uchicago 50% of travel expenses

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campsoup
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uchicago 50% of travel expenses

Post by campsoup » Fri Mar 05, 2010 2:32 am

they are the the only top school i have heard of not paying 100% of travel expenses up to some maximum. what's their deal? are they out of money? do they hate their grad students? do they pay 100% only for their favorite students? you would think they would try to compete with the other schools.

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noojens
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Re: uchicago 50% of travel expenses

Post by noojens » Fri Mar 05, 2010 3:27 am

:roll:

kroner
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Re: uchicago 50% of travel expenses

Post by kroner » Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:06 am

They don't need to offer travel expenses to compete...
I mean, you're still gonna go visit, right?

campsoup
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Re: uchicago 50% of travel expenses

Post by campsoup » Fri Mar 05, 2010 10:12 am

i assume that schools do all sorts of things to compete with each other, from offering the people they really want more money to serving nice food during the visiting weekend. these factors are insignificant compared to finding a professor there who you get along with and would like to work for, but they are nontrivial when you have to make a tough decision based on your overall feeling about a school. i'll still visit, but it makes me feel like they don't care whether or not we do, and i wonder why they are below what seems to be standard at every other school.

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grae313
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Re: uchicago 50% of travel expenses

Post by grae313 » Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:06 am

campsoup wrote:they are the the only top school i have heard of not paying 100% of travel expenses up to some maximum. what's their deal? are they out of money? do they hate their grad students? do they pay 100% only for their favorite students? you would think they would try to compete with the other schools.
I'm with you, that seems really strange! With most grad schools really spoiling you when you visit, UChuicago won't even put up the money to get you out there?! I'd be interested to hear from an insider what that is all about.

It's extremely important that graduate schools recruit the best students they can, and this is why most make a very significant effort during the visiting weekend. True, it has little to do with research and classes, but when you really feel like the school wants you there and when you go visit and have an amazing time, I think that rightfully makes a huge impact on your decision. Most people want to go where they'll be happy.

peglegjeff
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Re: uchicago 50% of travel expenses

Post by peglegjeff » Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:15 am

Hey, if it's a deal breaker for you, I'll happily take your spot :lol:

Seriously though, it is a little odd, but like kroner said, I'd definitely fly myself out there. A little damage to the credit card would be worth seeing their program first hand.

I've yet to hear back from Chicago... thanks to their decision to mail out acceptances and rejections, I have been stalking my mail man every day this week.

Edit: Turns out they did decide to email decisions... rejected. Now I would certainly take that spot... :(

Prologue
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Re: uchicago 50% of travel expenses

Post by Prologue » Fri Mar 05, 2010 8:43 pm

Bummer on your rejections jeff, you have a solid profile. Your recommenders must hate you.

mdrake
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Re: uchicago 50% of travel expenses

Post by mdrake » Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:11 pm

UChicago is actually not the only one doing this. Well, maybe the only tip-top school, but University of Texas Austin is not flying me out. I e-mailed the graduate advisor and he said the department has had some budget cutbacks recently and so they can't afford to fly every accepted student out. Unfortunate, since I didn't get invited to the open house. He suggested contacting specific research groups to see if they can, but somehow I doubt that would happen.

doom
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Re: uchicago 50% of travel expenses

Post by doom » Wed Mar 31, 2010 9:15 pm

My little anecdote from a couple of years ago:

The University of Washington accepted me, but not in the first round, and didn't invite me to the visit weekend. (Which was the same week I got my acceptance.) I played dumb, asking if they would be bringing me out for an open house. They said no, and that they didn't have money to help me come visit. I told them it would be very difficult to accept their offer if I couldn't visit, and it would be hard for me to pay the full cost. A week or so later, they told me that they had found $500 to help me make the trip.

I can't swear that this little bit of pressure I put on them was the reason they "found" the money, but it certainly didn't hurt.

I didn't end up attending UW, but I felt better about the decision having visited.



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