Pauli

Only in rare cases do adcomms renege an acceptance decision, but I'd recommend that you investigate switching majors when you are already a student. First semester is usually an exploration semester, so you have more flexibility on your available options.

KU, because it's a larger program (i.e., more choices in what to specialize in), and it has a dedicate CS program (i.e., it's not merged with another similar discipline like math or electrical engineering).

Low. You would have to convince a prof that you would be a good fit in their lab during your time there, or secure an on-campus job specific to grad students to have your tuition waived.

I don't know anything about the NYU program, but the UT Southwestern program is very well-renowned. During undergrad, many of my friends who studied biochem and other related majors applied to do grad work at UTSW, but I only know one who got in.

Once you're in a grad program at that university, switching to a different program in the college tends to be relatively easier than applying to the university. What you could do is speak with both departments about the options and procedure for switching over.

I started my PhD when I was 25, but many of the people who started with me were in their late 20s or early 30s. It's not where you go, but how you spend your time there.

Just be thankful you have a working public transportation system. Compared to Europe or Asia, public transit in America is of course not going to be decent. But for the southern part of the United States, Austin has one of the best.

When applying for a PhD program in the US, you will also be competing against applicants who only have a Bachelor's degree. Those students may have done undergraduate research, and a few of them may have done an honors degree with a required thesis, but it's not required. You basically get a fresh start when you start a PhD program, so you should be fine if you have a generally strong academic portfolio.

This is my fifth year doing grad studies here, and the vast majority of grad students here hang out with either people from the same nationality or from the same department/college. This is made especially true as there isn't really much to do in the city compared to larger ones. My friends who did undergrad in larger cities commented that the only source of fun here is dependent on the people you hang out with, and I think it's very true.

Universities, include in Canada and especially for larger-sized ones, have daycare centers specifically for children of graduate students, faculty, and staff. It's still a good idea to contact the indivdiual universities for more details though, but they're not uncommon.

My gawd, you are such a shallow person.

Why are you still using the R1 term? That term is no longer used and has been replaced with a different criteria to reflect the strengths of strong smaller schools that couldn't be categorized originally as R1. Plus, you should be focusing on the university with the stronger program, not on the one that is generically categorized under the former R1 term. A "non-R1" university with a strong department in your field will always triumph an "R1" one with a weaker one. EDIT: OMG, I just found out that the term "R1" has been outdated for over a decade, and for good reason. Why do people still cling on to that archaic term, as it's such an inaccurate designation.

Oh, and you don't have to worry about the undergrad population or city life, since you'll rarely see them (unless you're a TA) due to working in your research lab all the time, lol. Edit: Whoops, should have made this an edit to my previous post instead of another response.

My favorite part about your original post is how every point you listed that describes the city or the university is either hugely stereotypical or blatantly wrong. I'm guessing you're not American?

This thread is so depressing. Why do people sound like it's such a big deal to get rejected from applying to highly competitive universities? There's nothing wrong with apply to less "name" schools whose programs are just as strong but aren't as well known to laypersons.

If you're waitlisted, they would have told you. Ask UF for an extension (wouldn't hurt to try). Both are great ECE programs.

There are many outstanding robotics programs. Why not apply to one of those other strong programs with higher acceptance rates? Plus, even if you had gotten accepted in CMU for CS, that doesn't guarantee that you would be accepted in their robotics research lab(s). It's better to find a strong robotics research lab that is willing to accept you.

To margarets, I impart to you two lines of wisdom: Don't knock their theses until you've written a peer-reviewed approved one yourself. The successful focus for writing a grad schools thesis is contributing strong peer-reviewed knowledge of a specialized type of knowledge, not blowing away people on its impact. The latter may result from the former, but they're not equivalent. What incoming grad student applicants fail to realize was that a lot of trial and error research occur that lead to the final piece that is an approved thesis, but only the last successful stage of that work appears in the final draft.

It's true that many subfields in CS do use programming at varying levels, but it's certainly not the basic for all of them (e.g., some areas of graphics, human-computer interaction). A few fields don't use it extensively in the more advanced concepts, especially in the multi-disciplinary or theoretically-heavy ones. For the case of the original poster, that's especially the case. But some programming knowledge of the more intermediate stuff is definitely beneficial.

OMG, those pens are ugly, but I do love writing with them when I "borrow" someone who has one, lol.

Feel very annoyed about TAing, and it will alleviate your fears about TAing. Side Effect: You will feel annoyed about TAing.

Just doing our duty, Sergeant Sarcasm!

That's my fault. I was being condescending in my previous post, and I apologize. You are correct that applying directly to a PhD is good thing to do if one wishes to pursue a PhD, but there are also pretty good strengths to going the Masters route for a couple reasons. The one that stands out is that it strengthens one's CV when applying to a research lab or faculty position as it diversifies your research portfolio (it's very common that Masters research has to be distinct from PhD research). Another one is that it gives someone an opportunity who obtained a Masters to apply to another university for PhD with stronger credentials due to gaining more research experience compared to someone applying directly from a Bachelors.

Don't reference writers in India also write similarly to reference writers in the UK? There seems to be a lot of accepted Indian applicants, and their reference letters would seem to be doing fine.

There is so much wrong in this post. What you said pretty much contradicts what actually happens. It easily works both ways in pursing a PhD, either with or without a Masters.