csphd

the person on the phone this morning said the goal was to get the results out this friday.

i have seen the three rating sheets. the first thing that i learn from them? the reviewers don't read the application very carefully all of them make inaccurate statements about my application. for example, one says i started research early as an undergraduate, but i actually started research during 2nd semester as a senior. another says i got an award paper in an IEEE workshop, but it was an acm conference. another says i am currently a TA at school X (undergraduate institution), but i am a currently a TA at school Y (graduate institution). i got an HM with these ratings: Intellectual Merit: Excellent, Excellent, Very Good. Broader Impacts: Good, Excellent, Very Good. they mention my weaknesses are the vague research plan and broader impacts. for the research plan, i knew it was vague (did it last minute, so had a couple days of writing the research plan), but i thought being 1st year, it wouldn't hurt as much. guess im wrong. none said anything about my undergrad GPA (~3.5 from a top 5 CS school) or my low verbal GRE (<500), so it appears they didn't affect my chances.

dang it, i only got honorable mention. i was actually feeling good about my chances. congrats to awardees.

oh i was asking if anyone was pulling an all-nighter solely to wait for the notification emails

so who's gonna pull an all-nighter tonight?

well, i think you don't want that either because it means they might have to hurry through the apps.

i just saw this now: GRFP will be unavailable from 11:00 PM ET Monday April 5th - 5:00 AM ET Tuesday, April 6th for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

finally (not that it matters), also just was rejected for phd but accepted for ms. maybe thats why it took so long: because after being rejected for phd, my app was being considered for ms. any way, it's all done now.

me still waiting but going elsewhere. has any other school sent out decisions (either way) this late?

you know, april 2nd in 2007 was monday, so it could be this coming monday or it could be tomorrow. doesnt matter though. im gonna attend illinois anyway.

i laugh at myself for screwing up my undergrad gpa and getting rejected by ucsd (i assume gpa is my weakest "hard" factor). but it's a carefree laugh because i got into uiuc... somehow (last time i applied 2 years ago i also got rejected by uiuc.)

im more like 'what the', not 'lol' heh

last time i applied 2 years ago, my rejection letter was dated april 2nd, so now im expecting the same.

email dated march 28 5:40pm: Application review has concluded for both MS and PhD applications and most final decisions have been sent. However, there are still PhD applications the committee will be sending decision letters for soon.

yea, the waiting hadnt bothered me, and i was assuming reject. that was why i started looking for apartments at the other places, and only after i noticed some decent apartments near the other schools did i want to know (i was assuming reject anyway) sooner. i dont know how they work: (1) immediately notify when decision (either way) is made, or (2) needs to get paperwork done before notification. so if they are (2) and the decision is reject, then i'd like to know sooner rather than later. but yea, it could be they havent decided yet.