habanero

If you have something else which is actually portable, why don't you just leave your laptop at home running and set it and your router up so that you can ssh into it and run jobs? That's what I do with my desktop (though that's different because I work at home 95% of the time anyway). It's not hard to set up:

1) Install an ssh server on your computer (OpenSSH for example)
2) Get a free domain name from dyndns.com and install their daemon on the computer (to automatically update the IP of that domain name with whatever your computer's IP address might change to).
3) Set up your computer to manually specify a fixed IP on the local network (instead of having it dynamically assigned by the router)
4) Set up a port forward on your router from SSH and remote desktop ports to that port on the fixed local IP of your computer from step 3.

Pretty painless. Of course it helps with responsiveness and reliability if you connect the computer to the router with an ethernet cable instead of wireless when you're away.

I'll just add in my two cents and say that these comments are great, and that ranking don't really matter in the long run. I think that the focus should be on the research lab and research area.

Well for one thing, overall rankings are quite silly, and area-specific (theory, AI/machine learning, systems, PL, etc.) rankings are a bit more meaningful. Sure, Princeton is ranked higher than Georgia Tech, but as far as I can tell Princeton only has a couple of machine learning people, for example. Georgia Tech is a huge department, one of the particular strengths of which is machine learning (and robotics and computer vision). If you want to do machine learning, then unless Blei and Schapire are fighting over you, you would be shooting yourself in the foot to pick Princeton over GT. In a more extreme example, MIT is MIT, but Penn and Amherst, despite not even being ranked top 10, have great natural language processing faculty and a very big reputation in that area, so if you want to do NLP, it very well might be in your best interest to pick one of them over MIT.

For another thing, rankings in general, even area-specific ones, are quite silly. They're only really effective at discerning "pretty good" schools from other schools, in that it is a good sign if a school appears in the top 10 to 20. Research interest match with a single strong professor (who is also available and wants to work with you) in general is more important than a schools overall reputation. Beyond that, the academic and work environment of a school is another factor that might come up more important. MIT is supposed to be a vicious department, and I may have heard the same to a lesser degree about Berkeley. It is supposedly very easy to be unhappy at MIT.

Anyway, as for location, I'm an Atlanta fanboy (I'm from the country near there and I went to Georgia Tech for undergrad), but I've lived there and in San Francsico (going back to SF this Summer again), and I would say that Atlanta is about as much fun as San Francisco, just a little harder (but not that much) to get around and a loooooooot cheaper. I just ranted positively about the town in another topic so I'll keep it brief here, but despite what locals and outsiders alike will tell you, you can definitely live in Atlanta without a car and have fun and be in a walkable place. You just have to pick the right neighborhood (there are a number of good ones, one of which is the Midtown area just east of Georgia Tech's campus from where you could walk to campus really easily).

You always have doubts in things that you are doing. You may think may be it wasn't the best idea. It is really an instinct. But Your fate will always take you where you belong.

All of them, and I'd fly in-between schools as needed.

I told my employer and they suggested that I give notice. Just keep in mind that they will probably not want you to work for them once they know. I wanted to do the honest thing and I don't regret my decision, but do realize that your employer owes you no allegiance. Good luck! :-D

If you only have a set amount of time, I'd work on reading comprehension over memorizing lots of words. I memorized a million words off of Kaplan and Barron and NONE of them were on my exam. The RC skills I learned really paid off--my range was 740-800 (99th percentile). My vocabulary is extensive normally, so you might take this advice with a grain of salt.

Hi! I'd be so grateful if someone could review my 'profile' and tell me my chances of acceptance. I will be applying for a PhD. I am applying to Carnegie, WashU, Berkeley, Stanford, U of Maryland, Purdue, and UWashington (I've been looking at Rice, but it is through the psych department!). If you have any other suggestions, I would love to hear them.
1) BS in Comp Sci/BA in Liberal Arts, but I went to a school with very long written evaluations instead of grades. The school is NOT known for research. My evaluations for my major are, for the most part, very strong. Many mention that my exams were among the best in the class. My GPA would be around a 3.7 or 3.8.
2) Lots of research experience in a few different labs. One was for one year + and I did lots of research technician type things, worked on grants, wrote manuals for instruments, wrote controls for instruments, and helped submit a grant to the NIH with another undergraduate that was very nearly funded. The letter of rec from that professor will be very strong. My other letter of rec will also be strong.
3) I don't know what my GRE scores are yet--my verbal is certainly 99th percentile no matter low or high, and my quant, at worst, is 80th percentile. The ranges are throwing me off! My AW is probably a 5 or a 5.5.
4) My letter of purpose will be strong. I have lots of interests and will be able to happily apply to many different labs.
5) I worked as a tutor for a few years and my boss also was my teacher for multivariable/linear algebra. My letter of rec should be very strong for mathematical and teaching abilities.
6) I was one of two women in my upper div comp sci classes--I really love the subject.
I'm aware of my weaknesses, but I would like to know if my strong points might be enough to get me into good schools. Thank you!

I told my employer and they suggested that I give notice. Just keep in mind that they will probably not want you to work for them once they know. I wanted to do the honest thing and I don't regret my decision, but do realize that your employer owes you no allegiance. Good luck! :-D

All of them, and I'd fly in-between schools as needed.

Your feelings are only human, and it's good that you're attempting to deal with them. Understand that your professor is not reflecting on YOUR abilities or place in the lab. The professor wants to build the lab up, and is excited that (YET ANOTHER, AFTER YOU) awesome student is joining! I would make sure to befriend this student and learn from them. View it as positive--this new hotshot student might be joining YOUR lab. It is so much better than having a terrible student, right?

You could always volunteer 10 hours per week in a lab if you have no other options. Most professors would be glad to have the help.

Sorry, letigre. I didn't mean for that to come off harshly, and I hope that I didn't seem like I was trivializing your very difficult choice. It's hard to convey meaning over the internet. Best of luck in your graduate studies.

Sorry, letigre. I didn't mean for that to come off harshly, and I hope that I didn't seem like I was trivializing your very difficult choice. It's hard to convey meaning over the internet. Best of luck in your graduate studies.

Why apply for a safety if you didn't actually consider it to be an option? I say take it--unless your prospects for a job will be severely hampered by your Charlotte decision.

Why apply for a safety if you didn't actually consider it to be an option? I say take it--unless your prospects for a job will be severely hampered by your Charlotte decision.

Why apply for a safety if you didn't actually consider it to be an option? I say take it--unless your prospects for a job will be severely hampered by your Charlotte decision.

Why apply for a safety if you didn't actually consider it to be an option? I say take it--unless your prospects for a job will be severely hampered by your Charlotte decision.

From a shallow point of view, a GA tech degree would take you anywhere in the world. Statistically speaking, it is much easier to graduate from GA tech and work in UCSB than the opposite. Also, you will get out of it with well known connections. UCSB students might be happier because of the location and/or the lesser competition. Let's be honest, if it were about happiness/social life you wouldn't have applied to PhD to begin with. In the end it is all about how you feel towards these schools, you could go for UCSB and end up being miserable and vice versa is true.

I think pretty much every grad student gets them at some point or another. Mine seem to come and go, depending on how well my research is going. I think it's more just getting used to them being there, and telling yourself that all you can do is your best.

We used to have a huge thread sticked on Imposter Syndrome over on the PhD Comics graduate forum, but it's since been taken down due to hackers and spam, sadly.

Thank you Tsujiru for the support. You are right, I do have to choose something over the other but I ended up choosing the US program because I felt so miserable and didn't feel at all excited about the Canadian program. I feel much happier now even with all the risks with the visa.

I have to reply to an offer in a few hours if I don't want it to get cancelled. I thought I'd be happy if I got into school A and in many ways it's a good place to be except that I feel that in my field (Computer Science) being in Canada will reduce my chances of having good job opportunities. I can't stop crying and I'm so afraid of choosing this Candian school over the US one but the US visa is not guaranteed for people with my nationality and the research area isn't a great fit but the school is top 20
I'm not sure if this normal. I mean it does feel bad to reject schools but feeling absloutely miserable because you're accepting a good offer is so strange and feels terrible

zyzz, the problem is you. congratulations.

Ok all, thank you for the advice. I said something along the lines of:

Dear X,

Thank you for your interest/time/etc. X University is amazing, and I had such a good time/X/XXX/whatever. It has been a difficult decision, but I've decided to attend XX. I very much look forward to seeing you at X conference. +something personal

Best,
HABANERO

Ok all, thank you for the advice. I said something along the lines of:

Dear X,

Thank you for your interest/time/etc. X University is amazing, and I had such a good time/X/XXX/whatever. It has been a difficult decision, but I've decided to attend XX. I very much look forward to seeing you at X conference. +something personal

Best,
HABANERO