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« Last post by LaserSteve on Today at 12:57:01 am »
I'm in the Central US...
Due to low birth rates 18 years ago, many small US Universities and Colleges are hitting severe funding shortages now. Make sure where you go can cover you if your PI ends up short funded for any length of time. Most schools have rules to protect you if this occurs, but a few are always shady or understaffed. Better schools have large endowments.
I was just downsized from what was once a 44,000 student school ten years ago. Currently less then 25,000 total students, and only met this years minimum enrollment goal for continued government funding by 4 students. Many of that number are part time or commuter students. They sold the food concession, are looking at selling the public/private partnership new dorms, and the dorms go unoccupied because investors built nice new structures next to campus with lower costs, when they noticed the new dorms on campus. Partnership dorms are not making a profit, yet the University has to pay due to the contract. Tuition is capped by the state, and the faculty-staff layoffs were Legion during Covid.
I'm told yearly parking permits will hit 700$ this year for faculty and staff, the parking lots, once ran by the University and heavily subsidized, are now ran by a contractor and owned by the County Port Authority. I used to pay 200$ a year total, and that was pre-tax payroll deduction, it isn't deductible now, due to the privatization.
If a PI has current students, he/she/it can probably generate these numbers for you. Be aware, research groups at declining schools face a difficult time getting further grants. Once the word gets out, and the teaching staff that can migrate do so, the reputation can take a severe hit. This means in any given group, you may have to work longer, faster, and harder for an upset, depressed Professor.
Choose Wisely. Without knowing you well, I will not say Go or No Go, but having worked with several hundred grads in my career, its not for everyone, and yet experiences can be fantastic. There is a bit of a lottery to it. Some change groups, some quit, some become world class. It depends on YOUR attitude. The great majority of the students I have worked with never write, never call, and never want to come back for a visit. If I had Ten Dollars for every abandoned desk, issued laptop, and hundreds of unmarked sample bottles I have had to dispose of, because newly hooded Graduates RUN for the door, unless they are Post-Docs or part of a Start-up . Simply because Grad School is TOUGH!
Many US States are in severe post Covid Cutbacks. Funding is TIGHT outside Biomedical fields. Consider Canada. Their funding is always tight, so they have a habit of choosing only the best for Grad School.
If you speak Arabic, Spanish or German, you may have better options elsewhere.
No matter what, if you are not proficient at Math, Extreme Patience, Spoken and Written English, Teaching Undergrads, Doing your own Equipment Repairs, Living on Five Hours Sleep, and Teaching Yourself Everything! Think Twice.
Steve
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. what do you think? if it is a "sleepy dielectric", how can I "wake up" the dielectric without frying my MOSFET or voltage reg? plz be gentle 
