ribble

Today or tomorrow. For the last few years it's been on the first Wednesday or Thursday of February.

^ If you look at the past few years, we can safely say that their initial wave will be out sometime between tomorrow and this Friday.

I think I always know less than my professors think I know. I just try to keep that illusion up while we're talking, then look up all the stuff I should have known later. In other words, fake it till you make it (there's a nice TED Talk on that). It's a legit and totally acceptable thing. I'm also somewhat reassured in knowing that pretty much everyone suffers from imposter syndrome.

"The Seahawks won. Reject everyone from Seattle." "Sir, you don't even watch foot—" "SHUT...UP!"

Mine too. I doubt it means anything, but...why WOULD it change right after their graduate roundup? We're computer science folks, let's figure this out. Seems like they made their application totally custom, but is there a reason that the primary identification would change from one's username to one's email?

Most acceptances at this point seem to be informal. Like, some POI told them over the phone. Could be a few people jumping the gun there.

- "Anyone that hasn't been accepted past x date, can just assume they're rejected" - "I got off the waitlist!!!" - "I got in!!!" - "I got rejected..." - "This school ALWAYS interviews candidates" - "No, I know a girl that got in without an interview" - "They only interview the candidates they're unsure about" - "But they implemented a new policy five years ago, so they have to interview everyone. If you haven't gotten an interview, you were rejected." - "A professor said that they interview everyone." - "I know like three people who got in last year without being interviewed." - "I GOT INTO THEIR MASTER'S PROGRAM!!!" - "I DID TOO! What do I do about funding?" - "Shoot, they're not replying. How am I going to get funding?" - "They never fund master's students." - "i have a 2.7 gpa and i got into mit lol" - "It's like March and I'm still on the wait—wait, I'm rejected." - "I called their office and the lady told me that I didn't get in" - "I haven't heard back from anyone and it's late March. Guys...guys???" ... I hate the internet sometimes...

Chicken brains

Yeah, but that's including everything. The average cost of the four programs I applied to was about $100 per school (luckily I didn't have to pay anything for the Master's program), and then the GRE was around $125 or so per test, and I took it twice. It cost $27 per school to send the GRE to, which I only had to send to three schools and a fellowship I was applying to...so that's another $108 tacked on. Three transcripts total sent for $21 (some were fine with uploading it to their website). Sooo 400+108+250+21 = 779. To be fair, this means I probably could have applied to more for only about $100 per school, but I was already taking out loans just for these darn applications.

Well, flipping through the "Waiting it Out" forum is pretty therapeutic for me right now...

...you submit too many recommendation letters because the website allows it, only to learn that the committee will only end up seeing three of them (I still have no idea which three they saw...fingers crossed anyway...).

From what I've heard... 1. No. 2. I don't see why they would be different...they're MIT, so the only way that might factor in is your ability to speak English. I could be wrong. 3. See 1. 4. See 1. Given that that's the policy, it may be the case that individual POIs would conduct interviews if they're unsure about something, but in general interviews seem to be a no-no with MIT EECS (juuust like GRE scores).

I applied to four schools for a PhD in Computer Science, but mainly because I have a backup plan (one-year Master's at my current school) if that doesn't work out. All things considered, I calculated it as being something like $700 for all of those and I just didn't have the resources to apply to more. (I'm...I'm fine getting rejected from everywhere... )

I applied to Berkeley and haven't been contacted for an interview. I'm not that hopeful, though a couple of posts in past years have indicated that this is not a strict prerequisite to admissions. Still, it seems like the vast majority get an interview in some form. My credentials: Top 30 state school GRE: 170Q/161V/4.5 GPA: 3.86 (3.98 or so in computer science) Six strong LORs (four from research mentors, one from dept. chair, one from a guy I worked for), three years research experience, two summer internships in foreign laboratories funded by fellowships, Goldwater Scholar, one publication and one submitted abstract, a bunch of leadership experience.