@CT1417 I was going to answer about funded PhDs, but @payn4ward did it perfectly. Just adding a few comments:
So, basically, professional programs like med, vet, and law school cost lot$ of money.
PhDs in STEM fields should be funded by some mix of TAs (teaching), RAs (research), and internship/jobs. There are some gray areas, as professors sometimes have startups just off campus where they hire grad students. When kids get to that stage and are looking for a professor, it is good to look at the professor’s track record with and recent grants. And that’s living with grad student living conditions, so think small apartment with a roommate or two and a limited grocery budget if you want the grad student pay to cover tuition/fees/books/room/board.
Masters degrees, even in STEM fields are not necessarily funded, which is why getting a Masters in say physics is not so common (or useful). It’s a bit more common in, say, Computer Engineering, because it makes you more marketable for a high-paying industry position without aiming you at academia. And, in CE or similar computer or engineering fields, a lucrative summer job is fairly easy to find if you don’t need to be on the publish or perish treadmill.
PhDs in humanities are not so well funded, I think. Maybe @dfbdfb can comment. TAs are needed, but perhaps not so many that you could have a TA position all the way through your PhD as you might in math. I don’t know that much about funding in math, so I’m trusting @payn4ward on that. I’m sure there are math professors with enough funding to pay some grad students.
QOTD3:
Best website – MIT, love the blogs
Worst – CMU, too many bells and whistles, not much real info (because things differ from college to college)
@stlarenas We didn’t visit any LACs with either kid, but when D14 was looking she was told over and over by the large state universities “If you don’t know what you want to major in, don’t just pick something. Come in undeclared so we can put you in programs to help you figure it out.” Larger schools may have the resources to do that on a class/experience level. It didn’t really matter in the end for our D – it turns out she knows exactly what she wants to do, she just didn’t realize there was a specific college major for it and, instead of asking, decided to flounder around (insert a Kermit flail here) on her own for a while.
“Norts” was new to me too, but I kinda figured it out based on “jorts” being jean shorts somewhere else on CC. I haven’t seen the combination here with large t-shirts. (Like the 80s?) I don’t have a clue what you mean by “pusing” though @payn4ward. Is that new or is it a typo for pushing or puking :)) Either way – Congrats from another CASPer!
I am clueless about clothing in general and mostly never notice. I think DS inherited that from me. He’s been wearing jeans for the last week, and it’s been upper 90s some days (way hot for here). Now he’s headed up to San Francisco, and packed mostly cargo shorts for low 60s weather. Boys!
He wears what DS21 (much more fashionable, being a trans guy) calls “his nerd shirts” but is careful to choose an appropriate nerdism. He’s been wearing UCSB shirts this past week, because he is nervous about college students being able to tell that he’s a HS student.
Never heard of “norts” before. I think many girls wear cutoff shorts as short as they can get away with cutting them.
Even back in the 80s when I was in Texas, the girls there seemed needlessly glammed up for going to class. Big hair and big bows in the hair were in then.
THANK YOU @payn4ward & @Ynotgo for the info about CS & Math grad programs. As of today, he plans to major in theoretical CS & applied mathematics. I do not know what either one means, other than he is not interested in the CS that falls under Engineering, generally speaking. This chid has gotten himself through school without any assistance or prompting from me (other than ‘go to bed now’) so I trust that he knows why he wants to study these topics. Thrilled to know that he may not need to worry about paying for grad school. Woo Hoo!
OK—all the conversation on attire…
Our town is VERY preppy. Vineyard Vines is headquartered nearby, but very traditionally preppy for decades before VV sold their first tie. So the students tend to dress fairly well. I mean, it runs the gamut from gym shorts & tee shirts to button down shirts & colored shorts for boys. You will see boys wearing a v-neck sweater over a button down, and not on the day of a meet when athletes wear shirt & tie. All of that by way of background. So both of my boys ignore most of the fashion and wear khaki shorts/khaki pants and tee shirts, adding a team hoodie in the winter, in lieu of an actual jacket. For five months of the year, they could be wearing the same pair of khakis and hoodie every day, and no one would be any wiser.
Before the older son headed off to college, he started buying button down shirts and colored shorts. I have no idea why, but it was amusing to watch. Every few months, there was a slight tweak. The addition of blue jeans…buying khakis with much narrower cuts…buying khakis in colors that were not khaki…slimmer fit button downs…Cole Haan lace-up dress shoes with jeans…and the funniest of all, these crazily colored & patterned socks. This was all a massive improvement IMHO, but by the end of this summer, he returned to wearing Nike gym shorts (the long one with deep pockets that the swimmers pulled over their swim suits) can concert tee shirts. I can only hope the cycle swings back again to ‘dressing up’, as I don’t like the look of gym shorts in public.
My daughter wore her Furman shirt to (high) school today. I wanted to get an FU shirt when we visited, but decided against it.
Best website I found during the search: University of Texas at Dallas. Except for the creepy pictures of ‘Comet’ the mascot, it was loaded with information and nicely designed.
128k and 512k Apple computers? I thought we had a bunch of old folks here like me. My first computer was an IBM PC. 64k. No hard drive. Added one (5Mb) which required a new power supply I believe. Learned BASIC as well. Read the manual.
Years I found a computer camp for my son and they started the kids with Basic. View of the owner of the camp is that although they will never use the language, they will learn skills/processes that will carry over to other languages and programming in general.
As for 4 year plan, my daughter wants to be a vet. She knows undergrad as cheap as possible is the mantra. Another year in undergrad would be very problematic in terms of the end goal of becoming a debt with as little debt as possible. Makes UK offer appealing.
Her older brother thought about pursuing joint BS/MS in engineering in 4 years. Would definitely be possible (and possibly could do it sooner). But he decided he didn’t want to go that route. Had that appealed to him, he likely would be at CMU (not pursuing 4 year BS/MS route but just undergrad engineering degree). Looking for double major in German and taking some other classes that are appealing.
Didn’t realize we have so many programmers on this forum My programming days dated back to 80s when I sneak into my mom’s lab and coded BASIC for fun. I then decided against CS and went to business school instead. DH has 3 CS degrees and is the true coder in the house. D17 showed no interests in programming except self-learnt some HTML when she was “customizing” her blog page. S20, on the other hand, seems to have just discovered the fun of coding. DH taught him basic python and his Robotics club is asking them to start C++.
**4-year plan **: We might just chat about degree/major paths briefly after D decide which school to go to. Her list has schools range from those do not take any AP credit to those give her 1 year off. She is the best planner in the family. She will plan out the most efficient and effective route when we go to amuzement parks. So I don’t think we need to help with actual course choices.
Question: Just received a UMD invite to “Maryland Markquee Day”. It said “Reserve your spot… no later than September 19”… today is September 29??? Anyways, anyone know if this is truely a special event?
@dfbdfb thanks for the info! I thought I had that D17 thing correct, but wanted to check. I’m so glad I found this site. D17 had Washington & Lee high on her list and that would have been a mistake. Scary what you don’t know, you don’t know. I too had BASIC as my 1st. computer course and I was an Acct. major. It was rough. That wasn’t long after punch cards.
@CT1417 I’m curious, so maybe you can ask him for me. It seems like theoretical CS & applied mathematics are about the same thing. Or at least they would be at about the same location on the XKCD purity scale (https://xkcd.com/435/). I’d guess both would be at about the location of physics on the scale, for some aspects of physics. But, I’m also not all that well informed about the contents of each major.
@Ynotgo I heard that math faculty commented on another math professor collaborating with a string theorist (physicist) that his topic is too “applied.” :))
String theory in physics is at the opposite end from other “applied physics.”
Some Applied physics is close to material science & engineering.
I met a number of applied mathematicians and said to myself, “I thought physicists do those stuff.”
I also met a number of mechanical engineering PhDs and what they do (computation/simulation in fluid dynamics) were very much physics to me.
Dr. Dongarra’s group supports a lot of applied mathematicians and computer scientists, about 50 of them at a time. http://www.eecs.utk.edu/people/faculty/dongarra/
because everybody uses LAPACK.
@payn4ward Ha! I’ve heard the snarky question in talks to the public about string theory, “Is it physics if you can’t think of any possible experimental way to test the theory?” Actually, some progress has been made on thinking of possible ways to test the theory, I gather.
Anyway, a lot of the cool stuff in science happens at the borders between sciences and with interdisciplinary collaborations.
QOTD 4 year plan, like some of you posted I want my kid there for 4 years even though she will have tons of AP credit. Let her double major or take fun interesting classes. I want her to get the most out of the college experience.
norts never heard of that term here in Florida. My D wears Nike pros daily but they aren’t allowed in school. Dress code is your shorts have to be fingertip length and those definitely aren’t.
And I am happy to finally announce the first application has been submitted today. <:-P
Only 2 more to go and if she doesn’t get into those then back to the drawing board for January deadlines.
I don’t see “norts” around here (had never heard of the term either). However, SD14 does wear them fairly often at her college though far more often for actual running or other athletics than as her daily uniform. I can’t say I’ve seen the girls in them at the HS.
S17 is pretty into fashion, very hipster/metro with slim cut ankle pants, sometimes rolled up, floral linen shirts or other fun patterned button downs, flannels with with a cardigan, grey suede shoes…that kind of thing. He’s pretty snappy.
S19 has all of a sudden upgraded and is wearing more of a skate shoe, and mostly button downs or Hawaiian shirts versus long athletic shorts, tee and tennis shoes (and usually the tee and shorts did not match at all!).
4 year plan:
ABSOLUTELY! parental funding will cut off after 4 years. So far we’ve had one manage it successfully with adding a couple of summer courses but not a full quarter or semester and are having a similar track with the current college junior who is on track for 4 years by adding a summer quarter. S17 is very committed to the 4 year plan…we are focusing on schools that in general have a lot of flexibility baked in, a few which don’t even let you declare until end of sophomore year.
I agree that mapping it out for all 4 years, with inflation can really help answer those kinds of questions. I also recommend sharing the math with your child.
We are taking a slightly different position on the subject. I am not personally opposed to some debt for my child, or them having “skin in the game”. I personally think it motivates them to graduate on time and get a job right away. But I know many people do not agree with that scenario.
We are in a slightly different situation though. My S does not have a clear cut first choice, it’s more of a top choice of the moment and then things move around. The vast majority of his schools are very likely to come in at a price that would require him to take on some debt but he will have at least one option that does not. At the end of the day I am empowering him to determine what he wants to do. From an environment standpoint, he will get something very very different at most of the pricier options than the affordable one and that may well be worth the additional investment and debt.
I’ve been really clear with him on list price, what the NPC’s say, mapping it out over 4 years, what that debt would look like and how he would pay it back. He will work regardless because he wants to, at one option he’d just have more disposable income then at the rest. He is also aware that if the numbers do not come in where they need to, the school is not an option. There is a very firm cap. All have the potential to come in under but they may not. Schools that didn’t demonstrate the potential to come in at or under my cap he is not allowed to apply to at all.
That said, we are not doing ED anywhere. We are dong EA everywhere and for his list, it improves his chances across the board.
My personal take on it is this. If it’s a reach school and you know it’s an almost certainty to be unaffordable to me, it seems disingenuous to apply knowing the likely outcome and putting your child through it even if you do have a valid out. Reach schools are not going to through merit monies at my kid based on his stats. My heart hurts for you though as while I do think RD is the right call, that’s a bitter pill.
@MotherOfDragons - I enjoyed reading about your University of Alabama campus tour. During your short visit, did you get any kind of a feel for the overall safety of the campus and the surrounding area?
I ask because my D18 is interested in researching Alabama as a possible choice. I was recently on the college factual site & noticed that the campus got a rating of C- for crime (mostly burglary - 81.9% of campus crime committed); and the surrounding town (I guess that’s Tuscaloosa?) got a rating of D- for having a lot of violent crime (assault 45.4%; robbery 44.9%; rape 9% of violent crime). The site also mentioned that it could be potentially dangerous for students to venture off campus. This raised an eyebrow, because I also read somewhere that (due to on-campus housing shortages) many students are asked to find off-campus housing after their freshman or sophomore years.
Your thoughts would be most appreciated. Can any of you other Bama veterans speak to these statistics?
Or is this just one of those “well it’s no worse than anywhere else,” kind of things? I haven’t really looked up many other schools for crime statistics - I just found myself on that site the other day.
@STEM2017 :)) Absolutely hilarious that you replied to Georgetown’s marketing email and how funny that they replied. I had to read the first part of their reply twice. I thought surely I misread that “unsubscribe” reply. My, my that was a rude reply.
Anyone getting the Swarthmore emails? I find them very funny. They are truly a stalker school but I actually enjoy reading them.
My first computer was an IBM PC. 64k. No hard drive. Added one (5Mb) which required a new power supply I believe. Learned BASIC as well. Read the manual.
My programming days dated back to 80s when I sneak into my mom’s lab and coded BASIC for fun. I then decided against CS and went to business school instead. DH has 3 CS degrees and is the true coder in the house. D17 showed no interests in programming except self-learnt some HTML when she was “customizing” her blog page. S20, on the other hand, seems to have just discovered the fun of coding. DH taught him basic python and his Robotics club is asking them to start C++.