Nick PhD EE

hi, i was told by POI that he is recommending me for fellowship at UCSD. haven't heard anything ... same goes with Columbia and UCLA ... May be they finally decided to reject my application or admissions are delayed this year ... No idea what's going on!!!

Hi Anit, I would suggest three points: 1) If you know your prof at CMU and can work with him then I would recommend u to go to CMU. My gut feeling is PhD is a long journey and if you have healthy relationships with your prof then the journey becomes smooth and memorable. On the contrary if you find it hard to work with your CMU prof then this is the time to make a switch. 2) Also, if you are like me, who badly wants to work with a particular research group (I always wanted to be a part of the wireless research lab at UCB) then UMICH might be a good choice. You can join there and take a transfer after a year (or semester). I feel it is better to ditch a new relationship than an established one. 3) You have not mentioned funding. It is one of the most imp metric to be considered. I would definitely go for a Univ which offers fellowship versus an RA/TA position. As pursuing PhD is a new experience, you would want to dedicate all the time for it. At least for the first year. These were my personal opinion. I just hope it might be of some help. Cheers, Nick

Thanks NithinG ! You are right, I am indeed quite confused right now hopefully will sort it out ...

Hi schummelpliz sorry there was a typo in my last post. I meant the qual factor. Quals at Stanford are really hard. A year back I have been to Dept of EE Stanford for a few weeks. Which sub-topic in CS are you interested in? I have a wage idea that for CS Stanford is far more superior. Just look at the profiles of the CS faculties at Stanford. Quals at UCB are very practical and they check whether you can do PhD or not .. However, at Stanford scene is different .. quals is given in front of 10 different faculties which examine you on different subjects ... during quals seasons you can feel the tension in air on stanford campus ... it is that serious ... you can check the stats for ee here http://ee.stanford.edu/phd/quals/stats first timers pass rate is 59% ... also in certain cases prof takes the responsibility of student even if he/she fails quals .. those are appeals .. to cut long story short, choose Stan if the faculty there is better than UCB else if equal go for UCB ... let me know if i can be of any help ... i would be happy to share what i know ! Please note that this is my personal opinion. I read somewhere that one cannot go wrong while choosing one of Stan, UCB or MIT. Cheers, Nick

What u mention here might be true for Stanford but certainly not for Berkeley... I just figured out that the Quals in EECS are toughest in Stan, MIT and UCB in that order .. Stanford gives 3 quarter fellowship and not multi-year fellowship just because it flushes out many students in quals ... its a private and hence a mean college ... So guys having a choice between UCB and Stan should consider the cash factor too ..

I think you have a point. I feel there will be more results out, as typically (2010-2012) UCB took 3 working days to report their results. So don't loose hope you can still hear from UCB on Monday. Have u applied to any place other than UCB? Also do not rely on "Appl Status". I have received an admit email but still my status is not yet changed ... I wish best results for you ..Good luck!

it will not help you ! I did the same thing but the prof told he cannot reveal the admit information ... i would suggest you to wait till monday .. i think, they are offering admits with increase order of rank ... you can see now admits are offered with financial support ... i think by monday we might hear admits with full fellowship support ... so release of admit on monday is still on the table ... good luck !

With the grace of HIS Almighty I made it to UCB with financial support for first year !!!

i too feel that UCB results are indeed out and over now !! It would be heart breaking to see a reject email (though it might be well written) ...

You are right, it is indeed ridiculous and it's not true also. For each research area, group of EECS professors serve on the admission committee. I was also interviewed like two weeks back and have not yet heard. I was told that they are going to rank students and offer them admits. This process takes about two weeks or so. Note that interview is NOT compulsory for admission. Last yr my friend got a fellowship without being interviewed. There are more students who are admitted without interview then with it. I hope the results will be out soon. Best of Luck !!!

This is indeed a useful piece of information. Thanks for sharing it .... Though mid-feb is when most of the berkeley admits decisions are posted, i really don't think it's a fixed date.... Last yr my friend received an admit by 27th Feb ... The dynamics of PhD admit also has to do with funding ... if you are really lucky and some prof gets his/her (mostly his) project approval than he might pick few more students from the pile of applications ... Further, interviews are also conducted to rank students for fellowship esp. in EE. I am hopeful we all will hear from berkeley soon. More importantly positive ... By the way, last month I have spent a considerable amount of time waiting and worrying for admits. I have learned that the best way is to just forget about them and move on with your routine life. Anyway nothing can be changed any more at least not this year.

At UCSD, I have applied for Ckt design. Interview was focused on my past research.

@tarrman - Addition to Columbia, I also had interview from UCSD, Stan, UCB and UCLA. All of them were really good and were asking me details about the research I did ... with Columbia it was different ball game !!! the Prof got into exam questions and was a pain in the butt to tackle ... it was really quite annoying ... any ways, i received an email from LA that they have started reviewing applications. Hope the results will be out soon!!

are u sure about the Columbia admit ... I had an interview today and the prof told me that results will be out by end of Feb.... by the way, it was hell of an interview.. really tough! i am getting this feeling that admission to columbia is much harder compare with any other schools

Amal, it all depends on the type of interview you had. If your interview was done by the prof who is from your area of interest or to the area you have applied then you can surmise that he is calling you for funding consideration. If you are an exceptional student you may receive fellowship otherwise the prof who interviewed you will fund you through RA/TA. However, if your interview was in general like what are your interest? (funny question to ask to a prospective grad student), or on basic undergraduate subjects then it is very likely that you are being considered for admission as your application is just on the verge. This are some hand waving facts about interview process which I collected from my friends who serve on admission committee at UCB and Stan. As you are interviewed from two exceptional research organization, you should not be too worried. Just hope for the best !!! Regards, Nick