I’ve been accepted into SUNY Buffalo’s Human Factors Engineering PhD program for Fall of 2008. They’ve offerred me tuition and a stipend if i become a TA (which would be pretty cool right?). I’m trying to figure out if I should accept or not since it means another 3-5 years of living in poverty and much much harsher winters which i’m already sick of from just New England winters.
The upside would be that I get a new venue of living for a while, I could continue to put off paying my student loans, and of course i’d get to do research that i’m interested in instead of just reading other people’s work. And i’d be a PhD before age 30 which i think would be an accomplishment. Ideally i’d want to continue doing freelance work if I attended but i’m not sure if that’s possible given the horrible and low-tech economy of Buffalo.
As of right now i’m accepting, the only thing that will change my mind at this point is a lucrative job offer or a job offer at a company i really want to work for. I’m also waiting to hear from UCF on their hf program but they’ve been non-responsive which is making me not like them much.
Congrats again on UB.
I don’t think you’d be able to continue freelancing based on the workload of a PhD program, not the economy. But, I guess you will have a bit of repeat coursework in year 1-2?
Good luck with everything. I’m sure I will see you at a conference sooner or later.