brassgod

The profile template is below. Check out the prvious years profiles threads too. ______________________________________________ Undergrad Institution: (School or type of school, such as big state, lib arts, ivy, technical, foreign (what country?)... Overall Reputation in Physics?) Major(s): Minor(s): GPA in Major: Overall GPA: Length of Degree: (Are you graduating after 3, 4, or 5 years?) Position in Class: (No numbers needed, but are you top? near top? average? struggling?) Type of Student: (Domestic/International, male/female, minority?) GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: V: W: P: TOEFL Total: (if applicable, otherwise delete this) Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications (Mth author out of N?) or conference talks etc...) Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?) Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, SPS officer etc...) Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...) Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Applying to Where: School - Department - Research Interest School - Department - Research Interest School - Department - Research Interest ______________________________________________ Thanks to quizivex for the template from previous years.

I would go with Georgia Tech because of the funding. Personally, I have undergraduate student loans so i would try to avoid increasing my debts. Georgia Tech is a reputable school (#4 USNews, if you're going by that metric) so people who are in the field will know the school. You also forgot other important relevant details: Will this a be terminal degree?Do you want to do a thesis/research?What is your intended specialty?How important is location? Which do you prefer?What do you plan on doing after earning the MS?Where do you plan to work, if you're going into industry?In 10 years, will the school name matter? (Some people take great pride in their alma mater)

It seems like this thread is made specifically for ECE applicants so the other threads may not be as important in that regard.

I haven't heard anything from UCSD! C'mon, just reject me already OR shower me with money!

You'll just get more of the same answers on forums: opinions, rumors, he said, she said, etc. I don't see how much more official qual results you can get than the reported stats from Stanford. The first time you take the quals, you will have a ~50% chance of passing them, based on the consistant stats for the past years. If you fail your first attempt and decide to retake it, you will have >70% chance of passing it. I don't know where you're getting the 85% from. Last year, 100 out of 174 passed (first-timers + second timers), and that's ~57% pass.

I was at work. Checked my mail in between meetings. Got email to check website, and I did. Got accepted to my bottom choice (no funding). Reaction: "Meh." Closed email and went to my next meeting.

I received all of my rejections while at work. My reaction can be summed up as: Meh. I was accepted to my bottom choice with no funding too. Rejections: 5/8 Acceptances: 1/8

From my experiences so far. Early notifications are usually acceptances, and late notifications (this week) have been rejections. So things look dim since people have reported acceptances from UCSB and UCSD, but not many from U of M.

It is easy for us to give our opinion, but you are the one that has to live with your decision. Have you been able to visit both campuses? If not, then you should try to visit and chat with grad students and professors. For some people, earning a degree from Stanford is self-gratifying. A year from now, will it matter to you? How about 10 years from now?

Quick summary: School: UC in SoCalGPA: 3.3/4.0GRE: 800Q/560V/4.03 REU1 industry internship1 semester at JPL (full-time)1 year lab assistantNo publications, conferences, etc.references (positive, I assume)Statement (good/decent)URM (if it matters)

Dude, haven't you been reading the thread. In my opinion, Georgia Tech vs Stanford is the same as UIUC vs Stanford in terms of funding vs. non-funding. GT is a highly regarded school too so the "Stanford is ranked higher" argument doesn't do much here.Job-wise they are the same unless you really want to come to the Silicon Valley, but that's only small bump for Stanford. If you want to do an MBA, do you really want to have the grad school debt on top of what you'll be adding for MBA tuition?

Haha! I made it seem like I actually thought I had a chance at Stanford. For starters, I had a 3.3 GPA so I probably didn't make their GPA cutoff, I wasn't going to apply since it seemed like a big reach, but a friend said he knows others with similar stats but less research have been admitted to Stanford's engineering M.S. programs (not necessarily EE). So I thought screw it, i'll do it.

I was rejected by Stanford so you can dismiss my opinion on this. I was hoping I would get accepted to Stanford, but I knew that I would probably end up not going just because it's expensive. I have some loans from undergraduate school, and I think it is a lot of money I have to pay back, which would take me about a year to do it with my current job. Stanford would have added another ~$80k on top of that. Even with an M.S. from Stanford, it would be tough to justify the degree for the salary I would be making in industry. Job-wise, industry doesn't care too much where you got your M.S. degree from (i.e. Cal Poly vs. Stanford). So I would pick the program that is the best fit with funding.

I would go with UIUC over Stanford on this one. UIUC is a top 5 ranked school so there's not much of an argument for Stanford being a better school. Stanford is not worth the $80k price tag, unless Stanford has certain classes you're very interested in or you prefer Stanford's location, but that's your personal preference. Job wise I think they are on par with each other. Unless you get very lucky and meet someone at Stanford that you can work with to build a great company like Google, I don't think it's worth taking that big gamble.

I'm also waiting to hear from UIUC. I hate waiting.