Azazel

Yeah, I applied to the same two programs, and I've given up on CMU. Maybe I'm overly pessimistic. It would be nice if they'd send official rejections.

I think that all the Cornell accepts have been sent out. As for Harvard, I'm waiting on them too. If last year is any indication, those who are accepted should hear this week. I wouldn't call. Not yet, anyway.

Went quite well. Both conversations were pleasant and reasonably informal. Both professors asked about my research interests, what I am interested in working on, etc. My impression was that neither interviewer knew about the other.

Having spoken with another Berkeley Prof. (2nd interview), I can confirm that the 10th looks highly probable for results.

Yeah, sort of annoying. The trick I use to get around such spelling mishaps is to search on "[school] computer" (e.g. "berkeley computer"). This returns both the science and scicence results. Sometimes a few for ECE as well, but that's ok.

Has anyone else here still heard nothing from them?

Nice, thanks for sharing. That fits in with the timetable I've heard mentioned, although my interviewer wasn't so specific.

Even pleasant and informal conversations can reveal things about an applicant. For instance, you might reveal how cogent you are in discussing your research interests, or how likely it seems that you will attend a school if accepted. The voice medium also better allows for other, more subjective, judgements concerning one's apparent attitude, degree of passion, and general character. I have no idea how important any of these things are, but I suspect that professors are looking for students who are able to present themselves well. Talking informally about your research interests is one way for them to get a sense of that ability.

I'd say that you have an excellent chance for a masters at top schools. My advice would be to focus on research experience (try for publication, perhaps) above anything else. The great thing about research experience is that, in addition to the research itself, you will usually get great recommendation letters out of it. Such letters are perhaps the most important part of your application. And I don't think a 3.7 GPA would be at all terrible, but all else equal, you are of course better off if it remains in the 3.8s. Don't worry about the GRE too much. As long as you do reasonably well, top programs don't really care about it.

I worried about that as well, but I think an interview is a positive thing. At least, people who should be "in the know" seemed to suggest it was positive when I asked them about it.

From the conversation I had with someone at Berkeley, it seems clear that they do now have a "shortlist." But I don't know whether they plan on calling/contacting everyone on that list before making the final decisions.

Seems a reasonable strategy. And professors, after all, are very busy people... It would be helpful to know whether anyone who was admitted last year heard first from the official notification. Also, I'll mention for general interest that UW Seattle should be releasing their decisions later this week (someone just posted so in the results section). Perhaps I can move on to worrying over that, instead.

Hmm. That's interesting. So the people who have heard so far may have received "early" notice from obliging professors. But most of the admits should have at least one such professor interested in working with them (one would think?) Given that no new admissions were received (or at least, reported) today, I'm guessing at rejections for those of us who haven't yet heard (for general CS). I'd happily be proved wrong, however...

If CMU follows last year's pattern, then acceptances should trickle in over the next few days. Of course, that effect may be due to people reporting incorrect acceptance dates. For myself, I'm giving it a few more days before concluding anything one way or the other.

Yeah, it's rather sad but I was constantly checking my phone yesterday for missed calls... And I doubt that CMU would call everyone who is an initial admit. Not time effective. So if they follow last year's pattern, then more of us should be getting emails within the next few days.

Nice! I applied to both those programs as well, and it's interesting that they didn't draw a distinction between the two. I suppose that pertaining to research/advisor it doesn't really matter, but I think the required coursework is quite different for ML. Hopefully the rest of us will be hearing something soon.

Everything I've heard suggests that this answer is correct, with the exception that some top schools may filter out applicants with very low GREs.