Icydubloon

Travel the world

Did you even read this thread? Harvard has a better "wow" factor than UW. Harvard CS's "wow" factor is comparable to UW CS in industry, from what I've seen. For academia, UW is better. It's pretty obvious that UW CS is better than Harvard. That doesn't change the fact that Harvard is a more prestigious school (overall), which was the point of my post.

Still waiting for OP to answer this question.

Northwestern.

If you go to a top 10 school in your field it's fine. Otherwise from what I've seen and heard, switching is preferable. It's notably easier (for most schools, including some top schools) to get admitted to a schools graduate program if you went there for undergrad.

If you "downgrade" from your undergrad school, people will begin to wonder why. But the three schools the OP mentioned are all great schools. I vote UIUC.

UT Austin

You're correct. But if I were to answer every question with "Well, it depends." That really wouldn't help too much. Sometimes a black and white answer is necessary for simplicity's sake. Statistically speaking, take any CS student off the street, it is more likely they will have a better fit at UW than Harvard, which is why I said my original comment. Harvard is a prestigious university yes, but UW is better at computer science (and machine learning/big data, see [1]). Honestly I would pick Harvard over UW because of the name. For what I want to do in life, the brand name is (unfortunately) very important. [1] http://escience.washington.edu/blog/new-phd-tracks-big-data

If you're having school problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but a rejection ain't one Edit: Except Stanford

Depends on what you do. If you become a data scientist then sure you can expect north of $130K. However, I don't believe that $130K is the average for all PhD graduate at a particular school. If you factor the people that go into academia, the average should be lower.

Different fields have different definitions of "the edge."

Say something along the lines of "Thanks for the congratulations. I will visit in Month X. I look forward to visiting School and meeting you."

CMU. Fundamentally, you want a solid robotics education that you will eventually apply to medicine. After your MS, you could then go for a PhD BME at Cornell after. Also Johns Hopkins is good.

UW CS is miles better than Harvard.

Just ask them for more time. If the school you're currently accepted to won't give you more time, then that tells you how much they value you. If they really cared about you as a student and your best interests, they would give you an extension.

The thing I have going for me is probably my recommendations. Multiple faculty have mentioned that they knew my letter writers. To be honest, I would rank an okay LOR from someone famous over a great LOL from someone not so famous. Several of mine were "did well in class" but the professor was well known, so that may have worked in my favor.

Many schools (in the US) will waive some, if not all the course requirements if you already have an MS with overlapping courses.

Profile: Blue means interview. I spent a good 10 minutes in the shower debating whether to put a legend in my signature or not, but I like the clean look so I left it as is. Even if it is unclear..

Looks like both Berkeley and Princeton sent out a lot of notifications today.

If you want to work in academia go to B. Otherwise you need the brand so go to A.

MIT doesn't offer an MS in CS.

I got 165Q my first time. I retook it and got a 170Q. I would retake it if I were you. At the level of Stanford admissions, I would want to maximize my profile in any way possible. I too, applied there for MSCS.

I'm getting a PhD and I'm not that interested in research. Why? Because in CS, the Bachelor degree is becoming the new high school diploma - everyone has it. I also want to work on machine learning problems in industry which a BS is generally not good enough. Many people (including myself) apply only to top 10/20 schools because of the prestige and "stamp of approval" they provide for whatever route you choose whether it be industry or academia.

It is useful and often required of undergraduates.

I was in class. I read the email, looked up, and said to myself "What? "