Hey congrats to your acceptance! I just returned from UW-Seattle Open House yesterday and I think it's a fantastic school!
Mizar wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 5:45 pm
1) How happy are the grad students?
The graduate students seemed actually happy, and the general atmosphere seemed very relaxed despite the program being top-notch. A lot of them have active hobbies and were super close with their admission class cohort. I attended a house party hosted by a grad student while at the Open House and they were all super chill. Also, another thing is, the grad students seem happy/satisfied to be at UW as opposed to at any "higher ranked" schools, no weird inferiority complex or anything from anyone I talked to. I'm choosing between 5 schools, with a few being more "prestigious" in the public opinion sense. I had a such an informative discussion with several grad students about various advisors at these schools and at UW, and they gave me such valuable perspectives on how these advisors' research, collaborations, advising style, personality, etc. are in a really open manner. I also asked the graduate students outright if there were any professors I should avoid, and I was happy to find that the consensus is that all the CME people are fantastic! I don't think they were just saying that, because they gave me other answers for other fields.
Mizar wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 5:45 pm
2) How rigorous is the curriculum in terms of the qualifying exam(s) and core coursework? Is there a culture of failing students, or do most ultimately pass?
The general consensus among the graduate students was that the first year is tough because of many course requirements, but you get done with all your courses in your first year (the finals in these classes serve as your quals), and no one gets kicked out for failing them. You can retake the exams later, and generally if you pass 3 out of 4, the administration will do a magic trick to help you along
Even the professors said outright that the exams are a formality of grad school, so we don't need to be too worried about them. The post-grad placements like postdocs etc. seems to highly depend on your advisor, but the advisors I met for CME range from rising stars to leading researchers in their field and their grad students ended up in fantastic institutions including top5 schools.
Mizar wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 5:45 pm
3) How exactly does the funding work, and how comfortable are the students living on the stipend?
The funding is unofficially guaranteed for 5 years (only unofficial because it's not on paper, but no grad student has been denied full funding apparently) including summers through a mix of TA-RA, with theory students usually getting TA while experimental switch to RA by 2nd year. The students said that living off the stipend is not too horrible (the average rent they seem to be paying are ~$800/month), especially if you form groups of 4/5 and rent a house together (the on-campus housing is apparently more expensive/restrictive than off-campus).
Mizar wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 5:45 pm
4) Anything else ...
Seattle is such a great place to live! I hadn't realized just how much location mattered to me until I visited UW. I spent my last 5 years in isolated small cities, and exploring the Seattle downtown made me realize I would be much happier living close to so many good restaurants and food stalls
Also, I noticed that you are interested in dark matter stuff. Their dark matter labs are so crazy awesome! We toured CENPA where the dark matter labs are, and they have some seriously cool equipments! Also, the professors (especially the ADMX professor) were hilarious.
I wish you the best of luck in your visit!