Ohm

Yeah...I've just completed undergrad too and did my publications with the same hope...but I'm still not sure if they really add up to THAT great an extent. I mean, there are people out there who've done TONS of research in their own area of interest, and have a lot of publications.

Kind of wondering the same...I've worked on High Voltage Engineering at my undergrad level and have an IEEE Conference presentation (as co-author). Otherwise, I have 3 other papers in image processing (one as first author). I've applied for High Voltage and Power Systems engineering in all of my choices (masters and direct PhD). My guess is that should be relevant to your research area, i.e, only the HV Paper would be considered relevant in my case.

Eth Zurich! I had to fill out details about ALL my undergraduate courses (51 of them, to be precise).

Ok again, I COMPLETELY understand. It's the EXACT same situ I'm in. But let me give you some hope here....I'm being recommended by 3 Assistant Professors, one having guided my Undergrad project. One of the other 2 has taught me 8 courses (including 4 lab courses) since my first year, and the other has done 6. What more, they're husband a wife! (Cheesy, I know!) After consulting a LOT of people, bottom line is that to a major extent, the position of your referee doesn't matter. One great recommendation from a normal professor is 2 more ordinary ones from top professors/ department heads. In fact, in your case, if the people in the lower positions have much more to talk about you, then I would suggest you prefer theirs completely over the higher ranking referees. In the end, what people say matters more than who says it. It's very rare for a higher official to say all those things about you, unless you've directly worked with them (otherwise, it'll just sound suspicious). So have hope, you might have actually made the right choice!

Something VERY Similar happened to me. It sucks to have unprofessional people, some actually pretending to be professional! My ASSOCIATE DEAN promised me a really good recommendation, saying 'If I don't give you a reco, then no body in the world deserves one!' and stuff like that (I had just finished pubishing 3 papers for her). I was REALLY happy, put her down as a reference in 3 applications. A month went by, she didn't send them in. I called her around 400 times (the actual count on my phone says 437), texted her a hundred times, mailed her 23 times and offered to visit her any time she's free. No reply for ANY of these. I called her from other numbers, she used to pick up. After hearing that it was me, she'd immediately say that she was busy, or outside, and that she'll call me back later and would cut the call. I got no return call, obviously. I got rejects from all those universities and then had to hunt for another recommender, who I found with a LOT of difficulty. However, I had lost the only Doctorate & senior professors recommending me. People should either say Ok and do it immediately or just plainly say no. In your case, you've gotten pretty lucky that someone cared to mail back, even if it was late. Looking for alternatives is the only other solution. My suggestion for the next time (hopefully you'll not have a next time!), have 3 main referees and then ask 2 more people if they can recommend you when necessary - for a backup. All the best for this year and hope you get into the college of your preference!

Just mail them with the attachment saying this is the official one. They'll upload it for you. I did the same since I didn't get my official transcripts for a while. They immediately uploaded them after I sent it in and emailed back with a confirmation.

Neural networks is a very mathematical oriented field...add something there which talks about your strength in complex mathematical solutions apart from analysis and logic. Having worked on ANN myself, I think it's more about how you model the problem before coding. Might I also suggest a bit of shuffling in the sentencing? The first paragraph seems to merge the answer to the question 'why san Francisco fits you' and 'what are your interests', which are unrelated.

I was worried about that...though people told me it was just a cutoff criteria in most colleges and otherwise it doesn't get much weight in the profile.

Something cheesy? You need to dish it the right way though, or it could go very much against you. Eg. I might be a study of imperfections, but I'm flawless. (I wanted to put this in my sop but found something similar in an online example, so chose a different one). Another one on the same note could go like 'I will strive to make many more mistakes in my life, but pledge to learn from every single one of them till there is no more need to make mistakes.' Point is, it shouldn't be overly exaggerated, and you should remember that people despise cheek!

Yeah my recommendations are pretty strong too....hopefully I'll make it to PhD!

Can't apply to any more! I've spent a fortune on these 8, especially eth and epfl! They are my last hope I guess!

8 applied, 2 rejects. Still waiting fir my phd decision from cambridge (early dec submission and deadline)

So who's applied to what? Any results yet? 2 rejects from Upenn and Nus here :/ that too with 4 publications.

Yeah, hopefully something turns up I do realize that it's more than profile, but these universities are my only shot at higher studies. Hence the hypertension!

So as usual, I applied to 8 univs for my masters in electrical engg...Upenn, ohio, ncsu, nyu, caltech (yeah, too much, I know), epfl and eth. Also to cambridge for the phd program (yeah, right again). My credentials: 3.6 undergraduate gpa, 4 research publications (2 in a journal, 1 in an ordinary international conference and I presented one at an ieee conference in a different country). Roughly 1.5 years of research experience. Recos from people who've handled 8 and 7 of my undergrad courses, and 1 from my project guide with whom I submitted the ieee paper. Gre of 1340 (580v/760q/3.5aw) and 113 toefl. Already received rejects from Upenn and nus. Now I'm simply confused if my profile isn't good enough for the univs I applied to or if it's just tough luck. Please tell me what's going wrong!