GeorgiaTechPhd

I am not sure what you mean by IC Computing?

I am in a fairly similar situation as you are, so I can tell you what i have heard from other people, and the course of action I have decided to take. However, from what I understood, it also depends on the academic/administrative system of your school/department, and how they handle the process. Some schools care a lot about their students and will try to support you in whatever decision you take, while others leave you to the mercy of your advisor, so if they oust you, the school will also not care. So the two important things to note here are -- 1) Does your advisor or anyone around them have an idea that you are finding it hard to fit in? This can be both good and bad. Ideally, I would suggested (and this is what I did as well) that your advisor should know that all is not going well with you. You don't have to go and tell them they are toxic, but rather try to attribute everything to the situation or to a difference in personality. For e.g, in my case my advisor had gone away on a different appointment, and he didn't have any other lab student behind, so I put everything around how I feel alone, and need other people around me. If you want to focus on the match between you and your advisor, mention how you think your working style is different from theirs, instead of saying how they toxic they are. And you need to maintain this in front of everyone else. 2) Do you have a potential backup option? This is probably the most important thing. In an ideal situation you want to have enough rapport with another faculty member so that you are in a position to ask them to take you in, before you let go off your current advisor. One way to get there is to try and collaborate with other faculties on your work. You bring them on to your work, and then slowly transition over to their side. If you are taking a class with someone else, that can also turn out be a potential opportunity. Finally, the important thing is to engage with the school administration. In my school, there is an ombudsperson who usually helps students in such situations. In some cases, they will talk to the department and arrange for additional funding opportunities for you (for e.g., TAship) so you can take that time to switch your advisors without worrying about funding for a short time. Even if you think that the school can't help you with it, it is important to let the admins know that you are facing issues -- once you are sure that you want to switch. This is important so that the school knows your side of story if your advisor decides to take any action against you. The only situation in which you may want to avoid doing that is if there is no way to ensure that the school will maintain the confidentiality of your matter.

Hi, I am sorry for your situation, and just want you to know that this is not the end of the world yet. However, to help you out more with this situation, can you tell me how many programs you applied to? (your area of application as well, if you don't mind)

If you are worried, you can send a polite email to the professor -- 'Dear Prof. XYZ, It was nice talking to you..blah blah... I wanted to know what is the admission process going forward, and if there is a timeline according which the decision will be conveyed to me'

What all schools have you guys applied to? This is about the time when the admission committee/individual faculties start reaching out to students for interviews, but it's definitely not too late to start worrying about anything. So don't stress too much.

To everyone who's going crazy during this time, first of all, it's okay to feel what you are feeling. I am sure you have put in a lot of effort into submitting your applications, have a strong commitment to the field in which you have applied, and therefore, eagerly want to get in to one of the programs. Not only that, at least the next few years of your life are completely dependent on the decision -- what you will be doing, where you will be, etc. etc. It would be unnatural for you to not freak out when so much is out on the line, and you no longer have any control of the process -- all you can do is wait. I know that's not a very rosy picture, but its important to not beat yourself for feeling like that or when you are not able to get any work done. However, once you accept that, I can tell you that this time also offers you an opportunity. Since you have little control over what's going to happen next, you are free to try out different things and explore yourself. When I was going through this phase, I travelled a lot, saw new places, met old friends. And whenever I was not traveling, I was planning for the next trip. Not only did I make a lot of memories, it also allowed me to intermittently take my mind off the whole admission process. Also, I'm not saying give up on your life completely and start traveling. I was also working full-time during this period, but the important thing was that I wasn't waiting to get free time on my hand and then figure out what to do, I was actively going out and finding new things to do and places to try out.

Regarding your first question, it really depends on the school and the program. Some schools (for e.g. School of Information at UC Berkeley) have a centralized process where an admission committee chooses a list of candidates and then the faculties get to choose between them. On the other extreme, there are schools where faculty members have absolute power, and a recommendation from a faculty almost means that you will be selected. The admission committee mostly does administrative work, like verifying that you satisfy the requirements, etc. Most schools however will be somewhere in between, and also, different faculty members have different influence over the committee (depending upon their official role and their relation with other members). Regarding the incorrect GPA, like Wang suggested, I think you should reach out to them explaining the mistake. They are probably not going to accept/reject you based on this, but its always good to be on the safer side and let them know in advance.

I don't think it makes a difference. You should put in your current GPA for your MS CS applications. Two things 1) The admission process at GeorgiaTech is quite decentralized. In most cases, what happens inside the Industrial department doesn't reach the School of Computer Science and vice versa. So chances are that nobody is going to look at both your applications 2) In the scenario that it does happen, you still shouldn't worry about it because you haven't done anything wrong -- you have the right reason as well as the proof of it. If someone thought this was a problem, they will either look at your docs, or will reach out to you, and in both cases they will get a satisfactory answer.

Just so you know, different schools have very different processes, and a lot of schools send out their decisions (even acceptances) on a rolling basis. In fact, in some cases they even have a pipeline so that all decisions that are made in a given week will be sent out at the end of the week (i.e. Friday). I know that's how Georgia Tech did their PhD admits last year. So just because some people have heard but you haven't doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad news. Just hang out there, and best of luck.

I feel that it never hurts to reach out if you are writing a brief note and not imposing yourself on anyone. For e.g., in such situations (when I was in touch with the PoI before the application review), during the application review period, I would write a simple email like 'I was wondering if you got a chance to look at my application or not, and I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have about the same' Important thing to realize is that nobody is going to reject your application because you bugged them with this extra small email (again assuming you are being polite and brief). Worst case, they may get mildly annoyed seeing it and therefore ignore it, but it's not going to make or break your situation.