DeleteMePlease

That I was actually admitted into my dream school without having a perfect profile.
 
It seems to me that choosing the school that actually fit your interests and skills is the most important part of the process.

We had a lot of exceptional applicants this year. We also had a lot of sucky applicants. After accepting all of the exceptional applicants, we still had some spots available. Your application seemed to suck the least out of the remaining applicants. Regrettably, we would like to offer you admission into our program.

I got into a very good school with similiar scores (Q161 and V157) and a worse GPA. 
 
I  would suggest: Spend more time working on your SoP then on studying for the GRE.

I don't want to be rude but you should really learn how to google stuff like this yourself. Normally, the graduate schools have a list of degrees they accept. 
 
For example here http://gradschool.unc.edu/admissions/instructions.html ("A note on foreign degrees").

The thing you have to realize is that Cornell's campus is huge. And while many of the academic buildings are in the southwestern portion closest to central Ithaca, the rest of the campus spreads far to the east and north. So there are parts of campus that are actually more isolated from the academic buildings where you'll spend most of your time working than parts of Ithaca that are off-campus. You also have to factor in transportation. Buses from parts of Ithaca are more frequent than those that run to parts of the campus where grad student housing is located. And given the distances involved and the ferocity of winters in Ithaca, it's often more practicable to take a bus than to walk.
 
If you do decide to live off campus but don't want to be alone, you can always search for shared accommodations or a room in a house filled with other students on Craigslist. There are plenty of those setups in Ithaca. 

http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/costs-and-funding/stipend-rates
 
This is 97% accurate according to the lectures I keep going to (....) 

I wouldn't worry -  the social sciences (i.e me) get less than the natural/hard sciences and I have no issues with economy.   I moved here from Stockholm and rent is about the same but the rest is much cheaper (especially the beer!).   Feel free to send me a message if I can help with any questions about moving from Western Europe to Cornell. 

Got an acceptance from Cornell. Still think this some kind of mixup...just cannot believe this.

Got an acceptance from Cornell. Still think this some kind of mixup...just cannot believe this.

Got an acceptance from Cornell. Still think this some kind of mixup...just cannot believe this.

Got an acceptance from Cornell. Still think this some kind of mixup...just cannot believe this.

Got an acceptance from Cornell. Still think this some kind of mixup...just cannot believe this.

My Lenovo T440 has special holes below the keyboard so coffee and other fluids don't get stuck inside

it's a diversity statement. here's a helpful flowchart that will cause ten people to down vote my post: are you poor? -----> are you black? -----> do you know people who are poor? ----> did you once take a class with at least five black people in it? ----> did you, like, totally love to travel in Europe when you were 18? -----> I bet you thought about the peace corps once, didn't you (this is code for "rich, but not a republican") ------> humorous anecdote about the one time you almost got a B in a class because your butler undercooked the puffer fish and you got really sick -----> band camp

My understanding is the following: 
- The school can start issuing you the visa documents (I-20 or DS-2019) as soon as you are accepted. I think that this also applies for provisional acceptance (pending completion of your degree).
- With the visa documents you can get your student visa from the US embassy in your country; I'd do it as soon as you get the docs because sometimes it can take time, if they decide to put you through TAL (look it up, if your specialty is CS then they might).
- Once you have your documents and visa, check the program start date on the visa docs. You are allowed to enter the US on your student visa no earlier than 30 days before the start date of your program. If the program starts in the September, this will be some time in August. 
- You can enter the US after your program begins, but that means you'll miss some important orientation and beginning of semester activities, and the immigration officers might wonder about that. If you have a good explanation, they should let you enter without a hitch. However, missing a week or two of your first semester in your program is not advisable, and I'd avoid it if possible. 
- Once you are in the US, you will need to register with your international students office. You'll also need to (pre-)register for class and make sure that your tuition is paid so your status is that of a full-time registered student. That needs to be done some time in the first few weeks of the semester at the latest, so you're in good standing with immigration and with your program. This is a requirement of the student visa status; you need to be sure your are registered on time every semester throughout your time in the program (but it's easy to do, it's nothing to worry about).
 
I'm not sure why you would need to be there long before the beginning of the program, so that's something to ask about. There might be some orientation activities the week before class starts, but before that there is likely not going to be anything special going on in your program. Most people are away for at least parts of the summer. I'm also not sure what "visa stuff" they are referring to. There's virtually nothing you need to do once you enter the US, except what I described above, which will take you two hours, including the long line in the international students office. I guess you may need to take an English proficiency exam or sit through some mandatory ISO lecture, but again this will probably only happen right before class and it won't take a long time. 

So I retook the GRE on Wednesday and got 156 verbal and 161 quant. Still not perfect but a huge improvement. Thanks to everybody who suggested me to retake the test.
 
I also decided to put UC Boulder, GaTech and University of Maryland on my list. Now I "just" have to talk to my professors for the LoRs and finish my Statement of Purpose.
 
Good luck to all other applicants.

I really suggest you just browse through the schools faculty. I don't think there is much difference in quality or reputation. In the end grad school is what you make out of it
 
I would never apply to a school where there is not at least one professor that I find interesting. Most of them have really nice websites with a lot of infos on what they do. As you said you are considering a Ph.D., this seems even more relevant.

I really suggest you just browse through the schools faculty. I don't think there is much difference in quality or reputation. In the end grad school is what you make out of it
 
I would never apply to a school where there is not at least one professor that I find interesting. Most of them have really nice websites with a lot of infos on what they do. As you said you are considering a Ph.D., this seems even more relevant.

I can recommend any of the Google phones (Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4 etc). They always come with the latest stock Android and you can also install any other operating system/Android mod on the them.

Additionally, they are pretty cheap. The Galaxy Nexus is around 300 bucks and should be enough for your purposes.

Hi there, Vector.  Improving the Reading Comprehension and Essay scores are the most difficult, even for native speakers, but here are a few suggestions off the cuff:
 
1.  If possible, give yourself at least 3 months of focused study, and don't expect to see immediate results - esp. on Reading Comp.  Honestly, I have a great deal of difficulty with these, too, and I'm a writer!  My personal strategy now is to make up for my weak Reading Comp with excellent vocabulary.  This is the only thing keeping my Verbal score above the 80th percentile right now.  Although I do still hope to pull the Reading Comp up, I am not counting on it, as I've been actively studying for over 3 months and am taking the test in 3 weeks.  I recommend www.vocabulary.com for boning up on vocab - it has helped me a lot and makes learning a bit more fun. 
 
2.  Reading Comp:  I've experimented with different strategies, including saving all the R.C. questions for last, reading thoroughly and taking notes, outlining the passage as I read, skimming instead of reading, looking for answers in the passage instead of reading the whole thing, etc.  You may want to experiment to see what works best for you.
  -    Process of Elimination is the most helpful.  You can eliminate the obviously wrong answers this way.  Ultimately, though, you 
       are likely to come down to 2 answers that seem equally correct, but at least this gives you a 50/50 chance. 
  -    This may seem obvious, but find the words used in the question in the passage.  Then read two sentences before and after
       it to understand the context. 
  -    Watch out for answers that are only partially correct - make sure answers are completely correct before you choose them. 
  -    As a general test-taking strategy, if you find yourself spending too much time on one question, click on your best guess, hit
       the "Mark" button, and move on.  Go back to it if you have time at the end.  If you run out of time and can't go back, then at
       least you made a guess - you might get lucky and get it right. 
 
3.  Essay questions:  First and foremost, evaluate the strength of your essay-writing abilities in your own language.  How well did you score on essays when you had to write them in school?  What are your writing strengths and weaknesses, from an instructor's point of view?  If you've been out of school for a while like I have, I suggest practicing (in your native tongue) with some of the ETS prompts listed here: 
http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/issue/pool.  Then have someone evaluate them using ETS's guidelines (same link).  Once you feel confident about your ability to write a well-structured essay in Italian, then practice doing this in English.  Use clear, simple examples to illustrate your points.  This way, if you use a word incorrectly, you can still explain what you mean without detracting from the reader's overall understanding.  Also, I highly recommend using an example from your own life and mention that you are a native Italian when doing this, if you can.  This way, you are more likely to arouse the reader's compassion and understanding for the fact that you are writing in a second language.  Who knows, you might even gain some bonus points, as long as you effectively relate your personal experience to the topic you are writing about.  If you can, have a native English speaker, or at least a fluent speaker, evaluate your practice essays.  That's really the only way to determine where your English needs improvement.    For more tips, check out this link: http://grockit.com/blog/gre/2012/02/10/7-tips-for-a-perfect-issue-essay/.   Hope this helps!  Best of luck on your GRE

Social scene? What are you, an undergrad?