sinerged

Thank you all for the answers! As it happens, I also discussed this with a friend who just finished his PhD, and he agrees with the consensus shown here that there is lots of flexibility when it comes to the time spent in the lab, specially by the end of the year. He actually advised me to just assume I was going to have some free days in December. In the end I've decided against asking the advisor about the winter vacation time, and I'll just buy whatever option seems cheaper for the trip uni-home-uni.

I read that the university policy is one day vacation per month. Since I'm starting in August, I'm wondering if it is possible for me to take 4 days in December which combined with the Holidays would give me enough time take a short trip back home. The graduate student coordinator said that as long as my advisor is OK there is no problem. But I'm worried about asking him and causing a bad impression since I haven't even started yet. The reason I want to know in advance is that, if I get a positive answer, I would buy a return plane ticket together with my ticket to the University, which is much cheaper than buying two one-way tickets.

Where do you got this information? And if true, do you have any idea of when? Buzzport is still showing "No Decision Has Been Made" for me.

Hi, it's very likely that I will accept an offer to enter UMass CS PhD program. However, it might be more convenient for me to defer admission until Spring 2013 (if possible). I know I should ask the department directly, but I have this paranoid feeling that the only event of asking will bite me in the future. Specially since the contact they gave for asking questions is one possible advisor. Should I ask him about deferring admission?

Admitted: UMass, UCF Rejected: CMU, UW Seattle, UPenn Still waiting (most likely rejects): GATech, UMIch (all PhD)

@finknottle My status in Buzzport is still "No Decision has Been Made"; by now I don't have much hope of having been accepted. @tanki768 I applied for UPenn CIS PhD program on December 13, and got the decision (Not Accepted) a couple of weeks ago.

Still waiting for those two. Got answers from CMU, Washington, UPenn, UMass, and UCF.

I was admitted to UMass PhD program for Fall 2012 with an assistantship for 12 months. They also invited me to a Candidate Friday in March 2 I'm wondering whether this type of visits are worth the effort travel, specially since I'm in another country (at least a 7 hour flight). Additionally, they gave me the email of the Recruiting Faculty contact and said that I could feel free to ask him any questions about my admissions. Do you know of any questions I should avoid? Or a list of Do's and Don'ts?

I just had a paper accepted for a conference and in my applications I listed its status as "In Review". Should I inform graduate departments of the recent change? If so, what is the best way to do so?

Well, that is kinda the point. Not sending subject test scores doesn't necessarily hurts you, but sending low scores might. I'm trying to figure out whether 74% is considered a low score.

I've read some people claiming that anything below 85% can actually hurt your application. But maybe that's only a concern for the most prestigious schools and not really so for Top20 and below

Yeah, that's true. But my reasoning could be wrong. It's not like I'm an expert in admissions criteria for Top20 CS schools.

Anyone?

I got Raw 780 and 74% percentile. Should I report this score? I think it might be helpful since I am not a CS major (though I have a master degree in applied computing) and I come from a pretty much unknown university. Any thoughts?

I got Raw 780 and 74% percentile. Should I report this score? I think it might be helpful since I am not a CS major (though I have a master degree in applied computing) and I come from a pretty much unknown university.

Would anyone be interested in checking my SoP for grammar and writing style mistakes?

...and my home country not 100% OK with USA. Would that hinder my chances or am I just being paranoid?

Actually they are both writing LoR for me for some universities. However, this particular university (U Mass) asks only for two letters and I am positive about who I want to write the other one (another professor from same uni that Option B btw). I have thus one spot left to fill and two professors to choose.

I have to decide between a professor who has been my surpervisor for almost 6 years and knows me very well (option A) or a professor that was my (co)supervisor during a two months internship I did this year (option B ). At first glance it appears option A is better, but option B comes from a much more respected university and is by far much more well-known in computer science. I also have the feeling that option A, while holds me in very high regards, will write a somewhat standard letter with no particular anectodes or personal information to support my qualifications. What do you think?

Sure, send it over a PM.

Would anyone be interested in taking a look and give feedback on my SoP?

If you want to do OS related research, why not also try Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam? Tanenbaum and the MINIX group are there, and the university is closer to where you live (Moscow, apparently). There may be less stringent admissions requirements, but the downsinde is you would probably need a Professor to agree to be your advisor in advance.

Hey guys, could you give me your input about something? The areas in current ML/AI research that I find the most interesting are the development of: 1) ML algorithms to efficiently handle massive datasets, possibly using distributed computing techniques, and 2) efficient and effective algorithms for planning and SLAM in robotics. The problem with this is that I don't have direct research experience in those areas. My experience is relevant in the sense that I have been working for years with neural networks, SVM, kriging, and other machine learning techniques for optimization problems in engineering. However, I haven't worked in problems that would advance the state of the art in current ML; instead, I've mostly been applying ML techniques. And in robotics (which happens to be the most appealing area for me) I have even less direct experience. Do you think this could be considered a weakness in my application, particularly in my SoP? How should I approach this aspect of my application?

All right, that's definitively the kind of feedback I need in order to improve my SoP. Thanks, man! Would you be willing to take a look at later versions of the SoP and give more feedback? As for the number of applications, I'll try to take your suggestion into account, but I only ordered 7 official transcripts and there is really not enough time to order more and get them before the deadlines. Some universities ask only for online submission, so I guess that's my only shot.

Thanks a lot for your answer, newms! I'll definitively take into account your comments about my SoP. Reading some of the other threads in this forum I realize my previous version was definitively lacking in the research interest department, and I've already started to think how to improve that part. I saw some advice suggesting to actually begin the SoP stating my research interests and how the fit with the program, and only then go on to explain why I'm qualified to do so. That's what I'm planning to do with my SoP at the moment. BTW, I do know how hard it is to get into Top 4. Last year I only applied to top-tier schools (MIT; CMU, Stanford, Caltech, USC) and I didn't get accepted in any of those. That's why this year I want to make sure I pick more realistic universities and I'm doing everything I can to improve my application package. Thanks for your input, man