patient0

congrats to all!!! I need to get off this forum now because all this time refreshing my email has left me with a lot of work to catch up on take care, best wishes, and keep your head up no matter what the decision is/was!!

Non-select for UK Research Open Award but the process of doing this application, and monitoring the forum with all of you, was really so much fun!!! Thanks for being part of my life for these short months!

so exciting! Thanks for sharing news, both select and non-select! Congrats to all who made it this far and also congrats to those who are going!!

you may be able to accept both - as long as the funds are not being duplicated. For example, if your home school grant covers travel, then you can't claim that you will use Fulbright funds for that same travel. But you could use it for other things within scope. Try for both! EDIT: oh if you can't combine, then nevermind

Every email that comes in, I'm like..... yyyyynnnnnnnneeeessssoooooo lol

wow that's so cool! congrats!!

This is a huge party school in the middle of nowhere. Huge greek life. Obsessed with sports. Most of the people you teach (if you are going to be TA'ing) will be drunk or hung over.

I second that. Former undergrad dropout in STEM - less than 3.0 GPA. Then was in a major-lifethreatening-health realted predicament. Then returned and aced the living h*ll out of everything I touched. And therefore it took 7 years to "finish" my bachelors. And 3 years to "finish" my master's. Due to my life experience, academic experience, and work experience, I find it difficult to sit down and study the 7th-grad vocabulary and math that's needed for the GRE. I hate the GRE and I think it is for people who have nothing else to go by. So my GRE scores are low, even after taking it 5 times. I just think it's so stupid I can barely force myself to study for it. I have also published in tier1 conferences. And in my spare time, I am going to publish a mathematics proof to a famous problem this year. Sometimes, people with perfect "stats" like GPA and GRE miss the bigger picture, which is what many professors are looking for. Why, oh WHY are you here? It's a worthwhile question - why do you want a PhD? You don't have to answer that, just be able to answer it to yourself. What will the PhD deliver to you in terms of education that you can't learn elsewhere?

from my experience working at an FFRDC where there's tons of CS people, I'd say UMass Amherst is a great community. I've met women in CS there and they are truly colleagues that you want to know! UPenn (ivy) has a big name, which may help you, but I haven't met anyone from uPenn who was more "outstanding" that anyone else. I work with someone who did a PhD at UIUC who is amazing and utterly amazing, and just amazing. Georgia Tech is also very reputable for STEM (unlike an ivy which does not always carry a huge reputation for STEM). It's great to have funding without teaching responsibilities, as these will sometimes detract from your research commitments. If I was choosing for you, coming from CS but not in your sub-discipline (I'm more AI/ML), I'd go with UIUC or GaTech. The weather is much nicer in Georgia. My two cents.

Yes, I have a full scholarship with university programme. I applied to the fulbright open award UK. Not sure how it will work with my scholarship yet.. probably will only be able to accept partial funds or something.

I'm an at-large applicant for the open award to UK. I was named a semi-finalist but have not heard anything about an interview yet. Any other at-large applicants out there?

When I came to this forum, I had 7 applications out there. All 7 are settled up and I have made a firm acceptance. When I started the process, one of my mentors suggested that I put other applications out there for backups, because my 1st choice was so competitive. I am so glad that I did this because it was a smart move and good practice for me. However, none of my 'backups' worked out and I have my 1st choice. It's a really good school. I will be an international student (yay yay yay!) with full funding (yay yay yay!) in a 4-year program (yay yay yay!). So I am about to get the "full experience" in terms of being older, living abroad, AND doing my PhD! What's even better - and I think this is where age really comes in - I will be working with exactly the advisor that I want and doing exactly the research that I want. Having worked, I know this is where I need to be in order to advance my career and do what I love. I'm 32, female, and I have over 16 years of professional experience (started as a young engineer), as well as a terminal masters from a great school - and 6 first author publications in my specialization. I work in high tech (artificial intelligence). I know that there are many really awesome and competitive people coming up these days who are 10 years younger than me. And not very many of them bring to the table what I bring. I know I am academic material because I've proved it to myself over and over again. I don't have to doubt myself and I am also not cocky. I know what it takes to make a team effort work when no one on the team gets along. I know the value of mentorship and the value of my education. I know how to teach myself what I want to learn. I have vision for research that might work, what it takes to get working, and what is worth re-working from the past. I am always a little nervous when a new person comes into the company who is fresh out of PhD and 30 or under. They get a lot of responsibility without (in my eyes) any experience to back it up. I also work with someone who is 39 and just finished a PhD - that person brings wisdom, patience, team skills, a fresh perspective, and mostly just patience! It goes a long way. It's like someone wiped the ego right off, and I for one appreciate it!

I've definitely felt this, despite many accomplishments (like you). There are supports for this - I've been involved in many organizations devoted to women in computing/women in engineering (my field). I tend to bounce between confident and self-advocating, to impostor and self-doubt. I try to remind myself that there are different paths that will take me where I want to go. I try to enjoy the journey. I think learning how to deal with impostor syndrome makes me more valuable and wiser in the workplace. For example, learning about this at an early age means that by the time I was 30, I had developed coping mechanisms and also a worthwhile safety net. And by safety net I do not necessarily mean tons of friends (or "friends") who admire me, or 5000 facebook friends - no I mean a handful of people in my career area that are deeply devoted to my success and career goals, who want me to succeed and can provide advice for getting there.

32 and applying for PhD here. Finished my BA at age 24. Finished my MS at age 27. What will I do 5 years from now when I am a Dr and pushing 40? Well, I hope that by then I will have both education and wisdom, and not freak out as much. That I will become better at advocating for myself and my career goals. And that I will be doing something that is my "true calling" - so I can look back and see that all paths led me to here. Kudos and respect for all who are doing this after the age of 30, 40, 80, etc. I feel like a young 20 year old again :-) Accepted: 0/7 Waitlist: 1/7Rejected: 1/7Nothing yet: 2/7 Interviews: 3/7