csApplicant

Thanks - you're right that I'm afraid to say something for fear of making it worse, but I simply cannot live under this pressure anymore. I'll talk with him and see what happens. I guess if I don't speak up he'll think he can keep getting away with it, too.

I came to the school I'm at because my advisor is very famous and has had a very industrious career. I've been struggling with my classes and my advisor has been very rude to me lately as a result. The project ideas he comes up with are horribly embarrassing - projects I'd die of embarrassment if my name were on them. But not only that, he gets angry at me every week when we discuss the projects. He barks, "Why are you doing it that way?" and gets very angry. He forgets that he TOLD me to do it that way. Sometimes we do have great discussions, but it appears that the following week he completely forgets and gets angry at what I am doing. Sometimes, after I leave, I write my ideas down and send them to him via email. This helps us to get on the same page, but he still forgets the content of the emails in the following weeks. He doesn't treat any of his other students like this. I don't know what to do and dread working on the projects. I leave our weekly meetings depressed and wanting to drop out of the program. Somewhere, subconsciously, he's decided I'm a bad student or something. There are many areas in which I am talented, but he always fails to see that. What should I do? I'm tired of living like this... Does anyone have a similar story? Any words of wisdom? Advice? I cannot leave without my PhD now that I've worked this hard for this long. I just simply cannot. But I cannot get a paper out because whenever I have ideas or try to make movement toward a paper, he won't let me proceed. Some of the ideas come out in similar publications by other researchers at a later date so my ideas cannot be that off base.... Thanks.

yes, there is an april 15th deadline, but let's not forget we want to not step on anyone's toes because we will be working with them. what i would do is call up the 2nd school and tell them as nicely as you can that you have another offer pending from another school in which they have offered you full funding and you would like to know when you can expect to hear about the funding so you can make an informed decision. if the school wants you bad enough, they'll make decisions FAST. keep in mind, be careful to state your reasons for knowing because it is true. schools are not alloweed to make you reply by the end of this month. that is 100% against the rules and they could get in trouble for that.

does anyone know anything about cmu's Software Engineering Institute?

how did the school screw you? are they allowed to do that? don't they have to give you the offer they said they would give you? please explain.

anyone have any thoughts on jhu's information security institute? how strong is the program?

maximKat. yes, i would. B-O-R-I-N-G. in the middle of nowhere and boring is my opinion. that is why i did not apply there.

baltimore? that one is kind of a crap shoot. no one seems to have any information about baltimore.

help! chicago, baltimore, new york city, ann arbor, san diego or seattle????? please explain why? could you also tell me which one (s) are at top and which one(s) would be at the bottom and why?

Will the economy affect your decision as to which school you will decide to go to? I'm asking this in CS and not other forums because I wanted to get other CS people's views. For instance, the state of California is a big mess right now. Will this affect funding at state schools in CA? Even Berkeley? Not to mention the state of Michigan, whose economy is hurting quite a bit due to the automotive industry doing poorly. Major state schools relied on the automative industry. How about Stanford? Their business school had layoffs because they rely so much on donors, who aren't contributing like they used to. Will this affect all of Stanford? It surely must. How about schools where advisors fund you (versus the school itself)? Given the option of full-funding by a school or full-funding by a professor's grants, would you make a decision solely based upon this? I don't think our government would let our top universities fall into bankruptcy, so well-known schools are probably safe as far as all around funding and security... But those whose professor's fund them through grants - well, that could be a different story entirely. One could find himself without funding mid-way through his studies. I think this is one of the harder years to apply to graduate school because since budgets are tight, and thus, so are acceptances. But what I want to know is - will you base your decision upon monetary security? How seriously will you consider this?

i was JUST coming here to ask that. what's up with penn. anyone? strangely quiet over there. i think it's bad news, however, to not have gotten an interview. i'm not sure i'd want to go to penn. i'd like to be accepted, but that area doesn't particularly appeal to me.

WHERE is not important. the point is that succumbing to despair so early will make one miserable. it just takes one accept to change everything and it's too early to tell what's going to happen. by the way, i'm not sure why everyone's freaking out about hearing from MIT. we all pretty much know it's a rejection, so i've realized there's no point in getting anxious. this one is a no-brainer for me. of course, let me add, that i will probably oscillate between being super cool about it and then freaking out... i think mit should sent out reject letters to everyone and then do a backwards admit for the 1-3 people in each specialty everyone should expect to get rejected from mit.

i just got an acceptance from a school everyone had seemed to already have heard from (a good one that i am happy about!!!). with aid, obviously. the only reason why i am posting this is to remind those feeling down that it's not over until the reject letter comes in. good luck!

for five days i have done nothing but side on thegradcafe.com. it's been driving me crazy. seeing the crazy credentials of some people... and there are fewer spots than ever right now. i don't want to be ungrateful. i'm glad i got accepted to the schools i did, so i should just be happy and accept already. i was happy because today was the first day since i found this site that i was able to do some schoolwork and get my focus back on. schools really should inform people uniformly about acceptance or rejection -in fact, i think it's more merciful to tell students we are on the waitlist than give us no word. just my two cents.

i don't think it's impolite. i think it's annoying as hell to the schools, but you're just a person on the phone and they don't associate you with your application - as in, you're either in or not and their decision is not going to change based upon a phone call. if it's that bad, just call.