shiraziaseel

Sure, I'll be glad to help; and thanks for your kind comments. Undergrad: BS in Electrical Engineering School: Well recognized middle eastern school GPA: equivalent to 3.90 GRE: 170Q 154V 4A TOEFL IBT: 114 Coursework: kept all my electives closely related to operations research and optimization, and also took several relevant extracurricular graduate courses (20 units). Research: 3 published conference papers (IEEE), 2 accepted conference papers (IEEE), 1 not-yet-submitted journal paper Letters of recommendation: one strong research LOR from a known professor in the states (the professor that I wrote the journal paper with, not from my school), one strong research + course LOR from a known Professor, the third LOR was varied. Hope this helps.

I haven't received any first year funding offer from Berkeley yet. There's a high chance that I'll attend USC, but it's just too hard to choose between the Information and Operations Management program of the business school and the ISE program of the engineering school. Please give me your thoughts, right now I can really use every idea of every person that I can get...

They told me that the decisions were exceptionally hard to make this year, so they sent out some mass rejections and gave a few admissions but left the tough decisions to be made later (by the end of March).

Behnam, I'm glad that you finally got an offer from a great university. I never dug into the IEOR department of Austin, but I know that Austin is well known as one of the best schools in the US.

Exactly! What's up with Stanford and MIT? They're taking too long...

Dear Behnam, you can still remain optimistic, there are still 4 schools left that you haven't received a result from, and you can also start applying to schools with late deadlines right now, such as Texas A&M and Texas Arlington. You can try contacting Dr. Kianfar at TAMU, he has an open PhD position. You should also contact professors at NCSU and say that you have been admitted and ask for open research positions. I hope you get admitted this year, but if you don't, you can't increase your GPA, and increasing your AW might not be that much effective. Thus I would suggest that you work with some well known professors and improve the quality of your LORs, make your resume more attractive, and write a more effective SOP.

Sidzoo, my email was different. I was told to check the website, and on the website was my official offer of admission, they didn't ask for any documents. In the letter of admission they noted that information about financial aid will come separately. But what you received is also a certain admission, don't worry about it. Congartulations! From what I know of previous years, some PhD students are not offered financial aid in their first year, but those who aren't can contact faculty members for research positions. However, this year might be different, because unlike last year, the ECE department has offered a 1 year fellowship to all it's admitted PhD students. I hope the same will go for IEOR.

I've been accepted to UC Berkeley! Financial Aid information will come separately. I'm so excited! Though I'm sorry to hear the rejection news of so many others... If the financial aid is sufficient, this is my top choice even above Stanford and MIT.

A view decision link hasn't appeared for me yet (NW). I was contacted by the graduate director two weeks ago and was asked to send him certain documents that would help them make their final decision. I asked him to give me a week to prepare them and sent him the documents last week. Apparently they're still considering my profile.

According to previous years, Stanford and Berkeley admissions should arrive this week. I received an email from MIT when my application was complete stating that decisions will be made early February, so MIT results should also come this week. I don't know about Princeton.

I'm not sure, I guess I'll find out once my decisions arrive! But I guess it does mean rejection, because the same ones that were interviewed posted acceptances a few days later, so I guess I'm not in the acceptance list. But I shouldn't draw conclusions too soon, I'll stay hopeful for UCLA!

Thanks! I'm quite relaxed since I got the acceptance, especially since Columbia and UCLA had given interviews to a few applicants (posted in the survey) and I hadn't received any emails for interview.

I don't remember anyone on this thread mentioning applying to UIUC. btw, I saw two interviews posted for UCLA DOTM. But I didn't receive an email for interview. This doesn't mean that I haven't been considered does it?

Yeah I noticed it too, but it was MS not PhD. I guess this is a start for this year's IEOR results...

Behnam, it seems to me that you've put a lot of effort on your GRE verbal score. Considering the past years' results of applicants from our school, I can tell you that this will potentially be a great advantage to you. Having two ISI papers is also a great advantage. Even though I'd say you have a high chance of getting into one of the mentioned schools, I suggest that you also apply to some lower ranked schools before the deadlines pass. I strongly advise you to apply to NorthEASTern University before the January 15th deadline. You may also leave it as it is, and apply to some schools with late deadlines (there are plenty of schools with March 1st deadlines) only if you receive no admissions by late February. Navid Navidi, I answered your question in a personal message. aychies and fooBarBaz, I was hoping that others would come by and comment on your profiles, because I don't have enough knowledge to comment on your cases. But it seems like this year's OR applicants aren't that much into the whole gradcafe thing.