pandy

I think a couple of the rejected people had only one interview. Not sure though.

By interview, I also meant chit-chat about your past and present research I don't know of anyone who got grilled with technical stuff.

These numbers are from people whom I know who have applied to Berkeley in the past years, so they are in no way indicative of any trends. Not interviewed & admitted: 3 Not interviewed & rejected: 2 Interviewed multiple times & rejected: 4 Interviewed multiple times & accepted: 3 As you see, the sample size is too low to make any conclusions. I'm leaning more towards a reject for myself.

Unless any of the schools rejects you for the lack of CS background, I would suggest you to look at options to get some good research experience rather than wasting your time on AGRE. What really matters for a PhD admission is your research background and recommendation letters.

I know of all cases - people who got in without interviews, people who had multiple interviews and then got rejected, and people who got in after one or more interviews.

Thanks all for the replies!

Has anyone heard any news from UMass, Amherst for CS PhD? I applied in December, and the department has not sent me a single update yet. All I got was "Thank you for submitting the application, you will receive a mail with link to check the application status" email when I paid the fee. I tried emailing, but got no response. Anyone else in the same boat?

Oh OK. Sorry I think as Lanchka said, the best is to keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best!

I'm not sure if this is entirely true. I know a few who were interviewed and then admitted.

I too got admitted to CMU - I never got a call, but received the admit email on 24th. I think they have taken all decisions for CSD (http://www.csd.cs.cmu.edu) because I heard from an insider that there is only one round of admission. The open house is on February 25 and 26. @Lanchka, congrats on being shortlisted by Berkeley! Do you know if they have shortlisted all potential candidates? This probably means I'm getting a reject :-(