Nirvik

Haha. Everyone has one of those real college parties in their lives. I don't drink at all, but I still remember the night when people were drinking everywhere and the whiff of alcohol entering my nose was making me dizzy enough to not be able to see my bus number correctly lol.

I got a jump Start when I saw the words "Colorado" and "admissions". Only later did I find out that it's actually from the University of Colorado, Denver, and they are giving application fee waivers to all international students from Feb 21 to Feb 28. Those geniuses sent me the notification on Feb 27. Anyways, their program is not of interest to me, so didn't bother.

That's brilliant! Hoping that you get the good news. Same situation at home here. Everybody's asking if I have heard from anyone. Going crazy saying "No" every time. My good news is similar to your first good news. I am playing Chrono Wars - a full on attempt to keep my mind off of admissions.

Finally! The most dreaded month for graduate applicants is coming to an end. Enjoy the upcoming admits and rejects game this March!

That's a diamond in the rough right there! You won't find such generous professors who take the time from their busy schedules and admissions work and inquire about how you are doing and how far the admissions process has reached. You got real lucky

You could ask the graduate admission coordinator regarding the status of your application, which he/she usually responds with the current status and the date by which you should be getting the admission decision.

I just gotta make sure not to inform you guys about the admission committee's meetings then Anyways, dunno if committee members are allowed to discuss those. lol. But I can maybe put up something like Admissions review going on and what the department is looking for that year and stuff. Like what are common traits that the department has found admissible. That would give some relief for some applicants hopefully

@SLPgradstudent Congratulations! Wish you the very best

You are right about the most students not having a Master's degree part. Initially I was dead set in applying for the Master's program. But my admission counselor advised me against it and instead asked me to go for a PhD, even though I knew how furiously competitive it is. Finally I went for the "Oh well, what the hell" side and applied to the PhD programs. But yeah initially I wanted a Masters before going for a PhD.

Reminds me of Jurassic Park where they try to fix fossilized Dino blood with frog DNA. And on a more serious note, I think it's a pretty amazing project. I think I will have to keep an eye out for your work, because if you can repair damaged DNA, that would definitely be a win-win when it comes to finding a cure of cancer. As reversing the DNA from the mutated state to normal state by fixing it would cause the cancerous cells to die off and the person gets cured.

Very well said. When I got too anxious and mailed the grad school admission coordinator, he/she said something like, "We give out the admission results by April 15th or until funds are available. If you are are not admitted, then please do not think that you are not good for a PhD. It's just that your application did not fit the program requirements in terms of research or we have too many applicants and we are unable to offer seats to everyone." Something along these lines. So it makes sense to not doubt our own abilities and try again next season.

Haha. You are welcome. I am not sure I will make the news, but yeah for me a PhD is more than just doing research in a topic that I have always wanted to work on. IMO, PhD is about becoming someone better and yes, it does get depressing at times, but than there is no easy way to greatness, right? So even a closely related project in PhD that has the same ground rules as any other project makes you prepared for pursuing your own project after graduation, while getting funded and having co-researchers working with you. I think life only gets better

Apparently "Manhattan Prep" wants me to appear the GRE over and over and hence, they are asking me to check out the new ways to improve my Verbal score.

I know the feeling. Sometimes I feel like I have bipolar disorder from these stuff. One moment a surge of happiness at seeing the word "Admissions", and the next moment, utter doom.

@ChrisTOEFert I personally think that this is a good question, as I have been asking this to myself a lot. After all attending a PhD program and being successful in it is no piece of cake. So, I would start by answering your questions in my own opinion. From what I have learnt so far regarding the PhD programs, they do take 5 to 5.5 years because of the norms set up by the university and I would say that it's a good duration for any PhD candidate to perform research and develop his/her research skills and be able to defend his/her thesis. Most professors claim (as seen in Quora) that PhD students actually become proper researchers starting third year. The two years of Terminal Masters is more like a revision of your undergraduate studies with some added extensions. So to learn and master the tools of trade in research, it is usually suitable to spend the 5-5.5 years in grad school. Well, that's my opinion. Every student has his/her own rate of learning. But then there are those exceptional ones who can perform state of the art research work and become a fine independent researcher in no time. So the whole point behind having a 5 to 5.5 years of PhD program is actually to learn and master your research skills and develop yourself as a successful independent researcher. I applied to 11 programs. So why did I apply to so many programs? The first reason would be to increase my odds of getting into a PhD program. (Yes, it's the honest answer. Anybody would do it.) The second reason is it actually allowed me to evolve my ideas of what I would like to learn. The first few schools that I went for involved machine learning and parallel processing. I could hardly find any faculty doing both. As I researched about the various programs and learnt about what the professors actually did, I learnt about how I can expand my thoughts on doing research. I learnt about Vision systems identifying human actions in a video systems. So my ideas on the applications of machine learning evolved and brought me to my current potential research area - computers in cancer treatment. It's what ended up getting me an interview. It never hurts to have a safe school and to have an ambition school at the same time. Life works in mysterious ways and so does grad admissions. So, if I get into a top school, that would be great news for me. Since I have met my perfect match in Oregon State and my potential adviser thinks the same, it would be a shame not to get in. And even if I get to a safe low ranked school, I would probably give my go for it, because what matters to me more is what I learn in the program. If I have chosen the program, then there should definitely be some credibility when it comes to compatible research interests. So even a low ranked school can teach me something. As long as I learn about my field of interest, I don't care where I am. But yes, just getting into a low ranked school would put a question in my Visa officer's mind when he questions me. But then again, VOs are equally nuts as the people from the admission committee. I have always had a knack from computers and I am like a total sucker for it. I still remember my days as a kid when I would somehow steal the power cable to my desktop PC that my dad used to hide because I spent too much time on it. I got some pretty nice beatings because of that. So yeah, I am dead set in learning about computers and AI and using them to save lives. Now what better way could there be than using a state of the art system to find a possible cure to a disease that is incurable so far? So it's pretty much what life showed me. And yeah, I did mess around for the first 2 years in my undergraduate. Paid no attention to grades, but yeah spent hours on the internet trying to find a topic to work on for no apparent reason. It's how I found about Deep learning in the first place. I got serious with my studies starting 3rd year and kept a First Class while graduating and yeah, I had backlogs. But my final year projects were all novel works. That's when I realized that I am bound to be a researcher. Nothing else can keep me sane. So research it is and what better place is there to learn about research than the US, where computers practically took birth. So all in all, yeah, I really wanted to go to grad school. Research is the life I chose and grad school is the one place where I can make it happen.

@hippyscientist I understand your situation. Kinda in the same situation as you are. Even though I am applying for engineering, someone reported an acceptance under the results section that the university has given him/her 9 months of GA. Feels weird and makes me anxious to keep on waiting. From the likes of what I have learnt so far after discussing with my potential adviser, I am an ideal candidate for her program, and we are basically in sync with our research goals. So I don't know what's the hold up. So gotta wait I guess. P.S. The POI is someone whom I didn't mention in the list of advisers when I applied to the school.

Is your #1 priority school somehow a California school? Usually the University of California system has multiple rounds of admit, so they could send out the admits quite late. If you are having anxious moments, just bomb the graduate coordinator with some queries on the status of your application. They usually reply with their expected date of results.

@Nicole Gilbert I agree with what everyone said is quite correct. The admissions committee usually try to find the perfect fit for the program. At least that's what they say. Nobody understands the dynamics of the admission process and hence it is difficult to estimate the correct reason for why your application got rejected. I can only give you my best and advise you to try applying once more. Except the next time, you might want to go for more than one school. Yes, this school was a perfect fit for you because you thought you served the purpose of fitting into the program. But I guess, the admissions committee didn't see that. So apply once more, express yourself professionally by telling them a lot about what you have achieved and if possible, try to keep your options open. Sometimes, the road to our goal is not straight and instead bent here and there. But yeah, if you keep a few options open, like figuring out what else you can go for that is very close to what you wanted to pursue in grad school. I would give you my example. I am a die hard fan of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. I have been a huge a fan of AI since I first Spielberg's movie as a kid. I wanted to use AI to diagnose and treat cancer. It seems none of the school had the program that fit my choice. But instead, a professor contacted me with a different background (Graph Theory). I thought about giving it a shot. And Voila! she is working on cancer research as well. The only difference is that she is not using machine learning or AI, but since I have my fair share of knowledge on AI, she wants me to teach her students machine learning and AI as well. So I have possibilities of ending up as a TA. So, what I would suggest you is that you should try again for the next session and apply to more than one school. Apply for programs that does not necessarily provide what you want, but something that's very close to what you want. Many professors claimed in Quora that students usually perform research in a different issue from the ones that they initially plan to pursue as part of their thesis. So yeah, take it easy on yourself, apply once more next year and keep your options open. Good Luck !

I am getting blown up by emails from some UK universities that I applied to. They are doing their best at changing my mind to opt for MSc in their programs. And I kind of feel sorry for them, but as the job opportunities go for Non-EU students, UK education is awesome if you are paying from your own pockets, instead of a loan. And I practically got into every UK based university for Masters in Computer Science. Even got a 8000 pound scholarship on one. But call me a fool, I just wanna go for US. Hope this intense waiting period has some sunshine at the end.

I am on a mission here. If someday I become a professor and I am in the admissions committee, I will become something like a liaison for folks who are waiting for their results. Maybe give some hopes and shed some light on the next generation of applicants who are in the same boat as we are right now

I received an application system survey that I plainly ignored. Thank goodness, the survey was sent to me one day after I applied. Cant bear these things at this time of the year.

Not at all. I am not discouraged I am keeping a 50-50 on Tufts myself. If I get in, that's great. But if I don't get in, that's fine too. Plus, I am not putting my foot down on anything until April 15. Gonna wait till then to hear from each university. Anyways, congratulations on the admit

I have not received any email from Tufts yet. I have not been contacted by any professor as well.

Omg. The torture! My letter recommender called me to tell me that he has not received the recommendation link, two days before deadline. Having my anxiety shoot through the roof!

I am trying to do the same. Not try to sound desperate by asking questions on admissions, instead doing a follow up on genuine interests about the project, lab and students.