A professor contacted me via email directly and we set up a phone meeting to discuss research interests. While I was waiting for this the school contacted me with a formal offer of 4 years guaranteed funding. As for my profile, my field of interest is computer graphics, I have a 3.94 GPA and an undergrad degree in computer engineering from an average university. I have a second author publication, and my GRE scores were 780Q/460V, however this didn't matter for Purdue since they don't take GREs.