MrRoboto

Actually, UMich has a particularly strong robotics/AI faculty. Ben Kuipers, John Laird, Edwin Olson, and Satinder Singh all do excellent AI research at Michigan (just to name a few). I had PhD offers from both Penn and UMich (also doing AI/robotics), and I strongly favored UMich. Just my $.02. Good luck - either way you can't go wrong!

I just accepted an offer to enter the MIT Media Lab in the Personal Robots group. Happy to finally have made a decision, and I feel great about it!

I got the physical letter via USPS sent March 25.

Is anybody going to the admit weekend coming up?

As a current UT student, I would say that there are many great theory profs. I'm AI, so I've only taken classes from them, but our theory dept. is a very tight-knit group. If learning theory is your thing, then Klivans is the man. But we also have Zuckerman, Gal, Ramachandran, Plaxton, Waters, etc. All these profs are doing theory, but they all have their own specialties. It's quite important to visit the places if possible, so you can get a first-hand look at the dept and meet the faculty. Good luck!

I haven't heard anything either. Although I've been told that Harvard only does official correspondence through the mail... (could be wrong)

The only one that can tell you for sure is the admissions committee. Good luck.

Congrats to both of you! I'm also very excited to be admitted - has anybody heard about an admit weekend?

For the RI PhD, the visit days are March 20 - 22. I'm not sure if this extends to the MSc program, but there is a section in my info packet titled "International Students", stating "The Robotics Institute will pay a maximum of $800 for your plane ticket." Might want to contact the dept. and see if this stipend/admit week applies to you. Best luck, and congrats!

Very good point - I didn't really think of this. I am indeed in an MS, and I can see how some problems could arise, especially with letters of recommendation.

I also have my masters, and I've been accepted to some top 10 departments for next fall. It's very common for this to happen. I just wanted to stress that if you get your MS and don't do research (and possibly publish), admissions committees might see this as a problem.

I'm not sure as to how often this happens, but the information that I've generally heard from various professors is that it's harder to get accepted with a Master's than right out of undergrad. Not sure why this is (or if it's even 100% true). That being said, if you go to a good program and do a lot of research during your MS, I'm sure you would be a strong candidate. Sorry I can't be of more help - good luck!

I don't know too much about Lehigh's program, but they did compete (and tie for 5th place) in the DARPA Urban Challenge (as part of the Ben Franklin Racing Team). This leads me to assume that they would have access to the autonomous vehicle, which would certainly be an interesting platform for Vision/AI research. Only know one person who went to Lehigh (he was EE), but he is a very successful executive for a chip-manufacturing company now.

Just got accepted to the Robotics Institute, and I can't believe it! They accepted 35/460, and I'm pretty sure they sent out all the admits today.

Decisions are up on the website: https://apply.eecs.mit.edu/. Reject for me. Bummer.