Icydubloon

Ivy leagues care about the verbal and writing more than non-ivies.

Apply for PhD. You will be admitted to at least one top school, provided you don't mess up your LORs or statement of purpose.

You buy a laptop for its portability. If you truly need computing power (e.g. engineering) you know where to get it (school cluster, machine, the cloud). Get the air.

I'm also "not excited"

Yes the verbal score will be an issue. Have you thought of retaking? For a lot of the top places, the actual department doesn't care much about the verbal score but the graduate school does. It is quite possible for a student to get the "accept" from the department but the graduate school to say "reject" due to strict GPA/GRE cutoffs.

Johns Hopkins is one of the best NLP schools in the world.

I would have voted CMU as well. It doesn't matter if Columbia is an ivy league. CMU is (tied for) number one in CS and the world knows that.

Looks like you're going to Cornell

I would have waited until April 15 to decline. This way she doesn't get what she wants and you send a polite notification email so you're not at fault.

Stanford

Your coworker is correct.

10/10 would read this thread again

Princeton

I don't believe Berkeley's response. As in, they say that to everyone.

Aim for a verbal above 155, a quant above 165, and writing 4.0 or higher. I would focus on publications and your statement of purpose. Do NOT say "I first started developing an interest in computers when I was in elementary school when my father gave me..."

It's surprising because it's funding for a MS vs PhD. Masters programs are generally unfunded, especially at a "cash cow" machine like Stanford.

I agree with everything said here. Especially "the next Silicon Valley" comment. It's just like "this startup will be the next big thing."

Just to follow up: she chose to go to Stanford since she was offered full funding for a MS. Interestingly, she was offered more funding by Stanford for their MSCS than MIT PhD.

CMU. If you want to go to Boston, go on the weekends. It's not that far.

I got a full tuition waiver plus a TAship with stipend for their MSCS. It might vary from department to department.

I was in a meeting with my undergrad advisor who wants me to stay at my current school

If you can accept without paying a deposit then I would say go ahead an accept and if you decide not to attend, then don't attend. If there is a deposit, then that's a different story.

CMU ...but I'm not biased at all

I'd imagine employers will start looking at GPA of Georgia Tech graduates more closely and asking more difficult interview questions since more people are now graduating with the Georgia Tech name. It will devalue the Georgia Tech name yes, but not the knowledge you gain (actually it does devalue the knowledge a little bit since everyone is smarter but the effect of this is negligible). For those saying the degree won't be devalued: Part of a degree is that it conveys the selectivity of the school granting the degree. Many qualified applicants are not admitted to some degree programs. This "luck" factor is why we "ooohh ahh" at great schools (e.g. Stanford, GaTech). It doesn't matter if the quality of instruction is the same, the fact of the matter is that now there are (example) 5 times more people with the same degree as you. Imagine 5 times more people from your school (and same degree program!) are applying to the same job you are. Or better yet, imagine competing against 5 exact copies of yourself. You must have been qualified to get admitted to the school, so assuming the admissions standards do not drop, it now becomes more difficult for you to compete. If I'm a recruiter (or faculty member looking for new hires), I have to devise other means of "screening" out applicants. This new "screening" out process may not have existed before the online program existed and you, as a degree holder, will have to pass this brand new filter which was the result of increased enrollment (i.e. online degrees).

I got that same response for their PhD results but got the MS acceptance via email the other day.