khaled

Hello everyone, So far I have received 2 offers both without funding (I'll be funded by my employer at my home country) and I'm a bit confused. The schools' environment are very different (weather, living expenses, size of campus, ...etc). For the academics, I find both programs interesting (my area is control systems) and I like both advisors. However, my advisor in UCLA is more famous (a relatively young, energetic full prof. who had 30+ former graduate students) and I believe that this will help me for future networking opportunities and when I apply for the PhD and in a top 10 school. While my advisor in UMN is an associate prof. who has interesting work and had few former graduate students. So, for the academics, my heart kinda goes with UCLA (plus, UCLA has a better reputation in my country) But when it comes to living expenses, it really hurts to see a small studio near the campus for about $1300/month in LA while it is worth about $500 in Twin Cities. My initial estimation is, living in LA will cost me an additional $1000/month, and that's $24000 for the whole duration. On the other hand, there are plenty of things to do in LA in my free time and has an amazing weather (I'm not a big fan of snow, and I don't know how difficult will it be to live in a very cold winter). So, is UCLA worth the $24000 difference? given that it has a better reputation my home country and I'm also planning to continue toward my PhD (not necessarily at the same school)

Did you apply to other schools? Here's my humble opinion, not getting into MIT isn't the end of your development and growth. You can be strong in your field without studying in MIT. Lots of their professors graduated from other schools.

I have the same comment in my application, then assumed that all EE applicants are getting the same comment.

it is an informal admission. So I guess they will send all the acceptance/rejection letters in March

we are in the same situation ... I started believing I'm rejected and moving on based on that

The 1300$/month was the total price we paid (me and my friends) in golden, Co back in 2010. I also know people who rented a 4br house for $1700/month. I don't know if things have changed in the past 2 years.

I've studied at Colorado School of Mines for 1 semester during my undergrad and I also visited Boulder. What I know for sure is that CSM has a great reputation in the Oil&Gas and petrochemicals industries, and they are strong in petroleum and chemical engineering. For you as a mechanical engineer, I've heard that they are good in materials science too. I can't really judge the academic side the University of Colorado at Boulder, but generally I have the impression that they have a good mechanical engineering department. Btw, CSM is located in small town which is about 20 minutes by car from denver. Boulder has a variety of places for college students, it has lots restaurants, a nice downtown ...etc. One more thing, one of the good things about living in Colorado is the cost of living. We rented a house (me and 2 of my friends) with 3 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, backyard, and 1 bath for $1300/month + it was 3 blocks away from CSM, and I believe Boulder won't be more expensive than these rates.

I just called my referee. He apologized and immediately submitted the recommendation. I sent an email to the admissions office and received an "out of office" automatic reply.

I just opened one of my applications and found this comment: "Your application is INCOMPLETE; we did not receive all of the 3 required LOR..." I've been trying to contact my references and unfortunately I ended up having a missing LOR. What do you guys think? Do you think if I get the missing LOR submitted it will help? I'm afraid they just opened my application and found it to be incomplete, so they will never consider it again.

It all depends on the job and your career plans. If the PhD is just a qualification you look for, then go with the shorter one (UK). If you need to be well-rounded and exposed to different areas within your field, and might teach one day, then the US system would be a better fit.

I got rejected from a school that I thought of as a "safety school". I was disappointed for about a week thinking I won't be admitted anywhere, since the safety school rejected me. However, I heard back from another school and guess what? I was admitted. Don't worry. It happens, and another school will accept you : )

I did (MS/PhD track), and didn't hear anything from UCB yet

I know someone who had a similar situation, and used it to write about things that are not in his SOP, which saved more space in his SOP and allowed him to focus more on his research experience/interests . I recommend that you look up some sample letters of recommendations ( some of them are available online, on universities' websites) and try to understand what does the adcomm look for in a LOR. You might find this helpful: http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/9780472031887-appendixg.pdf

It seems like a financial problem. I personally see no harm of moving to another school, and you do have a good reason to leave. Moreover, I believe that some of the courses that you took can be transferred so you will not have to repeat them.

Thank you for the useful information. It really helps Thanks. I didn't know that it's in the same league as UMich and U Wisc. Thank you. I'm waiting for other schools to decide, and admission makes me relax and I guess if I go for it I will not regret it. Thank you for the insightful reply.

Hello everyone. I got admitted into the University of Minnesota's Electrical Engineering Masters program, and I believe it is a great fit for me. I like what my advisor is doing and I'm overall excited about the program. My concern is about the reputation of the university. I know it has a good reputation, but also I'd like to know how its reputation compared to schools like Caltech and Berkeley.

I believe that if he committed to be your advisor, then they will definitely accept you.

keep in mind that I'm not an expert nor had an on-campus interview : P

If I were you, I'd go with business casual

Being accepted by the grad school only means meeting the minimum requirements. Actually, when an applicant doesn't meet the university minimum requirement, they don't forward the application to the department. Btw, I received the email notification about 3 days after seeing the decision on the online application. It isn't really my preferred choice, but at least I feel safe now.

Thank you Amal. Personally, I tried to contact about 4-5 professors but none of them replied to me, then decided to stop confusing myself and focus on the applications, and assumed that only the best applicants will be admitted in both cases. what's killing me right now is refreshing my email, seems that my brain has this automatic hourly email checking process

I just got admitted by a professor who didn't reply to email 2 months ago. So, my point is, chill !!, there r multiple reasons for them not to reply, and this won't harm u anyway ...

I think that if you are an international student, your scores are fine. Assuming you have strong LORs and SOP, you still got a good chance. Keep in mind that I'm just another applicant, not an admissions expert.

Don't worry. Your not the only good rejected applicant to UPenn, I got rejected too. Chill and stay positive, there are better EE programs with extended deadlines

Check with your previous professors, you might be surprised by the number of people they personally know. I know someone who got admitted to a top program because of an email from a professor to a professor!