anotherflunky

Assistant profs are affluent? hahahahahaha hahahaha haha hah ...

Actually, based on past years, the ones who pick up the phone seem to just be some contracted agency or perhaps they're part of the NSF but are not really guys with any inside info. They don't seem to know anything except for the basics that can be found on the NSF websites so you're not going to learn anything unusual through calling. So when they say they have no information about it, that's exactly what they mean: they really don't know because the NSF hasn't told them.

Slorg, out of curiosity, are you switching from Berkeley to Stanford?

I'm personally hoping for a huge delay now. Looking at past years, this thread gets more entertaining the longer this goes on. Maybe we can break the 2009 record and get 300 pages!

Heh, I love how people are already thinking about how they'll be using their fellowship money.

Both are called publications in EE. You'll want a 3.7+ from a high-ranked school (say top 20), or close to 4.0 from anywhere else. GRE should be 780+/550+, and have at least a year of research experience. This is enough to keep your app from being tossed out. The main factor then is letters of recommendation that back up your claims about your research experience. You most certainly can get in without publications. I had none and was admitted to Stanford (with funding) and waitlisted at MIT (GPA 3.93, GRE 780/710, 1.5 years of research). Among my graduating class at University of Illinois, I know one who got into Berkeley and Stanford and another who got into just Stanford. They had profiles similar to mine and also had no publications. But note that our school is always ranked in the top 5 in EE, both grad and undergrad, so it's obviously easier for us to get into other top-ranked programs. Also, the fact that you include Harvard in your "list" (yet not Berkeley) suggests to me that you have no idea what you want out of graduate school and just want to "move up" to a prestigious school so that you can brag about it to lay people. You need to seriously re-evaluate your goals. Researchers only care about what you've actually accomplished and, moreover, they have their own field-specific list of what schools are considered good. E.g. UCSB is always at the top (above MIT) in optoelectronics, at least for the time being. Going to Harvard for EE is about the same as going to Ohio State (yes, really). This is not an insult, as they're both fine programs in the grand scheme of things (top 30 out of 150 or so EE schools in the U.S.), but not even close to elite and you're not going to be impressing anyone that way.

It's well-known (even outside Silicon Valley) that Stanford MS engineering programs are relatively easy to get into, but the same is true of GaTech so I'd say they are about equal. Trust me, no one is going to think someone is "Stanford caliber" because they have a Stanford MS. So it's not really worth it to spend money on their MSEE because it just doesn't have the same brand name value as a Stanford undergraduate degree or doctoral degree. Thanks to the "honors" (my ass) co-op program that lets companies send their employees to Stanford (and earn Stanford lots of $ in the process), there are so many mediocre guys running around with those MS degrees that it doesn't carry much impact. Compared to other top 10 MS degrees, I'd take most of them over Stanford, even factoring out cost. Take cost into account, and yeah, it's sort of a no-brainer. And then take into account funding and thesis option (as with your case), and I don't know why Stanford would even be in the running. I'd say their MS degrees are most valuable to internationals who just want a U.S. degree or a Si Valley job, or to those want to try to sneak into the PhD program but didn't get direct admission. People who think "Stanford is Stanford" and fork over 80k for any other reason are hilariously misguided.

MS is for industry jobs, which don't care much where you got your degree, unlike academia does with PhDs. It would be silly to take up that un-funded Stanford offer over even top 30 programs, let alone UIUC.

This specific topic comes up a lot... terminal MS degrees in engineering are generally not meant to be funded. Some like UIUC fund them because they expect that a lot will continue onto PhD. The Stanford MSEE is deliberately separate from the PhD-track process and so it never receives funding. They consider MS students to be customers, not researchers. Why do you think admission to it is so easy? As someone else said, it's a cash cow.

Is that what they promised as well last year (early April)?

The Stanford EE visit day is only for a handful of fellowship winners (i.e. not even all fellowship winners, let alone all PhD admits).

I'm PhD. This is my first notice of any kind from Cornell. For what it's worth, my other results were admission with fellowship at Illinois EE and Northwestern MatSci, admission without funding (yet?) at Stanford EE, waitlist at MIT EE, rejection at Berkeley EE. So I should have a good shot at admission to Cornell. The email and the attachment:

I got an email inviting me to the visit day on April 1st. Apparently decisions (both admission and financial aid) will be made AFTER that based on our interactions with faculty (they specifically stated that last part). Wtf? It's not required but there's no doubt that you would shoot down your chances of fellowship or RA by not visiting, or perhaps even of getting admitted at all. So what do they about internationals then? (I'm not one, but this makes me wonder).

This is correct. In fact, even most of those admitted to the PhD program are not offered funding and they're prioritized over terminal MS students. This is just the nature of Stanford EE. It's well-known and they're not honest about it. You can ask on the Stanford EE topic in the Engineering forum if you want others to confirm this. The departmental stipend is in the neighborhood of 23-24k/year.

"MS" here refers to MS-only students, i.e. terminal MS, rather than PhD-track. Stanford differentiates the two degree programs. PhD-track students who are admitted with a BS are still eligible for fellowships for the first year even though they're doing their MS first. Which were you admitted to?

Stanford EE never gives fellowships to MS students. I know the wording of the acceptance email makes it sound like you just have to wait but this is how it works in practice. 1. A few nominated students get 3-year graduate fellowships from the university (not the department). 2. Then the EE department gives 1st year fellowships to a few students. 3. Stanford then waits for these students to decide if they will come to Stanford or go somewhere else. 4. Those that decide to go elsewhere free up fellowship offers that are given to PhD students that didn't get one in the first round. Both the 1-year and 3-year fellowships are only for PhD students and truth is that even the majority of their PhD students are NOT funded the first year. 0% of the MS students are funded by the university or the department. The only financial aid is through external fellowships or employer funding (and there may be some extremely rare cases of students knowing faculty and getting RA/TA). The purpose of the MS-only program is to make money for Stanford through tuition. It's sad that Stanford is not honest about this and instead carefully lies to students and gives them hope for financial aid.

To my knowledge, enrollment is about 100 across EE and CS combined, split roughly 50-50. Yield is about 50%. So I expect 100 EE admissions offers. 8/100 posting on this site isn't too bad, and a number that low is subject to a lot of noise so year-to-year comparisons aren't very meaningful.

Well, if it happens, one of us should self-immolate to overthrow government. Volunteers? Does any one here have nothing else to live for besides the GRF?

This is hilarious, regardless of whether it's satirical or not. The only solution is to go to Stanford to spite Berkeley.

Does anyone know of any successes using the "alternate" research proposal approach: If you have not formulated a research plan, your statement should include a description of a topic that interests you and how you would propose to conduct research on that topic. Is this actually viable for seniors?

Oh, that was actually 2009, not last year. Looks like the something happened with the budget and they gave out more fellowships/HM's in May. The wait must've been killer for those guys. I hope we all hear by April 10th at worst. My grad school choice may depend on this.

In last year's thread, some people were talking about the "first wave" and "second wave"? What does this refer to? Sorry, I didn't want to read all the 200 or something pages!

They don't start research until after passing the qualifying exams and finding an advisor. This all happens 6 months to a year AFTER enrolling. A small number already come in knowing Stanford professors (through connections, summer research programs, etc.). These are the only ones that have RAs right away. anuishp, whether the degree is "worth it" or not depends on what it's worth to you to be in Silicon Valley, how rich you are, and what your alternatives are.

There is no separate aid application. MS students are never given fellowship money and RA/TA are almost always (effectively always, I think) given to PhD students whom the professors already know. Funding is either a retention bribe for top PhD students or a salary for the work done by RAs and TAs. MS students at Stanford simply aren't meant to be funded as the program only exists to make money for Stanford.

Does anyone know the specific notification dates for the past few years? I hope it's always before April 15th, at least.