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Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:45 am
by t2kburl
Found this in my email box this morning!
Dear xxxxxxx,
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is pleased to inform you that we have recommended to the Graduate School that you be admitted to the ECE graduate program for the Fall 2011 semester.
It is from the University of Wisconsin - Madison!

The gorilla is off my back :)

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:26 pm
by grae313
Congrats!

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:36 pm
by HappyQuark
t2kburl wrote:Found this in my email box this morning!
Dear xxxxxxx,
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is pleased to inform you that we have recommended to the Graduate School that you be admitted to the ECE graduate program for the Fall 2011 semester.
It is from the University of Wisconsin - Madison!

The gorilla is off my back :)
Congratulations. I imagine getting an acceptance this early on and at such a good school really takes some of the weight off your shoulders.

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:05 pm
by kubikat
Congrats! I didn't even know people got accepted that early. Esp. to Madison!

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:52 pm
by WhoaNonstop
kubikat wrote:Congrats! I didn't even know people got accepted that early. Esp. to Madison!
Yeah it's not the physics program or else this would be awful early.

To be honest t2k I think your background suits you better for engineering. I hope this doesn't come as an offense, but I think you should seriously think about the engineering over the physics

-Riley

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 7:08 pm
by Alice
WhoaNonstop wrote: Yeah it's not the physics program or else this would be awful early.
Erm, actually, I got an acceptance back in December (to a physics program). I didn't post because I didn't want to stress people out...

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 7:15 pm
by grae313
WhoaNonstop wrote:
kubikat wrote:Congrats! I didn't even know people got accepted that early. Esp. to Madison!
Yeah it's not the physics program or else this would be awful early.

To be honest t2k I think your background suits you better for engineering. I hope this doesn't come as an offense, but I think you should seriously think about the engineering over the physics

-Riley
Agreed. With this guy's background I can see him as a shoe-in to engineering programs. Hopefully he has good luck with physics programs too and can have his pick.

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:15 pm
by axiomofchoice
Alice wrote:
WhoaNonstop wrote: Yeah it's not the physics program or else this would be awful early.
Erm, actually, I got an acceptance back in December (to a physics program). I didn't post because I didn't want to stress people out...
Wow which program give out acceptance that early?

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:25 pm
by notastudent
My son received an acceptance to a "top 20" Ph.D. program in physics on January 5. It was an "unofficial" email acceptance from the graduate admissions committee--the official acceptance with support package will come later.

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:47 pm
by HappyQuark
notastudent wrote:My son received an acceptance to a "top 20" Ph.D. program in physics on January 5. It was an "unofficial" email acceptance from the graduate admissions committee--the official acceptance with support package will come later.
I got myself a shiny new unofficial rejection.

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:48 pm
by axiomofchoice
notastudent wrote:My son received an acceptance to a "top 20" Ph.D. program in physics on January 5.
I'm not aware that in addition to adcoms, parents are also lurking here. PhysicsGRE.com just got lot more interesting. :lol:

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 9:06 pm
by notastudent
lol. Actually, I am a former lurker/occasional poster on College Confidential, and now that my son is a senior in college applying to graduate programs in physics, I found this site and sort of migrated over here....I hope it's not too weird that I'm doing so! (He never posts on these sorts of sites).

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 9:35 pm
by t2kburl
grae313 wrote:
WhoaNonstop wrote:
kubikat wrote:Congrats! I didn't even know people got accepted that early. Esp. to Madison!
Yeah it's not the physics program or else this would be awful early.

To be honest t2k I think your background suits you better for engineering. I hope this doesn't come as an offense, but I think you should seriously think about the engineering over the physics

-Riley
Agreed. With this guy's background I can see him as a shoe-in to engineering programs. Hopefully he has good luck with physics programs too and can have his pick.
I'm not offended at all. It is an accurate assessment. There are plenty of applications in engineering that can get me involved in the search for Earth-like planets out there, which is my primary interest. I've already made connections at NASA. They may just have to wait a little longer for me 8)
My EE applications were done for two reasons. #1 - insurance in case I bombed the PGRE (planning to fail is better than failing to plan, in this case). #2 - play to my strengths. As Deion Sanders says, I'm going to "Do what I do", if I go this route.

However, this offer did not contain any funding offer. That has to be done separately, and without that, I don't go, so this is anything but a done deal. And, of course, I still have several other applications out there. UW ECE is #4 on my list, and my PGRE will kill #1 (CU) and #2 (UCSC), but I still have hope for #3 (NMT) and #5 (AZ - LPL).

I can't wait to tell the guys at work on Friday. One of the engineers there did his undergrad at UW. But the best part of this, for me, is that I now know, for sure, I will be getting out of that god awful dead-end company! When I read the email this morning I screamed like a little girl and said, "YES! **** YOU <company name>!" :lol:

I tell you what, this really feels great, and I thank you all. Your day is coming soon!

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:36 pm
by WhoaNonstop
t2kburl wrote:When I read the email this morning I screamed like a little girl and said, "YES! **** YOU <company name>!" :lol:

I tell you what, this really feels great, and I thank you all. Your day is coming soon!
Oh, I can guarantee you if I get accepted by one of my top 4 choices, I will dress up like Shirley Temple and spank myself with a hockey stick.

-Riley

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:59 pm
by CarlBrannen
The PGRE scores came out on a Saturday morning when I teach physics. So when I got the students all working on their labs I dialed in and heard that I'd got a 990. My response was to point my head to the sky and shout out "Victoryyyyyy!!!". I've no doubt everyone in the building heard me, but I really think that major victories should be properly celebrated.

P.S. A victory yell should be done with your face to the sky. See:
"a Klingon warrior is about to arrive!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5wNL29kdek

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 12:07 am
by HappyQuark
WhoaNonstop wrote:
t2kburl wrote:When I read the email this morning I screamed like a little girl and said, "YES! **** YOU <company name>!" :lol:

I tell you what, this really feels great, and I thank you all. Your day is coming soon!
Oh, I can guarantee you if I get accepted by one of my top 4 choices, I will dress up like Shirley Temple and spank myself with a hockey stick.

-Riley
How well do you really think you can swing that hockey stick while it's behind your back. I think you should have somebody help you, so you can really get some stank on it. I'm available, if you need some ASSistance.

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 2:52 am
by laser
Oh, I can guarantee you if I get accepted by one of my top 4 choices, I will dress up like Shirley Temple and spank myself with a hockey stick.
I want pics.

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 12:34 am
by t2kburl
It appears that getting funded for engineering programs is far less likely than it is for Physics. @ UW in 2009 97% of Physics grad students were supported, while only 57% were in ECE.
The email I got said I should contact faculty about RAs, so I sent seven emails out today ... back to the waiting game :roll:

On the bright side, an RA at UW is one of the best I've seen, when scaled with the cost of living. Of the schools on my list, only Arizona beats it. And UCSC is simply too low to even consider! :shock:

For scaling, I used the cost of living factor from Sperling's Places and divided the typical first year stipend by it.

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 3:41 pm
by Alice
axiomofchoice wrote:
Alice wrote:
WhoaNonstop wrote: Yeah it's not the physics program or else this would be awful early.
Erm, actually, I got an acceptance back in December (to a physics program). I didn't post because I didn't want to stress people out...
Wow which program give out acceptance that early?
Well, I did submit all my applications in early-mid November 8)

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 4:12 pm
by vesperlynd
..

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:17 am
by CarlBrannen
t2kburl wrote:It appears that getting funded for engineering programs is far less likely than it is for Physics. @ UW in 2009 97% of Physics grad students were supported, while only 57% were in ECE.
If I were to put odds on it, I'd say that they're going to come up with support. The reason is that the offer is so early in the season. I would think that the iffy students would get acceptance letters later.

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:37 am
by WhoaNonstop
t2kburl wrote:It appears that getting funded for engineering programs is far less likely than it is for Physics. @ UW in 2009 97% of Physics grad students were supported, while only 57% were in ECE.
The email I got said I should contact faculty about RAs, so I sent seven emails out today ... back to the waiting game :roll:
Yeah, I agree with Carl on this. Your background should give you enough reason to get funding in engineering.

-Riley

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 6:51 pm
by kapil_ds
CarlBrannen wrote:The PGRE scores came out on a Saturday morning when I teach physics. So when I got the students all working on their labs I dialed in and heard that I'd got a 990. My response was to point my head to the sky and shout out "Victoryyyyyy!!!". I've no doubt everyone in the building heard me, but I really think that major victories should be properly celebrated.

P.S. A victory yell should be done with your face to the sky. See:
"a Klingon warrior is about to arrive!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5wNL29kdek
Carl, you are funny. The Klingon cry is a good one. I hadn't seen that before.

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 7:48 pm
by t2kburl
WhoaNonstop wrote:
t2kburl wrote:It appears that getting funded for engineering programs is far less likely than it is for Physics. @ UW in 2009 97% of Physics grad students were supported, while only 57% were in ECE.
The email I got said I should contact faculty about RAs, so I sent seven emails out today ... back to the waiting game :roll:
Yeah, I agree with Carl on this. Your background should give you enough reason to get funding in engineering.

-Riley
Hope so. My first response to an RA request said there would be no openings in the group.
I figured that even without any funding I could squeak out a meager existence for a semester or two until something opens up, if I stay with my sister. Or live in a van down by the river and make a few bucks as a motivational speaker (Chris Farley, SNL skit).

I got to tell my boss today that I WILL be leaving by August. Did a little happy dance & got high fives from a UW alum engineer. Good times! :D

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 8:02 pm
by axiomofchoice
t2kburl wrote: Hope so. My first response to an RA request said there would be no openings in the group.
I figured that even without any funding I could squeak out a meager existence for a semester or two until something opens up, if I stay with my sister. Or live in a van down by the river and make a few bucks as a motivational speaker (Chris Farley, SNL skit).

I got to tell my boss today that I WILL be leaving by August. Did a little happy dance & got high fives from a UW alum engineer. Good times! :D
There is no TA? They don't need cheap labor :shock: for teaching?

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 8:33 pm
by CarlBrannen
axiomofchoice wrote:There is no TA? They don't need cheap labor :shock: for teaching?
Of course they use engineering TAs. For example:

My engineering teaching assistant asked me to be his date to his sister's wedding?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 709AAIMsgn

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 8:14 am
by t2kburl
axiomofchoice wrote:
There is no TA? They don't need cheap labor :shock: for teaching?
Their TAs are typically 33% whereas RAs are 50% (they get paid more). Their acceptance to the department email says that I'll be informed of TA opportunities by the end of April (note that they expect me to accept first.)
Having jumped off the financial cliff before, I would say it is an absurd assumption on their part, to think that a student should commit to them on the blind hope that they might get funded. They do make it clear that most first year students are expected to provide their own funds. Implying that you are most likely not going to get funded right away.

From my perspective, if I don't get accepted with funding anywhere else, I could dig down deep and find a way (or bury myself with more debt) and get through the first year, until the funding comes. However, I'm hoping, with my resume, I can be an exception. Since I could probably function as an RA at or beyond the level of most students, in terms of making a contribution to the cause. My student loan debt is already too much.

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 3:38 pm
by CarlBrannen
A letter of acceptance should have a period of time for which the offer is good. I suppose you'll wait to see what other offers you have. And if their offer is going to expire before other departments make their decisions you can send them a letter accepting their offer conditionally on their coming up with support.

Re: Accepted!

Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 4:53 pm
by t2kburl
I read through the email again, and it doesn't say exactly when they expect me to accept their offer, other than as soon as possible. It is unofficial, too, because it says they have recommended to the grad school that I am admitted to the dept and watch the portal for the official acceptance. The portal has this:
We have received your application fee.
Astronomy: Pending
Electrical Engineering: Congratulations!
Physics: Pending
And a footnote that says my acceptance is provisional until I provide my final transcript from <undergrad institution> showing I have competed my degree.
I wonder if that is official as it gets?
Loads of other cool stuff has been added to my portal page, though. Time to go exploring :D