crossedfingers

hey 1234... did u visit UUtah? What did you think? Did they pay for your visit? Sorry for all the questions. I'm debating whether its worth visiting at my own expense.

Whoever posted on the results section about the BU wave of applications was right. I called BU two days ago to find out the status of my application and the woman (Cleopatra?) told me that my application was scheduled up for review today. So apparently these people will make a decision and by Monday mail out my letter. It kinda freaked me out. Christina if you're in the same boat as I and wondering what the hell is going on, definitely call them up. On a different note, I got a very cryptic message from UC ( and at this point in the process? I thought they had made all their decisions???). Well anyway the email said I should 'expect someone to contact me' by Monday March 10. Which makes no sense, who wants to contact me, why do they want to contact me, is this a freaking interview, atleast f**king tell me if it means I'm in!!! Seriously some one has to teach these people proper articulation. in other words, don't write off 'no reply' as rejection. cuz apparently as the ball is in their court, they can do whatever they want, at whatever pace they chose, in whatever way suits them best :evil: :arrow:

I have a slightly different 'called to find out story'. I called this program today to find out what the heck was going on. Ppl had begun getting rejection/acceptance letters from this place and I had neither. Anyway the graduate coordinator tells me that the adcom will look at my application on Friday, March 7. By the end of the day, a decision will be made and I should receive a notice soon enough. I almost asked her, " Friday huh? do you know what time!" So that you know, I could sit and pray the whole hour, hoping that while they are tossing around my application in all its glory, my humble prayers can save the day~~~ It freaks me out that the day that could change the entire course of my life, is just two days away!!!!!

From my own experience, the advisor who pushed my application forward in the admissions committee had also mentioned my name to his graduate student. The student never emailed me, but later during the process while I was visiting the school, she kept 'cheerleading' his lab. She mentioned several times that Dr. XXX would like me to work as an RA in his lab and during the admissions process they had 'discussed' how my skills and expertise would fit in. It could be possible that your professor did the same. ALthough why he would share your email address and let his graduate student fill you in- is a little weird. Hope for the best:)

i still have 2-3 more decisions to come in. If not Purdue it is. I visited the place last month and liked the campus. Housing seemed reasonably cheap and people around were pretty friendly. I'm in for BME

i got into one of my safety school's today. has anyone else heard back from BU? Someone posted on the results section that BU is doing 'waves of applications' - whatever that means. I haven't seen a rejection yet, so I'm hoping the tide is still coming in. Miketakena and ahug: did you have your visit Duke weekend yet? How did it go? My roommate came back from a visit to Harvard and Columbia. She didn't really like the people there. Said they were too full of themselves. I wonder if it were just her, or all people in these top notch colleges act the same.

ha ha- very funny! Now if i had made a similar mistake in French, it would have certainly hung my head in shame. but with English? ha.. i consider it a mini genius display that one is able to comprehend what I convey, especially since it took me 5 years to learn the language from scratch. so consider it a downfall of competence or a lack of intellect:it is still pretty 'kick ass' that i can use URE langauge to convey whatever I would have preferably said in French. plus it makes the immigration people happy:)

lol. did not know shorthand/typos yelled incompetence. since u insist: V670

I have a completely unrelated question to the thread above, but since this was a joint for English majors I thought it could be best addressed here. During an exit interview from my undergraduate university, I was asked if I could re do my education, what would change. My answer took both me and my advisor by surprise. I said i would have been an English major. (I'm ChE right now , worlds apart I know!) Honestly I think what he wanted to hear was that I would do the chemical engineering curriculum ' a thousand times over' - ha! The look on his face, nope not even VISA could buy that:) anyhow, I was wondering, if anyone out here knew anything about scriptwriting/directing? What kind of a degree do you need? Do you go for further study? I have been looking into this for a while and it seems like they prefer undergraduate english majors? IS this correct? How does one go about becoming a script writer? Do you take an intesive course at the new york academy and then just hope u were born under a lucky star? Film school has been something I wanted to pursue since I was in 8th grade, ( i think?). Somehow, family pressure sucked me into a hard arse engineering curriculum. Dont get me wrong, I rock at what I do right now, being an engineer and all that jazz. But something always seems missing. I convinced myself that once I was done with engineering, earned the dollar dollar bills, I would direct/produce films. Is this even possible?

I'm leaning towards it. But havent made a final decision What field are u in?

I am not an immigration expert. But from what i know, a person on an dependent visa does not get to work right away. There is a certain time lag. Things in the immigration section have changed since 9/11. I would immediately get hold of an immigration officer and get exact information.

I vote for UIUC and Minnesota if you are looking for a laid back college environment with a hustling city near by. To add to the post above, I think MN is a fairly decent place to live. It gets cold, but if u believe in survival of the fittest, you get to LOVE it. I like the college atmosphere of UIUC better. I had a friend who went there for his undergrad and visited him often. Urbana is a rural area, but that is until you get to the campus area. The town has a large number of things to do ( especially if you are into theatre), good restaurants, lots of ethic places to eat and the campus is lovely. I was there mostly during summer months, and lived across the nanotech building. One distinct thing I remember about UIUC was that no matter what time of the day/night: it was always bustling with life.

Call it cold feet or simply an amateur undergrad floundering around the great world of science, knocking into every concrete pillar she has ever know,shaking the very foundations of why I wanted to ever go to graduate school: now, i'm not so sure! There I said it! Applications this past year have taught me so many things about the process that I wish I had known earlier. Grad school applications are in fact no different than a job application, if not more. Network and sell yourself-bah I feel I applied to all the wrong schools, got accepted into the wrong programs (since when is Cornell the wrong program? Welcome to the messed up hatch!) I almost feel I should screw the process this year and apply again next year. Having gone through this torturous path once, it can't be that bad the second round right? Has anyone ever done that? Deferred admissions or applied again the second year? Looks like that's gonna be my Plan A

congratulations! That must have def been such a HUGE relief!

I don't get it. This is an email I received from a Duke professor today. (it was in response to an email sent out way back in the day !) "Thank you for your interest in my lab. However I think your strengths and interests are very closely related to Dr XXX and Dr XXX. I would contact them soon. I wish you well in your studies" So he is telling me that I wasted half a paragraph on my SOP by indicating an interest in his lab.. but now what? Should i gather the rest of my pride and call the others? Or is he just telling me in plain terms that my application just got tossed into the garbage? i don't get it.

Has anyone recently tried calling the DUKE BME office to see if they are done making interview calls? I really would like to know what the heck is going on but am a little intimidated to call :? BMEballer: did you get financial information with your acceptance? Mind if I ask what it was?

I'd call and find out. Cuz I think they did their round of rejections and interview calls. If you havent heard back you could be on their infamous waitlist.

first rejection: Stanford. and I'm actually relieved. is that bad?

ha! I think they did it all in one email. STANFORD: Rejected. My first one too. didnt really expect to get into their program. But am SO SO glad that they let me know... BU, u have but one chance left to recruit one of the maddest scientists..STEP UP!

So only one person has posted their Stanford interview stuff? I don't know if that means there are still more coming. ughh does any one know when MS people from Stanford get notifications? Is it the same as the PhD(s)? I know MS do not get invited for a visit weekend, but they have got to be making acceptances at the same time right? I wish i knew.

ha! I would so do that! but only if you really NEVER wanna go to CMU.

This is what I got from a person who served on an admissions comittee: Each school has a fixed scale that measures their applicant pool. Their is a scale for GPA, a scale for GRE, a scale for prior research, a scale for interests and believe it or not a scale for the prestige of your undergraduate school. Based on this scale, each applicant is given a score. If your GPA stinks, you get a lower number on the GPA scoreboard, but if you happened to graduate from an elite school, you get a higher score on your ' prestige school' . These scores are all added up to get a total score. Then starts the ranking. I thought the process was completely random, but this does make sense to me in some way. It sounded random, but fair. you could cram all you want and get a perfect GRE, but if your GPA stinks, ha u just got served! i want the gamble to end.

i visited Purdue this weekend. They are serious when they say that there is not much to do. Chicago is your closet bet to a full fledged city life if that is what you want. Else the place had a decent number of bars and restaurants. Football can keep u sane. You wont find a dunken dough nuts there! There were a couple of places away from undergrads and it seemed like some of the bars were more grad ppl oriented. I havent made up my mind if I like it or not yet~~ just answering your query!

its those evil sneering people in admissions. i hear they hate PINK

Depends on your country of citizenship. If it is a US fellowship and your country has no special treaty with the government, it is 14%. But a good thing I discovered last year was that, if you can document that you used the money solely for educational purposes ( eg fees, tuition, books, supplies) you can get most of it back when u file your tax refund.