ChemPhysMatSci Posted February 3, 2013 Posted February 3, 2013 Side note: I got my acceptance letter from Penn State today (I posted in the results section), but to those of you who applied to Penn State: don't be concerned if you haven't received yours yet. I'm an undergrad at Penn State, so the letter only had to travel a few blocks to reach me. Good luck to everyone who applied! Mail 0.0 So they are sending out acceptances before the graduate event in Feb, or is the event not an interview of sorts?
matsci13 Posted February 3, 2013 Posted February 3, 2013 (edited) My guess is that they divided accepted students among professors to send those semi-personal emails. I don't think I'm going to respond unless I have any questions before my visit, which I find rather unlikely. And as far as Stanford, I want to meet with McGehee, Brongersma, Dionne, and either Cui or Clemens. What's your interest/background? My original acceptance to Stanford said "A hotel room has been reserved to accommodate your stay at our expense for Thursday and Friday nights". I assume it was the same for everyone, but I'll be in a similar situation as you; I fly out at 8 the following morning. The semi-personal email I got mentioned to meet him during the visit weekend, so maybe professors actively seeking grad students sent them out? But I probably won't respond till the visit either, I always stress over emailing professors. My background is with magnetic thin films (undergrad) and magnetic biomaterials (the summer/fall since I've graduated). I'm hoping to stick with magnetic and/or oxide thin films. I'm probably going to request meeting Wang, McIntyre, Sinclair, and Harris (affiliated faculty). How about your interest/background? My friend mentioned he had a great time talking to McGehee when he visited Stanford last year, I wish I knew something about photovoltaics. And you're right, Friday night was mentioned in the original email, I can't read... Edited February 3, 2013 by matsci13
airdonut41 Posted February 3, 2013 Posted February 3, 2013 Is there typically more than one "round" of acceptances to top schools? Yes. If you look at the results from previous years, schools either send out waves of admissions or slowly and steadily send out a few at a time. If you didn't get in on the first round, it's not unlikely that you'll still get into one of the top programs.
airdonut41 Posted February 3, 2013 Posted February 3, 2013 Mail 0.0 So they are sending out acceptances before the graduate event in Feb, or is the event not an interview of sorts? I think there's a mix. I may have been accepted early because I have spoken with several professors who would be willing to fund me because they know me personally. But I think the interviews in Feb. will decide admissions for quite a few people. I'm not sure though; this is all just speculation on my part. I was a bit shocked that I received the acceptance via mail as well. The other odd part about the mail acceptance was that it said nothing about materials, just that I was accepted to the grad school at Penn State.
airdonut41 Posted February 3, 2013 Posted February 3, 2013 The semi-personal email I got mentioned to meet him during the visit weekend, so maybe professors actively seeking grad students sent them out? But I probably won't respond till the visit either, I always stress over emailing professors. My background is with magnetic thin films (undergrad) and magnetic biomaterials (the summer/fall since I've graduated). I'm hoping to stick with magnetic and/or oxide thin films. I'm probably going to request meeting Wang, McIntyre, Sinclair, and Harris (affiliated faculty). How about your interest/background? My friend mentioned he had a great time talking to McGehee when he visited Stanford last year, I wish I knew something about photovoltaics. And you're right, Friday night was mentioned in the original email, I can't read... I thought that might be the case as well. I'm considering responding to the professor who contacted me to ask whether or not she's accepting students into her lab, but I don't think it's likely that I'll actually do it. I don't know about any of the others, but I know someone who worked for Sinclair and speaks positively about him. My background is in induced superconductivity in metallic nanowires (and characterization), but I've also recently worked with a professor writing and editing papers for biosensing and MEMS devices (so no in-lab work, but lots of research in the form of reading/writing). That's part of the reason the personal email concerned me. I have three coauthors in biosensing/MEMS, and the personal email suggested that MIT was impressed with my experience in that area. I wouldn't, however, consider that my strong suit. I don't know all that much about photovoltaics, but a portion of one of my current lab groups works on DSSCs and I TA'ed a semiconductor device class, so that's what I'd count as my "in".
addvi2092 Posted February 7, 2013 Posted February 7, 2013 You can log into the northwestern site (gradstatus.northwestern.edu) or your application site to see if a decision has been made now! No funding info yet though..
oolay Posted February 7, 2013 Posted February 7, 2013 Have been lurking here long enough. In the decision page, someone mentioned Northwestern decision. Anyone else heard anything? Decisions, financial aid? Thanks!
rbbennet Posted February 7, 2013 Posted February 7, 2013 Mine still shows submitted for Northwestern.
foreverfree Posted February 7, 2013 Posted February 7, 2013 Logged in to grad status, said an admissions decision has been rendered. Told to login to applyyourself, and letter was there. If you haven't heard yet, it might just be because they're still updating them today? Very generic, but I'm excited! foreverfree 1
airdonut41 Posted February 7, 2013 Posted February 7, 2013 I'm not sure if this is true for everyone, but I got an email with financial information as well as a FedEx overnight envelope. My roommate who got into a different program at Northwestern got the same thing.
foreverfree Posted February 7, 2013 Posted February 7, 2013 Got the email as well. I guess I'll go check my mail. Financial package looks pretty good considering living costs @ NU.
foreverfree Posted February 8, 2013 Posted February 8, 2013 Nope, no letter in mail though a scan of it did come with the email. Then again I live pretty far away and it's having to go through school mail so who knows when it'll come.
matsci13 Posted February 8, 2013 Posted February 8, 2013 No Northwestern mail for me either, but I did get the email! Anyone planning to visit 4/4-4/7?
foreverfree Posted February 8, 2013 Posted February 8, 2013 (edited) No Northwestern mail for me either, but I did get the email! Anyone planning to visit 4/4-4/7? I might be there yale's physics is the same weekend so we'll have to see. Man, flights are expensive Edited February 8, 2013 by foreverfree foreverfree and Radian 2
addvi2092 Posted February 8, 2013 Posted February 8, 2013 Anyone know about berkeley phd admits for materials science and engineering? i think a friend got in at the beginning of january and i've seen some sprinkled randomly on the results board within the last few weeks..
airdonut41 Posted February 8, 2013 Posted February 8, 2013 Anyone know about berkeley phd admits for materials science and engineering? i think a friend got in at the beginning of january and i've seen some sprinkled randomly on the results board within the last few weeks.. I've been wondering the same thing. There has only been one acceptance and one rejection on the results page, though. I'm not really sure what to think. Side note: Anyone have any idea about funding for Stanford or MIT? Timetable and/or likelihood?
matsci13 Posted February 9, 2013 Posted February 9, 2013 (edited) Anyone know about berkeley phd admits for materials science and engineering? i think a friend got in at the beginning of january and i've seen some sprinkled randomly on the results board within the last few weeks.. Berkeley's deadline for RSVPing to their Visit Weekend (3/7-3/10) for admitted students is this Sunday. So they might not be admitting more until after the visit weekend and people start making decisions. Based on the results search, it seems Berkeley spreads out when they admit people, sometimes it's pretty late. They mentioned having 500 applications and are limited to admitting 6%. Edited February 9, 2013 by matsci13
lionhunter Posted February 9, 2013 Posted February 9, 2013 Berkeley's deadline for RSVPing to their Visit Weekend (3/7-3/10) for admitted students is this Sunday. So they might not be admitting more until after the visit weekend and people start making decisions. Based on the results search, it seems Berkeley spreads out when they admit people, sometimes it's pretty late. So the ones admitted after do not get a chance to attend the visit weekend?
matsci13 Posted February 9, 2013 Posted February 9, 2013 (edited) A lot of admitted students probably can't make visit weekends, especially schools that only offer one. Schools offer to come visit them on a separate date if the visit weekend doesn't work, so I'm guessing they would be glad to have later admits visit on a separate date. Only downside is they organize some events for that specific weekend, and travel is covered (which also might be the case for later visits). But at the end of the day, (probably) the most important aspect is meeting faculty, and you will get that during any visit. Edited February 9, 2013 by matsci13
matsci13 Posted February 9, 2013 Posted February 9, 2013 I've been wondering the same thing. There has only been one acceptance and one rejection on the results page, though. I'm not really sure what to think. Side note: Anyone have any idea about funding for Stanford or MIT? Timetable and/or likelihood? I haven't heard anything regarding funding from them either. Neither has my friend who also got into MIT, so we're all in the same boat Funding does seem likely though, based off the generic info on their websites. Although some forums here about Stanford EE PhD make me worry... http://mse.stanford.edu/prospective/graduate_students/financial_aid.html http://dmse.mit.edu/academics/graduate/funding
lionhunter Posted February 9, 2013 Posted February 9, 2013 Let's see. i haven't seen too many Berkeley admits this year. So, I have a feeling there will be some more before the visit weekend for sure.
toothlesshamster Posted February 9, 2013 Posted February 9, 2013 (edited) Regarding MIT funding, their website seems to indicate that they pretty much guarantee funding for the first year, after which your advisor would fund you, although it would be nice to see it in writing. For UCSB at least there was a pretty big gap between admission decisions and funding details, so I'd say for MIT just wait, or ask during the visit weekends. I can't say much about Stanford, but I think their EE program is particularly notorious for being unkind with regards to funding. I haven't heard any such reputation with their materials department though. Edited February 9, 2013 by toothlesshamster
airdonut41 Posted February 9, 2013 Posted February 9, 2013 (edited) I haven't heard anything regarding funding from them either. Neither has my friend who also got into MIT, so we're all in the same boat Funding does seem likely though, based off the generic info on their websites. Although some forums here about Stanford EE PhD make me worry... http://mse.stanford.edu/prospective/graduate_students/financial_aid.html http://dmse.mit.edu/academics/graduate/funding I have a professor who commented that Stanford's EE department notoriously doesn't offer funding, but said he's pretty sure that's not the case for other departments. I was just hoping that we'd have some specifics. I just turned down a visit weekend from a school that offered me funding, and it's still a little uncomfortable doing that in favor of schools that haven't mentioned specifics yet. Edited February 9, 2013 by airdonut41 foreverfree 1
lionhunter Posted February 11, 2013 Posted February 11, 2013 (edited) I see 2 rejects on the results page. Both say "via website". My status still unchanged at 'submitted'. Edited February 11, 2013 by lionhunter
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