JavaGuy147

I think Conell offers the best happy medium here, if you don't mind living in Ithaca. It is also very well known and when it comes to the top programs you can't really nit-pick a few spots difference. I would say Cornell. Note that this is with a little bit of bias although not much: I took architecture undergrad classes at Cornell during a summer when I was in high school.

I have chosen Penn. I don't have to come until near Fall, obviously, but I have been told I can start projects whenever I get down there so I may try to go earlier and get settled in. For CS the stipend is the same, 29k or ~2200/month accounting for taxes. I wouldn't be getting that until the start of Fall obviously, but I may have enough savings to work it out going early. When are you moving in?

Still deciding (will soon obviously) but its looking like Penn for me as well. I was expecting to live by myself and have a hard time finding housing the first year, but then maybe house sharing after getting to know people. If I decide to go to Penn maybe we could work out a 2 or 3 bedroom deal for our first year and stretch all of our stipends that much further. I wonder when the first month of the stipend is, I'll have to check that out. I am a bit poor without it.

This is why I am skeptical, but the materials clearly stated that as the average starting salary for PhD graduates. I think most people from UIUC go to industry so academia shouldn't skew it too much.

Also, did you read the one pamphlet we recieved in our folders? It says the average starting salary for MS is like 102k-ish and that PhD was over 130k. Does that even sound reasonable? I almost look at it and don't believe it. I'm not sure if grads from the top 4 make that much so I'm a little skeptical. Then again, maybe they do, or maybe UIUCs industry relations does put them ahead pay-wise. Any insight? Of course I'm not in it for the money but if thats true then GOD DAMN.

It was very nice, and it looks like a good fit for me as well. Its looking like I'll be deciding between UIUC and Penn. Its going to be a hard decision because the ranking disparity is a bit large, but Penn is still top 20 and has lots of other perks (general name recongition, still great grad placement, alumni network, in Philly, smaller class, could get a MS in stats from Wharton on the way, etc).

That probably had a lot to do with it. I went to a smaller state school (but with well known CS program in the state system) and smaller/more specific, but still good, internships so its likely most committees didn't recognize any of my recommenders. I've always thought its stupid to believe someone more just because you know (of) them, but it seems to be a consensus that thats how recommendations work. Besides that... 4.0, top of my class, CS/Math double major+honors, 170/162 GRE, 3 diverse research projects, and lots of extra-curriculars and such. I'm guessing my LOR were good just not from well known people )

Welp, found out at the UIUC visit days. If anyone was wondering, they recieved around 800 applications, admitted about 100, and expect somewhere near 50 to enroll.

So was anybody here at the UIUC visit 23rd-25th? I few people mentioned gradcafe and I was wondering if they might be in this thread

My profile isn't too far off from yours, not sure why I'm getting boned. Oh well, have you made a decision yet?

To my knowledge, both are sort of party schools. So that wouldn't be much of a difference if you want to night life or social scene - although I believe State College is more eventful than Urbana-Champaign. They are both pretty far (at least 2 hours dirivng) from any large city, you can decide if thats good or not. By the way, PA has weird liquor laws (can only get liquor at a state store and limited availablilty of beer and wine at some grocery stores) but nice gun laws. Illinois has horrendous gun laws, if that means anything to you (edit: Totally NOT profiling your location, I just noticed that now. I mentioned it because it may have at least some influence on my decision to go there).

No idea, might be bad or it might not. IMO most app sites seem to be poorly constructed and hard to understand.

Holy crap man, looks like you are landing them all... I hate you Whats your profile? And what does the blue text mean, by the way?

Just doing general research, I have found for just about all schools I'm applying to some sort of admissions metric, whether it be "x%" or "x applications admitted out of a pool of about y." I can't seem to find anything about the selectivity of UIUC's CS program. I know its a top 5 graduate program, but its undergraduate admission rate is actually strikingly high (compared to peer top 4 CS programs), and I was wondering if the graduate program is similar. Any ideas about the acceptance rate or pool size? How many applicants are admitted each year? Anything?

Only top 4 program I applied to who hasn't rejected me yet is MIT, but I'm not to hopeful with that. No contact yet. I am happy to have some decent acceptances and likely acceptances, though. At this point I think I may be deciding between UIUC and Penn (I know UIUC is top 5 and Penn is only like 17th but I think Penn has some non-ranking advantages, maybe I'll make a post asking for opinions on the matter).