LivingVicariously

Glad to help. I have also accepted the offer from Cornell, and look forward to meeting you, DJ and others there.

How do people generally dress while visiting the campuses on visit day? Semi formal i.e. Dockers/Khakis + long sleeved shirts + Leather shoes (mabe a jacket) or Formal suit and tie.

Thanks to DJLamar I am trying to organize a trip fairly shortly to visit the schools that have accepted me. I plan to visit CMU (Feb 24-26) and Cornell (March 7-8)on their visit days. I'll have to squeeze in the week between them UIUC (25-27), UPenn and UMass. I am trying to manage within a budget. Any idea if the schools will have cheap dorm accomodation available? Maybe grad students who will host (or put up with ) freshers? UIUC is a tough one for me. Getting there from New York or Newark (where I will land initially and stay between school visits) seems a problem and quite expensive. I can get to Chicago it seems but then I won't have a car and a 130 mile cab ride seems really expensive. What is the best way to get to UIUC from Chicago.? Is any one going to any of these schools? What are you planning to do for accomodation? Would you care to share a hotel room if necessary to minimize the costs? Any (legal) ideas to reduce the costs will be very much appreciated.

Good for you jamiemmt. I heard from Stanford too. I got a medal from them i.e. I was Rejected . Now the wait for Berkeley continues. If Berkeley rejects me too then it looks like I have some cold weather and snow in my future . Though I am told Berkeley can get cold too. It rarely, if ever, goes below 20 C where I am from.

No word from Stanford yet ( I guess it is still early morning there). As for Bezerkeley no word yet from there as well. I am not too optimistic about my chances there as I did not write the CS GRE and they recommned but not require it. Wonder what that means. I mean I know what it means but how is the score used, as a tie break?? as a way to even out some lacking in other parts of the application? Is it considered last all else being equal? Anyway, I understand it is s bit late to be asking these questions but. How many of the folks here have written the CS GRE? Applied to Berkeley? Heard from there or waiting to hear? Somehow writing in the forum seems to fulfill a need for catharsis in me. So please indulge me

Ah good for you. Meanwhile I wake up to find my mail box devoid of the mail I have been waiting for (from Stanford). The wait is painful and the forum is addictive (in a nice sort of way... so far). Hopefully I'll hear from the rest of my univs. before it becomes an unholy craving. The results board has gone bonkers with prank entries. Trust people to ruin a perfectly good thing.

sosrarch, Any updates? I sure would like to know how your interview went and any tips you might have. I am still waiting to hear from Stanford and who knows I may get an interview call myself. I saw on the results board that Stanford CS will have their decisions done by the 12th Feb. Anyone know if this is true (the results board seems to have quite a few fake entries). Good Luck

Jamiemmt, Congrats. Can you let us know what area of specialization you applied at UW Seattle? I have not heard back from them. Also, what area of specialization did you apply at CMU? I got accepted for a Masters at LTI with no funding but I had applied for a Phd. Thanks

Got accepted at UPenn with a full scholarship. Letter had no info on visit day does any one have any idea when it might be? Also any idea if they cover any of the travel expenses? I am trying to figure if I can plan a visit to a couple of the schools and defray part of the costs. DJLamar, You posted a calender indicating MIT adcomm had met last week, were you able to dig up anything (publicly available ) for Stanford and Berkeley?

DJLamar, You got me thinking. If I plan a visit to a couple of the colleges that have offered to pay some of the expenses I may be able to make the trip. It will help me decide between UIUC and Cornell. Are there any other international students even contemplating visits? Anyone with any info on Visa availability/difficulties (especially from India) for these type of visits please chime in. Will it affect getting the student visa after I make my choice? Ok it is late now I am off to get some sleep before my late morning class I thought I may hear something from Berkeley/Stanford tonight but nothing so far any idea when during the day (PST) do they send out their emails? Maybe I am trying a little too hard to get some science into this black art of waiting for decisions .

I am from India. Will check out kayak.com for what it is worth. Thanks for the info.

DJLamar, My interests are in NLP as well. Would like to visit Cornell but the funds they provide to cover the visit can't get me there additionally being an international applicant am not sure if I'll be able to get a visa for the visit. Enjoy your visit tho' maybe we'll be class mates. Look out for me on opening day, I'll be the nerdy looking one. Oh wait I probably described most of the Cornell population. Never mind. PS: For the especially politically correct readers. My above streotyping was meant as a joke.

OH YEAH, Thanks. What specialization did you apply for at CMU? As Djlamar pointed out earlier in this thread I might have made a "mistake" in applying to LTI only, maybe I should have applied to the broad CS Phd program and I might have had some luck. Anyway you still might be in contention, I wish you luck.

Got into Cornell with full scholarship. Got email notification y'day. Waiting on Stanford and Berkeley.

DJLamar, Am waiting on Cornell. Can you let me know when/how you heard from them? And what specialization had you applied for? Thx

First off, Congrats sosrarch. Getting to this stage is an achievement in itself (I am still waiting) to be proud of. Secondly, Breath. I have not gone through a grad admission interview myself but have experience presenting "grad level" technical work and being quizzed on it by a motley crew of researchers (students, industry practitioners and international faculty). I think having reached this stage most of us have some fundamental understanding of CS research topics. The profs. do not expect us to know every thing, so saying "I don't know but here is my stab at an answer ..." is perfectly fine and probably even be encouraged. I did undergo an interview for an undergrad interview (for a very prestigious univ.) and had actually to solve some problems. I got through and one of the profs. actually mentioned that though my answers were not all right they were looking at the approach rather than the end result (sounds familiar??). So just relax try to answer the questions as well as you can, minimise the BS (they can smell it even across the oceans). I won't be surprised if most of the questions are very general and not directly related to CS. They are not out to get you. Most importantly, Please update this forum of your experience :-). Best of Luck. (Even though you are my competition).

Heard back from CMU via email today. Accepted for masters with no funding :-(. CMU LTI was my top choice for Phd:-(. My Acads/GRE were quite good, I have poster acceptance from a top international conference in the field, have submissions (yet to hear back) to another top conference. Good research for the last 2 years and good recos. But then looking at other profiles here I can understand the rejection. May be in a year when I would have had at least one more conference acceptance and a in a better economy I may have had a better chance. But hey on the brighter side I have not yet heard from Stanford and Berkeley may be that will work out and the UIUC acceptance helps in taking the lumps easier. Cheers to all.

On Pins and Needles here. My field is (IR) Information Retrieval. Interested in the usual suspects, CMU, Stanford, UC Berkeley. Anyone on this board heard back from any of these depts. Especially IR. Good Luck to all.