poissonpilote

Hi all, I got several admits, with funding for my first year (one as RA, one as TA). However, I'm a bit freaked out by the possibility of losing it later on, as the assistantships are renewed on a per year basis. Does it happen frequently that students start the program with an assistantship, and lose it later on? The assistantship that I was offered is wonderful, but if in a later year I do not have a teaching assistantship or research assistantship, I couldn't afford to continue my studies. When students have a TA and do well on their PhD, is it still possible for them to lose it anyway? Any input would be much appreciated

Hi all, I'm a French student accepted for a PhD program in the US next fall. Essentially all that's left now is the F1 visa procedure. Thing is, I'm a bit worried about the interview. Specifically, I've heard that you need to prove that you have sufficient ties to your home country and that you plan to return after your studies in order to get the visa- if the officer suspects that you will be an immigrant, that it's a no-no for the visa. But my girlfriend is American (we'll have been together for almost 2 years at the time of the interview) and things turn out perfectly because I got my PhD in her hometown. However, I'm guessing that if I say that to the officer, my visa is going to get denied- which would blow. I could not mention my girlfriend. Thing is, I've been in the US to visit her 4 times since last summer, and I'm guessing the officer will have a record of my entries on US territory. Each time I entered the US territory and the officer asked me why, I said I was visiting my girlfriend. Do they keep track of that? Ie., if during the interview I say that I visited the US this year to see friends- will I get busted because they keep everything on the record and cross check everything? Or will it fly? I'm a bit lost and confused, and definitely do not want to lose a fully funded PhD opportunity PLUS being with my girlfriend over something minor like that, now that most of the work has been done. Any help is very appreciated!

Hi guys, So I got an email from a professor saying that he was "impressed by my application " and he would like to "discuss my interests by phone". How should I interpret that? Does that mean that I'm likely to get an acceptance only if my interests match? Does that mean I'm likely to be accepted, and the discussion of interests is just a "formality"? Or does that not mean anything particular concerning my chances of acceptance? Also, any tips for the interview?

Hey all! Finished all my applications last week, here's my rundown: FSU - PhD in Machine Vision LSU - PhD in Intelligent Systems MIT Media Lab - Application at the Lifelong Kindergarten lab as a priority Georgia Tech - MSc in Human Computer Interaction ASU - MSc in Applied Psychology for Technology and Innovation My fields are AI (more specifically multi agent systems) and ergonomics/computer interaction. I'm a foreign student with a French diploma and a British BSc- my GPA this year is around 3.5 according to British <-> US conversion charts, and I'd say my French GPA for the past years between 3.0 and 3.5. (tough to find conversion tables though...) I had 780 on my GRE quantitative, 590 on the verbal and 4.5 on the AW. My TOEFL score was 119/120 on the iBT. I've got a nice project portfolio, experience in a big french development company for an internship, and my letters of recommendation should be pretty good (1 from a well known professor, one from a little bit lesser known professor, and one from the professor in charge of international studies at my French college). Kind of stressing out and waiting for answers...I'll keep posting!

Jacib, thanks a lot for the info I guess most of it would apply to CS as well. (Although in CS, we do not have any writing sample to hand in)

Oops, my Q percentile is 89, not 80- typo, sorry. Thanks a lot for your input, alexis

Hey all, I'm a French student applying for Computer Science PhDs for Fall '10. Just got my GRE results: Quantitative: 780 Verbal: 590 AW: 4.5 I'm really disappointed by the Verbal and AW. Sure I'm a foreign student, but I revised these goddamn words and I lived in the US for a part of my childhood, so I'd have expected better. How bad is it going to look on my applications? Also, I have a question concerning the percentiles. Are they calculated against EVERYONE who takes the GRE, or just the people from our session, or just the people who take the GRE all over the world at the same date? In my session, as we were in France, we were only 5 examinees. As a result, here are my percentiles: Q: 89 V: 84 AW: 63 I feel they are a bit off. What's up with that? Thanks guys

So....just took the GRE. I think I did pretty ok on the issue essay, I feel like I did really well on the argument analysis. As far as maths go, I had time to do all the questions, and I feel I've done well. However some questions felt ridiculously easy, especially compared to Princeton/Barron/Kaplan tests. I looked around for a trap when it was the case, but often there was none. I hope I'm right. Text comprehension and blank filling went well, and I feel like I did decently well on antonyms and word pairs, even though there was a couple I had to guess. So overall a pretty good feeling- I hope I'm right and didn't fall into traps I didn't see... What feeling did you guys have when you took it? Now I have to wait for roughly 6 weeks for the scores...I preferred taking it on paper because I'm a scribbler, but come to think of it, I'd rather have taken it on computer and get my score write away.

Hi all, Universities ask for letters of recommendation. What is the best form for them? Should the teacher hand write them? Should they be different for each institution? I am planning to apply to roughly 10 institutions, and one of my teacher types the letter, customizing them a bit for each university, prints 10 of them and then hand signs at the bottom of each. Is that good? How do you proceed?

Hi all, I'm looking for "easy universities" in the southeast(...essentially for "girlfriend compatible geography" reasons ) to use as backup. I have my list of strong and decent universities more or less rounded up, but I need safety nets. I'm applying for a PhD in computer science, specializing in Artificial Intelligence. More specifically, how is LSU?

Hello everyone, I'm looking to apply to various grad schools for a PhD in CS (Artificial Intelligence). I'm French and will hold a UK B.Sc. at the end of the year. I'm looking to find 2 schools above my level, 3 schools at my level, and 1 or 2 below my level. Thing is, I have trouble figuring where my "level" is. I found a couple of grad school rankings, but a) I don't know how reliable they are, and how to determine which rank is my level? How do you do guys proceed for that? Being an international student, I can't really try to ask around to former grad students from other universities about their application... Any help on how to choose my "level" schools would be more than welcome. Thanks

So you recommend I enter 4 grad schools I think I'm likely to apply to- even if I'll only send the full application a month after or something?

Hello all, I'm currently registering for the GRE online, and they tell me that I can add up to 4 institutions to which the scores will be sent, and that if I don't do it now and do it after I'll have to pay $20 per institution. Thing is, I plan to send my applications by November, so I don't really have the full list of the grad schools to which I'll have to send my GRE scores. When I send my applications, will I have to pay $20 to the ETS per grad school that wants my GRE scores? Or can I just send a copy of my score sheet along the rest of my application? I don't really get this $20 fee thing... Thanks in advance

I'm French, and currently finishing my BSc in Oxford, England. I will be applying to American grad schools for fall '10, in computer science though