aberrant

haha sorry I just have a hard time to think of troll dad as "APPLICANTS" so...

string theory

child labor

are you referring the exam that determines one advance to candidacy - that qualification exam? I thought it depends on the school, isn't it?

Like jayeyesee said, 2x to 3x would be a probable range for acceptance, for they have to expect some people turn down their offers and so forth.

what's the problem with casual dressing if they specified casual? lol.

take what I said with a grain of salt if you find it makes no sense. Certificates probably mean some sort of proof (e.g. photocopy) of your degree(s)? GRE doesn't require in most countries other than the U.S., so it isn't necessary for your application overseas. However, I don't think it will hurt you by providing your scores with your application, or mentioned it in your CV with your 95% in Chem GRE. My understanding is that you typically want to contact a faculty advisor / POI to see if s/he is taking any students for the next academic year, and see if one can consider your application. If one wants to take you, they will recommend your application to the program, and you may be accepted. On the other hand, I have been told that a master degree in Chemistry hurts your chances to get a job in the industry... so I hope you'll get into Northwestern or somewhere to continue your career.

statistical analysis

linear algebra

holliday junction

black coffee

Based on friends that I know of, I would take the job offer instead of waiting for your dream school. Unless you wanted to be a professor or a PhD, otherwise, there are not too many reasons for you to go into a graduate program in CS (not to mention that you do not know if the school will accept you). If your intention to get a master degree is to make more money, then I'm pretty sure a bachelor degree in CS won't make any less money than a master degree. That being said, if it takes you 2 years to complete your master program, then you'll make $180K USD less in this 2 years (if you are working in Amazon). Now, can you make that $180K back (that you lost in the 2 years) with your master degree, before you move onto a management position (possibly getting a MBA when you are 30)? You can also ask for a deferral if EPFL accepts you after you take the job.

house music

I thought schools filter applicants by GPA, before they evaluate applications as a whole (as in, the statements, the letters and GRE scores). I have been told that adcom only spend roughly 30 seconds to glimpse through an essay. So if there are two essays, then 1 minute per application. That way they will have group of 3-10 people that they are willing to offer early acceptance / interviews. Then the rest will be evaluated more carefully. But still, when a top-tier school says the minimum required GPA is 3.0, typically they look at a minimum of 3.4/3.5 GPA (or more, depends on your program), which means that there are very few successful applicants who have an uncompetitive stats, which may be able to compensated by research experience (can be expressed in terms of numbers) and strong recommendation (names of the faculty can be searched using search engine).

punch lines

shaun white (lol)

snow storm

Would people find it funny if someone turn their rejection letters into an e-mail that rejects a rejection? (lol)

I think this is worth starting a new thread by just sharing a rejection letter to the rejection letter!

For my SOP, my friends told me that it might be easier for me to write a story-like SOP to present myself. I organized my SOP in a way that at specific positions of my SOP, there are the name of the program, the name of the school school, name of faculty members/POI, and their research topic(s) that I'm interested in (with a brief, follow-up statement on what I understood about that topic / what is it interesting / the significance of that topic). Other parts of the statement is just about how I build myself up so that I'm prepared for grad school (or that particular program at that school). To avoid any mistakes, I wrote 1 SOP for 1 school, underlined the "variables", and use it as a template. In other words, I built a template for almost all the schools and I just fill in the blanks when it is necessary. And I have a different essay that is more about personal history and background, and I called that personal statement. Some schools required both SOP and PS, and therefore I tried to avoid overlapping information in my two essays/statements. But I have to emphasize that my strategy only works because of the program that I'm interested in - they tend to ask similar questions (if not the same). I know some other programs require a lot more essays (with different questions). For example, UCSF Pharmacy requires 8 different essays, which ultimately frustrated my friend from completing and submitting his application.

For anyone who is applying for Scripps / TSRI: "At this point, the admissions committee is still in the process of making their decisions of who will be admitted into the program as we received over 700 applications. You will receive an email stating the interview schedule no later than the end of February if you are chosen for an interview. If not, you will receive a decline email sometime in April."

@hope4fall2012: haha I simply told my LOR that I will apply that number for my situation (being an international and NOT competitive) and my LORs are understandable. I have 4 LORs, 2 of them are from foreign country (my home country/town). but it is indeed competitive for international applicants, and I have statistics to show (which is on my blog) if you are interested @sansao: haha I guess that's a yes and no. it was a pain to come up with a good SOP for almost all the schools, but it's okay when you have finalized one that fits most of the school. Unfortunately, I did not finalized my SOP until early december, which means that schools that I submitted for application before that time would see my poor version of SOP. and of course, I got rejections from many of those schools :/

security deposit

I applied to +20 schools just because I wanted to get in somewhere (as an international) Even though I know that the unofficial average is 6-7 school. it is just extremely competitive for foreign applicants in general, and therefore splashing out money is just necessary..

Haha I bought myself a new, open-boxed laptop from eBay even though I'm still at the interview stage I will for sure enjoy my trip for the interview as I love traveling!