belowthree

Answer: It's a watered down master's thesis. Then it's easy and doable. Welcome to some master's programs.

You need, and I'm absolutely serious about this: not bad scores. If you have those, those will be what you need. Remember, GRE scores don't get you in, they just keep you from being eliminated.

I think the only difference is the people in your field expect the rest of us to know what your big words mean. We use big words also, but we're comfortable with the fact that we made them up yesterday and so we don't really expect people to know what we're saying.

The first year of a lot of the science/engineering ones. There's a few core classes where they go ahead and backfill you on the things the schools can't fit into the four-year undergraduate degrees. So you have a first year of grad school that looks a little bit like undergrad. It's weird, but in CS there's only about 3-5 courses like this and then they quickly decay down to small topic-specific courses of under 20 students. Some of which still actually do have lectures though! Others run in a discussion or seminar style format, depending on the professor's preference. One of the defining systems courses at UCSD for first year CS students is the operating systems course which actually also serves as your crash course on how to read scientific papers. The entire course uses the socratic method with a professor who attempts his or her best to look mean, a stack of index cards (with each person's name written on them) and a classroom full of scared disoriented first year graduate students. It's a lot of fun. TKassis is in EE, so I assume they probably have to deal with the same set of 3-5 core courses that are large lectures. I suppose I should also note that I've only seen this happen at larger grad programs that number hundreds of students. It's harder to do this if you only have 5-10 incoming first years like some of the smaller programs.

How frequent is it for grad programs to have a foreign language requirement? Requirements like that always seemed like undergrad bullshit to me...

I would hazard a guess that you have decent chances at every school on your list (and really every school not on your list) if your rec letters are three-fourths as good as you think they will be. Your safe schools seem safe. Your reach schools seem feasible and UT Austin seems likely. (I say likely because I'm assuming the UT Austin profs are more likely to know your LoR writers.) I take it you like Texas? Also, which conferences were these? The IEEE put their name on everything so saying "IEEE conference" tells us very little. I'm going to assume tier I or tier II conferences here, but if you've spent a lot of time publishing in tier III conferences that could present a small roadbump. Were you first author on these or the obligatory ugrad mention? Oh... but do make sure your professors address your verbal scores if you aren't going to retake. (And... even if you do really... what the hell happened?) Those will be a problem if they don't hear anything about them. Some profs may just go ahead and call you up and interview you if they aren't sure.

If you get some post-modernists we get some algorithms/theory/discrete math people.

Maybe you're weirder in the context of your field than we are in ours? But as a field I wonder which is weirder... Sounds like we need a weird off.

I dunno man, have you seen some of those admissions staffers? I think one on one the velocirapter would win no contest, but when you allow a whole massive admissions bureaucracy to gang up on one velocirapter? Can you even imagine how many forms the poor soul would have to chew through? Now a herd of velociraptors and I say you've got a sure bet. (Disclaimer: Having met many nice admissions officers, I would like to mention that I have no desire for them to be eaten by extinct dinosaurs.)

I'll post a link to this again just in case there's someone here that hasn't seen it: http://www.concurringopinions.com/archi ... _grad.html I trust, Minnesotan, that you only adhere to the strictest and best executed forms of this type of grading?

Bummer... It seems my field is pretty different there's usually a couple classes big enough to go ahead and hang out in. Mostly the core required courses for the program during at least the fall tend to have enough students where they're done more in bulk. Oh well. I would still go ahead and send an e-mail around and see if someone's willing to let you drop by... but again, it appears our fields appear to have many differences in how open a classroom is, so ymmv!

They'll understand. Take the time off, if you're asking here you've gotten to the point that you know you need it and you're looking for reassurance. So be reassured. Take time off, it's okay to be human. (At least right now, once you enter grad school of course, you're expected to be a super-hero. So take the break.)

Before I was a student at the university professors were always happy to talk to me. Since getting to the university, every professor I've met has been nothing but excited to deal with truly passionate individuals and generally respond very favorably. It can be hard to figure out the right situation for dealing with things or getting to know a prof well enough where they'll know your abilities well enough to write you a good letter, but I also think this mostly never happens because most people either don't make the effort or don't think it's possible. There's an idea that unless you're a student you have no business interacting with professors and while the university may see it that way I don't think most professors really do. Although it depends on what you ask of them, there is a clear barrier for some things. Also, I should note that there's nothing that stops you from attending graduate courses if you have several unis nearby. Crashing an interesting grad course (try and find one that isn't tooo small) is a good way to learn a bit about the field, graduate coursework and get to know some professors in a sense that shows them you're serious. Let them know you're auditing though.

Hmm... all the same sentiment coming from EECS people. Our field sure is strange sometimes.

This is what it should be about. This is what the test was supposed to determine. It's supposed to determine your level of vocabulary in situations you haven't studied for, not how many words out of the test bank you've memorized. Now part of it is determined by how much cramming you do. Which seems like a bit of a shame. Congrats on doing it right. I wish more would do the same. (Though I have been consistently pleased that a good fraction of the forum seems to have not studied much for the GRE. My faith in the system rises.) -The guy who thinks cramming for a test is only about a hairline better than cheating.[1] [1] I wouldn't recommend this view, by the way, it ends up making you bitter to the point on giving up on classes all together.

No Ms. Roy, you're a computer!

I don't go to Berkeley. I'm sure they're much nicer there than I am. (Hopefully anyways! Since that's not exactly much of a standard.) Since I have no hangups about being a nice person, I go ahead and call people out when they suddenly pop out of nowhere and talk trash about a great school because it happens to be going through some rough times. As I mentioned, there are many good things about UT Austin and I think it's a good institution, so I take much less joy than you think from comparing it unfavorably to Berkeley. If UT were going through hard times I would hope I would have the decency to express sadness for the students there and not express sentiments like "wow I'm glad I'm not going to that garbage place." (The fact that the other commenter used slightly lighter language doesn't at all hide the sentiment they were expressing.)[1] So as far as I'm concerned the comment deserved exactly the response I gave it. I can understand if you might disagree with that, but it's hardly cut and dry. (And if you ever feel it is, I'm sure you'll take appropriate action.) We're going through enough rough times in the UC system without everyone else playing peanut gallery and acting like our schools have now suddenly gone from what really is (still! Maybe not in a few years if this madness continues, but right now really still is) an excellent public university system to a hair above a vocational school[2] in a matter of weeks. If people want to have a serious discussion about the massive budget issues the system is undergoing and the ramifications on graduate work there, research output, admissions and funding, then you'll have no objection from me and I'll be happy to contribute what I know about funding, ICR rates and excepts from the PPMs on each campus. If people want to just express how delighted they are that they aren't apart of the system, well... then you're going to get reminded that campuses in our system are some of the best in the world and I'll keep posting articles about how even with budget cuts my dad does do better research than your dad. Oh and I'll make sure to use the word schadenfreude at least once in every post. [1] Why yes! The air is fresher up here on this horse! So high up, you understand... [2] Again, not that there's anything wrong with a vocational school, but it is a problem when you aren't *trying* to be one.

At what point do these threads just become Schadenfreude? Yes, go ahead and rock your UT Austin, it's a great school and I have friends there. But I also have plenty of faith our failing California schools will still somehow manage to research our way straight past your own. You know, no offense. We'll see how long we're able to keep doing it, but don't count on us to fail just yet.

I have a habit of being blunt, but there's no offense intended. I'd say your biggest issue is that an admissions committee is likely to look at your background and go: "Oh hey, this is someone looking for a place to hide during the market downturn." Unless you find a way to prove your passion outside of just saying so, most schools aren't going to want to invest in a student who's just looking to ride out the recession. Now I don't know your intended field, so maybe they don't care that much, but I'd say your prospects for funding look dim. Now I have no idea of your actual motivations here, but unless you find a way to counteract this perception (good letters of rec for instance) then you're going to have this issue. It's a shame you haven't been doing this solitary study under the aegis of a professor who could back you up on it. If you can figure out a way to somehow get a prof involved in this work of yours, that would do a great deal to help.

Sounds like you have a good plan. Not sure if it'll work, but you seem to be moving in the right direction, so good luck!

I really wouldn't worry about deciding between the two until you have two acceptance letters in hand. Then you can stress out over your decision and agonize over it on the board with everyone else!

I took the approach of addressing the low GPA issue head on in my SoP. It got mixed results, the professor who advised me through my undergraduate work liked it well enough, but another professor I showed it to thought it didn't strike the right tone. I think I wouldn't ignore it though. It's an issue that needs addressing and if your letter writers don't address it for you (at least one of mine did) then you absolutely need to discuss it in your SoP.

Self-funded? You have a good chance. Your main weakness now seems to be lack of applicable research experience and specific research interest. But you're off to a good start. Which country is this, by the way? You said flagship school for your country, but if you don't tell us which country it is we have no idea what that would mean. Also what's your rank with your current master's GPA? It seems lower than I'd expect...

Depends on the department. Some of them are still doing okay in terms of graduate student funding.

Hmmm... missed this thread earlier, the OP probably isn't reading anymore, but just in case: 2.6 here, I got in, got funded and my new advisor seems pretty excited to have me in his lab. It happens. I'm not in your field, but you've got .6 on me, so I think there's gotta be some hope there. I don't know what a D+ can do to a transcript since that grade wasn't offered at my school, but I sure do know what an F can do to one! Actually I'm happy to report that I have received the entire spectrum of grades my institution has to offer. (Well except NP actually. But I got A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, F, P, W, so I think that's still a decent collection.)