Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Any internationals heard from UCSB?

Finally, I received something from some where. And that place is SUNY BUFFALO. Feeling good now.
But there is no funding for me. How come then I am going to sustain myself.
The letter is something like this:

Dear Mr. sphy,

I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the graduate program for a PhD. degree in the Department of Physics for Fall 2011. This acceptance is without any financial support. The Department of Physics is not responsible for any financial liability. It is possible (though not guaranteed) you may receive a Teaching Assistantship or a Research Assistantship from the department while pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Physics at the University at Buffalo.

So what should I do now.


And the ending of my acceptance email is something like this:

I accept the offer of admission without financial support into the Physics PhD Graduate Program and understand the regulations as stated above.

_______________________________________________ ____________
Name Date

Should I have to send it now as soon as possible or is it ok to wait for my other school's offer.

Please guide me, This is my acceptance with mix of joy and sorrow.

sphy wrote:Finally, I received something from some where. And that place is SUNY BUFFALO. Feeling good now.
But there is no funding for me. How come then I am going to sustain myself.
The letter is something like this:

Dear Mr. sphy,

I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the graduate program for a PhD. degree in the Department of Physics for Fall 2011. This acceptance is without any financial support. The Department of Physics is not responsible for any financial liability. It is possible (though not guaranteed) you may receive a Teaching Assistantship or a Research Assistantship from the department while pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Physics at the University at Buffalo.

So what should I do now.


And the ending of my acceptance email is something like this:

I accept the offer of admission without financial support into the Physics PhD Graduate Program and understand the regulations as stated above.

_______________________________________________ ____________
Name Date

Should I have to send it now as soon as possible or is it ok to wait for my other school's offer.

Please guide me, This is my acceptance with mix of joy and sorrow.

I had chosen for precisely this reason of not applying to SUNY-buffalo.
IMO, you should wait on other schools(which hopefully would be financially supporting you) and then decide. It's obvious(if I'm right) that you won't go to a place which doesn't fund you!

satyad18 wrote: I had chosen for precisely this reason of not applying to SUNY-buffalo.
IMO, you should wait on other schools(which hopefully would be financially supporting you) and then decide. It's obvious(if I'm right) that you won't go to a place which doesn't fund you!

Hi, how did you know before hand that they are not going to support one financially?
And it's no where mentioned in their website that they are not going to offer any type of funding (with out attaching any strings.) And what about the "may" part in their acceptance letter. What is it's probability. This is damn killing me.

sphy wrote:Hi, how did you know before hand that they are not going to support one financially?

Well, Buffalo had asked for financial document and they said they needed that whatsoever. So, I guessed they might make an offer without financially supporting one.

sphy wrote:And it's no where mentioned in their website that they are not going to offer any type of funding (with out attaching any strings.) And what about the "may" part in their acceptance letter. What is it's probability. This is damn killing me.

Got no idea about that man. I'm sure this must be really frustrating, but the best part is that you have time and can wait to hear from other schools' offers.

satyad18 wrote: Well, Buffalo had asked for financial document and they said they needed that whatsoever. So, I guessed they might make an offer without financially supporting one.

Infact this is the only school to which I sent my financial documents. And considering the fact now, I think I made a mistake I should have not provided that.

satyad18 wrote: Got no idea about that man. I'm sure this must be really frustrating, but the best part is that you have time and can wait to hear from other schools' offers.

And It's really frustrating and it's stretching me in all directions. What should I say at home, that I am going to USA and I need constant inflow of 20 million Indian rupees every month for next 5-6 years. What the heck.

sphy wrote:Finally, I received something from some where. And that place is SUNY BUFFALO. Feeling good now.
But there is no funding for me. How come then I am going to sustain myself.
The letter is something like this:

Dear Mr. sphy,

I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the graduate program for a PhD. degree in the Department of Physics for Fall 2011. This acceptance is without any financial support. The Department of Physics is not responsible for any financial liability. It is possible (though not guaranteed) you may receive a Teaching Assistantship or a Research Assistantship from the department while pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Physics at the University at Buffalo.

So what should I do now.


And the ending of my acceptance email is something like this:

I accept the offer of admission without financial support into the Physics PhD Graduate Program and understand the regulations as stated above.

_______________________________________________ ____________
Name Date

Should I have to send it now as soon as possible or is it ok to wait for my other school's offer.

Please guide me, This is my acceptance with mix of joy and sorrow.

Don't take the offer without a guarantee of funding with at least a tuition waiver and a RA/TA appointment. Getting a physics PhD is already a long and arduous process - you are losing out on many years of wages for an uncertain prospect of employment (at least in the United States, I think US-educated physics PhDs might find profitable employment in their home countries). There is no reason you should pay more on top of this, unless you are independently wealthy and can afford to. You will be producing valuable research for the universities in addition to your education, and you should be compensated for that.

sphy wrote: And It's really frustrating and it's stretching me in all directions. What should I say at home, that I am going to USA and I need constant inflow of 20 million Indian rupees every month for next 5-6 years. What the heck.

Heh dont know about you but it didn't cost me 20 million rupees when I first came to the US. Actually there are a lot of International students (especially the one's who come for MS degrees) who aren't guaranteed funding. They live cheaply (which Buffalo will help with), they work odd jobs on campus (I knew a couple of guys who did gardening ... AND they made more money then the TAs ), etc.

I agreed with satyad18, in that you should definitely wait till the last minute to see if you get any other offers. However SUNY-Buffalo might want to carry out something as simple as interviewing you in person to ensure that your language skills are sufficient to do the duties of a TA. I would wait and stay hopeful till Apr 15.

bck2school wrote:Actually there are a lot of International students (especially the one's who come for MS degrees) who aren't guaranteed funding. They live cheaply (which Buffalo will help with), they work odd jobs on campus (I knew a couple of guys who did gardening ... AND they made more money then the TAs ), etc.

Agree.

bck2school wrote:you should definitely wait till the last minute to see if you get any other offers. However SUNY-Buffalo might want to carry out something as simple as interviewing you in person to ensure that your language skills are sufficient to do the duties of a TA. I would wait and stay hopeful till Apr 15.

Ditto.

bck2school wrote:

sphy wrote: And It's really frustrating and it's stretching me in all directions. What should I say at home, that I am going to USA and I need constant inflow of 20 million Indian rupees every month for next 5-6 years. What the heck.

Heh dont know about you but it didn't cost me 20 million rupees when I first came to the US. Actually there are a lot of International students (especially the one's who come for MS degrees) who aren't guaranteed funding. They live cheaply (which Buffalo will help with), they work odd jobs on campus (I knew a couple of guys who did gardening ... AND they made more money then the TAs ), etc.

I agreed with satyad18, in that you should definitely wait till the last minute to see if you get any other offers. However SUNY-Buffalo might want to carry out something as simple as interviewing you in person to ensure that your language skills are sufficient to do the duties of a TA. I would wait and stay hopeful till Apr 15.

Thanks for your suggestion and one thing is that they said if I accept the offer then I have to send that acceptance back to the UB. And they haven't mentioned any time line to do this. Should I ask them--By which date I have to send that through post? So that I can know when it's right time to take other measures.

sphy wrote:And they haven't mentioned any time line to do this. Should I ask them--By which date I have to send that through post?

Before April 15.

satyad18 wrote:

sphy wrote:And they haven't mentioned any time line to do this. Should I ask them--By which date I have to send that through post?

Before April 15.

thank you so much.

sphy wrote:

satyad18 wrote: Before April 15.

thank you so much.

The deadline for all* of the Universities is April 15th and you are guaranteed your spot until then, so wait and see what else you get.

*Basically

grae313 wrote:

sphy wrote:

satyad18 wrote: Before April 15.

thank you so much.

The deadline for all* of the Universities is April 15th and you are guaranteed your spot until then, so wait and see what else you get.

*Basically

Thanks a lot for your kind information.

Got accpeted to Iowa state.

Happy about that!!!!
$1600 per month

Open house on 2nd of April

blacksl wrote:

I see you also have Iowa State on your application list. Let me know if you need any opinions about Nebraska or Iowa State as I've visited both places and live fairly close to both of them as well.

-Riley

Thanks Riley,
of course I would like to know the about Iowa state and UNL. My main interest is experimental material physics. so I would like to know the strength of the universities about that field and overall pros and cons.



P.S
Still I'm waiting for Iowa state and Tennessee.

Hi Riley,

I got admission form Iowa state too....
So i would like to get some information about UNL and Iowa state.
Please give me pros and cons of the departmnet. I'm willing to study material physics...
Thanks

Blacksl

I got an email from a professor referring to me by my first name, and ending the message with his full name (without any title such as Dr. or Prof.; just plainly his first and last name). How should I refer to him? Dear Prof. <insert last name>, or Dear <insert first name>

db25 wrote:I got an email from a professor referring to me by my first name, and ending the message with his full name (without any title such as Dr. or Prof.; just plainly his first and last name). How should I refer to him? Dear Prof. <insert last name>, or Dear <insert first name>

For now, I'd say Dear Prof. Witten (or whoever). If he later signs an e-mail with just his first name, then it's ok to respond in kind.

admissionprof wrote:

db25 wrote:I got an email from a professor referring to me by my first name, and ending the message with his full name (without any title such as Dr. or Prof.; just plainly his first and last name). How should I refer to him? Dear Prof. <insert last name>, or Dear <insert first name>

For now, I'd say Dear Prof. Witten (or whoever). If he later signs an e-mail with just his first name, then it's ok to respond in kind.

That's good to know. I've never gotten an email response with anything other than firstname (or first initial, for some reason that's popular?). I felt really awkward responding in kind--some of these people I've never met so it felt odd to be on familiar terms.

Just got an acceptance to the University of Utah. No specifics are given on funding though they suggest that it is very common for students to start in a research group from day 1 (or even in the summer prior to beginning grad school) with a twelve month salary of $18,506 and $20,108 for those that successfully pass the quals. Fortunately I'm very interested in one specific research group here so this will be a very good safety, depending on how the rest of my admissions go.

HappyQuark wrote:Just got an acceptance to the University of Utah. No specifics are given on funding though they suggest that it is very common for students to start in a research group from day 1 (or even in the summer prior to beginning grad school) with a twelve month salary of $18,506 and $20,108 for those that successfully pass the quals. Fortunately I'm very interested in one specific research group here so this will be a very good safety, depending on how the rest of my admissions go.

Congrats man!

I looked at the University of Utah in detail, because someone is doing research in thermoacoustics (I'm interested in acoustics but unfortunately all the schools with any research on acoustics were in strange places, aka Utah). Bet it feels good to at least have an acceptance now!

-Riley

Boston University started sending out acceptances for Astronomy. They have 3 open houses, last one in early April so they must plan on getting a few waitlisters in. At least I know I'm not going to be working in the private sector for another year =)

philosophysicist wrote:Boston University started sending out acceptances for Astronomy. They have 3 open houses, last one in early April so they must plan on getting a few waitlisters in. At least I know I'm not going to be working in the private sector for another year =)

And password protected pdf denials via email too... Bummed, it was closest to my current research

Stanford just realized they've been missing out on me by being lazy in the sun for all this time and finally came to their senses.

but lol 250$ for travel. guess im gonna have to wait for their richer relatives in the area to visit california.

Stanford and Columbia today.

What's up with Columbia's admission email with two layers of quotation (every line is prefixed with ">>")? And even messing up my gender (Dear Mr. XXX)?

axiomofchoice wrote:Stanford and Columbia today.

What's up with Columbia's admission email with two layers of quotation (every line is prefixed with ">>")? And even messing up my gender (Dear Mr. XXX)?

$$$$$$$$$

-Riley

m42 wrote:

philosophysicist wrote:Boston University started sending out acceptances for Astronomy. They have 3 open houses, last one in early April so they must plan on getting a few waitlisters in. At least I know I'm not going to be working in the private sector for another year =)

And password protected pdf denials via email too... Bummed, it was closest to my current research

Ha ha, same here. I went through all of the effort of logging into my account to find my BU ID number, which by the way is a huge pain because their online interface won't let you on if your browser tries to auto-fill any information which mine always tries to do, just to tell me I had been rejected. Would it really have been so difficult for them to just send an email that says "You've been rejected, FOOL!"

I've still only heard back from 3/12

HappyQuark wrote:Just got an acceptance to the University of Utah. No specifics are given on funding though they suggest that it is very common for students to start in a research group from day 1 (or even in the summer prior to beginning grad school) with a twelve month salary of $18,506 and $20,108 for those that successfully pass the quals. Fortunately I'm very interested in one specific research group here so this will be a very good safety, depending on how the rest of my admissions go.

Congrats.
Even I have applied to there. It was a pre screening department right? So how did they inform you?

WhoaNonstop wrote: strange places, aka Utah!
-Riley

Few days back when I was applying for Utah. I just googled it and I saw a panoramic photo of Salt lake city. It was amazing. It had been taken after the rain perhaps. But it was truly beautiful.

enthree wrote:I've still only heard back from 3/12

I've heard back from 2/21 (both rejections.)

Adarsh wrote:I've heard back from 2/21 (both rejections.)

Just hang on in there buddy.

U Chicago Physics, first round of results out.

negru wrote:but lol 250$ for travel. guess im gonna have to wait for their richer relatives in the area to visit california.

The thing is that you are *supposed* to get into both Stanford and Berkeley. If you look at their visiting days (Stanford: 4/5-6, Berkeley: 4/7-8), everything will make sense.

By the way, what kind of financial package are they offering you in Stanford physics?

Stanford sent out their first wave today; Chicago is finished I think (a few more got letters today). Congratulations all who made the cut, the rest of us are on "waitlist" until April I guess.

zhermes wrote:U Chicago Physics, first round of results out.

Second round you mean? Fellowships were a while ago, and then a bunch of people heard on the 17th. I think the rest of us can only hope for a waitlist, though I hope it's not the case and they have some more acceptances to dole out.

tradster wrote:

negru wrote:but lol 250$ for travel. guess im gonna have to wait for their richer relatives in the area to visit california.

The thing is that you are *supposed* to get into both Stanford and Berkeley. If you look at their visiting days (Stanford: 4/5-6, Berkeley: 4/7-8), everything will make sense.

By the way, what kind of financial package are they offering you in Stanford physics?

Oh I see. Unless I got something wrong it looks like $2800 a month. Apparently some combination of TA and RA.

For everyone wondering about U Chicago, I don't think they are close to finished sending out admissions. The fellowship recipients got an email yesterday explaining that official admission packets are just being sent out today due to the adcom chair falling ill with the flu. In that email they also say that there are two more adcom selection meetings coming up in the next two weeks, so I would say that all hope is far from lost.

et wrote:For everyone wondering about U Chicago, I don't think they are close to finished sending out admissions. The fellowship recipients got an email yesterday explaining that official admission packets are just being sent out today due to the adcom chair falling ill with the flu. In that email they also say that there are two more adcom selection meetings coming up in the next two weeks, so I would say that all hope is far from lost.

Good news. Excepting for Professor Mazenko. I hope he feels better.

EDIT:

et wrote:official admission packets are just being sent out today

Is this just for fellowship recipients?

bfollinprm wrote: EDIT:

et wrote:official admission packets are just being sent out today

Is this just for fellowship recipients?

I'm assuming so, but not sure.

sphy wrote:

HappyQuark wrote:Just got an acceptance to the University of Utah. No specifics are given on funding though they suggest that it is very common for students to start in a research group from day 1 (or even in the summer prior to beginning grad school) with a twelve month salary of $18,506 and $20,108 for those that successfully pass the quals. Fortunately I'm very interested in one specific research group here so this will be a very good safety, depending on how the rest of my admissions go.

Congrats.
Even I have applied to there. It was a pre screening department right? So how did they inform you?

I got an email from their admissions department that said something along the lines of

"Dear HappyQuark,

Following is a copy of a letter that will be mailed to you. Please contact me if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing from you.
____________________________________________________

Dear Happy Quark,

Congratulations! I am pleased to inform you that the Admissions Committee of the Department of Physics and Astronomy has recommended to the Graduate Admissions Office of the University of Utah that you be admitted to our graduate program, beginning Fall Semester 2011. The Graduate Admissions Office should soon formally notify you of your admission to the University of Utah.
"

They then go on to detail a bit about funding, research and TA information, qualifier exam info and suggest that you visit their open house and offer $400 in compensation for your travel expenses, which so far as I can tell is pretty generous in comparison to most other programs.

Admitted to Caltech physics! Financial details coming in the mail.

HappyQuark wrote:

sphy wrote:

HappyQuark wrote:Just got an acceptance to the University of Utah. No specifics are given on funding though they suggest that it is very common for students to start in a research group from day 1 (or even in the summer prior to beginning grad school) with a twelve month salary of $18,506 and $20,108 for those that successfully pass the quals. Fortunately I'm very interested in one specific research group here so this will be a very good safety, depending on how the rest of my admissions go.

Congrats.
Even I have applied to there. It was a pre screening department right? So how did they inform you?

I got an email from their admissions department that said something along the lines of

"Dear HappyQuark,

Following is a copy of a letter that will be mailed to you. Please contact me if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing from you.
____________________________________________________

Dear Happy Quark,

Congratulations! I am pleased to inform you that the Admissions Committee of the Department of Physics and Astronomy has recommended to the Graduate Admissions Office of the University of Utah that you be admitted to our graduate program, beginning Fall Semester 2011. The Graduate Admissions Office should soon formally notify you of your admission to the University of Utah.
"

They then go on to detail a bit about funding, research and TA information, qualifier exam info and suggest that you visit their open house and offer $400 in compensation for your travel expenses, which so far as I can tell is pretty generous in comparison to most other programs.

Congrats HQ! In a few years you can become a Mormon and have 3 or 4 wives. Good luck with that!

t2kburl wrote: Congrats HQ! In a few years you can become a Mormon and have 3 or 4 wives. Good luck with that!

Why stop at 4? If I'm going to go the mormon route, might as well make it a solid dozen, or perhaps a baker's dozen!

Admitted to University of Maryland by email.

Same here. I also guessed that I got rejected by Stanford if gradcafe is to be trusted.

et wrote:Admitted to Caltech physics! Financial details coming in the mail.

Me too!

Hmm very odd, no Caltech admission for me yet. If it indeed fails to show up, I will have an important conjecture about grad admissions to share with the world.

You will have to buy the book, however.

negru wrote:

tradster wrote:

negru wrote:but lol 250$ for travel. guess im gonna have to wait for their richer relatives in the area to visit california.

The thing is that you are *supposed* to get into both Stanford and Berkeley. If you look at their visiting days (Stanford: 4/5-6, Berkeley: 4/7-8), everything will make sense.

By the way, what kind of financial package are they offering you in Stanford physics?

Oh I see. Unless I got something wrong it looks like $2800 a month. Apparently some combination of TA and RA.

Damn it. Should have applied to physics instead. They pay you guys more bucks than us.