ahug030

Berkeley... thanks for the support all

Purdue cause the name sounds so good

The Duke acceptance was all online. Berkeley is saying that a letter has been sent from the graduate school... Im crossing my fingers for you eh

Yeah I got accepted to Duke and Berkeley, I've decided to go with Berkeley because of the living environment basically. Any good news or decisions on your end?

Yeah I went to the Duke thing and really like the research going on. I also won an extra fellowship. But to be honest I can't see myself living in NC, the university is beautiful but the surrounding area holds very little excitement. I managed to get a look at the REAL Durham - I would suggest that anyone ready to go there take the number 6 and 7 buses around the area. I guess if you're married (like many of the grads there are) the slow life might be in order but I think I'm too young for that at the moment. If Berkeley gets back with a yes I would accept immediately.

Haha. Yeah I got rejected by Stanford too. But whatevs.

Btw sony nice to see you have acceptances already - how did you gather the patience to apply to all those schools, it was hard enough getting 6 apps together for me!

Im also feeling bummed about Stanford - I didn't get an email so I guess that rules me out too :cry: . Luckily I have Cal/SF and Duke interviews... but is it wrong to crave the brand name? I always thought it would be cool to have a degree from stanford or harvard or caltech or...

Hi anon, thanks for the inside info. I was born in Oakland and lived in the Bay Area for 10 years during my childhood and also have fond memories. Luckily I'll get to see Berkeley again when I visit and appraise it from a new perspective. The only reason I'm leaning towards Duke is because of its more structured campus. I did my undergrad at Auckland University (New Zealand), which is in the middle of the city - nice initially but tends to grate on the nerves with traffic noise and smoke, and the general bustle. That's why I long sometimes to go to university in a place where the focus is the university itself. But we'll see - I'm sure I would be happy at either. Yeah it's summer down here so I've been surfing and spearfishing like mad, just been away to Australia for a little holiday too. Nothing like a little adventure to keep you from going crazy :wink:

I have just been communicating casually with the prof - no formal emails or letters...

Just wondering how you managed this, i.e. how did you go about asking? I'm flying in from New Zealand to Berkeley, Duke and hopefully others. The prof I've been talking to mentioned the cost would be shared or something... not sure if I should push for more. Btw when are you going? Maybe we'll see each other there... Im leaning towards Duke now just because their demeanor seems much more personal - plus the campus looks amazing. If anyone wants evidence of this, check out Stanford's intake for 2007-2007, I think there are two students from international schools vs. ~ 20 from U.S. ones. I can see the difficulty - the number of Indian and Chinese students out there that could embarass me on the academic front is surely in the thousands (if not hundreds of thousands). Thankfully I'm a U.S. citizen and my having spent time overseas is more likely to be seen as a plus.

In my experience America = Red-tape = 8-10 weeks for everything... y'all should try living outside of the U.S. for awhile and feel what true freedom feels like :wink: Guess I'm gonna have to get used to it again

By the way, anyone heard from Caltech yet?! They were supposed to get back a couple days ago... :|

It went OK... it was a bit difficult talking myself up on the phone and I'm not sure I made that good of an impression. We talked for some time about his research and my interests. He seemed reasonably enthusiastic but didn't give too much away about my chances... will have to wait and see I guess.

Ditto :wink: . I have a phone interview in half an hour... so nervous. I've read enough to do some major ass-kissing though