gus_fring

Am I right in assuming that all Berkeley applicants, whether they are rejected or accepted, get a 'Prospective Weekend' (organized by Berkeley Grads) invitation email?

@tfcsda and chemeng24 - Thanks for your reassurance . I really hope I get to some positive news during this depressing waiting period.

@chemeng24 - Yeah you're right. I really should have known better. Really hope I get in somewhere by a miracle! I agree with TexasGuy- that 3.98 requirement is a bit of a bummer though!

@TexasGuy - good luck. Make sure you write a long and detailed email or else you shall get ignored like I was !

@chemeng24- I was fairly confident I could make it to Princeton and UTAustin based on what my profs told me about their contacts and took took their word for it. The fact that I'm rejected from Princeton came as a surprise. But if I can't make it there then why would I make it to any other top programs? I shouldn't have been so overconfident in applying to only top programs. I really hope i get in somewhere or else I shall become an emotional mess. One things for sure, I underestimated the number of stellar applicants who I would be competing with, which has significantly gone up a notch from previous years. If I had known this perhaps I would've been more careful about not applying to all top programs.

Omg, I think I am not getting in anywhere!

Rejected from Princeton too...sobs...

@VNSBKS - Pick what you want to pursue in grad school research-wise. Try to work with reputed profs in your field of interest and try to get a first author paper out of it in a major journal in your field. Then pick schools according to research interest. Surefire strategy from what I know but it's not easy, primarily because you haven't been exposed to enough curriculum as an undergraduate to finalize let alone pursue your area of interest. Good luck! @yushish - Congratulations on your stats - you definitely have a great chance of getting into most of the top schools you're applying to @TexasGuy - Things just keep getting more and more competitive as the years go by. So to be honest, I am not feeling too positive either . All the same, hope things work out for us all in the end. From what I've read around, these things can kind of be a crapshoot since there are just too many good candidates. Makes the long wait even more painful than it already is.

Thank you sjb3112 and Texas Guy for your reassurance ! The nerves are certainly getting to me ! Posted my stats - finally figured out where they go. Best of Luck everyone - Hope we all make it into our dream schools

First off MERRY CHRISTMAS! @spectastic - I was thinking of Doherty, Peters, Shell or Fredrickson but really, anyone in the simulations field. Their Dept is one of the top 4 in research according to their website. @sjb3112 - Wow your stats are stellar mate! Congrats on your publication. That'll really set you apart. Even better if it's first author. I could only manage a 3rd author though. You guys, Do you think that getting percentiles in the 80s range on the GRE is going to work significantly against my favor? I got a 163 Q and a 160 V and a 5.0 on AW.

and like I said UTAustin..which I'm not feeling too great about. I'm wondering if I uploaded the right SOP! It's beginning to sound like one disaster after another

Hey spectastic, Sorry mate, no I'm not applying to those schools. I'm applying to Princeton, MIT, Berkeley and UCSB. I'm having second thoughts about Caltech and Minnesota. The former doesn't seem to match and the latter just seems like I wont be able to bear the cold environment, as pathetic as that sounds!

Congrats teerav 42, you have great stats! I applied to UT Austin too but for some reason my application is marked incomplete because my TOEFL score hasn't been received yet (even though ets says my order has already been processed). I called them up to find out if they forward the application to the department even if its incomplete and they said no - it has to be complete. So you're really lucky your application managed to get forwarded to the dept without that letter .