn’t attend a weekend, you were out. The school that offered just one interview would not budge, even tho son had a free trip to Asian country for a conference. He gave up the company nference.
I suspect programs that admit many students are not so restrictive. FYI! When I applied decades ago, I had to interview for each grad program, so this didn’t feel unusual. The difference is that son was paid for flights and lodgings.
Depends on the school. He should ask the department. I doubt it would be on the calendar anyway; I think they are department specific. Don’t expect rapid reimbursement for expenses, either – still waiting a month after kid provided receipts for her visits.
But my kid’s better visits were actually one off from the visit days. She saw more people in her area of interest. One school scheduled 13 half hour meetings for her in a day – exhausting, but every single person was nice and doing interesting research (probably where she will attend).
My daughter has gone to five official visit occasions (some more than one day). I’m glad she’ll be done with the visits after this weekend; her flight from the east coast to California yesterday was delayed two hours and although she “gained” three hours, the flight got in at 2 a.m. this morning. I had a lot of empathy fatigue for her!