toothlesshamster

Hm, I got honorable mention and VG/VG, E/VG, E/E, with pretty much only positive comments. The only reviewer who said anything bad was the one that gave E/E. I suppose honorable mention is good, but the comments - scores - outcome relationships seem completely random.

I so far have an almost perfect correlation between having found and contacted potential advisers in november and being accepted, and just applying to the department in general and being rejected. So I would say that yes, based on my experience, it is much better to find a specific adviser or two at each school you're applying to. It might depend on the style of your application however, and how you write your personal statement - I definitely preferred writing about fairly specific projects I'd like to do rather than general "materials are cool" things.

Regarding MIT funding, their website seems to indicate that they pretty much guarantee funding for the first year, after which your advisor would fund you, although it would be nice to see it in writing. For UCSB at least there was a pretty big gap between admission decisions and funding details, so I'd say for MIT just wait, or ask during the visit weekends. I can't say much about Stanford, but I think their EE program is particularly notorious for being unkind with regards to funding. I haven't heard any such reputation with their materials department though.

Rankings are useful in terms of international reputation and name recognition - if you care about that, ETH-Z is probably the better choice. However, the specific work you'd be doing will naturally be different, and could be better at Delft - which one interests you more? Apart from that, Switzerland and the Netherlands are very different countries, and you should research the two to see which one fits you better (you won't be working 24/7 after all). Switzerland is good for the outdoors - hiking, etc, but is a bit boring in terms of urban living, unless you are rich and 50 years old. The Netherlands seem to me to be a much friendlier place for young people. I don't know as much about the Netherlands though - I've lived in Switzerland, and only visited the Netherlands.