UNC

[nibot]

Well, it looks like I was admitted to UNC. I don't think there's much chance I'll accept their offer, but I am curious to visit. I do feel that it doesn't bode so well that I was offered just a TA-ship by UNC of all places. That and their theory group seems to consist of just one professor, and the theory grad student I wrote to at UNC misspelled 'Berkeley' in her reply. I also like how Rochester is making all my travel arrangements for me. (-:

Here's what one of my friends says about UNC. He graduated EECS from here, then did a Masters at UNC, now works at IBM:

Hey Tobin. UNC's campus is pretty nice. A real Eastern campus with lots of green and brick. The town is sleepier and less culturally diverse than UC Berkeley, of course. I don't know anything about their Physics department though. But I'm sure if you were going to go there you would've done your research anyway. Buses throughout Chapel Hill and Carrboro are free.

Dear Mr. Fricke,

We are delighted to inform you that we have recommended to the Graduate School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that you be accepted as a graduate student in our Department beginning in the fall semester of 2004. In support of your studies with us, we are pleased now to be able to make you the following financial offer.

First, we are pleased to offer you a teaching assistantship in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at a salary of $1745 per month for nine months for the academic year 2004-2005. If you accept this appointment, you will be recommended for reduced tuition at the North Carolina resident rate; we have previously obtained such in-state tuition privilege for all of our entering graduate teaching assistants as well as almost all of our continuing graduate students. In addition, funds will be made available to cover your tuition during the academic year of 2004-2005 ($3163 for the 2003-2004 academic year) and your health insurance (now $1162 per year), provided you maintain your academic eligibility. The duty of a teaching assistant is to teach undergraduate laboratories or discussion sections in physics and astronomy. Your teaching time, a total of about 15-20 hours a week, will be divided equally between student contact and other responsibilities such as preparation and grading.

Additional summer salary, at the same rate of $1745 per month, is usually available through our research and teaching programs. As there are sufficient research funds in the department, you should be able to associate yourself with a funded research group and get up to three months of salary in the summer of 2005. This summer there are also a number of research fellowships available for incoming graduate students to work with our faculty members in various research fields including astronomy, astrophysics, biophysics, nuclear physics, condensed matter physics and materials physics. If this interests you, please contact us; details can be arranged depending on mutual interests.

Assuming the three months of summer salary your total compensation for 2004-2005 school year will be $20,940 plus tuition and health insurance, providing an estimated total of $25,265. Our graduate students are currently responsible for annual fees of $1106. The university may change these rates somewhat for next year; we will keep you informed.

Ours is a very friendly Department which recently has substantially renewed itself; retirements allowed us to hire 16 outstanding new faculty, over half of our total, since 1990. These young colleagues have now created departmental opportunities for graduate training and research which are the best ever.

For example, in late April 2004 we will dedicate the 4-meter diameter SOAR telescope in Chile. This will provide our faculty and students, via high-speed communications links, priority access to state-of-the-art observing facilities located at an exceptional Southern Hemisphere site. Other groups use heavily the accelerators and detectors of the local Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory to investigate fundamental nuclear physics processes which underlie the formation of the cosmos.

Our Nanoscale Sciences group develops and uses new microscopy tools, including the Nanoscale Imaging and Manipulation System that combines the capabilities of electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy together with a virtual reality visualization interface. This and other instruments (including state-of-the-art transmission electron microscopes) are used to study a wide range of nanoscale systems, from nanoelectromechanical devices to molecular biomotors. Coming to UNC you will be able to use your physics-based approach to understand how we think (neurophysics), develop new x-ray devices for biomedical imaging (nanotube technologies), and understand pulmonary diseases like Cystic Fibrosis and potential cures (gene therapy).

All of our graduate students are supported through research assistantships and teaching assistantships for the duration of their studies. We strongly urge all to become engaged in research early in their careers with us.

We invite you to visit our Department to speak personally with our faculty and graduate students. In particular, we strongly urge you to consider visiting us in Chapel Hill on Friday/Saturday, February 27/28 or Friday/Saturday, March 19/20 when we will offer a comprehensive, coordinated program of activities for you and other admitted students. In particular, if you could schedule your arrival for the late afternoon or evening of the previous Thursday, February 26 or March 18 we will organize a day-long program beginning early on Friday when you can meet our faculty and current graduate students, discuss their research, and obtain a first-hand impression of our Department and UNC-Chapel Hill. After a social activity on Friday evening, we will arrange to see Chapel Hill and the surrounding area for those who wish to stay over on Saturday. If these dates do not suit your schedule, your visit at any other time in the next few weeks would be welcomed. We recommend departmental visits on Mondays or Fridays, but will make every effort to accommodate you whenever you can come.

We will reimburse you up to $350 for travel (including car mileage) and food expenses related to your visit. In addition, we can make hotel arrangements for you for up to two nights. Please contact Dan Bock, our Graduate Admissions Coordinator [danbock@physics.unc.edu, phone: (919) 962-4703] or me to make detailed arrangements.

Since we receive many more applications than there are openings in our graduate program, we would very much appreciate it if you would let us know by April 1 of your tentative choice of a graduate school. It would be very helpful if you could give us some indication about your plans as soon as possible, even if you have made no firm decision. In any case, this teaching assistantship offer is available to you until April 15, 2004.

Sincerely,
Thomas B. Clegg
Director of Graduate Admissions
Department of Physics and Astronomy


Comments

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know if UNC has the kind of money to be giving it away in forms other than just TAships - Berkeley seems to be pretty similar, though there are a decent number of grad students with some sort of fellowship. (Contrasted with the other places I applied, where almost all the students didn't have to teach their first year.)

[squarkz.livejournal.com]

ha, funny. one of my friends won a fellowship at every school he applied to last year except for his safety school (who gave him a TA-ship).

i am actually a little [illogically] disappointed to get a fellowship from caltech, and although washington hasn't sent an official letter or anything, i am guess they'll offer one too. i really really really want to be a TA -- i want to be a professor mainly because i love to teach, and i also happen to like research a lot -- so i wouldn't really have an excuse if i had a fellowship.

Re:

[nibot.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they'll let you teach, Sara. (-:

Re:

[squarkz.livejournal.com]

heh, i'm sure they would.

but i need something to help me rule some schools out, though! i wasn't supposed to get into caltech and this throws a wrench in everything.

and i forgot this in the first comment -- congrats on getting into UNC! even if it wasn't exactly the school you're drooling over or anything, acceptance letters are nice, aren't they?

[emidala.livejournal.com]

tobin, don't say yes, you'll get into princeton and they'll pay you at least twice that amount (are you applying for plasma or pure physics? plasma has less money but the difference is marginal in comparison to what other schools will offer you). not that funding is the most important factor, but after six months here, I realize how important money is for research and for keeping the graduate population active and thinking. it is sad, because schools like berkeley will never be able to compete (especially not now, after arnold's little tax cut), but it is the truth. for grad school, the more money they give you, the better - and chances are that your program is better where there is more money, too.

(I know I am biased but princeton is just such an amazing school and I am SO happy to be here!)

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[nibot.livejournal.com]

I applied to Physics right and proper at Princeton.

I don't know why you're so confident about Princeton, but I hope you're right!

Re:

[emidala.livejournal.com]

I am right! just make sure to apply for housing at the graduate college: living here is great - how about free alcohol on fridays? :)

Every fifteen minutes...

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

It's really paying off--that I check your progress daily,,,there IS something new every fifteen minutes!

Excellent!

Just think, now you can begin to barter these places against each other...!

[ephermata.livejournal.com]

State schools have less money. When I applied to places, the only universities that offered TAships instead of a fellowship were UCB and Purdue, which happened to be the only public schools that accepted me as well. I wouldn't read too much into it.

As it happened, I had heard from other sources that Cal CS does have some fellowships for "especially desirable" first-year students. It used to bother me about not getting one of these. As it happened, though, TAing was a wonderful, wonderful experience. I got to know one of the other professors besides my advisor fairly well, and I met many of the current undergrads. Combined with the TA support group the CS department offers, it meant I met a lot of people in a short time; some of those connections continue today.

Of course, TAing is a lot of work. You really don't want to be TAing every semester. So if you look at UNC and see that they don't have enough money to fund you without TAing a lot, think carefully. but don't take a TA offer as a snub, at least from a state school.

Re:

[nibot.livejournal.com]

thanks for the info!