CardTricks

Hi Midi. Through a random series of events I happen to come across your post. I am a current student in the program and would be happy to give you some general info. The interviews for HST are a lot more serious than anywhere else I interviewed at. There are 2 panel interviews where multiple faculty and a current student that will ask questions. I found this to be more difficult since its a lot harder to steer the interview in a direction in your favor. If your research experience has anything to do with any of your panelist be very ready to explain and even whiteboard it. Depending on the faculty, they may ask you to do this even if they have no expertise; of course this is a lot easier to do since they won't know when you're not necessarily right. There are 1-1 meetings with faculty that are "non-evaluative" but remember your impression to everybody counts. You can be having a non-evaluative meeting with somebody, but they may be sitting on the admissions committee to decide what to do with you a week later. The MEMP program also has many unique aspects that are not found anywhere else. I would make sure you are familiar with what they are and be ready to explain why they appeal to you. Let me know if you have any more specific questions. Feel free to PM me. I'm sure I will be running into you at some point next week.

Depends on why you're changing your mind I think. Going to a different program?

Like others have said, visiting is very helpful! But if you're like me, you can still be stuck between choosing programs. The advice I got was to make a decision and immerse yourself in it. Absolutely convince yourself that's what you are doing and live like that was it; start making moving plans, see what rotations you'll do, etc. After a while, if you have some hesitation or regret, you know it isn't the right choice. Rinse and repeat . . .

From my interactions with faculty, they look more for people with fitting personalities, attitude, and potential rather than people that already have extensive resumes.

My weakest section was verbal, so I did some prep for that section. In the end, I think the most helpful was just going through and learning vocabulary. I thought Barron's Essential Words book was pretty helpful. I didn't encounter any words I didn't know after going through that book. I started off around 155 on my practice exams and ended up getting a 168, so doing some test prep helped!

I'm not sure, but I was there interviewing for PhD in a different department, so I don't think it's too early . . .

Strangely enough, when I exercise, I don't have to sleep as much to feel rested. I see it as a sort of investment. I'm not sure if this is true for many other people, but it works out that I usually have more time in the day to be productive.

I've always been a dog person and have grown up with many many dogs. However, going to grad school I'm considering getting a cat, since I've heard they're lower maintenance. Any input or advice?

I'm using Statefarm. However, my parents have always used Statefarm, so I got a good deal because of that I think.

Wow congrats! It must have made the rest of the weekend much less stressful!

Have you visited both schools? The visit is extremely helpful in seeing how schools fit your personality in my opinion.

Season 2 of House of Cards definitely helped the past week for me!

Yep, it's happened! My friend got a call from a POI about an unofficial acceptance and was teased a bit about putting not only the wrong school name, but also the wrong department.

Christmas lights

I only know as much as they told me, so I may be wrong. Most of the housing options allow you to retain and you can live there for the duration without going through the lottery. However, some of the housing options (I think Munger) don't allow you to retain and you have to go through the lottery again. The lottery system is just how it sounds, you may get unlucky and not get anything. However, as a first year they make sure you get housing so they actually subsidize off campus housing in apartment complexes to fulfill that guarantee. These apartments cannot be retained unfortunately, so you will have to go through the lottery again the following year. So if you're lucky, you will be placed somewhere your first year that you like and that you can retain.

I'm applying to PhD programs right now, and from my interviews, they don't really care about past teaching experience. Then again, I am not sure how engineering programs differ.

I'm not sure yet, but I've been accepted/interviewed at all of my top choices and haven't heard anything yet from my more conservative choices. Kinda strange I think . . .

Yeah its weird for me, I've heard back from all of my top choices and have not heard anything from my "safe" schools.

Playing squash late on a Sunday night . . . didn't expect any news then.

I was just at Stanford and 2 of the faculty I met with told me that they interviewed the ME candidates about a week ago.

I actually just visited Stanford for a PhD program. Housing through Stanford is very affordable, and the graduate housing options are very nice. They told us that they guarantee housing for the first year and it varies from around $800 up to $1400 depending on the type of rooming situation. The stipend for PhD is around $34k a year so I think its comparable to what you are getting. Current grad students told me that they lived comfortably and never had to worry that they couldn't afford any necessities. Traveling every other month for $400 doesn't seem unreasonable, but you may not be able to afford as many luxuries as your fellow grads.