CSE PhD, Penn State: ADMITTED, but...

[aesthetic_ascetic]

... no aid...

Since no mail was forthcoming, I called... they said I was in the list of admitted applicants and I should hear from them soon, but no financial aid...

Which ruins it in a way, since I refuse to go without my wife and son...

Nonetheless, its a big relief after the UMass disappointment... if I don't get anywhere with aid, at least I have something to fall back on as a last resort...

(Insert forced smilie here)

[muazfarooq]

Congrats dude . Penn State rox. i am soooo sad i couldn't get there

[heyman]

hi,,,,,,congrats for the simply faaaaabulous admit. However, u r rite its not of much use without aid. Anways, best of luck for thy pending results.

[cridamour]

Some students manage to "arrange" aid once they are there, talking to professors and seeing if they still need TAs or RAs. In a field like yours, in a big university like Penn State, maybe you should try to contact some grad students there to discuss the possibility of something like that happening there.

[shoaibakram]

congrats aes....its a good admit !
hope u get aid as well !

[Anand Iyer]

Congrats! PSU is a great admit!

[Juggernaut]

Can you share your profile please?
PhDs should get funded man, may be it might take few months, but how the heck can PhDs fund themselves all the way??

[rssarvani]

Hi, Aesthetic,

Are you sure you got the admit without financial aid? Because when I got my admit e-mail from PSU CSE, it was with financial aid and there was also an attachment that quoted the amount and that I am offered a TA. May be you should contact the profs there even before you reach there. Earlier the better.

Sarvani

[aesthetic_ascetic]

Thanks all...

My profile:

BE Electrical Engineering (73%, topper at 84%)
MS Computer Engineering (3.06/4)... the real weak link in my application...

GRE: Q:780, V:700, AWA:6
TOEFL: 293, TWE: 5.5

Research Experience: Just the MS thesis, but I felt I did some good work on it... uploaded it to my website and all papers that were part of my application had the URL...

SOP: I was satisfied with it... wrote it at very short notice, in a week or two... didn't really get around to editing it too much, apart from the changes that had to be made for the various schools...

LORs: Two very strong ones and the third was very good too...

And I'm quite sure I heard right... Vicki Keller, the one you were supposed to mail prior to the application to find out if you should bother to apply in the first place, had the call transfered to her... she took my name, checked the record and said I was on the list of people to be given admits but no aid... I asked her again if this meant I was going to get an admit email/snail mail soon, and she said yes, but without aid...

Edit: I suppose the email will settle this matter for sure, but she said "no aid" twice...

[rssarvani]

Hi Aesthetic,

Did you give your TSE? Penn State needs it to give financial aid.

Sarvani