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I can't tell if Ash.Kot.original is joking or not... but I'm going to be attending UC Berkeley next year for PhD program and I'll share with you my profile (which looks nothing like what was mentioned above): GPA: 3.86/4.00 GRE: V:154 Q: 170 AWA: 4 Internships: Two industry internships that did some R&D Research: One year of lab research but didn't have any papers published. But did result in a strong rec from the POI Other things that I feel helped my application: Focus SOP on what I wanted to do, took graduate level classes as an undergrad and aced them to show that I can handle graduate courses. ...and that's about it. As you can see, my profile isn't spectacular and I'm no super star. But what I had going for me was that I knew what I wanted to do and with some good stats, and strong recs, I was able to appeal to universities that I FIT in with their research. So I'd advise really trying to be a good fit at these universities. I would also like to add that its great that you already want to go to grad school, but from the sound of it, you're still pretty early on in your undergrad, and a lot of things change between now and application time. If you asked me just a year and half ago if I would do a PhD program, I'd tell you heck no! but the end of last year, I did a 180 and decided this is what I really wanted. Even if you remain committed to going to grad school, your research interest will change/develop and you might find some of these universities don't fit that very well, and you may want to look into less prestigious universities because they have the labs that do the research you want. Just my 2cents.

Does anyone know how available off-campus housing is during the year? I'm thinking maybe I'll living in graduate student housing for a semester and then look for off campus housing for the second semester and beyond?

What school did you decide on?

any updates?

I can't exactly give you an answer to your dilemma but I could share what I know in hopes it would help you. I currently attend NU and would say that if you're willing to endure the winters, NU is a great place to be. I'm clearly tired of it though which is why I'm moving to California haha. But In my opinion NU is an underrated program that I believe is growing really rapidly and would be become big soon ( at least that's my hope). The location is also nice, Evanston is a nice town with lots of great food, and when you're tired of it, Chicago is super close. What professors are you interested in working with? I also am from nyc so though I don't know much about Columbia besides it's ranking and rumors, I can tell you if nyc is a place to live. NYC is a pretty awesome place if you wanna be a place with lots of people and lots of stuff to do, nyc is the place to be. But the city can get overwhelming fast, and the cost of living is really high. It's still a great place to be during your twenties, so if that's important to you, go for it. I was also accepted into ucla but didn't get a chance to visit, and they didn't seem to have tried very hard to recruit me so I have a bad impression of them but from what I understand, they're still one of the top research institution but they admit too many unfunded students. I've been to the town ucla is in and it's super nice, I could 5 years there. Anyways! Good luck with your decision!

I officially accepted Berkeley last night, am excited!

congrats! I was really weary of Stanford's requirement for MS before PhD, but I wish you the best of luck!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to say I officially accepted Berkeley's offer and will be attending in the Fall, super excited! Did anyone else official accept yet? If so, where are you guys going?

From what I read, it seems like you are just getting this based on impressions and not a straight statement. I suggest that you have a serious and direct discussion with your advisor about this. Funding is a serious issue for graduate students and advisors usually are understanding about this since they had to go through the same thing. If your advisor is any good, she'd make sure this is taken care of if you're concerned about it. Good luck!

Since you wanna do cfd, I imagine you wanna work in Patankar's group? I actually work in that lab right now as an undergrad. I don't really know how good cfd programs are at Yale and u Minnesota but Patankar is a great advisor and he has a powerful network to help you get to where you wanna go. As for weather, northwestern weather can get really bad since we're close to the lake so I think your ranking is a little off...

I stayed in san Diego for 3 weeks two summers ago and it just wasn't for me. The weather was perfect and it was a nice place, but it was a little too slow for me. I grew up in ny, so I'm a city boy at heart, that's why LA and San Fran fit me better. As for the funding question, I probably will have opportunities, but I guess I just wanted some financial security.

I'm deciding between UC Berkeley, UCSD, and USC. UCSD seems to have the best research fit but I don't see myself living in San Diego for 5 years. USC is most well-rounded in terms of research fit, funding offer, and location. But I seriously loved Berkeley when I visited , buttttt the funding offer is pretty low and it's a high cost living area. I might just bite the bullet and go to Berkeley though. Thoughts anyone?

same here, will apply next year

Thanks for all the advice everyone! I'm talking to his current grad students and they're actually giving him great reviews. They are acknowledging his quirky traits but still saying he is great to work with, so I'm taking that as a good sign

Hi everyone! I am currently looking into a potential advisor to see if he would a good match. Like many other applicants, finding the right match is really important to me and where I should go for graduate school. I met this one Professor that is a little bit on the eccentric side. I really like some of his research and he seems to be well funded. But his quirkiness bothers me a little bit, I don't want to look back and say these were red flags that I should've taken seriously. So my question for you guys are, what methods do you use to see if this person would a good advisor and the right match for you? What questions should I be asking to get the best picture? I know a lot of what is a right match is personality dependant, so I'm really just interested in the ways fellow gradcafe members go about deciding. Thanks!