peanutjellyfish

The most important part of these kinds of applications (based on what I have heard from professors in this research area) is your letters of recommendation and your statement of purpose. Grades and transcripts are typically less important.

I saw on the results page that someone was anxious about Berkeley's Information Management and Systems PhD so I thought I'd drop a note here I heard from a friend who is a current PhD student there that the application pool doubled this year (maybe because of covid) and they're planning to take 7ish students total (last year it was 8 or something, I forgot the exact number, but almost everyone ended up attending), and usually profs only take on 1-2 students each. Some interviews have already happened, and the faculty have a shortlist by mid-Jan. Also acceptances usually come through via a phone call from a potential advisor in late Jan.

Dunno if I should go to CMU or not for PhD. Kind of stuck on what I want to do research-wise.

For MS programs there's not really need-based financial aid and any kind of fellowship requires you taking the initiative to apply for and tend to be quite competitive. For Stanford, there is a possibility of tuition being covered if you try to TA a course every quarter. However, TAships are not guaranteed and they tend to be allocated to students who have taken a course before (so likely, a coterminal MS student who was previously at Stanford as an undergrad MS&E).

Does anyone have input on what it's like to be a student at CMU without a car?

If anyone has info about whether Cornell InfoSci is done sending acceptances, PM me or reply to this thread.

Stipend/salary of $26,700, payment of registration fees of $19,000, health and dental insurance, $15,100 in tuition. Summer stipend of $18,500.

I haven't heard much about the MS programs at Cornell Tech, but there are several listed on the webpage about it. Cornell University and Cornell Tech are essentially the same at the PhD-level, though, where students in both Computer Science and Information Science can be at either campus depending on where their advisor is. The professors at Cornell Tech tend to do work that have some sort of direct societal impact.

I don't believe this works at the graduate level. At the professorship level, it is possible for one of you to get an offer, and then you ask them to find a position for your partner as well. However, since your fiancée already got rejected, I highly doubt they would undo the rejection for her. The two-body problem doesn't really have great resolutions at the MS or PhD level.

I suggest programs at Cornell Tech and NYU, since you are already in New York.

I'd say this depends on the PhD program. For some programs, you'd get a pretty good network of alums, more career options, and the ability to network with a lot of big names in academia. For other programs, this may not be the case.

The call was for ML. Edit: I suppose I should note that this information isn't very confident, because it's possible that these calls are part of acceptances, and they were just sorting out final details for some accepted students.

Hi! I'm not in a pure math program so I might not be too helpful, but I am a woman in computer science. I find that this corner of gradcafe does not have very many women so I'd suggest posting on Reddit (especially a forum for women in STEM) to get more responses. Also, congrats on getting into a good PhD program!

Stanford is pretty great in this area! They just hired a lot of new faculty: Emma Brunskill, Jeannette Bohg, Dorsa Sadigh, and soon, Chelsea Finn.

How easy is it to get from Berkeley campus to SF (say, the Exploratorium or whatever)? Google Maps says 45-ish minutes, which surprises me because I've heard anecdotally that Berkeley students are closer to SF than say, their rivals across the bay. Edit: Not that I think doing a PhD is going to give me any time to run around SF, but still....

They should just split up EE and CS into two separate departments. Plenty of other schools do it.

Oh this is really awkward. My interview seems to occur after their meeting. UhhhhHHHHHHH....

They're still interviewing!

Some schools are more individualized than others. For Cornell, it seems like everything happens in complete batches. Like, there is a formal step where all the interviews get sent out and the interviews must all happen within a week.

Yes. Individual professors have started interviewing.

I know someone who has gotten interviews for Michigan and Berkeley for PhD. The interview with Michigan is with multiple professors at once.

Creating a thread for those applying to Information Schools (e.g. Berkeley, Michigan, UW), Information Science (e.g. Cornell), or similar programs.

Studio: ~$3,000 per month if you're not doing official campus housing and you're aiming for a 10 minute bike ride to the center of campus. Apartment (if you split with other people): ~$1,000-$2,000 per month, if near campus. A room in a house: $800-$1,500 per month, but the quality of these really vary. For example, I found a room next to campus that was like $1,000 a month but I wasn't allowed to use the kitchen. Many students who were previously undergrads here end up renting an entire house with their friends, which is much more enjoyable than say, co-living with your landlord. Really, what matter is your transportation flexibility (and luck). If you have a car, you have tons more cheaper options since you could live in say, Redwood City, East Palo Alto, etc. I highly recommend grad students having a car, because it really opens up your mobility and helps you destress from the bubble-like atmosphere here. Sure, the Caltrain is nice and runs up and down the bay, but public transport around campus is more like a suburb than a major city. The campus shuttle is a bit slow and periodic, and you'll likely get tired of just downtown Palo Alto and Mountain View's Walmart. But most importantly, if you have high/medium priority in Stanford's on-campus housing lottery, do that over anything else. You have plenty of time to be the cool grad student who lives some exciting life in SF (and endures a 1 hour commute) in the future if you so choose, but for your first few years, live close to everyone and in an environment where you're more able to meet others. Munger is one of the newer grad student residences and is definitely the fanciest and most spacious. Escondido Village is also great, though right now there's construction there so some buildings have suffered through more noise than others. In a few years from now a bunch of new buildings are going to be finished in EV and they'll be like, hotel quality.

Worries: I submitted my applications early, but I think I could have made them much better if I had sat with them longer. I think I forgot to explain more clearly and precisely what I wanted to do in the future, and perhaps spent too much talking about what I've done in the past (with the assumption that my future will look similar to my past). I'm also trying to balance getting into a good school and ending up in a good location. After some bouts of burn out and depression, I'm afraid that grad school will only make my mental health worse. On top of that, I'm doubting my abilities to succeed in the field that I aim to go into, and I'm also doubtful that I'll definitely enjoy the work I plan to do. Excitement: Since I'm aiming to leave my undergrad institution, I'm excited to meet new professors and be in a new environment. I'm also excited for the possibility of changing my interests a little. I think I've gotten too deep into what I expect myself to be interested in rather than what I'm actually interested in, and a new environment might provide the motivation to take more risks and try new things. I thrive in collaborative environments and working closely with other students, so I'm excited to meet new colleagues as well.

This thread is so wholesome.