CanuckBoy

For those waiting for Purdue, decisions will begin to roll out today and continue for the next month.

I finally got the acceptance letter today, had verbal acceptances for a while. Need to make a decision by March 9th.

Totally depends on the fit (group, supervisor, environment, and project) at that point.

The worst part of all this is seeing all these posts in the results page of people getting accepted into your programs... I'm currently at the stage of losing all hope lol...

BTW, According to Peterson's, 450 people applied last year or the year before. This year is over 1100?! http://www.petersons.com/graduate-schools/purdue-university-school-of-mechanical-engineering-admissions-000_10027860_10099.aspx

Oy... looks like we're in for a tough fight...

They are still reviewing applications, they said there are over 1100 applicants this year.

So my email got forwarded to Vicki and apparently she was expecting TOEFL results from me. I told her I don't need TOEFL, now my application is complete... Two months ago she said my application was complete... Great impression... Didn't give any information on decisions.

That reminds me. A classmate of mine in high school applied to this school, got accepted in a program he never applied to (same dept as the program he applied to). He called them up and they all they said was, "Oh... well all the acceptances for the program has been sent.".

Not yet, hopefully soon.

MIT's thermofluids is quite strong. I have classmates there so I had a tour of the major labs in the department. I have to say I was impressed. The MEMS and design groups there are very strong as well. I personally find the Taiwanese ranking quite useful since a lot of data is shown for your own processing. However, their website doesn't always work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_Ranking_of_Scientific_Papers_for_World_Universities#HEEACT_World_University_Rankings_.28Top_20_by_subject.29

Since we're talking about rankings, this one attempts to remove the subjectivity. http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20111205195909326

You're right, that is too much. The mentality of "I am automatically better than you just by attending a school that is ranked higher"..... Rankings have always been biased, there are certainly many great schools out there that are "undervalued". Despite these rankings, we all know who/where the top people/groups are in our fields.

I agree with you to some degree. However, we need to keep in mind that a student's perception of a professor on "knowing stuff very well" varies from project to project. For example, my current professor is very well known in his traditional field, the guy who sits beside me adores my professor because his project is exactly aligned with my prof's expertise. I, on the other hand works on a project that he knows nothing about and of course my experience with him is not as positive. Does this happen at Caltech or Stanford? Of course. A professor mentioned to me during an interview, "If you need to be told what you need to do, you don't belong in my group.", and I agree with that. Ultimately, I'm not looking for a supervisor to hold my hand but rather one that can give a "good" topic (doesn't matter so much whether the prof knows the details since it is impossible to find such a supervisor, and we all know the students end up doing the work anyways), leads a group of strong and knowledgeable students that I get along and can have meaningful discussions with (this is where the higher ranked schools come in), and of course has some funding. I do agree that students do overemphasize rankings but what other information is easily accessible? I'm sure I can say the reverse is true of Americans with Canadian schools. Most people I know are doing PhD because they want an academic career. Based on what I've seen, recent hires in major universities in my country are mostly graduates of American universities. I've seen too many amazing PhD graduates with amazing publication records that wouldn't even get shortlisted for interview because of where they got their terminal degree. This is unfair but it is life. If the opportunity presents itself for me, or anyone, (too many threads about this) to attend a school in the "overrated" top 5-10 schools in hopes for a better shot finding an academic position after or a top 20-30 school? The natural reaction is to take rankings into consideration.

Not yet. It's Friday, so maybe next week? Maybe I got rejected already so they don't care about me.

I just emailed Julayne about my pending status and asked for some update, will keep you posted. I'm looking at heat transfer and fluid mechanics. There are a number of professors there that are outstanding, would be thrilled to work for them. I've contacted one of the professors there last year as well. Who was your supervisor if you don't mind me asking. PM me if it is more convenient.

Easiest way is to check the results section to see how people received the decisions. If everyone received over email then wait for the email.

From the results section. Purdue won't send anything out until mid Feb so it'll be another 2 weeks at least. My status still says documents pending but Vicki said my application is complete. You probably know their admission process better than I do. I heard if a prof wants you, you're in?

Hello! A thread for mech eng! It's still pretty early at this point but we should see gradual waves of early replies in the next few weeks. I applied to: MIT Stanford Purdue USC Toronto - 3 professors contacted me, 2 interviews, verbal acceptances Georgia Tech - Got an email from them: We are in receipt of your application to the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. You have a very strong file and great credentials. Thank you for your interest in Georgia Tech! You have not been offered admission, but at the present time your file has been made available for viewing by the faculty of the Woodruff School via an internal web site. If a faculty member views your file and expresses an interest in working with you, we will notify you and continue to process your application. This evaluation will continue until July 1, 2012 and we will advise you of our decision at the latest by that date. In the meanwhile, if you receive another admission and financial aid offer and need to make an earlier decision, please inform us and we will try to expedite the consideration of your application. I'm not sure if most/all reject applicants receive this. I looked this up online, apparently there are mixed interpretations on what this means. From first glance I thought it was just telling me that they have received my application; however, now I interpret it as a nice rejection with a TINY glimmer of hope. Anyways, good luck to all!

I've seen your name in IMO and Putnam competitions. Small world.

I actually find myself refreshing Gmail app on my phone and physically clicking refresh in browser even though it refreshes itself... Especially when I started seeing news of other departments of schools I applied to...

Thanks

I don't think those numbers are published. Each institution has a quota on how many they can submit each year so I would guess that the ratio of the number of successful applicants to the number of applicants recommended by an institution should be around the 0.7-0.9.

Thanks for the response. What are your thoughts on how?

I don't want to go off topic too much but I was wondering if I can get some opinions on helping underprivileged kids with their education. I also don't want to confuse working class with "poorer" class but it seems that both receive similar resistance while in pursuit of higher education. I read that in Toronto, they are trying this "get paid to go to school" scheme. Personally, I have mixed feelings about this. http://www.thestar.com/article/891921--should-we-pay-needy-students-to-attend-school My parents are both first generation and so while I was growing up I was constantly bombarded with stories about their difficult paths to higher education. Now they spend a lot of time volunteering to help underprivileged kids with their studies in the hopes that they wouldn't have to go through that they had gone through. One thing they mentioned that angers them is the perpetual cycle of the kids just want to find a job after high school. My dad came from a poor neighbourhood, he said he went back 20 years after he "escaped" from there, and it's still the same people living there, doing the same work, just a newer generation. What are your thoughts about helping poor kids? Should we try to encourage them to pursue higher education? Should this be done at a personal level? Community level? Or an even larger scale? What do you think about helping prospective first generation university students to achieve their goals? Should this be done at a personal level? Community level? Or an even larger scale?