newms

That's an excellent question that I've looked up myself. Unfortunately, there aren't many (besides the one you mentioned) that are available to international students. Another one is possibly the nVidia Fellowship, which I think is open to international students. There's a good (if slightly outdated) list of CS Fellowships here: http://people.csail.mit.edu/amy/fellowships.html a few of them seem to be open to internationals as well.

It's perfectly ok to send a request for a recommendation letter by email. What you can do is to send a short email (maybe a paragraph or two) reminding the prof of who you are (attach a picture if needed) and briefly describing your reasons for wanting to go to grad school and asking if they would support your application with a letter. If they agree you could send them more detailed information, such as a draft of your statement, a copy of your transcript and the draft list schools you are applying to. If you have a good relationship with them (which is ideal to get a good letter), you can ask them for their feedback on your draft statement as well as their thoughts on the schools you are applying to. Throughout the process of getting the recommendation letters, you are going to have to repeatedly remind them, perhaps by updating them monthly on the status of your applications along the way, such as when you get your GRE scores. Good luck!

passionate lover

fossil fuel

I don't have any experience negotiating with schools about funding, but I would guess that if you tell a school you have a better offer from somewhere else then they're going to want proof (unless, I guess, it's well know what the other school offers). Good luck with the negotiating.

That really sucks! I guess you have to take them at their word when they say that decisions for Ph D has not been finalized and that you could be considered. Depending on your field it might be worthwhile to reach out to a PoI at this time and let them know that you'd like to be considered for Ph D - this could be risky, but it could help you with your unique situation. Good luck!

Definitely tell them about your decision and ask them for their suggestions on what you could do to improve your chances (if you want to apply again in the future). It's important to maintain a relationship with your professors, because in academia you never know when you'll need another recommendation from them.

private dancer

iron overdose

Have you communicated your concerns with your advisor? You mention that you are thinking about confronting him, but do you have regular communication where you feel secure enough to give him your honest opinion on what you're thinking right now? If you haven't I suggest you do, since as wtncffts says- you really should be a fledgling independent researcher, rather than just an employee of your advisor.

Bible belt

They do. And they even post here. See these threads: There was also a thread on this forum where an applicant got an email from their school saying that the school knew from the applicant's posts on the grad cafe that they were choosing between that school and another and they were encouraging the applicant to choose them.

I thought of this thread when I was at a recruiting event for a top 20 CS program and some of the admitted PhD students there didn't have a CS bachelor's but had a BS in Maths or Physics. I didn't ask what they did to show their competence in CS background, but it definitely is possible to get in to a good CS program without a CS bachelors.

I actually think it's an anomaly to know for certain what you want to do with the rest of your life in your early twenties. If that's you, great, go for it. But the rest of us just try things until we find what works best for us - at least I know that that's been my path so far. I know it's corny, but some of the best advice I've come across about life choices comes from the 'sunscreen song' based on this column. In particular, I like this part: I'm a little older than most applicants (even though I'm still in my twenties) but I think a mistake I made earlier in life was that I was too afraid to make mistakes (ironically enough). So my advice to you would be to do what you think would be your best choice and don't worry too much about not getting it right on the first try. If you find out you don't like what you're doing, then chalk it up as an interesting life experience and try something else until you find what you're really good at. Good luck!

I think it varies, one school I was admitted to required a deposit, even though they gave me funding, while others don't seem to. You could always ask your department secretary - I'm sure it wouldn't be a hassle

crystal skull

Hey, don't worry about it. It's only part of the process and the profs won't take it personally. Just let them know that you decided to attend X (feel free to state the university you'll be attending if you want) and thank them for the consideration they gave you. I had to do this myself, and while it's not easy, it's just a part of the process.

Having to pay for grad school is always an undesirable option, since you're investing some of your best income earning years to do graduate work in the first place. So I would be really wary of taking an unfunded offer. That said a MS may be a better option for you since Amherst is a better program and you're not sure if you want to ultimately do a Ph.D. Perhaps some questions you could ask yourself would be: Does the NEU program allow you to leave with a MS if you decide that the PhD isn't for you? Is NEU stronger in your area than it's overall ranking would suggest? Can you afford to drain your savings in order to get the MS? It would likely take an extra year if you got the MS first and then went for PhD (I've heard of someone who had an MS before completing a 5 year PhD program in 3.5 years, so it could roughly be the same amount of time). Perhaps you could also speak with people at both schools to get a feel of the programs there. It's a tough choice, but good luck in making it.

ballistic missile

I know I'm chiming in late on this, but I really think that taking the Ph.D. offer from UCSB is the better option. Applying to top 10 schools is a crap shoot - just look at the rejections from MIT, CMU, Stanford etc of people with publications and great profiles. UCSB is a pretty good CS school and with a Ph.D from UCSB you can do pretty much anything you'd want after graduation - in other words, you'd be judged by the quality of research you did rather than the school you got your PhD from. So as long as your research interests are a good match with the research being done at UCSB and you'd have a good advisor there, go for it!

I updated them when I got my first couple acceptances and when I knew where I was going to go. I also sent them thank you cards after I had finished applying in January.

I agree with most posters here - McGill has a good reputation worldwide in general. I can't say for certain about English though, since I'm in another field.

hydraulic pump

I accepted my offer from UMich today too.