quadsbaby

lol well their travel subsidy for us "first class admits" is only like $150 so you should come anyway

No, it's not a mistake to talk to Stanford professors now. If I choose to go to Stanford, I already have an advisor who is willing to take me.

It is true that Stanford is notorious for its quals exams. That being said, I don't really agree that the professors are any less involved with their students than the profs at Berkeley (I spent a summer working at Stanford and was at Berkeley frequently for some collaborative stuff). I think the two are roughly equal on a prestige level, and I would really stress visiting--the atmospheres are totally different.

Weird. Maybe it IS somewhat exclusive (that sounds kind of strange to me though). I hope they get back to you guys and clear this up soon!

Both the schools have great reputations. I would visit, meet with profs you're interested in, and make your decision based on that.

Stanford by far. Stanford's reputation in EE is much better than Princeton's--I'd say princeton is probably around 10th-15th and Stanford is either number 1 or very close to it. Stanford's location in the bay area means it is very close to silicon valley, and this is very obvious when you are at Stanford; there's a lot of industry connection. Stanford has better weather, too. Right now I'm deciding between Stanford, Berkeley, and MIT for photonics / MEMS.

Depends on the school / department. It should say something about it in the visit day schedule, if you're not sure feel free to ask.

It has pretty much zero bearing. In pretty much every department, many students at my school get into top grad schools every year (I'm at Caltech). I think we had at least four admits into Stanford EE PhD this year, for instance.

That seems very unlikely. I'm going to paste my accept email below (heavily redacted, though) so you guys can compare. I would suggest you email the department and ask; odds are they are going to send you visit day information but just haven't gotten around to it yet.

I got my admit a few days ago.

It was in the admit email I received. I would email the department and ask them for information on visit day. For all I know they might have more than one.

Caltech just started reviewing applications, I think. <-- current techer

Yes, they do. It's March 12 this year.

Pretty sure Caltech EE decisions aren't finalized yet. I was talking to one of the profs today about it.

I care.

One of my friends was admitted to UCSD's ECE program (in signal processing) so they have definitely started sending out some decisions.

Just declined one of my offers. Good luck guys!

One of my friends heard back only a few days ago, so they are definitely sending out acceptances in waves. No clue when the last wave is, though.

I never asked my professors if they would help me through the admissions process. I assumed that if they really wanted to work with me, this was a given. I have of course asked for general advice, and it has been given to me. Not sure what else to say.

Jeans and a wrinkled button-down stripedy shirt.

I've asked departments when their visit days are. I assume they'll tell me admissions info at least two weeks before their visit day. I didn't bother asking for a decision early.

When you talk to profs, it will mostly be about research (yours, theirs, and how they fit together) but you can also ask about other things too. I like to ask profs about their hobbies. Make sure to talk to lots of grad students, and to see where the grad students live and what they do for fun. Check out the campus amenities and the labs. Have fun!

Heh, neither did I.

I have some internal preferences, but won't make a decision until after I visit the schools I am interested in for visit day. In other news, I heard back officially from Stanford today. Got a 3 year fellowship (SGF). Sweet!

How would it benefit them to do so?