GeorgiaTechPhd

I am assuming that the interview is in the context of admission to a program. Some of the questions that you should be prepared to answer -- - Tell me more about your background (make sure you cover the part that is relevant to the program and/or the faculty member, and not just cover everything in it) - A project of your liking (again cover something related to the program) - Why have you applied to this program (say something specific to the program/school/faculty, and not the usual generic response) - What other schools you have applied to, and what is your priority (try to answer this as honestly as possible without blowing up your chances ) - What do you expect out of the program While there may or may not be a direct question around this, it is a good idea to read up the faculty's work, and try to relate some of your ideas/past experience with that, and just casually cite their work to let them know that you have read their work.

My background is not in neuroscience, so I can't help you with that. But I have been in the same situation as you (moved from engineering background to human-centered computing) and know many other who have done something similar (maths to information science, computer science to finance, etc.). So just make sure that when you prepare your statement, highlight the factors that motivated you to choose this field, what prepares you for the field, what are the gaps that you see in terms of your skills, and you have filled them up/plan to fill them up. From what you have written, it seems like you have all of this in mind, so just remember to also highlight this in your statement. I am pretty sure many people do a switch similar to what you have described, and it's a matter of convincing everyone else that you know what you are saying, and understand what you are getting yourself into.

Hi, I am an international student, and I was also admitted to multiple programs. The dates wouldn't have allowed me to attend all of them, so I just chose to visit my top school. Reflecting on that decision, I feel that I should have visited all the schools, to really make an informed decision. So if you have that option, I feel you should do that as well. If you don't have that option, there are a couple of other things you can try - - Reach out to the schools, explain your situation and ask if it is possible for you to visit at an alternate time (may be during the first week of April?). I know many people who have taken that path, and the schools have been more than happy to oblige by setting up a custom visit weekend for them (ultimately, they do want you to come) - The other option is to do all the legwork by yourself -- reach out to your PI or the program coordinator, ask them to connect you with current students, students from your lab, may be some other faculty member if you want to talk to them? Basically try to connect to as many people as possible, to find out whatever matters to you and helps you make the decision.

Hey, I would be happy to read your SOP and give any feedback, if it's not too late already.

You are right in assuming that not attending the welcome event will give the impression that you are probably not interested in them. However, it's hard to guess how that might impact the funding status. I would also like to tell you that if this university is one of your top priorities, then you should attend the welcome event, as it is a great opportunity to learn more about the program before making your decision. However, if you have absolutely made up your mind that you don't want to go, then the safest bet is to send an email to the program coordinator (or admissions coordinator), explaining them your reasons for why you can't attend the event (i.e., work and travel related, don't mention the other welcome event ), but you are still interested in the program.

Actually, that's not completely true. The 15th April deadline is for accepting funding offer. And also, it's not a law but something that has been adopted by a group of universities, precisely to help people in situations like this. While most US universities are part of this resolution, it's always good to confirm from them about the same. There is nothing wrong in doing that, and the university understands that most students will have multiple offers and may need some time to consider their options. And like Gatech_ST said, you should definitely attend the events as they will help you know more about the program.

Congrats on those admits. It always helps to have something in your pocket, while you wait for that one magical place to reply.

I have posted my response already but forgot to reply to your comment. Please see my last msg in this thread.

Yes, I did have an interview end of January I think, And then I had heard back by the second week of February. Although, I have said it in another post as well, but GaTech has a rolling process, and some people received their admits much later as well. But most people I know were interviewed at some point.

While that is definitely one way to go about it, some schools also have an empirical/historical idea of attrition rate, and they hire a few extra students to account for that. Most schools do this for master's program where students are admitted in larger numbers, and most student are admitted generally and not to specifically work with one faculty member. But some schools do this for PhD admissions as well. And of course, some times they do end up having a few extra students more than what they expected, but usually they are able to accommodate everyone.

Okay, so your list of schools is highly correlated with the schools where I applied, and being on the other side of it now, I can tell you that your credentials alone don't make a difference, it also depends on which sub-area you applied to, what you wrote in your SOP (i.e. why you want to be in that particular area), and how your skills fit into that area. Because often a lot of work is interdisciplinary and the competition is rife, most profs look for a specific profile (in terms of skills or ideas or knowledge) and there is no single notion of a 'good' applicant. So it's hard to say how good your chances are, but if you want to share more about your work, i will be happy to advice you further. What I can tell you is that UMich Ischool has sent out most of their admits, so I am afraid that might not be an option. Berkeley Ischool takes very few people, and they usually interview around end of jan/start of feb. TSB at NU though is usually very late to the scene, and last year they had approached me during mid of March, but I had already made up my mind by then. Let me know what other schools you have applied to, and if I can let you know about them as well.

So I know about GT MS HCI, and last year they started giving out the acceptances late February, and some people got it in March as well.

I am from a CS background so I can't tell you about your specific field, but I can advice you on general matters. When I had my visit days, I was an international student and I couldn't have gone to all the visit days, and eventually decided to only attend the visit day for my top priority school. Reflecting back on it, I feel it wasn't a very smart decision, and therefore I can tell you a bunch of things that you should definitely look out for -- 1) Talk to as many current students as possible -- understand the overall environment in the university and your program, how happy/content are the current students, how friendly they are, does it seem like a closely knit community or is everybody on their own, what is the trajectory of senior PhD students 2) Talk to anyone and everyone who has worked with your potential advisor -- understand their working style, the environment in the lab, how friendly they are, do they get along well with other people or not, funding situation 3) Have a very straightforward conversation with your potential advisor -- make sure they know what your expectations are, and if there is anything particular you are looking forward to. 4) Try to estimate about your financial situation -- how much stipend you will get in hand, any fixed expenses from university, living expenses, additional funding options etc. 5) Get a sense of life in the university/city -- what kind of activities you can see yourself becoming a part of, how is the city life in general, what is there to explore, if you are an international student (or a minority community in general), do you have a presence of that community in your university/city. Some obvious red flags can be -- if your advisor is too busy during the visit days and is unable to take out enough time to you. And this extends to everything, if you want to talk to someone or want to know something, but you cant find enough people who can help you or meet with you, I feel you need to be careful about it, and try to find out why it is, and if that is how it is going to be if you become a student there. Remember that most schools will try to project their most ideal version during the visit days, so you should be careful about even the small issues that pop up.

I don't know what program you have applied to at UoT, but for CS, UoT does it on a rolling basis. So one student receiving a letter doesn't necessarily mean good or bad. In fact, UoT has two proper admission cycles -- those who receive an early admit have to take a decision by some date in March, and then many people receive admits after that as well, with a later deadline for acceptance.

I see a few posts on the results page for Georgia Tech PhD admits. Wondering if there is anyone here who got an admit (across all CS-related programs -- ML, CS, HCC)? I am a current GaTech student and would be happy to answer any questions, connect you to other students, or just advice on matters.

Ohh, seems like you are in a very similar place as I was during my applications. But usually getting interviews is a good sign, and also depending on which programs you are talking about, the timeline and the process can vary a lot. Many programs have a very spaced out process -- I myself received some interview calls even in March.

Congrats for the offer. Somehow I don't see too many people commenting here, even though I can see many accepts on the results page.

So in case of UW, it does seem likely that if you haven't heard anything by now, you have probably been rejected. PhD in CS at UW is an extremely competitive program, probably one of the most competitive ones. Last year they received over 2100 applicants, and it keeps rising every year. I want to say that don't loosen your heart over it, its one rejection, but if this is the only school you applied to, I am not sure what else can I say.

Contrary to what everyone else has said, I think it can make a lot of difference in your application, if they know that one of you have already been selected for this school. However, it also depends on whether you had mentioned this in your application beforehand? (Yes, many people apply together to same schools, and explicitly mention it in their applications. Most schools tend to be very considerate about such things as they value the mental and emotional health of their students, and often try to accommodate both students if they are particularly interested in one of them) Another thing that matters is whether you have applied for PhD or Masters. Whatever I said above holds more for PhD programs than masters programs, since PhD is a longer and more difficult commitment. Still, I would suggest that you should talk to your PI -- explain your situation to them, let them know how important it is for you, and ask if there is anything that can be done. Out of all the people, your PI would care most about your personal wellbeing and will honestly let you know what your options are.

I think, as a general rule for most official situations, it is always good to be communicative rather than not being responsive. The only catch is that you need to be polite and considerate, and not just end up saying whatever you are thinking. In the specific situation that you have mentioned, I would definitely reach out to the faculty member -- thank them for the offer, and even talk to them to understand more about their work, the environment, and the expectations. The more information you have the easier it will be for you to decide later on. Even if you think that you have all the answers, and there is nothing more you want to know, you should still reach out -- thank them, reiterate your interest, and politely let them know that its a big decision for you, so you don't want to hurry into it and consider all possible factors. And let them know that you will reach out to them in case you have any more questions to ask. Remember that this person might be your advisor one day, so you definitely want to maintain a good relation with them, and the first step to that is establishing a good communication channel.

Well, it depends upon the context of the conversation you had with the director, what was your initial TOEFL score, and how much did it improvement. For e.g., if the improvement is marginal or if the original score was also at par anyway, it may not give out a good impression to point this out. On the other hand, if the improvement is indeed significant, it might make sense to send it out. You can write a polite note like --'Additionally, i have been working on my language skills, as i felt that <insert something that links it to you being a GTA>. Therefore, I recently attempted the TOEFL again, and improved my score to X. I have also attached the score receipts for your reference.' Also, keep in mind that some schools have a policy where they do not allow new material to be considered as part of your application once the deadline has passed. Since you gave the TOEFL again, the new scores would qualify as new material, and therefore you might want to check that out first before sending it to your director. You don't want to impose something on the director when they are not in a position to accept that as something valid.

What kind of help/tool are you looking at? I believe a personal statement simply requires a document processing tool like Microsoft Word. I personally prefer using latex (one of the free online tools for that is overleaf.com) as there are many templates that i can choose from, and latex takes care of most of the basic formatting issues. In addition, another thing that can help you with writing letters is a spellchecker and a grammar tool. Spellchecker is embedded as part of Microsoft Word. If you are using an online tool, a good option to have is the Grammarly extension for your browser. If you have the extension set up, it will automatically check for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors within any text that you type into a web form.

Which all programs have you applied to @letme? Most programs go through the interview process during this period. Some decisions starting coming out after 1st week of February, but most continue till late.

Great advice by @syn, I would do the same. Also, the brief conversation is mostly going to be about your plans and how likely you are to accept the offer. Many schools try to pressurize students to take an early decision (even if that's going to be a no, so that they can send out more offers). However, if you have received the offer letter, there is no need to shy away. You should tell them that you would like to make an informed decision and not hurry into it, and therefore, you are waiting to hear from XYZ schools. Like syn said, this might even get you a better offer if you are lucky, but there is definitely no harm, as long as you have official offer in your hand.

This is really good stuff man. Honestly, I am not an EDM person so I can't tell you what is good or bad, but its really nice to see someone doing something productive and engaging during this otherwise anxious period. I see that you have also interviewed at a couple of places. Keep going strong, and best of luck