NewNewb

MIT will probably mail out their result this week.

From a friend of mine.

It seems like Princeton is interviewing their applicants

No. I have not received anything but rejections so far. I only know people who received the email last week.

Stanford MS&E has already sent out their admission last weekend.

It really depends on the students and the professors. But generally speaking, they are good traits. You just need to be to express it carefully to not come around in a wrong way. I am not familiar with astronomy research but can say a thing or two about applied math. Undergraduate students usually do not have good ideas for research. Their ideas are: 1) things that have already been done. 2) things that are ridiculously impossible or not well-defined enough to be done. Being able to tell and appreciate a hard problem is not easy. 3) things that are trivial. Remember that algebraic manipulation, a.k.a doing problems in some new interesting ways, is nice but usually not research worthy (yet still a nice thing to show in class). So it is usually more productive to follow the research problems that the professors have. While there are exceptions from time to time, attempts to come across as hyper-curious without sufficient training in the subject of matter usually backfire as naiveness, arrogance and lack of seriousness. Knowing how to ask good answers, my definition of curiosity, is a very desirable trait but only comes with adequate background in the subject of matter and research experience.

I have been questioning myself about the exact same thing. My SOP definitely reads like a research statement: research experience #1 (a.k.a rewording the abstract of my paper), research experience #2, research experience #3, ... rinse and repeat, then probably one paragraph on why XYZ department. I spent probably one or two sentences on why I want to pursue graduate studies along the line of "because I want to do research in XYZ". I feel that it is much easier for me, and more informative for the admission committee, to write this way than telling anecdotes on why/when/how I fell in love with my field. Nonetheless, the waiting game is leading me to question everything I have done so far this cycle.

More likely they wont review your application at all and just pocket your application fee. Usually the admission committee only see complete profiles. Incomplete ones dont get forwarded to the committee so they wont see how good your other criteria are anyway.

I got the same email from Columbia and something along those lines from MIT last week as well.

Anyone hear back from any program? I apply to MIT ORC, Stanford MS&E, Princeton ORFE, Northwestern IEMS, Michigan IE and Columbia ORIE. Do OR programs always interview shortlisted applicants before offering official admission. School: good (but unknown in OR) Major: Math Major GPA ~4.0 Cumulative: ~3.75 (almost failed several freshman humanities courses). GRE: 800Q/600V/4.0AW Math courses (15 courses): Measure Theory, Probability Theory (x2), Stochastic Processes, Ergodic Theory, Dynamical Systems, Differential Equations, Functional Analysis, Game Theory + the pure math curriculum in analysis, algebra and number theory. Stat courses (5 courses): Monte Carlo Methods, Computational Stat, Bayesian Inference + the standard curriculum. CS courses (6 courses): Computability & Complexity Theory, Algorithm, Machine Learning + several programming courses. Econ courses (7 courses): the standard curriculum Research & experience: honor thesis in math, several applied math/math REUs, coding monkey for HF (2 months), teaching assistant (2+ years). Publications: 2 journal publications in probability (co-authored) + several working papers/preprints in stochastic optimization and control + several conference talks/posters (these arent as important in math as in CS or engineering) LOR (and their alma maters): 3 math professors/research advisors (Princeton/Stanford/Berkeley). They are all very supportive and familiar with my research. SOP: mostly about my research experience/interest (85%). I should have tailored it toward each specific department more. Research interest: applied probability, stochastic processes, stochastic optimization, control theory and differential games.