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@Charlyne At this point, I would make the majority of your decision based on your potential advisors at each program. Is there one with a better research fit?

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What kind of job would be ideal to you? I find that most CS PhD students enter their programs specifically so they can get an academic or research lab position, so I'm not sure what your target career is if you're not interested in either.

I got accepted to GA Tech and I'm wondering about the safety of the campus. What are the good and bad parts on/near campus? Do you generally feel safe on campus, or no because of its location in the city?

I got a reject letter, but it makes me really happy to see the occasional Stanford in green when it's the applicant's top choice

@mach Nope. I almost had an interview at one university, but the professor cancelled it last minute None of the other universities I've applied to required interviews.

@csyrez Nope, I'm in AI/robotics. You?

Yep. Anyone else here under 18?

Any idea what happened with Gatech's notifications? It seems that they sent out quite a few acceptances a couple of weeks ago, but I can't tell if those are all for the ACO program or not.

Mid-teens here. We'll see if anyone notices...

Any thoughts on whether young students are taken seriously? I'll be starting quite young and I've been wondering how this could affect how I'm viewed as a student within the program.

I don't know of another test that would take the place of the CS subject GRE, or any universities that absolutely require the exam. If you are applying to one that does require the subject exam, I advise that you ask the graduate coordinator whether they will require the exam for 2014 admissions. Is your undergraduate degree in computer science, or in a different field? If the university only recommends (rather than require) that you take the subject test and you do have a computer science degree, I can only see the subject test being helpful to offset a poor major GPA (my two cents, of course).

If this is your second choice school, then I imagine you were interested in attending to have applied in the first place. By visiting, you are at least confirming that you'll make the right decision when eventually choosing a school, as well as making connections that may help you in the future as a grad student. I would certainly make the visit. As far as showing enthusiasm goes, just remember what it was about the program that caused you to apply in the first place, and try to express your enthusiasm about that aspect.

Which university requires it? If it's a requirement of a particular university, I would contact their graduate coordinator and ask. Most places I applied to had "strongly recommended" the test, but I've heard it's rare for students to take it unless they did not receive their undergraduate in computer science. It's a rather outdated exam with few study materials, so even CS majors have a hard time doing well on it.

The admissions office may be closed, but that doesn't mean they can't send out emails. I've heard of people receiving acceptances over the weekends, so I don't know that the admissions committee would necessarily wait until a work-day to send out decision notifications.

There's a good number of MIT computer science decisions that have been emailed over the past couple days. With the number of CS acceptances posted with comments and stats, I highly doubt that they are spam.

The letter actually didn't contain any of that information, but apparently we'll get more info later. I assume that the deadline to accept the offer is also April 15, as that is the agreed deadline for nearly all PhD programs that provide funding.

@jencsgirl Great choices. What's your research focus? The UMass email was official, but it looks like they've only just started sending decision letters. Hang in there! I'm excited to see where you're accepted, so keep us posted!

I did contact professors, but mostly to make sure they were accepting students. After I emailed them, a few professors wrote back clarifying their current research projects or suggesting other potential advisors with research interests closer to mine. I don't think it helped my application at all, but rather helped me ensure that the university would be a good fit. Regarding admissions, I don't think that emailing professors now will impact your chances of being admitted unless you're able to strike up a conversation about your shared research interests. I don't think it hurts to try, but realize that emailing professors won't hold much weight, if any, at this point in the application season. Just curious -- where did you apply?

Congrats EW33!! Good luck! Go ace that interview!

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