compiler_guy

Regarding funding, if you make satisfactory progress you will probably get funding, no matter the number of years of "guaranteed" funding that you got. Also if you don't make satisfactory progress with your multi-year guaranteed funding, you could be cutoff, e.g. the department could force you to do a lot of TA's.. So counting the number of years of funding is not that good of an indicator. What are the living costs in the areas around those universities? How does the funding cover those costs?

Did you check what are the jobs of the alumni of the program? that could be a good indicator of your future career prospects.

Agreed, graduate and undergraduate programs in the same university offer different experiences. A Caltech undergraduate experience is quite different from a Yale undergraduate experience, and a Harvard graduate experience is different from a Harvard undergraduate experience. Did you check out where are the alumni of both programs, what typical jobs do they get after graduating? This could be a great indicator for your future goals. The alumni network you should look into is the alumni of your POI's lab and research area. The general "Yale alumni network" is of lesser significance. BTW, graduate students could be both relaxed and hard working. There is nothing wrong to be under pressure as a graduate student, especially if there is a conference coming up and you want to make the deadline. Another piece of advice - you should probably talk with current graduate students, and see what their daily schedule is like, how they spend their time on weekends and such - these students are going to be your colleagues for the next five years.

Manhattan is the best for quant, but I Kaplan is not that bad. It is just not worth it when you have better options. Only consider Kaplan if you want to diversify your question bank and have gone thru all the questions in Manhattan's q-bank.

Agreed. Accept Purdue's offer.

Your are right, generally top schools offer less funding the lower ranked schools, but you have missed the point a little. First of all, it is silly to go to into debt because of graduate school, especially when you have a great offer with funding from a great school like U Wisconsin Madison. Do you know that you were selected as a PhD candidate with funding from over ~1300 prospective applicants? Don't underestimate this achievement. Some entering PhD candidates did not get funding, and will dismiss the admission offer to the PhD program. If you browse thru various threads in this forum, you will find out the the more funding you have - the better chance you will finish the program. Secondly, U Wisconsin Madison is highly ranked in graduate studies in Computer Science - it is more respected than Columbia, Harvard or some other ivy league or reputed university. Columbia is great school for undergraduate studies - but you are looking a graduate program. Check out: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings Columbia U is ranked 17, U Wisconsin Madison is 11. Finally, research interests and fit is very flexible. Most entering CS PhD students change their research areas once they enter the PhD program because they are suddenly interested in another area. Don't be to worried about it at this stage.

I used both Kaplan's and Manhattan's GRE prep products. If you are a bit rusty on a specific GRE quantitative topic ( say ratio problems :-) ), I recommend using the specific maths topic books from Manhattan’s GRE series to boost your quantitative GRE score. Kaplan GRE website isn't that good for studying specific topic (say ratio problems ), it gives you more of a background on each topic and doesn't go in depth as you would like. Also you don't have many questions and answers for practising. By the way, purchasing an online version of a Manhattan GRE prep book allowed me access to Manhattan’s GRE test simulations I practised with both Kaplan and Manhattan's GRE test simulations. They are a bit different but it would be good if you could practice both. I think that Kaplan's GRE tests are a bit harder technically than the actual GRE, and Manhattan's tests are trickier. From my experience, there was more correlation between Manhattan's GRE simulation tests scores with the actual GRE score than Kaplan's GRE simulation.

Did you try memorizing GRE words? http://lmgtfy.com/?q=gre+words Go over all the top-500 words that usually appear in the verbal part of the exams. I also recommend flash card appications, like: http://www.manhattanprep.com/gre/gre-flashcards.cfm Kaplan and others have one too. Also practice and solve a lot of GRE tests, in a real GRE-like environment ( no breaks other than one ten minute break, from start to finish of the test ). You could get tests simulations from kaplan, manhattan and other gre-prep companies. For writing - I suggest you practice a lot. Write some GRE-like answer to a discussion question. Do it every day, maybe even two times a day. The difference between 4.0 and 4.5 is not that big - so you have a great shot to bridge the gap! Best of luck.

If you have a job waiting for you when you graduate, and you want to graduate as quickly as possible - take the UK PhD route. The USA PhD route is probably better if you want to be better prepared for the academic job market. It does take longer but you'll be learn a lot, have more time shaping your goals, and have perhaps more opportunities if the PhD program is respected.

Congrats! In curiosities sake, why did you prefer JHU ?

I sent a personalized gift basket with boutique chocolates and other sweets ( 25 - 30 $ ) It turned out successful - the LOR's liked it! though they complied I ruined their diet :-)

three years plus two summers for my Computer Science BS.

Same here, did not get any response from UCSD..

This a an important topic! I think you should correspond with your future adviser at regular intervals, maybe once a month at the beginning and then once every two weeks in the period before you arrive. The trouble is - what to correspond about? You could asked what research papers he recommends to read, and maybe you could go thru the latest publications of his lab and try to intelligently comment and make suggestions for future possible avenues of research. If anyone else has other suggestions on what you could converse about - I'd love to hear it!

Great read!

Try to get a part time or preferably full time RA position at some reputed POI's lab, get better references and try to publish. Even if you have to quit a full time job, which is risky, you could look at it as an investment in your future.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=environmental+engineering+jobs Did you try googling it?

According to your argument, Cornell is the safer option because it allows you to get an internship and build up your experience before getting a full time job. And as an international student you don't want to be stressed out to quickly find a job or return to your home country... So - go to Cornell! it is a great school.

Agreed. No reason to get into debt for graduate school.

U Toronto is a great school. You should check funding offer versus cost of living and other expenses in Toronto. You could probably get that information from current CS graduate students at Toronto U. There is no sense accepting a MS offer if you have already an MS - it is just a waste of your time. Did you tell the universities that you are wait-listed on that you have other accept offers from reputable universities? I have heard it could probably bring you to the top of the wait list and increase your acceptance chances. Anyway I suggest you wait at least untill the acceptance notification deadline at Toronto U, and maybe try to talk to POI to try to get better funding. Best of Luck.

:-)

$200 is really nothing you should look into. It is just white noise. If your interests are more in line with UCSB - go there! You should also consider the POI in either schools - are they tenured, are they planning to retire? where do the alumni go and so on.

agreed. As long as you are in line with "expected progress" you are fine.

Probably references and research done at masters are the most important

There is a good chance you are wait-listed. From what I hear most rejects have received notification by now.