2021 Fall MIT EECS PhD Applicants

[lifeisbrutal]

@abhilashgujar Yeah, but the 1st March rejections were mostly marked 'international/other' on GradCafe. Just an observation.

[abhilashgujar]

9 minutes ago, lifeisbrutal said:

@abhilashgujar Yeah, but the 1st March rejections were mostly marked 'international/other' on GradCafe. Just an observation.

Hmm.. that is true. But in 2019 I received rejections from universities in late April, so if I haven't received any reply yet, I am not holding out for much hope.

[lifeisbrutal]

@abhilashgujar At this point, I don't have any hope left either! But I just observed that there were some international rejections, that's all.

[H-pristol]

4 hours ago, lifeisbrutal said:

@abhilashgujar At this point, I don't have any hope left either! But I just observed that there were some international rejections, that's all.

There was one EE guy in this forum who got rejected unoffically but did not receive the rejection, so we are most probably rejected, but they did not bother to inform us at all

[Calzone864]

Has anyone received any response to their inquiry emails? I am an international student as well, and I have received absolutely zero communication from the EECS department. If any domestic applicant here could please call up the department and ask about the status, that would be great.

[skippy]

I think we can safely say that we did not hear back early march.

Jokes aside, I'm at this point debating heavily whether I should go ahead and accept the offer I've received from a good school, or still wait for the rejection. What are you all planning?

[abhilashgujar]

9 hours ago, skippy said:

I think we can safely say that we did not hear back early march.

Jokes aside, I'm at this point debating heavily whether I should go ahead and accept the offer I've received from a good school, or still wait for the rejection. What are you all planning?

You should take that offer if you don't receive a reply: until the deadline for reply for that good university. At least for now you have something in your hand.

[oa97]

I contacted the department and got a response from them today. They are saying all the remaining decisions will be out by this week.

Given the language used, waitlist or not, it seems we will be getting a blast of rejects this week. RIP.

Edited March 16, 2021 by oa97
Typo

[skippy]

14 hours ago, abhilashgujar said:

You should take that offer if you don't receive a reply: until the deadline for reply for that good university. At least for now you have something in your hand.

The offers I have in hand all good-naturely state the April 15 deadline, deliberating between them so that I can reject the one I won't be going for sure and maybe unlock someone waitlisted. 

1 hour ago, oa97 said:

I contacted the department and got a response from them today. They are saying all the remaining decisions will be out by this week.

Given the language used, waitlist or not, it seems we will be getting a blast of rejects this week. RIP.

God help us... fingers crossed.

[skippy]

On a side note, how many of us are American students and how many international? More out of curiosity than anything else, to figure out if there is a correlation between geography and those who haven't yet gotten a response. Maybe y'all can respond by upvoting/liking this post instead of replies (and hence won't need to count)

Upvote: International

Like: American

I don't think I can like/upvote my own post, but fyi I'm an International.

[Calzone864]

1 hour ago, oa97 said:

I contacted the department and got a response from them today. They are saying all the remaining decisions will be out by this week.

Given the language used, waitlist or not, it seems we will be getting a blast of rejects this week. RIP.

@oa97 Thank You for contacting the department. It is great to know that we will be receiving some closure to this whole saga. I am hoping for the best for everyone here. Also, as a side note, I went through the acceptances posted earlier on the main results page, and saw that most of them were for the CS side of things. Relatively, a much lower number of people commented about acceptances from EE side, so maybe we could see some acceptances from the EE areas. Crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

26 minutes ago, skippy said:

On a side note, how many of us are American students and how many international? More out of curiosity than anything else, to figure out if there is a correlation between geography and those who haven't yet gotten a response. Maybe y'all can respond by upvoting/liking this post instead of replies (and hence won't need to count)

Upvote: International

Like: American

I don't think I can like/upvote my own post, but fyi I'm an International.

Same, international student here.

I don't think that MIT discriminates on the responses based on the geography of the applicant, and even then, Gradcafe forums represents too small a population to draw any accurate conclusions from. Whatever correlations we may see here are probably due to coincidence, IMHO.

[abhilashgujar]

I have been asking for status updates from colleges, and apparently they are swamped. Received the following reply from UMichigan:

"Good Morning XYZ, 

 

Thank you for applying to the graduate program in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan.

 

I understand you are excited to know the admission results of your application. The admission committee has started the application review process.  However, I cannot tell you when or if your application has been reviewed.  If you have not been contacted with an admission offer, there has not been a final decision made on your application yet.  Once a final decision has been made, you will be contacted by email. 

This year we have over 2,000 applications, and the admission committee is reviewing them as fast as possible.  The admission committee plans to have all decisions made by May 1st. However, I cannot guarantee that all decision will be made by that date.  I ask for your patience as the admission committee finishes reviewing the applications.  If you have additional admission offers from other institutions, do not let our process keep you from making a decision.

 

If you have any other questions or concerns, let us know.

All the Best!"

Will update reply from MIT as well as soon as I receive it.

 

Edited March 17, 2021 by abhilashgujar

[abhilashgujar]

On 3/15/2021 at 2:31 PM, Calzone864 said:

Has anyone received any response to their inquiry emails? I am an international student as well, and I have received absolutely zero communication from the EECS department. If any domestic applicant here could please call up the department and ask about the status, that would be great.

Will update as soon as i receive a reply

Edited March 17, 2021 by abhilashgujar

[H-pristol]

25 minutes ago, abhilashgujar said:

I have been asking for status updates from colleges, and apparently they are swamped. Received the following reply from UMichigan:

"Good Morning XYZ, 

 

Thank you for applying to the graduate program in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan.

 

I understand you are excited to know the admission results of your application. The admission committee has started the application review process.  However, I cannot tell you when or if your application has been reviewed.  If you have not been contacted with an admission offer, there has not been a final decision made on your application yet.  Once a final decision has been made, you will be contacted by email. 

This year we have over 2,000 applications, and the admission committee is reviewing them as fast as possible.  The admission committee plans to have all decisions made by May 1st. However, I cannot guarantee that all decision will be made by that date.  I ask for your patience as the admission committee finishes reviewing the applications.  If you have additional admission offers from other institutions, do not let our process keep you from making a decision.

 

If you have any other questions or concerns, let us know.

All the Best!"

Will update reply from MIT as well as soon as I receive it.

 

Thanks for sharing, maybe due to corona, more people are applying to study

[skippy]

3 hours ago, abhilashgujar said:

I have been asking for status updates from colleges, and apparently they are swamped. Received the following reply from UMichigan:

"Good Morning XYZ, 

 

Thank you for applying to the graduate program in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan.

 

I understand you are excited to know the admission results of your application. The admission committee has started the application review process.  However, I cannot tell you when or if your application has been reviewed.  If you have not been contacted with an admission offer, there has not been a final decision made on your application yet.  Once a final decision has been made, you will be contacted by email. 

This year we have over 2,000 applications, and the admission committee is reviewing them as fast as possible.  The admission committee plans to have all decisions made by May 1st. However, I cannot guarantee that all decision will be made by that date.  I ask for your patience as the admission committee finishes reviewing the applications.  If you have additional admission offers from other institutions, do not let our process keep you from making a decision.

 

If you have any other questions or concerns, let us know.

All the Best!"

Will update reply from MIT as well as soon as I receive it.

 

Thanks for sharing.

1st May!

So this brings me to a different question. Suppose we accept an offer from a school but we get an offer from our first choice after April 15. What happens then? Because most of the offers state that April 15 is the deadline after which the decisions are final...

[Calzone864]

25 minutes ago, skippy said:

Thanks for sharing.

1st May!

So this brings me to a different question. Suppose we accept an offer from a school but we get an offer from our first choice after April 15. What happens then? Because most of the offers state that April 15 is the deadline after which the decisions are final...

@skippy I believe the offer you have accepted will be binding, and I have heard that it is quite difficult to extricate yourself out of an accepted offer. It doesn't really matter to the schools what preference you have for them, all they see is that they made you an offer and accepted it. For you, Michigan may be a top priority, but the schools that have sent you their offers don't know that. So waiting past the April 15 deadline for an offer that may or may not materialize in exchange for a guaranteed (but maybe lower priority) offer is not a good strategy IMHO. Even the ECE grad admissions office at Michigan understands this, according to the email text shared by @abhilashgujar. 

[skippy]

17 hours ago, Calzone864 said:

@skippy I believe the offer you have accepted will be binding, and I have heard that it is quite difficult to extricate yourself out of an accepted offer. It doesn't really matter to the schools what preference you have for them, all they see is that they made you an offer and accepted it. For you, Michigan may be a top priority, but the schools that have sent you their offers don't know that. So waiting past the April 15 deadline for an offer that may or may not materialize in exchange for a guaranteed (but maybe lower priority) offer is not a good strategy IMHO. Even the ECE grad admissions office at Michigan understands this, according to the email text shared by @abhilashgujar. 

I thought so too @Calzone864; I was wondering about the deadline UMich set for themselves - post April 15 - the odds of students not having an offer by then are probably low. But then it will definitely make the life for students waiting for that verdict, so better a late verdict than never.

[dcat52]

Just got the update...

Dear ____,

We are very sorry to inform you that we are unable to admit you into our PhD program for 2021.
As you may have anticipated, we receive hundreds of excellent applications such as yours, but yet we are only able to admit a limited number.
We know this decision is a disappointment. However, we are confident that you have other wonderful options for your graduate education.

We wish you much continued success in all of your academic and professional endeavors.
Most importantly, we wish you good health and hope that you remain safe from the Corona-19 virus.

Good luck to you, Professor Kolodziejski

Professor Leslie A Kolodziejski
Chair, EECS Graduate Admissions Committee
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

[si7aa]

6 minutes ago, dcat52 said:

Just got the update...

Dear ____,

We are very sorry to inform you that we are unable to admit you into our PhD program for 2021.
As you may have anticipated, we receive hundreds of excellent applications such as yours, but yet we are only able to admit a limited number.
We know this decision is a disappointment. However, we are confident that you have other wonderful options for your graduate education.

We wish you much continued success in all of your academic and professional endeavors.
Most importantly, we wish you good health and hope that you remain safe from the Corona-19 virus.

Good luck to you, Professor Kolodziejski

Professor Leslie A Kolodziejski
Chair, EECS Graduate Admissions Committee
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

same

[H-pristol]

9 minutes ago, dcat52 said:

Just got the update...

Dear ____,

We are very sorry to inform you that we are unable to admit you into our PhD program for 2021.
As you may have anticipated, we receive hundreds of excellent applications such as yours, but yet we are only able to admit a limited number.
We know this decision is a disappointment. However, we are confident that you have other wonderful options for your graduate education.

We wish you much continued success in all of your academic and professional endeavors.
Most importantly, we wish you good health and hope that you remain safe from the Corona-19 virus.

Good luck to you, Professor Kolodziejski

Professor Leslie A Kolodziejski
Chair, EECS Graduate Admissions Committee
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Got the exact same email, congrats to all those who got accepted, and good luck for the rest

[abhilashgujar]

Well, thats it folks. Recieved the following reply to my inquiry.

"We are very sorry to inform you that we are unable to admit you into our PhD program for 2021.
As you may have anticipated, we receive hundreds of excellent applications such as yours, but yet we are only able to admit a limited number.
We know this decision is a disappointment. However, we are confident that you have other wonderful options for your graduate education.

We wish you much continued success in all of your academic and professional endeavors.
Most importantly, we wish you good health and hope that you remain safe from the Corona-19 virus.

Good luck to you"

My first rejection. Can only hope other applications of mine fair better. Good luck everyone!

[skippy]

So yup. Rejected as well, was expecting it by now. Congratulations to everyone who made it. For everyone who are still waiting for results from unis, good luck!

[45ter]

On 3/14/2021 at 1:01 PM, lifeisbrutal said:

To change the topic slightly while we're still lingering in limbo: given that there have already been 2-3 waves of rejections (at least those that were reported on GradCafe), do you think that being in the last rejection wave (but not on the waitlist) could be a good indicator for future applications?

It seems to me to be somewhat like heats in track events - if rejected now, I (and other people) would be the equivalent of athletes not quite making it to the final but getting to semi-finals and placing in the middle of the pack etc. Does this theory apply in this case? If there is only one wave of rejections, it obviously falls short. Maybe I'm overthinking things but I'm already mentally preparing for the 21/22 application and I'm trying to see the positive side of things ? .

I can talk to you about my experience.

Last year I was waitlisted.

I had no other interesting offer but I had a lot of things to do.

During this year, I completed my diploma thesis, I published two first authors papers and I did two internships (one industrial and one on the desired field of research with a reputable professor).

I thought that these things would be enough to make the transition from the waitlist to the acceptance list.
However, as you may have already understood I was rejected.
It may be the corona virus situation (more applicants and less spots as they have been transferred from the previous year), but maybe it wasn't. I cannot possibly know what the reason is. 

If you have another offer that fulfills your standards, I would suggest you to take it.
Next year, you may have not even this one.

However, if you have not a good offer and/or you have something else to do that is quite good, I would suggest you to wait. Ideally, I would suggest you to work with a known professor and ask for his recommendation letter (I did not ask as it was very early during my internship). The corona virus situation may permit you to work remotely even for free for his/her reference letter (everyone needs free hands), I didn't have this luxury as I had to get paid.

Concluding, I would not have high expectations on this. I had, it is not healthy and it is not realistic some times.
Last year, I hadn't take my applications very seriously. This year I did and I have a great offer.

I hope that my answer will help you!

[lifeisbrutal]

Thanks, @45ter! It's a really helpful perspective. I got rejected this year but I didn't even want to apply (it was sort of my '0th attempt'). I'll probably apply 1-2 more times and then do the PhD anywhere I can. 

I'm not getting my hopes up but I'm glad I have a bit more time to improve my application. 

I'm sorry to hear that you got rejected even though you'd been on the waitlist the year before. Obviously, admissions depend on luck as well and can be unpredictable.

Again, thanks so much for this insight. I'll try to be realistic. And congratulations on your great offer!

To everyone else on this forum: I hope you get other interesting offers / try next year. Thanks for getting through this waiting process together. It's always nice to meet kind people on the net :-).

[skippy]

1 hour ago, 45ter said:

I can talk to you about my experience.

Last year I was waitlisted.

I had no other interesting offer but I had a lot of things to do.

During this year, I completed my diploma thesis, I published two first authors papers and I did two internships (one industrial and one on the desired field of research with a reputable professor).

I thought that these things would be enough to make the transition from the waitlist to the acceptance list.
However, as you may have already understood I was rejected.
It may be the corona virus situation (more applicants and less spots as they have been transferred from the previous year), but maybe it wasn't. I cannot possibly know what the reason is. 

If you have another offer that fulfills your standards, I would suggest you to take it.
Next year, you may have not even this one.

However, if you have not a good offer and/or you have something else to do that is quite good, I would suggest you to wait. Ideally, I would suggest you to work with a known professor and ask for his recommendation letter (I did not ask as it was very early during my internship). The corona virus situation may permit you to work remotely even for free for his/her reference letter (everyone needs free hands), I didn't have this luxury as I had to get paid.

Concluding, I would not have high expectations on this. I had, it is not healthy and it is not realistic some times.
Last year, I hadn't take my applications very seriously. This year I did and I have a great offer.

I hope that my answer will help you!

Thanks for sharing your experience @45ter, it really tells us to count any blessings we have in hand. I am glad you have a great offer in hand this time, all the very best to you.

 

48 minutes ago, lifeisbrutal said:

Thanks, @45ter! It's a really helpful perspective. I got rejected this year but I didn't even want to apply (it was sort of my '0th attempt'). I'll probably apply 1-2 more times and then do the PhD anywhere I can. 

I'm not getting my hopes up but I'm glad I have a bit more time to improve my application. 

I'm sorry to hear that you got rejected even though you'd been on the waitlist the year before. Obviously, admissions depend on luck as well and can be unpredictable.

Again, thanks so much for this insight. I'll try to be realistic. And congratulations on your great offer!

To everyone else on this forum: I hope you get other interesting offers / try next year. Thanks for getting through this waiting process together. It's always nice to meet kind people on the net :-).

@lifeisbrutal first of all I just vibe with your username so much. But more importantly, good luck on improving your application and hope you get your desired school next time. It indeed is nice to meet kind people on the net