...sometimes spending a year at the BAC is not a bad way to go.

its ok, ill just tell you...uva, yale, harvard and yale. aka, good chance of going 0 for 4. I dont like the idea of safties....wouldnt want to go to a school im not 100% sold on.

so guys, my girlfriend pointed me in the direction of this site:

http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php

looots of info on architecture acceptance/denial dates and means of notifications for most, if not all, schools.

i said yale twice...i meant princeton as the fourth

well i think people here have a screwy idea of what is a "safety". there is an entire world outside of the ivies....and sometimes you get more bang for your buck.

Another first time poster here, reading all this makes me even more anxious. Is it safe to assume that the only people with non-arch background have been accepted to UT, a friend of mine told me that they did not notify him till second week in march. Oh yeah here are my schools:
UT
OSU
U of Oregon
U of Washington
Berkeley
UIC (got accepted Monday with full ride plus stipend so that made my day)
I am somewhat regretting not applying to any ivys not but oh well. Let the anxiety continue!

I said I have NO safties. a true saftey would be something like ball state

SO, is the UT austin? and Univ. of Illinois at Chicago?

teehee, he said "saftie"

;-)

yeah, im an idiot. S>O ... osu was a good program, great faculty, interesting ideas, amazing facilities, always bringing in big names .. I would suggest it

Yeah UT is University of Texas Austin, and UIC is Univ. of Illinois at Chicago. Sorry about that.

I hear good things about OSU, I am originally from Ohio so I have been there a bunch of times, yet to see the new building though. Columbus would be quite the transition from living on the east coat for the last seven years.

oh yeah, forgot to mention that columbus is, as you know, garbage.

it's not thaat bad. it could be orlando - or detroit.

well its: a) not orlando and b) a smaller, somehow LESS urban, detroit

some arch backgrounds have been accepted to UT... a friend of mine from school.

any word on MLA's? (pref. uva,bekeley,gsd,ut at austin). all this uva stuff is driving me mad. i imagine that its completely different than the March submittals...maybe?

helloarctichoke,
I agree...there are some screwey saftey choices on here. last year i applied to 4 Ivies unsuccessfully...This year gave me a good perspective.

i'm just saying from living in several other areas, columbus has a decent amount going on.

i'm not claiming it's the top place in the world, but it's certainly got a lot more going for it than cities of similar size.

why should someone settle on something thats expensive as hell, you will be devoting every waking hour to for 3 years, and will lay the foundation for everyother waking moment of your life afterwards?

hm, point taken. i grew up in socal, then moved to the east coast, till i went to school at osu...so my perspective is alot different. the midwest was a HUGE shocker to me.

i hate the midwest.

haha, i can imagine. the midwest is... different.

It could be worse it could be Cleveland (where I was born and raised). Location plaid a big part in where I applied I want to stay in an urban environment plus I need to go somewhere where my wife can get a job.

on the plus side...the people were nice. weird, but nice.

aaah, you dont like cleveland? I actually sort of enjoyed it. but i guess it'd be a different thing if you were from there

I'm not sure "saftey" relates specifically to quality.

yeeesh. I'm slow at the draw today.

these conversations are updating too quickly for me to keep up with.

asbuckeye, I'm with you - no safeties. All-out balls-out.

i'm not going to call anything a safety till I get a 'yes' somewhere.

I was balls out last year. This year i am chill, if I dont get in a again..I am doing a summer program or go to teh IAAC

yeah ks, i mean cause the class sizes are so small and things are so subjective, there arent really safeties anyways. so why base a decision on thinking its easy to get into?

this is my first shot this year--so really i'm not sure what to expect. could be hit or miss. hopefully a hit! hm.

Is anyone dealing with FAFSA stuff yet? or maybe experience from previous applications? I recently completed mine and found out my EFC is above 20k. I did some research and it seems that scores are just all over the place. Now I know that number is not the only thing they look at but its still concerning to me. Obviously now at a full time job, a few years of saving, etc it makes sense but there's no way I could pay over 20k without assistance. Does anyone know how they look at the fact that your life / income will change? I mean obviously they know you are applying to school so you won't be working a full time job? Is this a common occurance? you have to pay a ton for the first year and then when you fill out subsequent FAFSA forms they will be a lot less?

I think you get something like 18000$ from the fafsa , 1/2 of which is unsubsidized. The rest of you school costs have to come out of private lenders, fellowships etc.

http://www.acenet.edu/bookstore/pdf/2005paying4college.pdf

once i quit my job, i'm planning on contacting the financial aid office of the school i'm going to and see if i can submit any forms to state a major change in my circumstance. i know they exist for most schools.

that might help you out with something.

My EFC came out pretty high compared to my undergraduate years, around 15k. Here's some info on EFC: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/scholarships-and-aid/409.html

Sometimes, the school will be able to adjust your financial aid package to compensate using a process known as Professional Judgement. Basically what that means is, talk to the school's Financial Aid administrator.

jazz - did you include your parents info? EFC is 'expected family contribution'. If you're living on your own, you shouldn't even have to touch the parent section - file off campus housing - independent - and just include your income. It should be way lower. Also, I just completed mine, and it is a good idea to get the FAFSA in early.

laurilan - that's a great idea!

All the financial aid office is going to say is "fill out a FAFSA" and you can do that right now online.

uh , yeah I think we all know that.

uh, yeah, apparently not all of us ff33...read above.

i'm also worried about my efc - i've been financially independent for a few years now, but several of the schools i applied to stated that applicants would be eligible for more grants if they included parental info in their fafsa. so i went ahead and did it with that assumption, but of course there's not any place on the fafsa to say, "yeah, here's how much money my family has - and they won't be giving me a cent." so now my efc is a lot higher than it should be considering that i have no money.

anyone else have experience with this? i've never really done a fafsa before because i was in-state for undergrad and wouldn't have gotten any aid.

OK, who here does not know they should fill out the FAFSA soon?

Also, Are you aware that many schools also have a personal Fin Aid App...most were due already....

so just so we are clear...the FAFSA is not "all" there is to it, dispite whatever futurist thinks

"FF" 33 - man, what's your problem? Go blow your smoke somewhere else.

I didn't say FAFSA is all there is to it. I said, that is all the financial aid office is going to say to get you started.

Geez.

snark.. if you are 25 you shouldn't have to put any parental information down. some schools... ie columbia, said you have to put it down for the dept. scholarships while their basic university scholarships and fafsa do not require it. its weird.

I wish it were true, but there is more to it than just a fafsa, friend.

snarkitekt - go back to FAFSA and just do a correction, and do not include your parents info (if you're independent and your parents can't claim you as a dependent).

Grants will come based on merit and need. If you're independent, those are usually the only criteria.

that's the list of when fafsa is required to be filed. just an fyi!

I think we all know that filling out the FAFSA is required. and I think we've probably all submitted the dept./school specific forms as well. Personally I did not include parents info and still got a high EFC. I have heard that you can file a change later on (such as laurilan suggested) with both your FAFSA and school forms. I was just wondering if that is standard procedure or if I had just missed something... it seems odd that you would have to do that "double" procedure seeing as how most people applying for grad school are in similar boats (working and getting paid to broke student status).

also, for you people applying to state schools - i know that two of mine will grant you in-state after a year as long as you become a resident (register car, new d.l. etc.)

for you ut people - i think you have to own property. my friend (who went to ut) said a bunch of his friends bought really cheap property out in the middle of nowhere texas to do this. he tried to get instate by using the coop he was living (partial owner of property) - that didn't work.

My EFC says 02318 C ... what does that mean?

my friend who started at UT this year got instate just by getting TAship, at least that is what he has told me