Mnera

Inspecting ones own application AFTER submitting it, and finding such a horrendous mistake

Let's say 'in the field of engineering'.

I see this phrase used often here: "burning bridges". I do not quite understand what consequences it might have to burn bridges with a university. I do not indent to do such a thing, but I am curious what the effects would be. Unless you are considering working at that particular university after you graduate, I do not see how it can affect anything.

The best way to estimate your chances would be to look into past graduates from your school and which schools they were admitted into. I think name recognition is an important aspect when evaluating international applicants. You might have a better chance at a very good graduate program that knows about your school rather than a relatively worse graduate program that doesn't now about your school. Basically if a graduate program has admitted a student from your school in the past, it is usually a good idea to apply there. Of course you should still apply to other schools.

Applying to a school 1) costs money 2) requires you to modify your statement of purpose. I decided to apply to as many schools as possible (which turned out to be 14). I spent about 2 hours looking at each of their websites and the research interests of the professors, then I spent 3-5 hours looking into the publications of the professors with whom my interests coincided and I tailored a paragraph of my statement of purpose accordingly. Clearly this much research is not enough to decide on a school. But would you really want to spend hours comparing schools in your mind, to which you may or may not be accepted? For me, I simply can not consider a school properly until I am actually admitted. The offer that I will be accepting was from a school that I wouldn't have chosen to apply to if I were to apply to only 5 schools. So I am very glad that I chose to apply to so many schools. I think this investment of time is tiny in the grand scheme of things.

Can anyone comment on the graduate housing of Gatech?

The program I am planning to accept asks me to mail them a paper document. It is unlikely that it will be delivered by 15th of April. I will e mail them a scan of the documents, could this ever be a problem?

I have applied to UofT for EE but I am asking this here since this thread is quite active: I have to respond to an offer in USA by 15 April, would it be a good idea to mail the program and ask if there is a chance for me to be admitted? If so, who should I be e mailing, grad coordinator etc?

Who should one contact in such a situation? The admission person's email written on the website, someone else?

When I was applying I haven't mailed any professors (mentioned some in my statement of purpose though). I have received funding from a few schools, and haven't heard from some others. I have to respond until 15 April. Would it be a good idea to mail these professors to see if they would be interested in having me as a student?