Pauli

My other choice was University of Florida (Gainesville), so what a coincidence. I choose Texas A&M for the program and the fact that I am from Texas, so it was a no brainier for me.

I just finished my housing hunting escape here in College Station / Bryan. I ended up signing with a place that wasn't even on my list - 21 Gramercy Park. It's a new complex located in the Park Hudson area that opened in November - I will be the first to live in my apartment. It's seems like a mix of older undergraduates, graduates, and young professionals, which was exactly what I was looking for. The address states it's in Bryan, TX, however it is literally less than 10 min from central A&M campus - including stoplights. I'm very happy with my decision.

It seems like most undergraduates flock towards east 2818 / harvey. The complexes there are extremely nice though, I was almost tempted to consider the woodlands.

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.

Downtown Bryan is a nice place, but outside of that its pretty bad. So thats why you get contrasting opinions. Really just don't live in a mega student apartment complex and you'll be fine.

Grad school makes you nerdier, causing increased usage of glasses.

Don't listen to karajan2000. He/she oesn't know what he/she is talking about. The honest truth is that both schools are comparably similar. You should make your decision on which university offers a better financial package, which school has a more accommodating research lab, and which school has a city that better matches your taste.

Yes.

Grad school makes you nerdier, causing increased usage of glasses.

I do think part of the problem is that a lot of college students think that they deserve a degree merely by finishing their program. It seems like everyone just expected the economy to fix itself while they were in school and didn't prepare for reality. Instead of spending time looking for opportunities to get real life experience while in school (lab jobs, teaching/TA/UTF, internships, etc) they play video games for 14 hours a week. Even half that time spent working on some sort of tangible project would have helped their job search tremendously. Theoretical knowledge isn't enough to land a job; it hasn't been for a long while and students should go into their degree program knowing that.

I graduated a year ago. Out of those looking for work, everyone I know who got involved with their education more deeply than simply doing their assignments and passing exams has found employment relevent to their degree.

Maybe my friends and I have been extremely lucky, and I'm not saying that the job market isn't bleak and depressing right now. Obviously the number of jobs available would remain the same even if everyone in college were making the most of their education. That said, there are tons of ways to "get experience" while still in school. If more students took advantage of them then maybe more of the nation's recent graduates would be able to compete in the job market.

Did you email the general graduate admissions office, or did you mail the CS department? You should mail and call the CS dept., because they are the ones who would make the preliminary decision. You should apprise them of the facts, and tell them that you need to decide on another offer by so and so date. Since you haven't got rejected either, you might be stuck on some waitlist. The Apil 15 rule holds true for PhD applications, but some Master's programs take longer. I got a couple of offers last week.

Grad school makes you nerdier, causing increased usage of glasses.

Feel very annoyed about TAing, and it will alleviate your fears about TAing.

Side Effect: You will feel annoyed about TAing.

Feel very annoyed about TAing, and it will alleviate your fears about TAing.

Side Effect: You will feel annoyed about TAing.

Feel very annoyed about TAing, and it will alleviate your fears about TAing.

Side Effect: You will feel annoyed about TAing.

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

-Alexander Graham Bell

I will be attending UT Austin this fall (Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction). I hear that Austin's free bus system is one of the best in the country for students. You can find more information on the University Apartments/graduate housing at the following link: http://www.utexas.edu/student/housing/index.php?site=0&scode=2&id=639.

All of the graduate apartments are located off campus, but have bus service (about 15-25 min commute I hear). I will have my car, but I don't intend to use it to drive to campus for class.

2.7 GPA and got into a decent grad school. The university also had a minimum 3.0 GPA requirement, but that was overlooked because...
Reference letters from world-famous professors
Double majored
Rreasonably high GRE score
Diverse and tough course load
Active participation in student organizations
Fluency in a second language
Several years of study abroad
A year of undergraduate research
(Okay, fine. I'm a Pacific Islander too)

Anyway, I don't buy into that stereotype that low-GPAers can't get into decent grad school. If you have the academic portfolio, then you have the credentials.

EDIT: I <3 this thread.

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.

Were those profs Americans? If so, they must be shallow, since rankings are a shallow indicator of a program's strengths. For example, Wisconsin has a superior program for computer architecture compared to, say, MIT, even though CS program rankings put MIT higher. Plus, graduates are judged more often by their time in the program and who they worked under, not where they went to school.

Not sure if you're a troll, or ignorant. I have a feeling that you're a combination of the two. All three programs are great in CS and have their own strengths and weaknesses. Berkeley is no exception.

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.

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.

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

-Alexander Graham Bell

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.

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

-Alexander Graham Bell