LastGradStanding

It was for May.

Waterloo

I just got another rejection. This one was from the program that I thought was the most open to my learning disability. I'm only good at a very narrow range of things which is something that's supposed to be ok for PhD programs. I'm beginning to think that I have Asberger's as well so I'm giving up PhD applications and saving my pennies to get tested. It's not like that would help me get admitted, I just need to know.

Just checked my status and saw that I was denied. The least they could have done was send me an email telling me to check my status or an outright rejection email.

I'm trying to keep hope alive but the odds are diminishing by the day. Anybody ever done research while not enrolled? As in getting a friendly prof to show you the ropes and attempt to publish the results?

Has anyone heard anything about UW CS admissions yet? The deadline was a month ago but they're still taking applications according to their website. Nobody has updated the tracker for this recruitment session.

I forgot to mention that everyone thought I was an ECE student. Apparently that's all that black men study in engineering school.

I was the only black guy in my whole program for my first semester. Another guy came the next semester but he was from overseas. Being the only AA sucked. I always got stuck with the dirtbags for group projects because everyone from the majority would pair up so quickly that it would just be me and a few deadbeats left within a couple of minutes. This affected my grades twice. I had friends in other fields who had similar experiences. The dirtbags will do nothing and leave you to carry all of the weight, and if you get a B instead of an A they'll explain it away as the result of being paired with a black person.

How did everything end for the OP?

Everything is done with my app. I applied directly for the PhD (which this school allows) but noted that I was willing to do the MS if they thought that I should do one first. I'm gonna wait a few days before hitting the send button though. History has shown that there is always one little improvement that could've been done when immediately send my SOP. If it still looks perfect after 2-3 days then it's good to go.

I have a professional masters but I took extra classes in hard stats and CS rather than fluff classes like most of my classmates. My MS program was much harder where I earned it than the equivalent program is at my target school. I think I'd make a great TA since I did it at my old school. Since graduation I've been building my skills in my spare time. I have lots of practical knowledge but I don't have anything on a transcript that says I know a CS theory. It was also a non-thesis program and I think most Canadian schools want applicants who've done a thesis for PhD programs. I haven't done research, just teaching. At the time I didn't think I'd want a PhD.

No, they just don't accept non-traditional applicants directly to the PhD program.

I have a Masters in a specific application of the field I'm interested in. I just haven't taken the core set of coursework for the field in general. They want me to know the core before being allowed to pursue a research oriented degree.

How common is it to apply to a PhD program and have them admit you as a Masters student? I talked to a POI who just took on a bunch of students and won't be taking on any more soon. She said that I had a decent shot at being taken on as a student with a non-traditional background but I'd have to take some remedial courses (which is fine). As I was writing my SOP I rechecked their website to be sure of the wording and it looks like wording about remedial courses refers to Masters students. I emailed a program administrator and she confirmed that the non-traditional applicants are only accepted for Masters studies. This is a Canadian school. In the US you earn a Masters on the way to getting a PhD. I'm not sure that this is the case in Canada. They do accept people into the PhD program from the Masters without reapplying though. I already paid all of my fees and my app is complete except for the SOP. Should I change my status to Masters applicant or should I leave it as-is with the expectation of a Masters admission?

If they accept new students more than once a year it would behoove you to apply during the off-peak semester(s).

Just list the individual skills of interest to the employer without saying where they came from.

Any other dyslexics have any input?

Is there any way to do research to boost my odds? I've seen a few non-profits that offer these sorts of opportunities but they all seem to be region-centric and on the east of west coasts. I'm in Houston which poses a problem.

I've been looking at a program in Canada that I think would be a good match. They've got several ML courses instead of jamming everyting in 2-3 classes. They're also well funded but it appears that they are very highly ranked in CS. I meet the resident GPA cutoff but not the international one. I might be able to get an exception but it's still intimidating. Believe it or not I didn't know the two #1 ranked depts that I had joined were so well regarded. I practically stumbled into them.

This is the second year in a row that I've been struck out by every school that I've applied to. I'm dyslexic and have had some health issues but it's mainly the dyslexia. I have a (barely) sub-3.0 GPA from my masters and a slightly lower GPA from my double bachelors degrees. I was actually diagnosed in the 2nd grade but my mother decided to ignore this information with the hopes that the problem would just go away. By the time I was diagnosed as an adult significant damage had been done to my transcript, mainly from liberal arts courses. Any course that requires rote memorization of data rather than learning processes is difficult to me. I learn best by doing things but most schools nowadays are all about memorizing and not actually doing things so my GPA isn't an accurate representation of my capabilities. I'm trying to get into a machine learning PhD program but this GPA is killing my dream and I have no job offers right now mainly because of my GPA. I don't have many options left in life. I have nothing but As in machine learning courses and a large amount of math and statistics coursework under my belt. Both schools I attended quantized grades such that each grade is an integer while many competitors have grades that are in third or quarter grade intervals. This causes a lifting effect so extreme that I'd have a 3.5ish GPA using their system. I went to two non-inflationary schools and didn't realize how much other universities inflated grades. I pointed out this discrepancy this year and got a little bit more consideration than I did last year but the outcome was still the same. I can't even get a conditional admission. Do I actually need a PhD? Honestly, I'd rather learn on the job but that option is not available to me. I've seen a few jobs that offer training but you have to have the right GPA. Most openings that I see are PhD only, no MS allowed. Pursuing a PhD is my best option right now but I have a low GPA, little work experience (recession claimed my job before grad school), and no research experience (only the high GPA students were allowed to do research). My teaching\training experience doesn't seem to matter either. I've found one school in particular that houses computational versions of my previous 3 studies within the CS dept, has lots of machine learning coursework and a fairly flexible PhD program. They seem to prefer c++ and Python which are my two languages of choice. It's a high ranking school but 2/3 of my degrees were from #1 ranked depts and the other was #14 so hopefully that won't be an issue. How can I get through to the admissions board? Is there anything I can do before I apply?

Unfortunately I went to school where GPA determined access to labs and research, which is why I'm still stuck.

I still haven't even been interviewed. I guess it's safe to say I didn't make it. I wonder why they send out bulk rejects at the end rather than as they make decisions.

Any good news for anyone this recruitment cycle?

The result tracker shows that the first round went out a few weeks ago but nothing more recent. It's my first choice and I'm getting nervous. I've tried contacting the staff but they won't respond.

Did you speak to your bosses boss about it?