Raul

I'm interested. PM me if you want my thoughts. bye

Hello everyone! I would like to start a Phd program in Fall 2011. Regardless the list of universities to which I am planning to apply, now I am interested on what universities are focused on Cyber-Physical systems. According to what I know and what I have found, the following have got people working on that: - Carnegie Mellon - Berkeley - University of Virginia - UIUC - UPenn - UCLA Does anybody know anyone else? What about UC Irvine? Thank you very much!

angusBF Thank you one more time. Regarding the listening, reading and writing sections of the TOEFL, maybe I could do it well. The Speaking section is more difficult for me since I can't speak English everyday. I'm planning to do the exam on July (after finishing the Master), so I figure out that I have time to prepare. Thanks for the encouragement. And about the GRE exam, I'll take into account your advices. This thread has been very useful for me, so thank you all! See you around here, and I hope I could help someone next time. Cheers!

As always very useful your words angusBF. I am right now fully concentrated on my on-going research. But I will also put attention on the Master, in order to get a good mark. This is very difficult, I am researching, the Master, the TOEFL preparation, I have to begin with the GRE (which for a non-native English speaker is difficult I think).... But, no risk no glory! Thank you all! Cheers

Hello Scyrus. I encounter what you have pointed very interesting. I'm gonna to explain briefly my GPA. In Spain, the grade system is different from USA. Actually, here GPA does not exist, they evaluate you from 0 to 10 points. In my grade system, I marked 7.1/10, and that was the best mark among my peers. I think that a girl marked nearly 8/10 years ago, but that is extremely difficult. Then, my first doubt was how to map my grade system into yours. I wrote UMich, and UIUC in order to ask for that information. UIUC told me not to worry about the grade system conversion, and to concentrate on the other requirements. And Rackham School @UMich, did the conversion for me. Well, they told me that my mark is equivalent to a 3.0/4.0 GPA. That surprised me, because I am plenty confident that my mark here is Spain is very high, but.... I have the documents that justify my promotion place (1st like I told before), but it seems that the mapping prejudice me a lot, and I do not know what to do. Currently, in the masters degree that I am doing, the grade system is also from 0 to 10, but the evaluation is based on research works etc. It is very different to the bachelor (it is much easier to rise a better final mark), and I am trying to rise above the 3.5 equivalent GPA. (In this way, I would have a mark for the bachelor, and another one for the Master). Do you think that I must do something about my bachelor GPA, ask for mapping information in other places? Do you think that the Master mark would have importance for them? (I'm planning to ask them this question too). Finally, thanks for the UIUC admissions rate clarification. Cheers!

Thank you all! For me it is very important that information. It is difficult to take a snapshot of what process admissions really is from Spain. I am reading webs, listening to spanish professors, but in the end it is difficult to figure out how it is. Here in Spain is just completely different, so I think that my vision is fuzzy. I'll take into account your words and I'll rethink the universities to apply. Thanks. Perhaps I need to prepare the admissions faster. And in order to accomplish that I think that I am going to talk with my current advisor in order to ask for interesting departments in the USA (regarding my field research). Cheers!

Ok, you are absolutely right. Instead of applying to 5 universities, maybe I would have to apply to 6. For example: I am going to apply MIT and UC-Berkeley as the top universities.(2) UI-Urbana-Champaign, according to USNews and World report has a 69% total admissions. Well, this data is perhaps confusing, but I want to try there too. (1) UMich has a very good department too and Ann Arbor seems to be a great city. (1) So, in conclusion I must choose other two universities to apply, and following your advice, I will choose that two trying to ensure the admission (although perhaps this is much to say...) This is being a very useful thread for me, because now I am almost sure about 4/6 universities, and I have the guidelines in order to choose the other two left. Thank you again angusBF!

Thank you very much angusBF. Firstly, now I have my mind clear about the research paper, if I want to get admitted I must publish all I have in mind. Thank you for the UNC-CH and MIT info too. The main problem I had is that I have no reference which I could use in order to measure my chances to get there, so your information has been very useful. I hope more comments in order to decide which 5 universities to apply (within that list or not). Do you think that applying 5 universities is a good number? Cheers!

Let's see. If you would have to choose five out the following: MIT UC-Berkeley UI-Urbana-Champaign UMich UNC-Chapell Hill Georgia Tech UC-Irvine I think that all those ones have a strong CS deparment, and particularly they are good at Real time and distributed systems, so... What would you choose? Any other that is not in the list? Thanks!

Hello everybody. I'm Raul and I'm new at this forum. In CollegeConfidential they advised me to visit this forum, and here I am. I am currently doing a master degree in Spain (research oriented), and my plan is to do the Phd in USA (applying this fall). I am not sure about what universities to apply, and that's the reason I'm writing you. I have a 3/4 GPA (the Rackham School @ UMich did the mapping between the spanish system and the GPA), but in the Master degree that I am now doing I am going to rise this mark. My mark was the first one among the students in my bachelor, and I am going to publish some research work in which I have been working on last months. The problem is that I haven't any real reference about what universities hope about the applicants. So, what do you think about my chances at UIUrbana-Champaign, Georgia Tech, UMich? Another university that you would recommend me? My field research are real time systems, and distributed systems... I hope you could help me. Thank you very much!