newms

Happens more often than you'd think. So usually professors meet and decide who they're accepting, then that gets passed to the department and the department does some paperwork. Sometime after that the grad school may do some paperwork as well, and then you get your formal notification from the school. So there may be a gap between when the admissions committee decides to accept you and when you're notified by the website or by official mail. If the professor says you're in, then you're very likely almost 100% certainly in (I'm guessing there may be very rare occasions where a graduate school overrules a department, or where for some reason expected funding isn't there). So congratulations!

Bummer! That wasn't very nice of her to only tell you that it was good news and to leave you hanging like that. The shortlist is better than the waitlist, and hopefully it's a very short list and you'll be accepted. Just try not to be too disappointed and give the interview your best shot over the weekend. Perhaps the call will be with more people, or perhaps the POI just has a few more questions. Maybe she'll be gauging your interest in attending - in some situations schools give acceptances to people they think are likely to accept, so they could be trying to see how likely you are to accept their admit. That's just speculation on my part, but in any case, let them know that you are still very interested in that school (assuming you are). Good luck on the interview!

Congrats! If she told you that it's good news, that means you're in! I really doubt a prof would tell you that its going to be good news and its really a waitlist.

It's almost certainly good news. Fingers crossed for you!

Congrats to all? Or commiserations for spending so much time here?

Congrats starmaker! And good luck with your other apps!

You can ask them for an extension, people have done this before. Explain your situation to them - that you're not able to make a decision at this point because you're still waiting to hear about your decisions at other schools. The worst they can say is that they can't give you an extension. Also, is the school a signatory on the Council of Graduate School's resolution concerning deadlines for funding offers? If so, I don't think they're supposed to give you a deadline like this before April 15.

Is Harvard in the same league as the other four for engineering? As Aj Ws said, depends on which would be the best research fit for you.

I think its a very bad idea, of course it could end up great, but the chances of that are so very small, and the chances of it ending up incredibly awkward or worse are so great. I don't know if you have the kind of relationship with this adviser where you feel comfortable sharing your thoughts with him, but if you have doubts about dating him, then you should probably tell him rather than just going along and seeing how it turns out.

I heard from umich around the middle of this month last year, so perhaps you will hear anytime sometime soon. Good luck!

It'll be ok. If he won't recognize you from your married name, perhaps you can send a follow up from your .edu just explaining that it was you who sent the previous email (perhaps you can even just forward the previous one using your .edu and add a line explaining the mixup).

I know that feeling sometimes! There's nothing like that awkward silence before you answer your own questions.

Yes, be prepared. Make sure that you read up on the prof's research (if you haven't already) and have a couple questions in mind. It could be a formal interview, or it could just be that the prof wants to tell you that they're going to admit you, or maybe they have a few questions before they admit you. In any case, it is good news, but still be prepared in case it's an interview.

Yeah, I think all those schools do their admissions at a particular time rather than have rolling admissions. Perhaps they use a waitlist system where a few applicants might get acceptances after the majority, but I doubt they use rolling admissions, so the time you applied won't affect when you get notified about your decision.

I don't think it will hurt you especially since you're not a CS undergrad. If you were applying to a top 10 CS university it might not be helpful, but otherwise I think it should help your apication. Good luck!

I think it depends on a lot the field. In my field interviews, if they are done, are usually done over the phone or over skype, and if you're admitted then they'll fly you out to convince you to accept admission. Maybe you can ask in the sub-forum for your field to see what people, applying to or already in the programs you're applying to, say.

Funding at the master's level is not common for US schools. Alberta does offer funding to some (most?) Master's students so if you're looking for funding at the Master's level, then Alberta would be your best bet of the list I think. Your GPA might be cause for concern for the admissions committees - do you have any research experience? Also what area in Computer Science are you interested in?

I'm thinking that 1,030 is ok unless you have to enter the text in a text box that will only accept 1000 words exactly. They won't count the number of words you have

Getting into any of the top 4 is chancy even for exceptional applicants, since there are so many applicants to these schools (I think MIT had around 3000 CS applicants last year - do the math, that's a really low admission rate if they take maybe 100 people?). I think you have a decent chance at top 20 schools and a good chance at top 50 schools, so I would focus at the other schools you have listed there. What's important is research fit, so try to look for programs that are doing research that matches well with your interests and your background. Good luck! Edit: Having quickly looked over your SoP, something that stands out to me is how little you mention about your research interests. That should be an important part of your SoP. I would suggest that you focus more on your research interests (as well as related research you've already done) - such as what was it you did in surrogate modeling (especially if it relates nicely with what it is you want to research in grad school). What is it in machine learning that you want to research in grad school? There's a lot to machine learning, so being more specific will help. Perhaps you could talk about a specific machine learning problem that you would like to research. Also, you should talk a little more about why you would be a good fit at X university. What is it about the research there that interests you? Are there any professors there that you would want to work with and why? That is what will make your application stand out.