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

Hello all, I'm a French student about to complete my BSc. in the UK next year, and wishing to apply to grad school in the US (computer science). I have learned only very recently about all the intricacies of admission, and therefore I only have 2 months to prepare for the GRE. Has anyone achieved good/great scores within 2 months or less? How'd you recommend to prepare? Also, if anyone could give me the references to 2-3 books I could use to prepare efficiently, that would be very appreciated. There are dozens of books available, and I don't want to lose money and time by buying and using mediocre ones. What are the few definite indispensable books? Thanks

Thanks for the precision Indeed in France, it is impossible to go straight from BSc. to PhD, you have to get a MSc. in-between. So if I want to go for a PhD, how should I decide to do first a MSc., then a Ph.D., or to go straight for a Ph.D? What are the pros and cons of each choice?

My girlfriend and I have been together since October '08, so about 9 months. She was in France studying a year abroad, and I was doing my undergrad there as I'm French. Now she's back in the US, and we're going to spend the year apart (until May to be precise) as I'm finishing my undergrad in the UK and she's finishing hers in the US. We'll see each other roughly 3-4 weeks every 2 months (we're seeing each other from mid august to mid September, one week in November, all of January, 3 weeks in April and then we've got plans for spending the summer together). After that, she plans on going to culinary school (yes, dramatic orientation change ) and I plan on applying to MSc/PhD (why else would I be on this forum? ). We're definitely going to try to do everything we can to have a culinary school + MSc. in the same town, in the US. Once she has her cooking diploma, she'll be able to go pretty much anywhere she wants (or so I hope), so it won't matter much where I do my PhD (it'll probably be the US anyway). So yeah, now the challenge in front of us is spending 9 months without seeing each other each day like we used to, and then finding a MSc./Culinary school in the same town (hopefully that should be doable. Hopefully). Distance is hard (it's almost been a month since she's left France, and there are still a bit less than 2 to go until we see each other again), but we had long talks about it and we're convinced that we're right for each other, and that it's just a phase we have to go through and that will just make us a stronger couple in the end. Also, both of us are willing to make career sacrifices and compromises, so that's a good thing. (writing this post just made miss her really badly)

Again, thank you so much guys. I will try to take the GREs in England around October-November (the official document says I'll have to go to Leeds, and that they have dates on October 18th, October 25th, and November 8th, so that's good (it's the 08-09 document, but it shouldn't change much- I'll contact Leeds anyway)), that way I can apply for Fall semester '10 (as the applications typically end towards December/January from what I've seen). I will also talk about that with teachers/advisors as soon as I get to college next September. Sunshine, you give me tips for applying to PhD and MS. I'm not sure whether I missed a subtlety or not- do I have to apply for MS first, and then for PhD, or are there some PhD programs that include a MS? In any cases, I'll definitely keep you guys posted

Thanks a lot for all the advice about all personal learning and paper writing! However, I have no courses remaining in France, as this year is over I only have one year left of undergrad, from sept '09 to may '10, at Oxford Brookes University in the UK. However, I'd really like some insight and advice concerning the whole application process in grad schools. Should I aim for sept '10? Or wait to get all of next year's results in hope for a stronger application and apply for Spring semester? As I've mentioned in my first post: Any advice? Do you think that's a good idea? Any better plan? ...I wish it were easier to transfer from one academic system to another

Thanks for the insight. - The educative system in France is definitely not for me. I spent the 14 years of my life in it, and it only got worse with the time, especially in college. Also, at Master's level, it is very little to no research oriented, whereas Grad students in the Anglophone system are already delving in the field of research. And I'd like to go towards research as soon as I can. (also, concerning funding in France, it is very very low: MSc. students very very rarely have a stipend or fellowship, and the same applies to PhD students. The undergrad/grad separation in France is not visible at all). - As for England, well I reckon that if I'm admissible for English MSc./Phd. programs, then I would be for US programs. It is then a matter of personal preference- I'd much rather do it in the US. I'll definitely try to do that next year. (in France, if you spoke of 'publication' to your teachers while still in undergrad, they would think that you're either cocky or that you didn't understand what a publication is. Here's why I'm afraid of the prejudice my studying in France could bring me). My only concerns are that I only have one year of undergrad left, and most grad school applications are due by December/January. I do not know how easy it will be to have enough work done is the time period between september and november to be considered a 'strong applicant'. Any advice or insight considering the course of action to take concerning my grad application in regards to my current situation is very very much welcome. Thanks again!

Hey guys, I'm in need for advice concerning grad school right now. I'm currently finishing a 2 year undergraduate french diploma in computer science (called DUT for those who know). Next year, I'll be doing the final year of a BSc in computer science (with options in artificial intelligence) at Oxford Brookes University, in Oxford, UK. After that, I plan on doing a MSc. + PhD in the US. My marks concerning my current diploma are average good (i'm in the top third essentially). If the marks were to be converted rawly to GPA, it'd be around 2.5. Thing is, due to a radical difference in grading philosophy here in France, it doesn't translate properly: here the valedictorian's GPA would be around 3.0 or 3.1. I haven't worked really hard this year, but I hope to do so next year (theoretical CS interest me much more than UML and java stuff). I hope to achieve Bristish First Class honours. My question is regarding my application to US grad schools. I'm afraid that my french system marks could be misinterpreted and work against me. Also, I've seen that most grad schools in the US have application deadlines by early december of the year before, so I wouldn't be able to submit my UK marks for the first semester to make up for it. I could also wait for the end of the year, and apply for spring semester. In that case I'd be able to submit all of my marks, but it's a bit risky: if I'm not accepted anywhere, I will have nothing to do for the whole year. What do you think I should do? My current draft of an idea is to do the following: - Take the GRE around november, and try to rock at it - Submit applications to schools with recommendation letters from my teachers at Oxford from the first semester and GRE results for fall semester, and pray (- Pray) If I'm accepted somewhere I want, hooray! If not: - Eventually give the GRE another go if my results weren't excellent the first time - Resubmit my applications around June, for spring semester (- Pray even harder) What do you think my odds are? Do you happen to know how are foreign diplomas (and UK BSc.) regarded in grad schools? I guess I'm not going to hope for the best school ever, but a little part of me wishes to get in Berkeley, MIT, CMU, etc...my dream would be the MIT Media Lab, but I don't know what my odds are. I'm a bit lost guys, as much as to which universities I should apply to (no need in applying to the top 10 if it's evident I have literally no chance there), but also as to how I should proceed to maximize my chances to go to grad school. Any insight or help is very much welcome. (the option of continuing my MSc. + Phd in France or England is not really one for me, except if I have literally no choice. But come on, I'm going to make it, right? right?)