freakedout

I was there like a year ago and the city looks quite charming.... Although the university is stronger in physics and the like, the computer science department is not bad. I wouldnt mind going there for grad school.... You do have to realize that zurich is not a cheap a town. Any clerk will make at least CHF 3k (which turns out to be almost US 3k now hat the dollar is in free fall). If you come from less generous countries, the cost of life will certainly hit you. Of course, as in most of the civilized world , tuition is free... or almost, since you only have to pay certain paperwork fees... like 500 per semester... Good luck

Well.... I have been rejected by CMU. I wasn't expecting to get in after the other rejections but it still feels painful... My score is 0-4 now and I dont feel too optimistic about the other 4: Caltech (yea right.. ), Harvard (?) , gatech (seems to have accepted a few people and my status still says pending), NYU (no way to know...) ... In the meanwhile, Columbia offered me a place for an MS degree after the PhD rejection. Does someone have any info about this program? is it a good stepping stone for the PhD? do they at least offer tuition waivers? is it kind of recognized (it looks quite short, I think you only need a year to take 30 credits)?... I would have to give some serious thought to that option if I'm rejected by every single school and some comments about it would be deeply appreciated

Ok... I have seen people talking through the result posts and since I share some of their concerns I thought I could mention them here too... Rejected: Stanford, Columbia and MIT (three times: by phone, website and post.... in case there was any doubt). Not rejected yet: Caltech, CMU, Harvard, Georgia Tech and NYU. Accepted: I wish... (all of them for CS PhD) As many others, I'm freaking out now that people have been admitted at GaTech and my online status is still showing "No decision has been made"... I'm also quite surprised of not being rejected by CMU in their avalanche last week... I didn't believe my profile was strong enough to get into MIT or Stanford, but being rejected from all of them is a scary thought. Are some of the other lurkers in the same situation regarding CMU, Gatech, NYU, etc?

heheh... sorry about assuming you were a guy, I guess my English is not strong enough to let me express in that gender-less way americans like so much (am I assuming something wrong again? )... I just wanted to have an idea of what particular thing made you shine among a thousand candidates (not "you" as in trillian, but as someone admitted to a highly competitive place)... I don't have a 4.0 either but my research experience is strong (I have been working in a place with ties to several top 10 universities in the US) and I thought I had a chance in certain schools... I would like to know what I'm missing and see if I can improve it before applying next time... Still no news on MIT, Caltech, CMU, Harvard, Georgia Tech and NYU .... But from the posts I have seen so far, I think no news on MIT and Caltech at this point means that I have to start thinking on that plan C I didn't even want to consider :/ .... a.k.a. "real world"

To the people who contacted the MIT... Did they mention if they are going to notify the rest of us soon? (maybe they said the letter was in the mail?) ... I'm just trying to guess for how long I have to endure this before being rejected... and don't feel bold enough to call as the other guys did :/ I had 3 rejections in a row (with no acceptance before that) and a 4th go-away notice would be a deadly blow to my spirit... Congrats to the guy who got into MIT , you know some of us would mop the floor over there to be able able to put that place in our CV, btw, would you mind sharing your profile with the rest of the mortals over here? Good luck to everybody... we only need to be accepted by one school, right? ... right?

I just saw that the EPFL has starting to reply... Do the guys applying there have some comments about it?... how would you rate it, comparing it to more well known universities in the US? Update: No news since the last post :/.

Well... I guess it's time to start posting our results... Please stay outside, you will scare the real applicants: Stanford, Columbia We will give you a chance, don't disappoint us: NONE We want you to suffer... we won't say anything: MIT, Caltech, Harvard, CMU, Georgia Tech, NYU Now I'm starting to realize how optimistic I was about the whole process.. am I the only one???

Well... I can say I have finally freaked out... After reading all the posts at least 12 times, I have signed up. I applied to 9 universities in CS PhD and I haven't heard anything back. It also looks like nobody has, at least from these universities, so I should be relatively calmed... well, I'm not. By the way, why don't we have a nice thread with all the details about our application like the guys from http://www.physicsgre.com/forum/thread975.html ?... I'll let one of those lucky guys with an admission start it... while I just go to my corner and focus to see if I can make time go a little faster....