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In terms of descending significance: Strong LORs (coupled with the fact that the admission committee knew my letter writers) Relevant research experience Publications Good personal statement High GPA I'm not even going to bother placing the GRE in that list. Honestly though, the first 3 items can be put under the umbrella of "research experience" since research experience generally culminates in publications and good recs I agree with the poster above that (unfortunately or maybe fortunately) luck has a lot to do with it as well.

Nope, no word on detailed funding information yet for me either. And yes, I too received the exact same email as well outlining the fact that no one had to drop out of MIT due to funding, etc. I can't give you any advice on which school to pick since the information you provided is very limited. But in light of last year's events and from posters here, MIT should relay funding info around late February/early March i.e. perhaps next week so you can probably make your decision then.

It goes without saying that you should obviously pick Harvard after CMU's egregious blunder with its false-admits of ~800 MS students to their CS program... On a more serious note, it's hard for me to find a logical reason to pick Harvard over CMU for a CS Ph.D. program especially after you stated that "[CMU] has a whole department dedicated to my field." My impression is that you want to go to Harvard just because saying "I go to Harvard" sounds sexier.

I was accepted this morning, but then received a correction email outlining a rejection: "Earlier this morning, we mistakenly sent you an offer of admission to Carnegie Mellon's MS in CS program. This was an error on our part. While we certainly appreciate your interest in our program, we regret that we are unable to offer you admission this year. ... Again, we are sorry for our miscommunication earlier today and we apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this has caused."

Not with detailed info, but it did specify RA. Not sure whether it was a general email

Last week, I got an email mentioning funding as an RA for the first year from CSAIL.

I recently saw a couple CMU and UIUC accepts on the results page, so it seems that they are still admitting people. Not sure about UW, but MIT is supposed to release its admission decisions on its website late February/Early March, so I would say there's still a non-zero probability for MIT.

I would choose UW because of aforementioned reasons by other posters.

I don't know how to cope with it, but I definitely know what you're talking about. Last week, when I received an email concerning admission to my top choice school, I was hesitant to even share the news with anyone because I thought they had made a mistake and sent the email to the wrong person. I've received a couple more emails from the school since then, so I think I'm finally convinced that I actually got in...

Yeah I bet that's what it is since I had applied for CSAIL. I wouldn't worry about it. Congrats on the admission.

Frankly, I made the thread before I heard back from *any* schools so I hadn't received such fortunate offers at the time. You could say that I had considered Duke as a "realistic top choice". Besides, my POI at Duke has research interests that align really well with mine, so Duke isn't out of the consideration yet and I'll definitely visit there.

Good question, I was wondering this as well. I haven't received amy further information either.

Yesterday (Saturday) I received an email providing more information about the visit day.

Just to clarify: I don't have any qualms about visiting Duke and never did. I was just trying to gauge whether an invitation to visit Duke was an indicator of a high probability of admission, but I guess the thread got derailed a little bit. I applied for AI, so it seems that I'll definitely see you around in related presentations during the visit

I applied for AI and was accepted last week (the 4th). Also, I should mention that I did not have an interview before I heard back, but my POI did email me right after I received the acceptance letter. Good luck to everyone!

Just an update: I did receive an email today about the visitation. Maybe I'll see you there

Thanks for the replies everyone^. I've decided to go, although I still haven't heard back from the program. Yep it was! Have you heard back from them concerning admission results at all? My POI contacted me and said he was looking forward to meeting but other than that I haven't received anything.

I am wondering this as well. To answer your question: nope, I got the same acceptance letter which listed visitation days as March 6-7 but I didn't receive a follow up email about it either.

Hey all, Would you consider an email concerning an invitation to a pre-admission visit a sign of a high probability of acceptance? I just received an email from one of my top choice schools inviting me to a 3 day visit there. Without getting too optimistic, I'm trying to gauge whether this is an indication of a likely admit. In the email, it mentions that this visit is intended to introduce "...our most promising applicants to the department." Thanks

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. I think I'm going ot take it again just because I did a lot better on the practice tests. Also I just got my final scores, and I'm not sure whether this holds any merit, but I got a perfect 6.0 on the writing portion. Maybe an incentive to not retake the GRE?

Thanks for the advice! I just feel bad because I think I could have gotten a lot better on the Quant if I was more prepared and more rested on test-day. Yeah it's unfortunate how a couple mistakes drops you below the 90th percentile for quant. Would you recommend retaking it?

Hi all, I just took the GRE test today and it didn't go as well as I had hoped. I got 164 Q and 158 V, not sure about the writing portion yet, but I think I did ok on the essays. I'm planning on applying to the top 10 schools (PhD) and was wondering whether these scores (especially the Quant) are acceptable for places such as Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, etc? For reference, other components of my application are relatively strong (3.9 GPA Math & CS major, 2 years research experience, 2 second-author publications). I'm worried about the quantitative being too low for Top 10 schools... Given that I'm applying to top schools, would it be worthwhile for me to retake the GRE in hopes of improving my scores? Or are these scores sufficient to get me through the door? Thanks in advance Edit: Forgot to mention that I am applying to PhD programs

Thanks a lot for the replies everyone! I really appreciate the feedback. I guess you are right, I won't know whether I am getting in or not until I apply in the Fall. I have been doing some further research this summer and I think I can confidently say I want to pursue a PhD. I am well-aware that research has its ups and downs, but the excitement of discovering something new and the resources/time to virtually investigate anything you want to are really appealing. I'll be applying as a PhD to schools this Fall. Are there any last minute advice you would give to a rising senior? I'm hoping to take the GRE very soon, although I hear that it doesn't have much weight relative to the other parts of the application (and that the only section you really need to do really well on is the Quantitative section).

Sorry for yet another thread on this subject, but I am torn between two options after graduation. After graduation, I hope to pursue some sort of graduate studies, but I am not sure whether I want to apply for a Master's in CS, or a PhD in CS. My hesitation for applying to a PhD program comes from the fact that I don't know whether my undergrad credentials are good enough to get me into a top program (top 20). So, I was thinking that in the case that my application is not strong enough, I can apply for a Master's in CS to bolster my credentials. My profile is listed below: Undergrad University: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Year: Rising Senior (Just finished my Junior year) Majors: B.S. Mathematics and Computer Science (CS is primary) GPA: 3.893 Cumulative 3.9+ Computer Science 3.8+ Math Research Experience: 3 years of undergrad research total 1 year in Enabling Technologies (no publications) Almost 2 years in Robotics (1 second-author publication in ICRA, aiming for a first-author publication at ICRA this year) 1 year in Artificial Intelligence (1 paper under review) Industry Experience: 1 internship at local firm 2 summer internships at SAS Institute I have worked/been working with 3 professors, from whom I think I will be able to get good recommendations. I haven't taken the GRE yet, but I am aiming to take it this summer. Also this a bit of a tangent, but what would you rate my chances at Duke PhD? I visited Duke (since I am so close) and feel like I could really fit in there (I'm aware Duke is not a top 10 school). Thanks a lot in advance!