Thursday's Mailbag

After visiting Salisbury University yesterday, I decided to check up on my application to Ohio State. I have been admitted to Salisbury, but before I make a decision, I wanted to see if I had been admitted to Ohio State. Ohio State's program is a combined MA/PhD program, so it would naturally rank higher than a program that ends in a terminal MA degree.

Much as I had suspected, I did not get accepted at Ohio State. The graduate coordinator at Ohio State said that the University and the department were experiencing cutbacks due to the economic situation and that they were unable to offer as many admissions as they would have liked. In a normal year, applying to six schools should have been enough to get me into at least one, but I was unable to secure admission to a single one of my original six schools. I will reapply to a PhD program in two years after I earn my MA degree, but I suspect that I will apply to different programs the second time around. If I wasn't good enough for them the first time, I doubt that I would be good enough the second time. I will save my money not applying to those schools a second time and try my hand at some other very fine schools. It will be their loss, not mine.

I have also pretty much crossed Old Dominion in Norfolk off my list. The school was much nicer than I expected and the program was exactly what I was looking for, however, because I missed the deadline for financial assistance, I would be unable to afford out of state tuition. Sure, I can take out student loans to pay for it, but at 20k per year, it just doesn't seem practical.

Out of state tuition is almost quadruple the in state rates and I can attend other university's for less money. If I get an assistantship at Salisbury, my tuition will be waived and I would only pay fees. That's about $1,500 a year as compared to 20K. At East Carolina, I could get in state tuition rates through a program called the Academic Common Market. If I am accepted at East Carolina, I would pay just under 10K total for the two year MA program. Again, much more practical than 20K per year at Old Dominion. Finally, if I have to use my last resort and attend school at WVU, I would pay just over 11K total for the two year program because of in-state tuition.

So those are my options for the fall. Wish me luck on the assistantship.