Othello

Thanks for the kind words. I mailed in the documents to officially turn down Columbia's offer last week, so good luck. I hope you take my spot!

Well, I'll see what my professors have to say about this matter. I really don't think I can screw up too bad when choosing between these schools... I am interested in Aziz, Spaepen, and Vlassak. You?

I'm interested in the synthesis and properties of structural and electrical thin films. In terms of research, Harvard is probably the best fit. In fact, two of the professors I am most interested in at Harvard advised a *significant* number of my favorite professors at other top schools. However, I'm just worried that the Applied Physics division is lumped with engineering, which isn't near the level of Stanford, Berkeley, and Caltech.

Do you guys know how Harvard Applied Physics ranks? US News doesn't rank applied physics specifically, so do you think it would be more in line with physics or engineering? Basically, I want to know if it would be stupid to choose to study materials science at Harvard instead of a place like Stanford. In terms of physics, these two schools are both top-notch. In terms of engineering, Stanford is far superior.

Oh man, I'm dreading this decision... Harvard probably has the best research and campus, but I really want that California weather. I'm hoping I'll have a better idea after I visit them all. Until then, I'm clueless. Do you know where you'll likely end up? MIT?

Thanks. It's just an unofficial notice from a professor: "Nothing is official until we meet with the deans of the graduate school of arts and sciences in early March and they "bless" the list, but they have never overridden our votes in the past and there is no reason to expect them to start now. You will receive official notification on paper some time in early to mid March."

I got an e-mail from a Harvard professor notifying me of my acceptance. They're offering to fly me out March 18-19. Good luck, everyone!

Thanks, jayakanth. No, I haven't heard anything from Harvard. According to the results section here, the first decision from them came out Feb. 20th, so that's all I can go off of. Hopefully we'll hear next week...

Congrats to you as well! Caltech offered me $26,000 a year with no apparent TA/RA requirements. I'm trying to decide between Berkeley, Caltech, and Stanford right now. I'm sure I'd be happy at any one of these schools. Are you planning on going to Caltech?

Hopefully the government won't be so stingy this year. Like you said, last year there were 909 awards given out, while 1024 were given our the year prior. Their budget must've taken quite a hit. Ugh, you're starting to get me excited about hearing back as well!

Nah, I'm graduating college in May, so this is my first time. I'm also applying for the NDSEG. I only read through the 2006 NSF thread for educational and entertainment purposes. Do they really make decisions in February? If so, my guess is they rank the applicants now and wait to hand out awards until they know how many applicants they can afford to fund. It's nice to have something to look forward to after most/all school decisions have come out.

Yeah, NSF gets back to everyone at about the same time. However, looking at the 2006 NSF thread on here, the decision e-mails can be hours apart.

Caltech just e-mailed me notifying me of my acceptance. Phew...I was glad to see that.

Nope, not yet. We were told they were going to make the final decisions and arrange funding this week, so I'm hoping to hear something next week. What did you think of Caltech? I couldn't believe that in our group of 17-18 students, there was only ONE(!) girl. Geeze...

Right now, I'm 90% sure I'll be choosing either Berkeley, Stanford or Caltech. I just came back from a visit to Caltech and liked it a lot. Next month I'll be visiting Berkeley and Stanford. I am so sick of being cold and driving/walking through snow and ice. I'd like to see some palm trees...

I haven't heard from MIT yet, but I'd choose California over Massachusetts any day.

I'm a domestic student and got into Stanford's MSE program on February 13th.

I received my acceptance to Columbia today by FedEx. Good luck!

I'll be at Caltech for materials science. I've always wanted to visit the campus, so I'm pretty excited. I heard on another forum that Caltech usually accepts everyone they fly out. Of course this isn't a very reliable source, but they are only flying 17 of us out. That sounds like the right amount to accept given the fact that only about half will take their offer.

One of my recommendations is actually coming from the applied physics department at Columbia, so I'll be quite surprised if I don't get positive news from them soon! I've been accepted at Berkeley, Michigan and Princeton so far. Caltech is paying for me to fly out later this week, and I hear basically everyone invited to visit gets accepted soon after. I'm also wait-listed at Northwestern...meh. Did you apply to any other schools? If so, have you heard anything from them? I have yet to hear from Columbia, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. Good luck, you have a great profile.

Heh, I see you have duplicate posts, so I'll post here also. I also applied to the applied physics programs at Harvard and Columbia. I'm interested in the materials science side of applied physics.

I'm a materials science applicant who also applied to the applied physics programs at Harvard and Columbia. I haven't heard a word from either of them, but I'll let you know when I do.

Sorry let me be more clear. For example, in my case, I'd like to be able to search for all the materials science results from this admissions season without the results being mixed with those from last year.

It would be nice if the results section could be divided into two sections: this year and last year. If not that, then at least give the option to choose the earliest date from which we'd like to see results.

Hmm, my last post seems to have been deleted. I received word of my acceptance in an e-mail from Berkeley. The formal letter just came yesterday. Also, I was just invited to an all-expenses paid visit to Caltech! I wasn't given any sort of admissions decision, but surely this is a good sign.