ak48

First time applicant here and I'm going into science/engineering, not humanities, so I don't know much about your situation. But all I want to say is that you haven't been rejected yet. It's good to have a plan to move forward if such things were to occur, but things can still pan out.

haha, waiting is hard indeed! But life is bound to bring us much bigger problems than "waiting a few weeks" so that helps me keep it in perspective.

Could be POI, as the best candidates often get notified early. Another possibility is a fake entry

my dreams

Definitely know what you mean. I guess that's why the phrase "Ignorance is bliss" has been around so long.

Well my point was to tell complainers to shut up in a veiled way, but the subtlety was lost on some hehe. I apologize if I've turned the mood hostile.

I agree with you 100%! Waiting sucks for all of us, but there's nothing anybody can do about that.

Also, who is this lady on the phone whose word you keep taking as gospel? She might just be a secretary that's taking the rules down from the top. Anybody who's worked in a company knows that what one side of the company says might not be 100% in line with what another said. I used to have a part-time job fixing computers, and the parts repair guys would give one time estimate while the front desk guys would give another one, simply because the company's big and the chain of flow is complex. I can understand why the admissions processing of thousands of qualified candidates at a world-class research institution might be a little complex

No, that doesn't make me desperate, that makes me rude. I was telling him to shut up, basically. If you're such a big shot and serious about your impression of MIT being damaged, then back up your words. I did not talk to the lady on the phone, so I cannot speak exactly to why the delay is here. But here's what I think: I have a hard time believing that she guaranteed that results would be posted by Friday. Departments like these are often very careful about what they say. She probably said something like "We expect the results to be posted by Friday." Guess what? Sometimes life doesn't go as planned, and a week delay here or there really means nothing in the long run. I'm just disappointed by all this moaning by supposed adults about a few days notice late (which may not even be that late).

I'm not the one who's being desperate haha, it's the ones on here who are saying "oh my god, how can MIT do such a thing?" when their application (the one you log onto to submit your information) has ALWAYS said: "You can log into this web site in early March to see our admissions decision" https://apply.eecs.mit.edu/ People here are whining about not getting special treatment and learning earlier than they're supposed to. So no, they don't have the right to criticize, not until it's March.

Louis CK is one of the most successful comedians today. Standup tours sell out immediately, has an immensely respected TV show Louie, and has pioneered his own media distribution/ticketing system to cut out the greedy middleman. Louis CK's career also was shit for most of his life, but he took the hard times to learn lessons about how to succeed in the future.

I've never been a fan of forced pessimism. The whole "oh, well that way I'm always right or pleasantly surprised" seems like a terrible way to live life. I'd say just to relax as much as possible and stop trying to over-analyze every little detail/sign, and that the answer will soon come.

Male/Female? I'd probably go semi-casual. As a guy, I went in a nice dress shirt and a semi-casual dress vest with slacks. The vest may have been a bit much, but I like making a nice impression and a suit would have been way too stodgy.

By the way, to me it makes sense that your lower priority schools would contact you faster. Most people's top choices are competitive, prestigious programs, which means the competition is stronger. Lesser programs try and contact quicker in hopes of grabbing qualified applicants before others do, whereas the stronger ones know they already have appeal.

If A said they will sent out interviews after March 1, you should wait until March 1. I feel that if you are such a special applicant that they A would rearrange its priorities for you against B/C, then A would invite you to an interview normally anyway. Waiting's hard, but I think it's poor form to demand information when they've clearly given you a schedule.

This is how:

I don't have that much experience with Grad Admissions, but it sounds like you're reading too much into nothing. If anything, it sounds like the secretary accidentaly wrote Fellowship instead of Admissions. Around this time every professor in the department is calling to ask about fellowship availability (so that they can hire grad students). She probably just had it in her head a lot.

Too much whining. If they say March, MIT has a right until march to decide.If they say March, MIT has a right until march to decide. The application FAQ said results come out "starting mid February", and the actual application says to check for results in March. If you lost so much respect for MIT, please feel free to withdraw your application so that the ones of us who do still have respect for them can attend.

Huge number of responses on the result page for Stanford. Initial wave of PhD acceptances, followed by many "rejections" (PhD applicants who are offered masters; ie no funding and basically PhD rejection.) Not that optimistic, but gotta wait until the actual letter.

Did my undergrad there, but had a few graduate friends. From what I hear, on-campus housing at Hall of Graduate Studies (HGS) has decent rooms, but they force you to buy the meal plan, which is expensive and cumbersome, from what I hear. (Undergrads on campus were forced on meal plans as well.) Helen Hadley Hall (HHH), another on-campus site, does not require meal plans, as far as I know. But it's also got the reputation of being Chinatown, because its high concentration of Asian students, for better or worse. East Rock is where many science grad students live, because it's cheaper than downtown new haven, but also because most of the science labs are up on the north side of campus "Science Hill". The humanities are closer to central campus

Seriously, I was like "NOOO! Go call the police or something!!"

Lol what's with having B+'s but no A-'s? Are there B-'s I've heard of schools with "letter only" grades (A, B, C, not A, A-, B+, but not with only pluses

Public speaking is hard, and it's really a matter of practice and confidence. Standard tips for getting better at public speaking: 1) PRACTICE! 2) PRACTICE! 3) PRACTICE! I like to start out sitting down on my desk, facing the laptop and giving a presentation to the laptop. Then I go to the mirror, which helps me see if I have some bad physical habits (bobbing my head, pacing back and forth, shiftiness) I don't do this anymore, but I would also record myself (mp3 voice recorder before, probably use the iPhone video now) and listen to it to see what I did wrong and also just to get used to speaking and watching myself. Finally, practice in front of other people! Other graduate students, friends, roommates, should generally be willing to help you out, especially if it helps them understand "what exactly you do". If they refuse, you need better friends!

Haha, post hole digger! I never heard that one before. I figured the stereotype was that all geology people were oil-industry related. Although a geology professor teaching one of my courses used to say that "everybody asked me if I knew whether there was gold on their property"

Also, as an undergrad I had some buddies in the graduate department who ran Organic Chem lab sessions. At one point my friend got fed up with so many whiny premeds challenging every point deduction (legitimate or not) that he basically acquiesed to their demands and then set the curve low because the scores were too high haha.