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I'm 21. I've gotten fairly good at finding ways to choose class projects and internship projects that are publishable. I met my primary research advisor when he was teaching one of my classes, and he's pushed me really hard (which I like) to continue to make research contributions. I read a lot of scientific papers, which has helped me to understand the landscape of various research areas. I also enjoy writing. So, in short, it's a mixture of passion, hard work, and being fortunate to have found good mentors/advisors.

Hmm, good question. I'd probably be happy with any of the fellowships. If I had the opportunity to choose any of the fellowships... CSGF has a lot of requirements, such as adhering to a pre-planned set of coursework. I'm kind of a "do it my own way" person. So, I would probably prefer SCGF, NDSEG, or NSF.

Post your UC Berkeley EECS updates here! I'll go first... A Berkeley CS professor contacted me a couple of weeks ago to request a phone interview. The professor was one of the potential advisors whom I listed on my SoP. The interview went well--the professor just asked me some questions about my research, I asked him some questions about his research, and we brainstormed about potential research projects. My profile: I'm in the final semester of my CS undergrad at UIUC. 5 conference papers; 2 journal papers in review; 1 conference paper in review. Several national awards for my research, including a Best Paper Award. Three strong recommendations from faculty with whom I've conducted research. Five research internships in national labs and industry research labs.

From Versatile PhD: "The Versatile PhD mission is to help humanities and social science PhDs and graduate students identify and prepare for possible non-academic careers." IMHO, if your goals are to get a PhD and to be versatile, then do a science/engineering PhD.

Congratulations on applying again! Just curious--where did you get the information about the number of applicants?

Sounds good--thanks! This is very helpful.

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Congratulations!!! I got accepted too! I got funding too (UIUC says it'll be either an RA or a fellowship). Hope to see you at the UIUC admitted students weekend in February! I'm an senior undergrad in CS at UIUC. All three of my recommendations are from UIUC CS profs with whom I've done research. I co-authored publications with two of my three recommenders. I have 5 conference publications, 2 journal papers in review, and 1 conference paper in review. In addition to my UIUC research, I have done three research internships at National Laboratories, one research internship at a university other than UIUC, and one internship in industry. I'm also curious to hear tyler88's background.

A UC Berkeley professor just emailed me to request a Skype interview! This professor has contributed several major results to my field, and I think he would be a fantastic advisor. I have a few quick questions about what to expect in this interview. 1. How does a typical RA interview compare to, say, an industry interview? (Is there such a thing as a "typical RA interview?") 2. How should I prepare for the interview? Should I review a few of the professor's recent papers? Should I review fundamental concepts in my field? 3. What questions should I ask the professor? (I have a few questions in mind, but I want to see what you GradCafe folks suggest.)

Go to silicon valley for an internship? My inbox is getting trolled with piles of Silicon Valley/Bay Area interview requests, so it must be pretty easy to snag those jobs/internships.

So, who applied? How'd it go?

I just (kind of) submitted my NASA Aeronautics Scholarship Program application. All my stuff is entered into the online application, but the application (oddly) closed before 11:59 PST (10:40 PST) today and I didn't click the submit button. I emailed my attachments to the program staff just to be safe. Fortunately, this application seems very informal compared to, say, the NSF GRFP. Did anyone else apply?

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Submitted! Who else applied?

Instead of requesting a CV, the DOE CSGF application has several of text boxes for discussing publications, presentations, and awards. However, there's no text box for internships, employment, or research collaborations. I've done internships at three DOE national laboratories, and I'd like to mention this in my application. In addition to mentioning my internships in my essays, should I include the internships as "awards?"

Has anyone found any DOE SCGF sample essays? The only sample essay I've found is by Kyle Fox, on this website.

Meh. Not sure about your fields, but in engineering and computer science, most of the Ivies aren't particularly special. Saying "Yale" or "Dartmouth" sounds cool in certain crowds, and they're certainly not bad choices for computer science programs. Still, ivies are safety schools for people who go to the top CS schools. tl;dr Don't feel deprived if you go to a top school in your field that's not an ivy. There might not even be a top school in your field that's an ivy.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread. I really like the comment from margaretlouise that I quoted. I'm applying to the Berkeley computer science PhD, and I'm currently working on my Personal History Statement. Here's where I'm stuck: I did overcome a number of challenges in my personal background. I also have many reasons for being passionate about my current and future research. Does discussing my life before I got started with computer science research detract from the overall quality of the statement? Here's a synopsis of the pre-college part of my personal background: I came from a small town in the midwestern United States. It was challenging to find educational opportunities there, but I did the best I could by taking several classes at the local community college during junior high (age 13-14). I later gained acceptance into a public statewide magnet high school, where tuition is free, all students live on campus, and students apply by writing essays and taking the SAT. The acceptance rate for this school is ~15%. While attending high school, I got involved with a physics research project at a nearby National Laboratory, and I was the first author on a published academic paper. A very abridged selection of my research motivations: In my undergraduate studies, classes in parallel programming and cyber-physical systems increased my awareness of the breadth of unsolved problems in distributed computing. During a class on theoretical computer science, I discovered the joy of working on formal mathematical proofs. The design of real-time distributed systems requires formal proofs on the timing behavior of tasks. Thus, real-time distributed systems research lies at the intersection of my interests of mathematical proofs and distributed computing. My research on the theoretical analysis of real-time systems has enabled increased safety and predictability in automotive control systems. Further, this research has shed light on how to utilize distributed sensor networks more effectively. In my proposed doctoral research, I hope to reduce the power consumption and increase the reliability of future distributed surveillance systems through research on timing analysis, scheduling, and routing protocols. Berkeley is home to several leading faculty in real-time systems and is therefore the ideal environment for me to develop as a researcher and to advance the state of the art. (A lot of universities have no faculty who study real-time systems. Berkeley has at least 5 faculty who have each published 30+ real-time systems papers.)

In my UC Berkeley computer science SoP draft, I refer to "University of California, Berkeley" a few times. Should I spell out the school's full name, or is this overly formal? If it's okay to use a short version of the school name, which of the following is appropriate? - UC Berkeley - Berkeley - University of California - Cal - UCB

Sorry to hear that. It's unfair that you got stuck in the middle of this ego contest. I'd advise you to avoid mentioning Prof. Y, but it's unfortunate that your SoP is being stifled by someone else's political disagreements. :-/

tl;dr having official score reports arrive late is not a big deal. George2248 and splackk confirmed this above, too.

I got this email from Stanford today: Dear Applicants: PLEASE READ You are receiving this message because we have received your application to either the Ph.D. or MS program in ICME at Stanford. This is to clarify the policy on the receipt of supporting documents. We understand your anxiety. However, it is not possible to respond to each of you multiple times on this. Mail delivery takes a long time and it comes in bits and pieces from different sources and so it does not make sense to update the checklist on a daily basis. 1.As our "checklist info" states, wait until 12/16 to check it. 2.Most of all, we will review every application submitted by the deadline not withstanding the receipt of official copies of transcript and ETS score reports. 3. While unofficial GRE scores(as in self reported and faxed/scanned copies sent to the program) and uploaded transcript are fine for the application review, we do still need official transcript and ETS reports. Therefore, as long as those are not in receipt, your checklist will show as "incomplete". 4. You are able to check on recommender submissions. They are able to submit letters after the deadline. We will make sure to review everything received before the start of the review. Review schedule is adhoc and not public. 5. Finally, we will send you an e-mail if supporting documents are missing after 12/16 and give you some time to send in the missing documents. So, my sincere advise is not to request duplicate copies of transcripts and ETS score reports unless you have received an e-mail request for it. 6. We will contact you with the admissions decision. We cannot respond to queries until then.

Awesome!

Is it ok to list advanced CS classes on a CV in a grad application? Some of my classes are special topics classes (all numbered CS 498). The titles of these classes are not listed on my transcript.

I listed Stanford as one of my "four free score reports" before I took the GRE. ETS was supposed to send the scores no later than Dec. 1. I checked today, and ETS has no record of my score report requests on file. I managed to get ETS to send the GRE scores today. The Stanford Computational and Mathematical Engineering PhD application is due tomorrow! How serious is it if my GRE scores are sent a day or two late? Has anyone had late GRE scores or transcripts and still been accepted to a Stanford program? Here's the alternative: if having late GRE score reports would kill my application, I could apply for Computer Science PhD instead. (I would work with the same advisor(s), and it wouldn't make much difference.)