Ziqi Wang

BTW which university do you attend in Canada? I spent 3 years at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. One of my friend applied in year 2015 and he told me that a UCLA professor recommended him obtaining a Master's degree at U.S. first because the committee at UCLA is unwilling to admit somebody from SFU. However it is just a single data point, and could be inaccurate/wrong/misleading.

For Berkeley I do not think there is any chance without an interview. I have heard from multiple sources (incl. students being interviewed last year and on year 2012) that Berkeley will interview all shortlisted candidates, which implies that if no interview was given at this time then the chance is slim For MIT I believe interview is for borderline candidates only. This could be proved by previous years' results. For CMU I am not pretty sure about their policy because CMU has a fairly large CS department (i.e. SCS) and a few departments underneath SCS, such as ML, LTI, RI, CSD. Different departments make decisions separately and might adopt different policies. I myself also applied to top CS PhD programs and is anxiously waiting for results. I will kiss my own ass if Berkeley admitted me without an interview (haven't received one...), but for the rest I stay optimistic until mid-Feb. Berkeley mass acceptance is likely to be Friday or next week; while MIT may send bulk acceptance during the first week of Jan. Gook luck to everybody!

https://calendars.mit.edu/eecs

Yes, I could not find them any longer... It seems that those "bogus" reports were just highly positive feedback/unofficial email from POI which does not qualify to be an official acceptance... The committee roundup meeting at MIT EECS will be on Jan 30th, so still a long way to go

Personally I think it depends on the field and area and department you are applying to. I believe only few people have the experience of applying to several different departments/fields, so each person could tell an entirely different story. Even in the same field or area, different universities make decisions based on a set of different stuffs. So the best indicator is not to ask randomly about what other people is thinking, but rather to check previous results of the university and department you are applying to. If they interviewed candidates before admission last year then it is likely to be the case this year I myself is waiting for interview invitations, though.

Just say you want to check for potential schedule conflicts and ask whether it is feasible to reveal interview dates/status

According to the number of interview reports last year, it is hard to deny that UCB does interview every strong candidate. It is also mentioned by most of the accepted applicants that they were interviewed by POI However there is 1 (one) instance of acceptance by UCB CS theory group which claims that no interview was conducted. So it might be possible, the chance is really slim, though.

I applied to MIT EECS for Computer Science, systems area. That is exactly the reason why I was nervous about those early results in CS. Anyway I asked few friends that applied last year. They told me that it is likely that people are receiving interviews in the past and more will come in the following week. I am not sure about the implication of an interview but it seems that it varies from univ, to univ, e.g. for Berkeley interview is a must-do for strong applicants, while at MIT, etc. an interview could be everything. That's all I got.

Because two of them wrote "Computer Science (PhD)" instead of EECS, though MIT does not have a "Computer Science" portal for application. So my best guess is that those two lucky guys applied to CS within EECS department.

I observed on the result report page that few lucky guys have already received interview from POI and/or offers from the department. Just want to make sure (or if you are reading this and you got accepted) is it normal to receive admission letter at such an early time? Would anybody mind letting us know what is the field of study or research direction (I saw at least 2 of them are CS, and I myself also chose CS Systems area)? Thanks in advance!

I have heard from 2015 MSCS students that they have finished selecting candidates last Friday (Feb. 12) and the result will be out soon