down under

congrats, you've done exceptionally well to gain admission to most of the schools you applied to! i've only been admitted to one.. bummer! i also applied to northwestern but have not heard anything from them, guess it's another rejection in the mail.. which school are you leaning towards out of all the acceptances you've got so far?

MIT materials science decisions are out! received my rejection email last weekend.. congrats to those who were admitted! anyone heard from Harvard for applied physics?

I received an acceptance email from the UCB MSE department head in late Jan but other schools have been eerily quiet since then.. what other schools did you apply to emandar?

Undergrad Institution: Melbourne Uni + ANU (Australian Unis) Major(s): Chemistry Minor(s): - GPA in Major: 3.9 Overall GPA: 3.7 Length of Degree: 4 years undergrad + 2 year research Master Position in Class: near top? Type of Student: International asian male GRE Scores: Q: 790 V: 590 W: 3.5 Research Experience: 2 undergrad research projects totalling around 1.5 years (1 first authored pub) + 1 year Honours (1 first authored pub) + 2 year Master (1 second authored pub) Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Various scholarships Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for 1 sem during Honours Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Applying for [ MS ] or [ PhD ] at: All applications were for PhD UIUC - Material Science - rejected (20 Jan 2011) UC Berkeley - Material Science - Accepted (22 Jan 2011) UC Santa Barbara - Material Science - pending Harvard - SEAS (Applied Physics) - pending MIT - Material Science - pending Northwestern - Material Science - pending Minnesota - Material Science - pending UM Amherst - polymer eng. - pending

Berkeley takes a very chemical approach to soft matter -- they have world-class facilities (molecular foundry, LBNL and ALS) and a great chemistry department.. the guy i want to work for at Berkeley is Alivisatos, he does alot of work on quantum dots and nanocrystals.. you have an advantage in that you're already conducting research at Harvard and churning out papers... i think publications are way more important than scores. having a publication (not to mention you have a handful) tells an adcomm that you have real research experience and able to work in a team to produce an academic article whereas good score just means you're good at sitting exams.. personally, i feel that we stand a good chance.. ~Fighting!~

i also applied to MIT DMSE and freaked out when i saw they have started to inform applicants of the outcomes.. i've heard from 2 schools in the past week, rejected by UIUC but got a positive response from Berkeley.. my stats are very similar to yours.. BS: GPA 3.7/4.0, 2 first authors papers is australian journal of chemistry and soft matter. MS: research-based, 1 co-authored paper in Langmuir and submitted 2 more to langmuir and soft matter, respectively. GRE: V590, Q790, AW3.5 from your stats, you seemed to have good reason for applying to those schools.. is UPenn your backup? i'm sure you'll at least get into northwestern.. i contacted 2 Northwestern professors and they really liked that i have some publications too.. perhaps you've been let down a little by your AW.