timuralp

You should check either the school site or read the tax documents from the state about this. I found the following excerpt: You can read more about it here: http://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/publications/income/pub88.pdf and go through the NY State tax site. Yep, I'm procrastinating

I think Linux is still not known to most people; has a somewhat steep learning curve (especially if anything breaks); and is still like these spoofs: Having said that, that's what I use almost exclusively

Most of the presentations I've seen include some sort of branding, usually in the corner of every slide. We typically use the group logo for it, from which the university is also obvious.

Most students can (and a lot do) change their advisors. The professor recruiting you is not necessarily the professor you are going to work with.

Could this please be more specific? Look through SOSP, OSDI, NSDI. What is an example of "real research" vs "implementation"? Personally, I try to think of interesting ideas, think of how to create the system around them (design), consider any *interesting* implementation challenges, and evaluate the system (evaluation). The benefit of building the whole thing is that in the process of running experiments with it, one might learn something unknown about the world in which it is deployed. Maybe it is affected by a feature of a certain other system in a weird way that no one would think of otherwise.

Please stop repeating this without any data to support it. To anyone who cares there are a bunch of papers in CS talking about failure rates of components and, for example, for hard drives, fixing the manufacturer does not make a significant difference. In general, these components are not frequently replaced and if the hard drive dies, you're pretty unlucky (barring some firmware/manufacturing bug, which are pretty rare themselves). You have to backup your data no matter what you buy.

Ok, I'm confused. All the specifications are the same but it performs worse? I don't mean to be obnoxious about this, but if the actual hardware is the same, what is the reason for the slow down? What I'm getting at is that the things that differentiate them are: case design (heat dissipation, antenna positioning, mechanical differences, etc), but those would not affect the performance in terms of "slow to run a program" and the cause most likely lies in the software. Anyway, I should've been clear about what I tried to get at.

Just wanted to couple on a couple of points. This is true in general, however, there are 2 things that mitigate this problem significantly: after 5:30(?) parking at the court house is free for all. The courthouse is 2 blocks away from the middle of Main St. If you're willing to walk 5 minutes, might be worthwhile. Secondly, parking close to the University is not bad after 3 pm if you have the after hours permit. It costs $40/year or something like that. With it, you can park in any of the University parking garages for free. There is one right in the middle of campus (Church St) and one next to State St (on Thayer). You'll find Main st, State st, and South University are where most people end up. Traffic through downtown at 5 pm and in the morning coming from the west is a pain. I have set in it before for 30 minutes, but it's nothing compared to Boston. Or any other actual city. I would qualify this with errands anywhere around the Stadium (think 1-2 mile radius). However, heading north around it or south, shopping can be quite easy. About living close to campus, I live 5 miles from it right now. I have run there and back before, but that's probably not something you want to do every day However, driving from my house to campus takes between 15 and 20 minutes, depending on traffic -- not terrible. Going home in the evening (preferably after 6:30), can be done in maybe 10. I haven't found it to be an issue in terms of social life. Personally, I'd look for the best fit in terms of the apartment and not worry about the distance as much. Check out the west side, as pretty few undergrads live there too (that's the area heading west on Liberty St, passed Main St and beyond.

I've had the same Dell laptop for 4.5 years. I've seen people railing against Dell repeatedly and I'm left a bit confused. As far as I can tell, I pretty much got the best value for the $600 I spent on it at the time. Often, the criticism is "runs slowly", but that's not even a hardware issue. I'm not saying that one should only consider them, but I think Dell's getting more flak than they deserve. Also, looking at the actual components they're pretty much the same across the board and one could easily figure out what the brand markup is for every brand. The only thing that really changes is the case.

I would argue that, at least in CS, majority of students coming in don't actually know exactly what they want to do. Most probably have worked on research, and some even have an idea of what they liked better, but it's hard to figure it out exactly. I know people who have successfully gone from AI to Architecture, from Architecture to Systems, from Theory to AI. It happens all the time. Also, make sure you don't fall into the trap of thinking that just because you start working with someone and you don't enjoy the area or the topic, you can't switch projects/advisors. In the end, people switch all the time. It's ok to switch and it's ok to go into a new area. The most important thing, in my opinion, is that you're excited about the area.

I like to do research, I was excited about it in undergrad and excited about it still. Often times I have to work long hours, but somehow it never really feels like work. I feel like I'm getting paid to do the kinda things I'd want to do anyway - what could be better?

I use Debian for everything -- I find it to be a nice balance of compiling stuff I care about and using other stuff that I really couldn't care less about compiling. By the way, since when is resource allocation in Ubuntu different from any other distro? If there's something one is hell bent on doing differently, compiling your own kernel takes only 5 minutes, but that's a different story). What other resources are allocated outside the kernel? I have a win7 install kicking around in a VM and as a dual boot because OOImpress doesn't really cut it for presentations. Also, not to nitpick (don't you love how everyone who says that goes on to nitpick?), but Linux and UNIX are indeed different. Just because Linux implements a large chunk of POSIX , doesn't make them the same.

The University arranged for free and cheaper transportation after buses stop. Here's the whole description: http://pts.umich.edu/taking_the_bus/special_services.php#night_ride So even if the buses stop running, if you live in Ann Arbor, it's not that bad to get home.

Here's one clinic: http://annarboranimalhospital.com/ I can't say if it's good or bad, but looks respectable, so maybe worth trying? Depends on where you live, but in general it's kind of a pain. You'd probably be able to take the bus to get to a store (Kroger, Busch's, Whole Foods), but that also limits how much stuff you can bring back. If you have a driver's license, zipcar -- renting a car by the hour -- may be a good idea. There is no Chinatown, but there are some Asian grocery stores. I like Tsai Grocery. There is also one right by North campus and a couple more similar stores. Where to buy will potentially depend on where you live. Whole Foods has the better quality produce (most of the time) and is priced accordingly. The two Whole Foods stores are also not exactly close to campus. You could also try Busch's and Kroger. Kroger's the cheapest, but the quality may be worse.

I checked this thread out for the hell of it and wanted to make two comments. I tracked every storm as it was happening last summer, and every time the storm would split and go around Ann Arbor. My guess is because of the urban heat island effect, but I'm not a meteorologist. Either way, it never was a problem. Only issue is that Michigan drivers freak out and the most dangerous thing in that weather is someone going 40 mph and deciding to cut off 3 cars to make a right turn out of the middle lane. I was the second person that got cut off. I live on the top floor in my complex and just tracked each storm online, saw that it's going around the city and kept watching whatever DVD I had -- not a huge deal. There are also tornado shelters at school -- awesome for studying. About the raucous grad programs. If you're going to be in the student section at the big house, at least half the people will be drunk there. The tailgating for a noon game starts at 8-9 am and for a 3 pm game, around 11-noon. There are grad students there and some people in some programs like to drink for the games. Does that mean everyone in your program is an alcoholic? No. It also doesn't mean that you have to go or if you go have to drink or if people in your department go out on weekends, you have to get drunk as well. Basically... it's personal choice and I would not let that be one of the deciding factors. I guess if anyone has some questions about the city, you can PM me. I'll try to get back to you. Congratulations on the acceptances!

Huron Towers might be ok. It's partially open, but not much gets in, I think. You might also consider looking at winter car storage places. There are a bunch of them around Ann Arbor and I've found some garages where one could store a car over winter for $40-70/month, which November/December to mid-March/April wouldn't be too bad. Honestly, that may be the best bet. Otherwise, you'd most likely need to look at condos (Geddes Lake is one example) or renting a house. The worst part about winter that I've found is the number of huge potholes that appear (the roads here are awful), so you might need to get the car aligned more often. On my car, I've found that the door sills had a whole bunch of rust - I didn't check there for a while, because it was covered up by the rubber cover on top. The other rust problem was that the muffler mount rusted and corroded the muffler, making a hole in it. That was not a huge deal to fix, but ran close to $200. Aside from that, my car's been here for 3 years and it's 12 years old without any other big issues. The front wheel drive comment is spot on. If you're really worried about driving in the snow, you could invest in winter tires. If you get them locally, they'll change tires seasonally for you for free (I think), otherwise it gets a bit pricey, so investing in some junkyard rims might be a good idea.

Check the weather, because even in the middle of February it warmed up into the 50s for a few days. The weather's a little unpredictable. However, most likely, you will spend little time outside during your visit (depending on the program). I know that the engineering visits involve almost no time spent outside during the visit. You can also get by with layers. Even in 10s or 20s, I wear a sweatshirt and a lighter, fall jacket over it. If it's windy, I'd also wear a scarf and get by all right. The other thing that might be important is grabbing a headband or a hat to cover up your ears from the wind.

I play soccer, basketball, touch football, and go running on somewhat regular basis. We have a few people interested in basketball, so we play pick-up 1-2 times a week. Before I met those people, I would just go to the gym and play with anyone there. I don't like indoor soccer, but I play in the summer: either pick-up with whoever shows up or in a local league. Touch football with friends, but it's harder to organize. And I used to run every day, but recently have been slacking. I'll try to get back into it soon. Basically, doing sports is easy, as long as there is some desire to do them. I've found that finding pick-up games is pretty easy and most people are fine to play with. There is also a grad running club. About IM: each sport is usually played once a week for a month or two; it's a lot more fun with friends; it requires some money. Depending on what your interests, pick-up may be a better way to go. Also, if the department has some teams, it would work a lot better. Hope that helps!

First author is weighted significantly higher. Being a second, third, fourth, etc author is mostly useful to pad the publication count. The first author on the publication is understood to have conceived the idea and done the most work on it (most of the time it's true). Second author is usually either helping with editing or a section or helping with the evaluation. Congratulations on the paper!

The answer to all your questions is "depends". I'll try to explain it better. First of all, it most likely depends on your field and your advisor. In my experience (read, my field and my advisor), I stayed to work on research every summer, but every summer I would take a couple of weeks off and have my vacation. The reason summers were/are important for me is because in the first two years you spend time on classes and summer is the time to do actual research. You may wonder why bother with research in the summer before you're in the PhD part and the reason is that most (not all, probably) programs and fields require some sort of proof of your research aptitude before admitting the student to PhD. In my program, it involves making an oral presentation of your own research project in front of three faculty members. Obviously, not having a completed research project makes the presentation much harder Later on, students go on internships, vacations, etc. The only thing that matters is when the conference deadlines are. It's better to be in town for the deadlines, although, that's probably field dependent as well. Depends. If you have a deadline on that day, 'tis a lot harder. Otherwise, I've gone home on breaks (Christmas, Thanksgiving) and just made sure to keep my advisor up to date on my travel plans. You might be asked to do reviews/read papers/do some work over break, but in my case it was never overbearing. Depends on your advisor and program. My advisor's mantra was that I should get B+ in every class except for my core classes. Reason being that B+ is bare minimum and anything above shows that I'm spending too much time on classes and not enough on research. I have been doing research work, since the first semester. However, chances are you'll have no idea what you want to do for at least half a year and it's good to take that opportunity to explore the field and figure out what you're interested. Conveniently, it leaves more time for class work As the previous poster said, ask the grad students, ask the faculty when you go for a visit and it will help you understand the dynamic. When you go for a visit, you're interviewing them, as much as they're interviewing you. Make the best of it.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is while all of the things he's done are deplorable and deserve a punishment, there is also some burden that rests with the people that didn't actually check his application. The MIT professors that recommended him are staff members at Bowdoin, he allegedly took two AP exams in middle school (that is at least worth checking?), the falsified transcript listed a trimester-long AP course which is only offered as a year-long course, and so on. He's not some sort of cunning criminal, building an elaborate web of lies. He was wrong, but somehow you completely remove any onus of checking the application from the University. I think it was that circumstance that was a mitigating factor, along with the fact that he didn't have any prior issues with the law. The reason another, more deserving student did not get admitted to Harvard on a scholarship is because of the laws of the admission committee. Does it really not request official documents/transcripts/check the references? That is what I've found far more disturbing in this story.

To be fair, pleading not guilty cannot be considered a lie on the part of the defendant. I'm sure there was a better quote in that article for this thread.

People mentioned social life and outside of grad school life. I'll be a little more specific and it's probably what you guys meant anyway. Make sure you have a hobby! It can be anything you want. Maybe you're into running or video games or you like working on cars/bikes or you like bike riding, but figure out at least one. The point is that if you're always focused on school and research, you're going to have a harder time not burning out. If you're really social, that's a hobby too, but don't talk about school, for at least one day The bigger point I'm trying to get at is that as grad school goes on, one has to find ways to stay motivated. No one knows the answer to your problem (otherwise it wouldn't be research) and most other people don't care about the question anyway, so it's easy to get down. If you've got your hobby, it can clear the mind from any thoughts and help one remember why you're interested in this stuff to begin with! After that, motivation comes easy Hobbies are also great ways to make friends and will keep one from feeling lonely in a new place! That probably belongs in the other thread about social life, but just throwing it out there.

Honestly, the simple pages are fine. Maybe my field is somewhat different from others, but there are plenty of bland-looking pages in CS. There is nothing wrong with a simple page that mentions who you are, has some recent news, and links to Publications, CV/Resume, and in some cases people put either personal stuff or project implementation information, etc. Start with something, even if it's simple. It's much easier to iterate than create the "perfect" page from the get-go and I bet no one in the field will really judge you.

The first research project I got on was because I asked a professor in one of my classes after class what research he was doing right now and that I was looking for a research project. That led to a conversation in his office and a 3 year project. Professors LOVE to talk to about their research. If you have a professor, whose work you like and whose class you're taking, you could even go and ask the question during office hours (assuming it's not mobbed - I would bet it won't be, especially in the beginning of the semester). Another professor I emailed something along the lines of: "I'm a [insert year] student majoring in awesome. I have looked at the recent projects you have done in this area and am very interested in it. I was hoping to meet with you at some point to talk about working with you on this topic." I've found that thinking about doing these things was a lot harder than actually doing them and after you send a few emails and get some responses, you'll realize it's not so hard. In my experience, every time I worked with anyone I was put on a "trial" period, because faculty does not trust undergrads (for good reason). After that period, you might even get paid, which would be way more awesome than credits. If you need credits, you'll find out you can have as many as you want. If some faculty tell you they don't work with undergrads or don't have time, don't take it to heart. Good luck.