MaximKat

Well, this winter is considered to be extra cold, during the coldest days so far (sub-zero) I was wearing with a t-shirt, thin sweater and a rather warm down jacket. I only stayed outside for no more than 15-20 minutes at a time, though. I live in a smallish 1br apartment with everything electric: stove, heating, water heater. My largest bill was ~$90.

How can 10-15 minutes in a bus be a problem? It is not like you will need to ride a train for hours every day

buxfer.com is nice it allows you to enter expenses which a split with your friends and then shows who owes whom and how many. it is free

First of all, you won't be able to attend classes on H4 anyway, so forget about this idea. No, there is no way to speed up the process. You shouldn't have waited till end of July to go to the interview. I've heard that administrative processing usually takes no more than 3-4 weeks, so you might still get there before classes start. If I were you, I would contact the university and inform them about your situation, because it is very likely that you won't be in time for orientation sessions, class registration deadlines or whatever. They would tell you how to deal with these problems. And think about plane tickets as well.

I've been reading this thread for a while and see your persistent advocating of having landline for emergency use. Being an international student, I have to ask whether such situation is a real possibility or you are just being overcautious. I mean, in my country I've never thought about having a backup phone line. Of course, cell network might be down once in a while (1-2 times a year?) but it's not like I need to call somebody every time the network is overloaded. Even if I need then there is Internet, public phone at the post office, neighbors etc. And I don't really think that there is a chance of a terrorist attack in the small town in Midwest

Why do use assume that future_eng_grad meant something bad? He definitely has right to be glad about his university not having financial problems

I meant Russian, not Ukrainian, but I see your point. That's funny, because, while I didn't know either of these words, my dictionary (English-Russian, not English-English) tries to convince me that they are synonyms.

Don't worry about GRE. I had similar scores (800/600/3.5) and was admitted to several top 20 CS programs. As long as your writing section of TOEFL is ok, low AW scores will not be a problem.

Ok, one question that bugged me for months. Isn't verbal part extremely easy for native speakers? I mean, for my language, I can't really imagine words for which I can't at least guess their approximate meaning. I learned no more than a hundred of words from Kaplan and scored 600. How can a native possibly score less than that?

Forgot to say: pictures, links or model names would be welcome

Subject says it all. What kind of bag do you use to carry all your stuff? Backpack, messenger bag, sling bag, whatnot?

Thinking of thousands of international applicants that go through this every year, I guess it is doable

I could write a long explanation here but I'm too lazy If you read the forum, general consensus seems to be that your work is most important. I suppose you are talking about PhD, so you will be mostly working with your advisor. So, professor is more important than rankings. One caveat: if it doesn't work out for any reason, in a program, that is stronger overall, it might be easier to find another advisor.

Don't you need at least some credit history for a contract?

If you are a foreign student they will want to see good TOEFL

Oh, and also intense praise is the way to go (but is should be backed up with facts). LORs usually use very positive language and a moderate one will seem on the negative side

I'll just leave this here http://www.cs.brown.edu/~sk/Memos/Grad-School-Recos/

AFAIK, assistantship are usually taxed and fellowships are not

Your doubts aside, what are your choices at the moment? As far as I understand you are now choosing between MS and MS+PhD. In that case the second one seems to be a win-win: you still get MS and you will be able to choose between leaving with MS, continuing for PhD at the same institution or leaving with MS and applying for PhD elsewhere afterwards. The only possible problem I see is if you decide to switch for a PhD at other univs (if you decide to do so) and ask you professors for LORs. If you don't get accepted, it will be weird to continue studying at the univ that you wanted to leave but couldn't (and people know about this)

worked for me

very useful comment and thoughtful, too

actually, I have no idea about US prices, so I would appreciate a more direct answer

is it for two people?

How does this stuff work? I mean, I'm an international student and titles and content of classes that I had differs from what I have seen in schedules here. E.g. I had a course A and my university has courses B and C, but A covers half of topics from B and half from C and, moreover, is called differently from both B and C. Now, if I want to take a class which has B as a prereq, what will happen?

Am I missing something or your budget doesn't include food? :?