Isaac Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Looks like berkeley just sent out its rejects. I got one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myism Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 treasure not trash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heheman3000 Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Got one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fountainhead Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 Yup.. i got one too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csApplicant Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 heheman3000, when did you hear from harvard? and what's your specialty? did you have an interview with them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belowthree Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 Ah Berkeley, interviewing me just made me consider you a possibility... Well I've seen this coming for a week, so no surprise. Still annoying, it looks like I won't get a chance to be in the Bay Area for another 4-7 years. Frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alice Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 Ah Berkeley, interviewing me just made me consider you a possibility... Well I've seen this coming for a week, so no surprise. Still annoying, it looks like I won't get a chance to be in the Bay Area for another 4-7 years. Frustrating. If I'm not too curious - don't you need a 3.0 to apply to grad school? (Or once you have MS / publications the undergrad marks do not matter?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belowthree Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 If I'm not too curious - don't you need a 3.0 to apply to grad school? (Or once you have MS / publications the undergrad marks do not matter?) You certainly don't need one to apply, but getting accepted is another matter entirely. Most schools do have policies that they won't accept students with below a 3.0, but at many places exceptions can, on occasion, be made. It's certainly not easy to get accepted... But it can happen. I'm getting a crash course in terms of answering this very question... stay tuned! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alice Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 You certainly don't need one to apply, but getting accepted is another matter entirely. Most schools do have policies that they won't accept students with below a 3.0, but at many places exceptions can, on occasion, be made. It's certainly not easy to get accepted... But it can happen. I'm getting a crash course in terms of answering this very question... stay tuned! So, you are coming straight from undergrad? I'll probably do MS first, and I'm not happy with my grades last term. That's why I was wondering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belowthree Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 So, you are coming straight from undergrad? I'll probably do MS first, and I'm not happy with my grades last term. That's why I was wondering. Yes, straight from undergrad. I decided not to go for a master's first because of issues with funding. (Namely, I need it and MS students don't get funded.) My grades last term have me on academic probation this term, so I can sympathize with not liking your grades from last term. I have to say, every acceptance (sample size: one) I get while on academic probation gives me a slight thrill that I've stuck it to the system. It's pretty juvenile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alice Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 Yes, straight from undergrad. I decided not to go for a master's first because of issues with funding. (Namely, I need it and MS students don't get funded.) My grades last term have me on academic probation this term, so I can sympathize with not liking your grades from last term. I have to say, every acceptance (sample size: one) I get while on academic probation gives me a slight thrill that I've stuck it to the system. It's pretty juvenile. I'm doing MS in Canada, where it is paid. I'm really impressed that you got an interview with Berkeley despite low grades. I was told they filter on GPA/GRE first... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heheman3000 Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 heheman3000, when did you hear from harvard? and what's your specialty? did you have an interview with them? I had an "interview", Feb 7th, but it sounded like they were almost ready to admit me and just wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy. I got my unofficial acceptance on the 9th. I don't really have a specialty in CS, since I did a dual degree with business at Penn. But I'm lucky that I got picked out by their EconCS group. It seems like it's a really good fit for me. I'm doing some research now as an undergrad and I'm really excited to dump the massive courseload and gain some focus in grad school. I heard from one of my other friends who also got into Harvard that the professors try to give unofficial notice as early as they can now (official notice is in march) so they can get people to go to the open house and stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finest_engineering Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 Is there anyone else out there still waiting to hear from Berkeley? I only applied to Stanford, Berkeley, and MIT and was pretty disappointed when the initial admits came up in the results and I knew I wasn't among them. Now I see that 'Berkeley take out the treasure day' has passed and I have still not received word.. which is somewhat encouraging... I told all my schools I was a Hertz finalist, I wonder if they are all waiting to reject me on the chance that I might get the fellowship. Approximately 1/3 of the finalists get the fellowship so it isn't THAT improbable. I am still sort of turned off because I really felt my application was strong enough on its own, but now I am just trying to understand what is happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csApplicant Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 i think it's good news that you haven't heard from berkeley and stanford - sort of. it's better than bad news. MIT - most people haven't heard from them. i was surprised to see rejects on the results page , but only just a few of them. what are your stats? i wish i had an almost-fellowship opportunity to dangle in front of a school's face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finest_engineering Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 stats: grad: - first year MS student at top 10 school - first author conference paper to be submitted any day now (professor is being lazy about reviewing it as the deadline is a ways off) - 4.0/4.0 gpa - research assistantship for awesome prof - have generated results for another conference paper, still exploring some points related to it - teaching assistant last semester for main grad course in my area (systems) - Hertz finalist (one of 50 out of 550 applicants, ~15 fellowships to be awarded) undergrad: - fourth author top conference paper - two undergrad publications (one won an award) - a presentation and two minor poster sessions at undergrad conferences - 3.94/4.0 gpa at top school - GRE 800 Q, 630 V, 5.5 W recs: 3 research advisors, two undergrad / one grad, one was also the professor of the course I TA'd Work: Programmer at a .com startup and also worked in the research department at a capital management firm (researching algorithmic trading strategies). In other words, pretty filthy stats if I may say so myself =). I haven't let the paradoxical rejections I got from some top schools last year keep me from feeling confident about my skills and potential. You can look at my other posts to see more discussion of my experience last year. I really felt like a shoe-in this year, but I have still heard nothing concrete. A prof at MIT did contact my current research advisor and ask for feedback, and he was very positive. I am trying not to stress seeing as I am happy and well situated at a top program already. I am also trying to understand if schools are waiting on me because of the Hertz. I suppose if I haven't heard anything in a couple more weeks when the massive rejections show up on the results I can have some confidence that my theory is correct.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belowthree Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 - first author conference paper to be submitted any day now (professor is being lazy about reviewing it as the deadline is a ways off) Hey, out of curiosity, did you find a good way of dealing with this type of thing in your application? I didn't really figure out how to deal with the papers that were in various stages of progress on the various projects I work on... Did you list them as in progress or something? The other problem is ours weren't currently being submitted to a conference by the time the application period rolled around, so I didn't really feel comfortable listing any of them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finest_engineering Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 I went ahead and listed it in my publications and simply noted that it was 'to be submitted'. Some of the apps (Stanford, Berkeley I think) let you upload documents. The paper was 'done' to the extent that i felt confident submitting it along with my application. I am the sole author so I know when it is done. My professor had already gone over and made some initial suggestions that I incorporated and so it is basically now waiting for just a final thumbs up from the prof. The schools can look it over and see that it is ready to go out the door so I felt fine about it. The professor who advised me on the work was the publications chair of the same conference a year ago so he knows what will and will not be accepted so there was that too. I remember looking at some faq's and saw that you should even list 'in prep' papers. I think the litmus test (at least for me) is that the paper be done enough that you would put your name on it and send it to the school in question if they asked for it. I mean apparently one kid here got in everywhere with just one third-author paper. period. I am just starting to refuse to believe that there is any method to the madness. I mean, my app is frickin impeccable and I am hearing nothing. At this point I am hoping they are waiting on my potential fellowship because I have better odds of getting that than a 'true' admit at this point.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alice Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 I mean apparently one kid here got in everywhere with just one third-author paper. period. I am just starting to refuse to believe that there is any method to the madness. Yeah, imagine how I feel to be rejected with first author publication at a top AI conference, and research projects in compilers. I think it must be the letters, in the sense that my recommenders are not 'well connected' at schools like Stanford, Berkeley, etc. So I'll do MS first, and then probably get rejected again by those 4 schools, for the same reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csApplicant Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 how come no one ever mentions the essay? maybe that person wrote a killer essay. it's odd no one wrote that or even considers it. the schools i interviewed with said the essays were huge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michigantrumpet Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 how come no one ever mentions the essay? maybe that person wrote a killer essay. it's odd no one wrote that or even considers it. the schools i interviewed with said the essays were huge. You're absolutely right. It's hard to judge your own essay, so nobody lists "killer essay" as part of their profile. I assume everyone thinks they have a great essay. If you don't, then you should probably work on it until you think you do have one! I got some helpful comments from a couple of my recommenders when I gave them an early draft. Definitely worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finest_engineering Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 I dunno... I think most people do feel their essay is pretty good.. I don't think mine was that hot last year and I put a lot more work into it this year. I had it reviewed by a friend from college who is now a professional writer for the prose, and a legendary engineer / professor friend of the family who happens to also be in my field. I had plenty of research experiences to talk about and I spelled out specific professors and labs at the schools I applied to and discussed the fit. The only thing I can think my application lacked was my recommenders not being well connected at the schools I applied to. Case in point: A professor I am working for now who wasn't even one of my reccomenders (we had just gotten started at the app. due dates) was contacted by MIT about me... Apparently the 'internal' reference is extremely important to these people. I wish I knew how my app. was received and what was going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longhorn Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 I agree with michigantrumpet. It's extremely hard to judge your own essay. Last year, I thought I had an OK essay. I showed it to a few professors, and a few PhD students and the unanimous answer was it was crap. I spent a month rewriting the whole thing this year. I got it reviewed by a few professors and a few of my friends. After 4 rounds of revision, they said it looked OK. I also modified my essay for each school, pointing out who I wanted to work with and how I might be a good fit given my background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michigantrumpet Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 I mean apparently one kid here got in everywhere with just one third-author paper. period. I am just starting to refuse to believe that there is any method to the madness. I mean, my app is frickin impeccable and I am hearing nothing. At this point I am hoping they are waiting on my potential fellowship because I have better odds of getting that than a 'true' admit at this point.. I am assuming the poster is referring to me. Being a jerk on a forum where we're all trying to share information and get through the process isn't very helpful. I understand the stress of rejection, believe me. I had a very low admission rate into undergrad music programs (granted I only applied to top 5-7 conservatories/universities for my instrument). I even got three rejections on the same day. My current career trajectory is in large part due to my relative lack of professional success in music. You live and learn. Perhaps projecting maturity in the LORs and essay is one important criterion that kept your app from being "frickin impeccable" after all. As far my having just one third-author paper, I'll sacrifice a bit of anonymity for the sake of making my point. The conference was the IEEE/ACM Int'l Symp on Microarchitecture (MICRO), which is one of the top two architecture conferences. The undergrads who have multiple first-author papers show great initiative, but I guarantee the publications are not at conferences anywhere near this calibre. The project I worked on took well over a year to complete, despite having 3 grad students, 2 undergrads, and 3 faculty members working on it. I implemented an entire x86 emulator for the project, while simultaneously taking the hardest senior design course in the department. Our results were crap until about 2 weeks before submission, when an observation and fix I personally came up with saved the paper. I also presented a poster (I guess you could say first-author) on this project at the Grad Symposium here. The process I went through on this paper has a lot more to say about research potential than the objective statistic of only having one publication, and being third-author at that. I think my recommendations would have been just as strong after that experience had our paper been rejected (which it almost was). I should also mention that my two recommenders are very well known in the architecture community, so their comments came with a good deal of credibility. Since publishing that paper, I have worked on two other projects for the same professors, and my hard work and insights have given them a lot to write about. It's really hard to strike a balance on these forums when trying to convey the merits of your application without sounding pompous. I apologize if I went too far. Best of luck to my colleagues still waiting to hear from places! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alice Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 I am assuming the poster is referring to me. Being a jerk on a forum where we're all trying to share information and get through the process isn't very helpful. finest_engineering was not a jerk and was not trying to put you down. My paper was accepted at THE TOP conference in the field, and I was the first author, with a prof who supervised me. So at the very least please be respectful - because you do not know the other candidates' work - and be glad you had two famous profs write letters for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michigantrumpet Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 finest_engineering was not a jerk and was not trying to put you down. I'm sorry, but demeaning someone else's work is exactly what he/she did. What do you call "just one third-author paper. period."? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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