mr_anxious

Unfortunately, nothing yet. I am in the same soup - everything right from visa to travel/housing is held up. As others have said here, main thing to margin for is the appointment wait time. Another one is the processing time. The latter is generally quite small but sometimes if 221g is invoked, it can take quite some time for visa approval. Read up on that here. If you think you are very unlikely to have 221g invoked upon, just margin for appointment wait time at the local consulate and you should be fine. Since Fall semester generally starts in Aug/Sept, there is still quite some time including margin. In the meantime, I would suggest that you start looking for an apartment to rent which can get tougher to find as time goes. Travel is again dependent on visa approval but you can possibly book flight to the US and cancel it later if things don't work out. I had done this once for an internship that I didn't end up going to and the round-trip cancellation cost me just $100. I would prefer that over booking a more expensive flight later on. I hope your funding works out. All the best!

Okay so there is no 'last date' beyond which visa rejection rates start to rise. That is good news for me. Thanks! Also, from other 3 replies, the common theme is to watch out for appointment wait times and leave room for processing time. I think I have until the end of June easily. Thanks all. I can stop freaking out a bit for few more days

I have been waiting to obtain funding for my PhD program (at X university). I20 needed for the visa interview can be issued only after funding has been obtained. Meanwhile, I have received I20 from another university (Y) but the offer is not great and I prefer the PhD offer with funding. The fix is that if I wait too long for the PhD funding and the subsequent I20, I may be too late to qualify for visa application for Y too. I would like to know how late can one apply for a F-1 visa. Is there any deadline beyond which visa rejections increase for the sole reason of being 'too late'? X has start date in mid-August and Y has start date in mid-September. Thanks.

We very rarely get this - an honest, point by point analysis of why they don't want us. But, do we reallyyyy want the honest (obnoxious) truth? May be this fictional piece will change your mind: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-honest-college-rejection-letter If you have received blatantly honest rejections, post them here.

Is it just me or is the wait getting ridiculously long? April 15 is around the corner. Did anyone try contacting the departments?

Thanks everyone. That helps!

I have the same question. But, there is no way to surely tell if this will work in our favor all the time. For example, 1) if I am applying to a low ranked "safe" school and I mention to them that I have applied to UCB and Stanford, and they conclude (incorrectly) that my profile is acceptable in those schools, the safe school won't offer me an admit and UCB and Stanford don't consider me up to their standards. I get rejected by all. 2) Let's consider reverse - I am applying to UCB/Stanford and I mention a very low ranked school as answer to this "survey" question - as they like to call it. Guys at UCB will think that I am not confident of my profile being up to UCB standards and that I will surely be accepted by that safe school. Again, I get rejected by all.

Sorry, I am new here. I did a quick search but missed that post somehow. Yes, it matches my question perfectly.

I guess almost all the graduate applications ask this question - "Please tell us to which other institutions you have applied?" What is the purpose of this question? Do they use it in anyway in their review process? If yes, does it impact my chances whether I don't answer or answer this question? And If I do, do the answers matter? [something like I can legally NOT waive my right to accessing my letters of recommendation but it is considered to be more credible if I DO waive the right?] Thanks!

GeoDUDE and Catria, Most of the applications I have filled advice to convert to 4.0 or keep it blank if we do not know how to convert or if we have a grading scale different than 4.0. However, Berkeley's case was slightly weird: When I was filling the MS application, it gave the same advice as other schools - "convert to 4.0 or keep it blank if you don't know to convert or if you are international student." But, when I selected to apply to the MS/PhD program instead, the above information was gone from the 'GPA Info' page. It did not say anything about international students. Just said - "convert to 4.0 or keep it blank if you don't know to convert". And so, I am confused.

Hello, I am an international candidate applying for engineering schools in the U.S. However, there is no clear way to convert my 10 point based GPA to a 4 point one. Is it wise to still attempt some conversion or leave it blank? My main worry of leaving it blank is that they won't have any way of judging my application. They might even ignore it to avoid trouble of having to convert it or go through my transcript in the 1st round when they have lot of other applications to review. Please help me. It will be even more great if someone can give first hand accounts of being considered and selected even though they left the GPA section blank. Thanks!

I am applying for Fall 2015 and I have the same question as the OP. Can someone please answer this?