Isaac

thanks :-) It's a relief after 7 straight rejects. I started questioning a lot of academic choices I've made over the years, as well as trying to figure out how low I'd have to set my sights next year to get in. Also, my status has been updated on https://utdirect.utexas.edu/admissions/status_check.WBX. It re-lists the same letter that was sent via email and says they will send an envelope to my permanent address.

accepted via email

one of my friends just got accepted to AI PhD at Georgia Tech.

Looks like berkeley just sent out its rejects. I got one...

Wow thanks for the flurry of information guys. As far as helpdesk, it's just a college job. Last summer I worked as a software engineer in the UK, and all previous summers I've done research or REUs. I've also TAed three classes and play intramural frisbee. If I had to guess, it's more a lack of established ability rather than working at helpdesk. Do you really think you get faulted for working a college job?

I'm a white northeasterner (so no affirmative action) but why am I getting killed here? I have a 3.95 GPA from an excellent liberals arts school, double major in Math & C.S, 600/800/5.0 general GRE, solid recs from math & CS profs, REU experience, some math research, grad math & c.s. classes, manager of the school's helpdesk, and am working on a senior thesis in abstract logic. I'm applying to top tier C.S. PhD progs. I'm don't have any published papers, or long term research per se (besides working on my thesis, an reu and a semester of group research on adv. number theory) but I didn't expect to get killed. Instead it looks like I'm out of the running for at least half of my schools, with the rest TBA soon (but the stats don't bode well). What gives, here?

That makes me feel better :-) haha.

just got rejected from stanford. guess i wasn't being paranoid after all (people have been posting acceptances to stanford cs for a week now).

I don't know whether this is good sign, a bad sign, or just means I'm thinking too hard. Arggg. Some people have heard from the schools I applied...