thissiteispoison

Do you have a professor from college or grad school with whom you are close? If so, ask him or her to read over your application materials next time around. Especially if the professor has been on a committee before. Despite how much we Americans probably complain about how few American students there are, it's a lot harder to get in internationally because professors here aren't likely to know the professors writing your letters of recommendation. This means you need to stand out more in other ways. Although GRE scores aren't everything, I would start by upping those as well, because not only can they use a little improvement, they are also something you can improve upon just by studying super hard and trying your best. Also, what US schools did you apply to? I think a lot of international students tend to apply to only the top schools, and ignore some schools at the tier just below those which are also fantastic schools. To get into the top US schools you need to be basically perfect, an awesome research fit, and also have a little bit of luck. If you're an international student that's even more true.

Haha woah dude chill out. I just think emulating doesn't have the same feel, and anything else is too much work. My point was that nowadays when someone says they're "playing Pokemon" they usually are talking about a newer gen game, and those newer gen games are actually pretty awesome and are social too. Everyone who was eight +- two years old in 1998 played the Gen I games. I just want OP's friend code.

And all of those games have save files that die with battery lives. Do you know how expensive it is to find a legit working copy of Blue? Don't talk to me like I didn't play Gen I, silly.

Guys, guys. We're losing sight of the main point here, which is that it's totally screwed up to post about playing Pokemon and not post your 3DS friend codes. ummm still waiting

Here's my source: http://www.cs.washington.edu/prospective_students/grad/application/faq#masters

Getting a masters doesn't give you more flexibility in this case because UW awards you a masters on the way to your Ph.D. So if you decide you don't want a Ph.D and are at UW, you can drop out and have a masters and go on with your life. If you decide you want a Ph.D and you are at Princeton, you will have to apply again to another school. Rankings hardly make a difference once you get up this high, even though UW might not sound that prestigious because it's a state school. So IMO if UW is your dream school, go with your dream school. But ultimately it is your call. I would highly encourage you to come to the visitation weekend and see if UW has a culture you like. I'm super analytical, but if I were you and couldn't decide, I'd take out a piece of paper and write down all of the factors I consider important when looking at graduate schools. Then I'd rank both choices in terms of those factors. And I'd also make a note of which factors I weigh more heavily than others. Be honest with yourself if you do this. Also, what's your goal in going to graduate school? What do you want to do with your graduate degree? That's an important question to consider when deciding between an MS and a Ph.D. I want to be a professor, so an MS is basically useless for me Also I promise I'm not just recruiting you because I might go to UW. I still haven't accepted their offer haha. I need all opportunities in front of me before I decide! But it is a great school with great people.

I studied math & CS undergrad and I still get snobby when people call calculus "math." Calculus (except for real analysis and stuff) should totally be renamed "math for engineers." The math GRE subject test should just be a bunch of proofs I actually took the CS GRE before they stopped offering it (while I was still an undergrad, before entering industry). It was a cool test. I'm sad they don't offer it anymore. It covered pretty much everything you could imagine from undergrad, including classes I never took, so I got to teach myself a lot while studying for the test. It'd be better if they had systems, PL, and theory subscores, but it was still really cool. I did really well, but I don't think it helped my application much, since nobody else got to take it and it probably wasn't even fair to really consider it. I also don't think most of the top CS programs really care that much about GREs; I think the high scores are more correlative than anything. With that said, if one can do really well on the math GRE subject test, and doesn't mind going and taking another test, IMO it can't hurt. Being good at math is generally a good thing as a computer scientist.

UW made its decisions already and does not waitlist, but it's possible that not everyone has been notified, since the process is not automated. MIT had some late admits last year, so they might do some sort of internal waitlist. Not sure about CMU or UIUC.

Nobody cares that much about the verbal section. That's correlation, not causation They added scores to distinguish between scores that would have been 800 in the past in the math. 167 is now equivalent to 800, but so are 168, 169, and 170. I got a 167 on math and was in the 92nd or 93rd percentile last year (I don't remember). So it seems right. Just now there are ways to tell apart the people who do best on the math section. I still don't really understand the point. If they're looking to test math skills, why do they test math that we took in, like, middle school? And if they're looking for a generalized test of intelligence, why not just give us a culture-fair IQ test?

I feel you. I've been working for almost three years now. It's making me super antsy to know that everything's about to change. It's definitely hard to focus. Not sure when you start, but I'd quit a little early and either travel or spend time with family. I was going to travel, but then I found out I'm going to be an aunt, so now it's spending time with my niece/nephew instead (which is honestly even more exciting). You don't get many opportunities in your life to not work, so I'd make the most of them, even if it means you start off grad school with a little less money.

Spoken like a true college student! "Horrific," hah! You will probably be working every summer for the rest of your life, so here's what you should do: Throw a huge college graduation party Invite all of your extended family Your extended family will likely give you money because they don't know what else to give you Use that money to buy a ticket to a country you've never been to and reserve a cheap hostel Have fun Did this the summer after college and don't regret a thing. I can't believe how many people rush into working.

I'll be there if I have enough time to take off of work. I'm going to try to make at least one day. I've met the entire department for what I'm most interested in already (programming languages), but I'd like to meet some other prospective graduate students.

I think of Harvard as sort of up-and-coming in some fields of CS. They are small, but have some really neat research going on. If rankings matter to you, I honestly expect Harvard to rise over the next decade. In any case, not a mistake if the research at Harvard is more relevant to your interests and the faculty are better matches.

It's a code to add friends on your 3DS. Assuming you're playing Pokemon on a 3DS. Then we can see when each other is online, trade, battle, or just send O-powers during gameplay. It's neat.

Wow, thanks! I promise I actually read that whole thing, so the time you spent on that wasn't in vain. So most of it seems pretty in line with what I've heard: Network a lot, get myself out there, put out a lot of research, and present at conferences. I've actually heard totally conflicting things about teaching from different people, so it's interesting that it should happen again within this thread. I guess balance is the key there; teaching is valued, but it should never get in the way of my research, because that's valued more. Is that correct? That's something I'll keep in mind as I'm presented with opportunities throughout my life at graduate school. I could easily see myself getting too lost in teaching. I was an undergrad TA my senior year and it was seriously the most valuable thing I've ever done. I'd be lying if I said that teaching wasn't a part of why I want to be a professor, even though I understand completely that it is more of a research position (which I also enjoy). It's the sort of unique combination of teaching, research, and mentorship that I don't think I'll find at any other job.

Last year there were a few late admits on here for MIT (several weeks after the initial wave of admits). My guess is that's why they don't outright reject everyone right away. That way if they don't get the people they want most, they can admit another for the same professor, or something along those lines. Or for some schools, they go over the list of everyone they're planning to reject and make sure they didn't miss anything. The only school I've seen that actually makes all decisions at the same time is Stanford.

That's actually a huge relief, because in industry I feel like I'm expected to be super "professional" all the time, which in practice means "don't show that you have any interests outside of work, because any time you spend on interests is time you're not working for us."

Friend code? Mine is 1719-3207-2936. And stay positive! I found that the anxiety was driving me so crazy I'd check my email at work every ten minutes instead of, you know, working. But then once I got a single admittance, I became much less preoccupied. So just tell yourself everything will work out eventually. It probably will. It almost always does.

Oh also, what about the kind of stuff I post publicly on the internet? Do I need to start filtering that? There aren't photos of me drinking or anything like that, but there are a lot of photos of me running, and I'm wondering if my persona as an athlete will get in the way, and if I need to dial it back a bit.

Thanks to both of you for the valuable advice. It's along the lines of what I expected, but it's good to see some confirmation. How much does my choice in school matter? I mean, obviously I need faculty with whom I enjoy working, but it seems like all of my professors at my alma mater went to "top" schools. Is name recognition still a part of it to some extent? I've been in industry for a few years, and even though I hear people say all the time that it doesn't really matter what school you went to, coming from a top twenty CS program it was much easier for me to get a job than it was for some of my friends at smaller schools. But is there a difference between, say, a number one ranked school and a number six ranked school that's actually significant when it comes to getting a job as a professor? Or at that point, does it not really make a difference, and is it more about finding a place I'll really flourish as a researcher? I love teaching, so I have zero worries about that end of things, but getting from where I was as an undergraduate (just sort of going with the flow with some of my professors, solving problems they presented to me directly) to where I ought to be (actually coming up with problems myself) seems daunting. I'm ready to network, but how exactly do I get started? I'm guessing as soon as I get to graduate school, I ought to be thinking about exactly what kind of research I want to do?

The one problem with this is that not every school has an automated process. So a school might make a decision on a Monday, then email a bunch of professors to inform students. Some of those professors won't read the email right away, or will read it and then forget about it, or will email one student and then think about emailing the second one but not actually do that until a couple of days later.

I don't feel like I'm close enough with him to do that. I did that with a professor at UW, but only because we'd been chatting for a while. If I saw him on the street I'd be like "hey, what's up?" and we'd catch up and it wouldn't be awkward. I don't feel comfortable asking about the status of applications to anyone with whom I'm not that close. Just too awkward, and potentially irritating. I don't want to get on his bad side I'm pretty sure this is completely out of my control now, and let's face it, MIT knows that everyone wants to go to MIT, so there's no point in trying to convince someone you really want to go to MIT. I wish I hadn't been so insanely nervous during my interview, but I think at this point I'll just wait it out. I don't plan on making decisions until I have all of my acceptances anyways.

I prefer to never assume a reject until I'm outright rejected. I'll deal with the heartbreak later if I have to. So mavi, here's some solidarity on optimism

There are some things I'd do differently if I could go back in time and advise myself in college. I want to get ahead this time. I want to become a professor (both teaching and research). I understand this is difficult. I don't care. Given this, what are some things that I should do (and not do) starting from the very beginning of grad school this fall?

Annnnnnd rejected