.letmeinplz//

CMU is definitely an amazing CS school that doesn't get talked about enough because Stanford (the Google) and MIT (Gordon Freeman?) dominate the conversation of top tier CS schools. Of the 2 schools OP listed, CMU would be my first pick, add in Stanford and MIT I would still pick CMU from what I've researched about the schools (I have obviously not applied to any of these schools though). It is the OPs loss if he is only doing it on overall reputation. If you are in CS you should want to go to the best CS school, not the best overall school.

Shouldn't do people favors, they will just cross you if it means self preservation. I hope that professor has dropped dropping test grades. Oh and "we didn't try because we thought it would be dropped" sounds so lazy and defeatist. I hope the Dean sided with her.

Well that should be an easy check for the police, being rear ended that hard will at least leave paint transfer/scrapes. Her hitting you by driving incorrectly through the parking lot would have been a traffic ticket and an insurance rate increase at the worse. Filing a false police report / defrauding your insurance is jail time. I don't see how she thought it was the better way. Maybe she didn't think at all.

Everything is bigger in it.

As far as dress is concerned, dress to impress. You can dress down later when you have the job and you understand more about what they expect out of your clothes (the only time I have worn a suit at my current job is interview day, I'll never wear one again as long as I work there). I don't know how gradcafe is about promoting other sites so I'll leave it up to you to Google, but there is a pretty popular one that people review companies and post their interview experiences. I see lots of Moodys interviews on it for the position you listed. As far as my advice for interviewing at large corporations... Study like it is a test, be confident or they will see that you aren't, and don't stress. Worst case you don't get the job and you interview somewhere else. Not getting the job happens to everyone.

I've seen several schools that mention Graduate GPA (but they expect it to be higher than undergrad, so if the minimum UGPA is 3.0, the minimum Grad GPA could be 3.5). Since your courses in graduate school will have the prefix of your major (whereas your undergrad had lots of irrelevant classes like History or British literature) I feel like graduate GPA is a more accurate view on how well you would do in... well... graduate school. So they would expect it to be better as that is your focus. This is probably why some schools take your last 60 credit hours instead of your entire cumulative GPA as your last 60 are usually upper electives in your major. Anyway, if your most current work in your MS is good I can't believe admissions would go "yeah Nonparameticbananas is doing great currently in their major for their MS, but look at what happened years ago in irrelevant classes, is that a B in Art History?" Seriously though, stop making undergrads take Humanities.

I don't even know what world these people live in that they would think that would ever be acceptable behavior. I know that parents think their children are the most special snowflakes ever, but there are 7 billion of us. Perhaps your individual isn't so special.

Full time.

If you believe Harvard is the better fit and you would feel happier there, it is the better choice for you. Boston is >> than pittsburgh in cost of living and rental prices, yes you are correct. Overall brand is less important than the department brand for graduate school. You are studying computer science, not general studies. But like I said, if Harvard is the better fit it is the better school for you.

When I started at my company (major telecom) HR only wanted a scan of my proof of graduation among other things. My interviewers requested my transcript though. It could come back to haunt you and it is cause for termination. Also living a lie isn't a healthy way to live. I would own up to it or just move on to other companies. You could get away with it, but do you really want to?

This sounds like an interview. I'm confused about your question on is vande an established program. Did you not research the program before applying?

You could buy them a sweater from where you are planning to go I guess. I was planning on just disappearing and 4 years later returning with a degree.

Isn't the APR for a car a lot less than student loans? Though I guess you have a lot more time to pay off student loans than a car loan.

Or even worse is when you downvote topics like that because they do not provide benefit to thegradcafe and a moderator sends you an angry email about downvoting.

I know internal medicine and similar need chem and bio knowledge, but does a surgeon? I mean the robots that do surgeries don't know what a mitochondria is and they do surgery pretty well.

If you are financially in a place where you cannot travel, tell him. Try to set up a virtual meeting/tour instead.

Industry research also seems to be incredibly fast pace in comparison. I have no doubt that Google could create a lightsaber in a year if they saw a use for it (maybe if they could somehow integrate AdSense into it).

Even if you have zero loans from school, bills will always need paying. Death, Taxes, Bills, and now Measles apparently.

Is that why tuition is so high? So they can say, "well yea 20k stipend isn't a lot, but you are also getting 50k in tuition!".

Yeah I don't know how professors can handle hundreds of students at once. Grading must give you calluses.

Most of the schools I applied for explicitly stated that GRE scores being below averages for the program were never cause for rejection and that they take the whole application into consideration. Good major GPA, LORs, and relevant experiences are definitely going to be considered. I know OSU stated they had a minimum GRE score (against what ETS has instructed for universities) in my program. I am not sure about AE though. Boston University states "Q: Are there minimums on the GREs or GPA? A: No. However, we do expect students to have a strong undergraduate record and test scores." in their FAQ. You can try looking at the FAQs of your other schools to see if they replied in the same way. But think of it this way, if a school judges you on how you did on a 4 hour long standardized test and not on your proven success in the field with relevant coursework and real world work, do you really want to go there?

They told you they are considering you very seriously and that they enjoyed speaking with you. Just let the process play out, you did your followup email thanking them so there is little else you can do right now.

It would depend on what field and what you can do once you get out. CS pays pretty well, so if I had to take 50k out tomorrow I wouldn't be as nervous as if I was a field that doesn't pay as well or isn't in demand as much.

Remember that "average" means that some people scored less than that. The rest of your package is pretty good. I would think there are some 170Qs getting into those schools so the Quant scores accepted can't all be 162s.

UM because living in California is a no go. Most people have different requirements on what makes a school the best choice. Also no debt is nice.