h0peful

http://www.www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/118474-ucsd-flyout-impressions-2010-a.html The current students said they survive on the stipend. Did you check out the housing info they sent you? It has grad housing rates. Or try Craiglist, if you're not into grad housing, to see the range of rental costs.

Me, too. I definitely left feeling like it's a good fit for me.

I really don't know. I suspect most people won't get a jump, and definitely not a big jump - if UCSD had plenty of extra money, everyone would have received bigger offers right away. But if I were the one making the top-up decisions, I'd see how many accept/decline, and then rank requests by some matrix of how they placed on my original list, the rank of their other options, and the amount each is giving. From their I would target a few on the top of my list that I think would probably come with a little extra $ and probably leave the rest. But who knows?

I just finished the UCSD flyout and wanted to start a thread for attendees to post their impressions and things they learned. Here are some of mine: 1) There was an impressively cooperative/colleagial atmosphere, both among students and between students and profs. 2) They have really expanded their development program in recent years, both in dedicated faculty and other faculty with development interests. 3) No one seemed overly down about the financial health of the department or the ability to keep junior or senior faculty. 4) I think overall attrition is about 1/3 (if anyone has better info, please correct!), but across the board people said it was really never due to failed comps. Apparently most people pass by the second try, but they are very accommodating of people who want to continue. 5) Development, environment, and conflict seem to be some of the better-funded topics at the moment (I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones I heard about). There are also options for working with profs at Rady and IRPS. 6) They are working on a placement list that shows the primary and additional fields associated with placements. 7) There is probably some room to negotiate funding if you present your other offers. 8) Grad students said that TA work is generally light, especially for 1st years, and most thought the stipend is livable. 9) The grad student housing most available is the furnished "single grad housing" on campus or 1 Miramar nearby. The others seem to have long waits. Most students live in grad student housing their first year. 10) Two of my favorite presentations were Berman and Andreoni. I left wanting to do behavioral lab work and conflict. :) 11) They said there is a fairly even split between people taking five and six years to finish. 12) There's obviously a major selection issue with which grad students show up for recruitment activities, but everyone I talked to seemed really happy with the program. And the weather, of course. I'll add more as it comes to mind, and hopefully others will add more substantial comments on research and profs they talked to.

From the way the numbers add up, it looks like health insurance is included in the in-state fee remission: http://ogs.ucsd.edu/FinancialSupport/Documents/T-F%2010-11/2010-11%20Tuition-Fees.pdf

From the look of your UC admit collection, it seems like you could be the one to tell us! :)

Well, the good news is that if you pass qualifiers, you're guaranteed a $16k TA position after that. It's not huge, but it's livable, and the beach is free...

Same here. My guess is that other than for the few who got the university or other special fellowship, they opted to cut funding back for most people rather than cut the number of admits. Not sure if enough people declining would make more money available, or if any extra is likely to go to anyone who might be unfunded now. I guess it can't hurt to ask? As least you have full tuition + 16k TA after first year if you pass qualifiers... I'll probably opt to work somewhere else during the summer (rather than compete for the 3k RA) to make up some of the difference. Anyone else going to the flyout?

I called this morning to respond about the flyout, and she offered that they were working to get all the funding letters out today. Given the time difference from the East Coast, though, I suspect it'll be pretty late.

Thanks. Good luck!

Any guess whether this means the offers already made are likely to be funded? They still haven't sent any funding information.

I got an admit yesterday, too. I'm American, but from the East Coast, last name in the middle of the alphabet. BTW, someone on Gradcafe suggested "log into UCSD check application status. then change the application_status into viewstatus in the url link, you can see the result." I tried it to confirm a friend's rejection, but it gave me the same generic rejection letter dated 1899 that it gave him, so don't bother... and if you checked and thought you're out, maybe not!