gradfuture

looking through Wisconsin's placement record there seems to be higher than average number of asian students in their graduating cohorts, I think that might negatively affects their median placement. Unfortunately because of a confluence of factors I think many asian international students have a more difficult time securing TT positions in united states than their peers or have stronger preference for returning home. I think it's difficult to try and recover a program's ability to place its students based on just few years worth of data points. Wisconsin has incredibly strong faculty and very aggressive junior recruiting, I think it's an excellent program to attend.

I wouldn't be rustling too many feathers in my first year at a new program OP. getting into columbia would be a long shot regardless and it's really not worth upsetting your potential advisers for.

That is interesting, I'm trying to convince a friend of the mathematical maturity required for first year courses. He only has linear algebra and calculus 3 as far as math preparation goes but I think he has a ok chance at top 15 programs because of other factors. But I'm worried he will experience similar fate as your friends in not being able to cope with the comps and coursework and have been advising him to self study more math but he's quite dismissive of the notion.

congrats! jeez did u get the offer at like 4:59pm or something?

I'm with this guy right here. also reading other books too, it's been a year since I done any real math so I need the refresher.

might have to PM you one of these days about how to survive in Chicago while having no money.

I should have applied to this thing... darn it. You know of any other relatively obscure fellowships for economics or social sciences humanomics?

hey rekovu, I'm making a similar decision and am completely undecided at the moment. would love to hear your thoughts and decision process. sent you a pm, hope you see it.

Indiana had some nice placements in 2012 with bucknell, auburn, and iowa. I do think on the margins IU probably does have better academic outcomes. Just a cursory glance at the placements tho.

how did you guys contact the department? I have not had much success emailing the DGS

umm interesting, does this still hold true if you receive fundng for your higher ranked offer say on 4/15? would it be bad taste to withdraw your acceptance to other school then?

haha glad I'm not the only one with this aspiration

I would go to wisconsin if I had the opportunity. I think the director are really dedicated to building a strong program as evidenced in the hirings. I think wisconsin has a great impact in term of value added with its training. I don't really see any discernible difference between wisconsin and ucsd's placements. I should have prefaced my post by saying location is not too important to me and I have lived in places with comparable weather to wisconsin.

I called them and they basically told me the same thing. I think we might be on some sort of a waitlist?

thanks for your post, it resonates with some of what I have already heard and I'm definitely heeding that advice at the moment. For what it's worth, the unfunded offer is from a top 10 school and the funded offer is around top 20-25.

I'm grappling with the question myself. I hear very polarized and different opinions based on who I have asked. Some people have told me that if a school isn't willing to offer you money then it's basically a tacit signal that they don't think you will succeed or at least not willing to commit to your chance as a student. I am unable to find much fault in that logic and think perhaps the odds of succeeding will be low if I take the unfunded offer. If anyone has or had a simlar dilemma, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts. Success or failure stories from people who have gone the 1st year unfunded route is highly appreciated as well. Thanks a bunch

I don't think you are overplaying your hand at all. You are making a very reasonable request imo and I don't think the fears you have are too substantiated. I don't see the benefit of not asking for an extension. Best of luck dude!

did you get a chance to visit the department? I am on the other waitlist but am wondering if there's any movement on the first one.

has anyone still not heard from UCSD? I tried calling the department today but got no answers. just want to get some closure for the season...

you are probably right. we have very similar outcomes actually

there must be better ways of immigrating to the US other than this.

anyone else still waiting to hear from UCSD? this is pretty much the last school I'm waiting from

I'm also faced with a similar decision. Trying to assess how much delta to profile a good RA position really entails.

yup. I think as long as you can demonstrate you possess the necessary mathematical maturity, additional math courses have severely diminished marginal value and if you somehow bomb one of those extra math classes the damage would be severe.

completely agree