awwdeerp

If you weren't offered funding then I think it's no problem at all. However, if you accepted their offer of financial aid and you want to defer after 15 April - then you might need their consent

It may depend on country, but for me (1 year ago) it was ~ 1 week to wait for an interview (can be done faster if you want) and 1 day to get visa after the interview. 2-3 month is either exaggeration or it was for some other kind of visa: I assume immigration visas may take longer but even in that case it seems too long. Also from what I remember, I also had to wait for more than a month for I20 so it's not that uncommon. Don't worry guys, admission offices go through this procedure every year for hundreds/thousand students, so they know what they are doing. If you are bored or just want to be in contact - feel free to email them from time to time (it's actually a good thing), but seriously they know what to do and are aware of all the deadlines. Relax and congrats to eveyone on their admissions. If I were you I would start looking for airline tickets - If you book them several months in advance you can often save a lot

To be honest I don't see that much difference between the reputations of TAMU and EPFL. If you check their rankings for engineering (yes, I know, rankings are not the best indicator), they are practically equal: http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldENG2011.html TAMU is actually ranked several positions higher. Plus, as a fellow EE who got his undergrad + MS in Europe and now working on PhD in the US, I would say that their reputation is comparable (though I'm not in your subfield so I can't say for sure). EPFL is better known in Europe and TAMU - in the US, so you have to take into consideration where you would prefer to work after you graduate. I'd say that personality, reputation and research interests of your potential advisor(s) are more important in this case. Generally, students (even former students) don't like to say a lot of negative things about their advisors so if you received such negative response it may mean that he is really bad (or it could be just a disgruntled student's opinion). As for Cornell - you never can be sure. If it is past 15th of April and they did not send you a rejection letter, you may be waitlisted or at least you have a (more or less) decent chance. If I were you I would try the following - ask EPFL professor for an extension - it is a very common request so why not give it a try? Even if it is only one week, it can still be very helpful - a lot of universities make their $$$ decisions in the second half of April. - if you still have no response from them 1 or 2 days before EPFL deadline, you can write a POLITE request (try not to make it sound like an ultimatum) like "I am very interested in attending your program, however, I would be able to accept your offer only if you can make a final decision by $DATE". If it works - you have one more admission to choose from, if not - you would go to another university anyway. - finally, some people change their mind after they have accepted an offer. This is generally frowned upon, so you should not do it unless you have a good reason, but still - it is in your own interest to get the best offer you can (after all, you paid admission fees and spent a lot of time on your applications) Good luck!