Kleene

One moment I can think I am as good as in, the other I can be sure that I will never, ever get it. Bit of overestimation and imposter syndrome. However, I never had the illusion that I am the best candidate. That seriously not true.

That book is great! I am trying to restrain myself from reading the last chapters until it is finished. Most of the time I am working on my laptop with my mailbox open in one tab. Every couple of minutes or seconds, depending on how focused I am, I will just glance at it to see whether it has this anxiety inducing (1).

Any news for any of you?

It is hard if not impossible to say anything about your chances. Your uGPA is below what would be admissible, you major GPA just about admissible, but then again you did really well in your masters. This may very well give you a shot at masters in Oxford. You will never know if you don't give it a try. Do you need funding for a masters? I am asking because masters funding is even more scarce than PhD funding.

Have you explicitly asked the UK universities whether you would be admissible? Oxford, for instance, requires a GPA of 3.7, and UK schools are not known for their leniency with GPA requirements. I suspect the fact that you will be applying for a masters with a decent masters, may make up for that, but if I were you I would want to have this confirmed. In Oxford undergrad GPA is taken into account for funding. (To the extent that to increase my chances of funding I had to submit a proof of me coming first in every year of undergrad, on top of doing very well in an Oxford masters at the moment.) Usually, more people are admitted than they can fund and funding is given out based on a ranking of the candidates. Also, being an international student hurts your chances because research councils and such only fund UK or EU students (the latter partially). I don't think the Clarendon is within reach for us mortal souls, but maybe some departmental funding is. Overall, I do think you will have a much better shot at top US schools than at top UK universities, simply because grades matter a lot more in the UK. I wish you the very best in your applications!

I have not even read them, but it cannot be anywhere as cringeworthy as the fact that CMU has revoked dozens of acceptances.

"Quite surprised. First class master. Was in touch with the processor who seem to be interested in my proposal." I don't know, but it might be worrying if a computer science student can't tell the difference between a processor and a professor.

I had not met my prospective supervisor in person before I applied for a PhD with him, but since then I have been preparing an MSc project with him and I seriously think he will be a great supervisor. No added pressure for the PhD application, though. None at all.

My story reminds me of how glad I should be for being in a European grad program. Here it is fairly standard to go on to grad school straight out of undergrad, with people occassionally taking a year out. I started my MSc around my 20th birthday and the people in my cohort are 1-15 years older. The people I hang out with are 2-4 years older and there is no noticable difference. I think it is harder for older students with spouses or even children to relate to the cohort. I agree with you that is it about being in a similar stage of your life, rather than having the same age.

I really, really hope that I won't have to use it this year, but I would like "CASUALTY".

Are you guaranteed funding if you get in?

Oh, sorry, didn't see you were accepted. But still, my previous email might be of some use to people who still seem to be waiting for an email about results.

No, it's common practice. Accepts get their emails on the same day early February. Rejects never hear a thing until they log onto the webpage early March. I don't know about waitlists, though. I am sure you can find out through the results search.

I can't bring them home (living abroad), but I would if I could! We can only book one hour timeslots here for washing machines and dryers, and in one hour it is impossible to get your clothes complete dry without shrinking them tremendously on the highest temperature. I often end up with clothes hanging over every the radiator on my floor to dry.

Good luck rgwen and others. So many potential Balliolites, btw! Last year I did have a competitive offer from ETH Zürich, another world top 10 institution in my field, a lot cheaper as well. I eventually decided against it based on the social experience that Oxford could offer, but most importantly because I felt like Oxford would challenge and stretch me more. I had more to learn in Oxford than in Zürich, even though I figured lower grades might hurt my future PhD application (turned out that my grades are not lower, though).

I am going to have my parents and my friends over here at the end of April. I would love to see their faces when I tell them that they are welcome to visit next year as well. (Applying to stay at my current institution.) For the sake of my sanity I hope to get the results a month or two earlier, though. :S

My parents did not helicopter AT ALL. Ever since I started middle school I have lived my own life, advocated for myself, got myself where I wanted to be without help from my parents (no opposition whatsoever either, though). That is why I was so surprised that when I moved away for grad school in another country, my mother sort of insisted that she and my father flew me over. They were there for three days while I moved into my room and explored town. A couple of times on that trip my mother took charge (like asking someone for directions even though she had no idea where we were going) that in any other situation she would let me have handled. I let her do it, because I understand why she felt like she should take charge at that moment. I am her youngest child, moving out, leaving the country, and she has missed out on babying/pampering/helicoptering me because I grew up so fast. It was as if she 'needed' to see me off properly, so during those three days I let myself get pampered more than in the ten years before. Love you, mom.

Also, because you are a November applicant, you will have to wait longer for funding decisions because those will be made at the same time as those for the January deadline.

Haha, yeah, I love those. Got two of them already, from the same university. One because I applied, one because I am also a current grad student.

Oh, yeah, I have TAd for such a professor as well. About 250 students, 10 TAs and one prof. It was not uncommon for TAs to mark exams and for the lecturer to only do a final check. People (even faculty and current PhD students) keep telling me that I should have no trouble getting in. I know I am in a fairly good position, but people saying this stuff make me more and more anxious. WTH will I do with my life if it turns out I did NOT get in? I appreciate the faith, but I would rather not anticipate getting in, at all. Even writing this freaks me out. Just leave me alone to suffer in silence, please.

If the program requires you to have found a prospective supervisor, it means that having a prospective supervisor is the only way to be seriously considered. So, it just means that you are being considered. Check the results search to see when results for this program usually get out. If it is more than a week past that, you could consider contacting an adcom.

I only applying to stay at my current institution. I am undecided as to what I will do when I do not get accepted. I have some specific universities in mind that I would like to apply to this year (rolling admissions), or I might take a year out for a full-blown applications round next year. Maybe, I would teach at middle and/or high school for a year, in the mean time.

Did you pass the IELTS or TOEFL already? Who is your prospective supervisor? (I am also applying for a DPhil in CS.)

Did you apply for the November deadline? Because then January acceptances are about the norm. Similar for January applications where March (or late February) is the norm.

Order of importance: - school program ranking (I would never go somewhere that is not excellent in my field, but how wide you interpret a 'field' to be allows for a wide range of universities anyway.) - research interest (Obviously, if I am going to work on a project for years it had better had my interest.) - professor status (It is good to know that he is publishing on an active basis, also with his students.) - school overall ranking (It cannot compensate for the previous points, but some prestige outside of the field has never hurt anyone.) Sort of: - having worked with (AND LOVING) your advisor prior to application (Have met him, and will do my MSc project with him before starting.) Do not care about: - weather (Pretty much everywhere the weather is better than where I come from.) - cost of living (I am not going without full funding.) - distance from home (I restricted myself to non-US areas where one of my three languages is the official language, most of which happen to be in Europe.) I am in CS.