newms

Hey congrats pyg. UMass definitely has the better reputation in AI - it's ranked in the top 10 for AI. Waterloo has pretty good ties to industry as well though, particularly Microsoft and RIM (which was founded by Waterloo people and has offices are right across the street from the CS building). I believe UMass would have good industry ties as well, but I'm not sure.

That's very embarrassing to say the least. I hope they do end up admitting you.

I don't think it's bad form to be talking with other profs. Does your school require you to choose an advisor right away? At the schools I've been admitted to, I don't have to choose an advisor right away, but could work with various profs during my first year before I have to choose (although I have a pretty good idea who I'd want to choose). Perhaps you could verify how you go about choosing an advisor at your school. The other consideration might be who is funding you (if you're funded). If you're funded as an RA, then you'd likely have to work with the prof whose funding is supporting you. But as I said, find out what's the procedure for choosing an advisor at your school. Good luck.

head case

space travel

passport office

urban sprawl

leather lining

business check

That's not a bad problem if they let you choose your area in the first year - that way you get to experience a little of each area before you have to commit to one. One of my acceptances was like this the others specified that I would be in the group that I mentioned in my SoP.

No problem and thanks for the well wishes. Congratulations on your multiple offers - it's a pretty nice problem to have.

Funded offers are better than non-funded ones (unless you have a lot of money at your disposal to pay tuition, or don't mind getting into debt). If you could want to do a PhD later on, a research based MS is better than a terminal one. So if I were you, I'd choose between Princeton and Wisconsin and choose which of the the two was research based and the better fit for my interests. I know that Princeton is strong in Networks and their MS has a thesis requirement, so I'd be leaning towards Princeton.

Soviet cosmonauts

Yeah, I am in a similar situation where I have to respond by email to accept the financial offer from the department as well as indicate on an online system for the grad school that I'd be accepting the offer. If you're certain you want to attend there you could respond to the department's financial offer now and then respond to the official offer from the graduate school when it comes.

I think you have to wait for the official offer. They typically have something set up online where you have to indicate that you're accepting the offer. Did you get a link to that as yet? If not, that may come with the official offer.

So he never followed up and set an appointment for the phone call? It seems he forgot about it. It's not a good sign that he did that, but remember that profs are busy and he enthusiastically responded to you before. It's entirely possible that he simply forgot. I would email him again, just following up from where the thread left off the last time, restating how much you would like to talk with him and asking when would be a good time to talk. Good luck!

I'm curious to see how the schools I've been accepted to rate relative to last year. And yes they seem to be waiting for midnight everywhere - it's showing just under 4 hours for EST. Maybe I'll try a proxy from across the Atlantic

You could always just put the schools on the score report and then check later on, if the schools have them and you could let them know you're applying for Fall 2012. Some schools may lose the report, or mix it up with Fall 2011 applicants, so you would be best advised to contact the department grad secretary to make sure they keep your report for Fall 2012. Of course the first half of April will be pretty busy for schools, so you could probably contact them shortly after that. If they don't keep it, you just have to send it again, but I'm guessing at least a couple of the schools you send it to would be able to keep it. If you're worried that it's too early to send the score reports (and it probably is since this cycle isn't finished yet) then you could wait a few months, say until July, to do the test. Remember that the GRE format changes in August.

I saw that too. I guess the question is, is it the people on that list or the people off it that have a problem? It probably just snowballed after the first negative rating.

It takes two to tango -is it possible that the falling out was more the fault of your acquaintance than the PoI? Also, it's always possible that people can have falling outs without either party really being at fault, since certain personality types do not work well together - but the question is, was the falling out handled professionally? Did the PoI intentionally cause your acquaintance's career to be negatively affected by the falling out? Or was it a by product? If it were the former, that would be a big red flag to me, but if it were the latter then it may have been inadvertent. Another thing to consider when you look at how easy it is to change PoIs, is how many PoIs are there at the school that you could work with? It is very helpful if it is easy to change PoIs, but you have to have someone you could change to. Is it possible for you to visit and talk with current students in person? If not, then maybe you could talk with them via IM or on the phone, since those are less formal means of communication, they may be more willing to volunteer information. Good luck!

Lady Antebellum

bright glare

I agree to send it in - it can't hurt. I sent in my CV to schools that hadn't requested it - it does add things that you may not be able to fit anywhere else on your application. At worst, they'll just ignore it, at best, it adds a touch of professionalism to your application while providing a nice summary of your professional and research history.