Anyone else regretting not applying to a few more specific programs?

[DJLamar]

There are a couple of places that I wish I had applied to that I didn't even consider seriously last semester. The two main examples I can think of here are UC San Diego and University of Chicago.

UC San Diego was recommended to me by my undergrad research advisor. He said there was a guy there doing some cool stuff in machine learning with applications to audio, which I had mentioned to him as something I was considering exploring in grad school. I had briefly looked over that person's page, and he did seem to have interesting research. However, I figured that as far south as San Diego is, it must be terribly hot there (I'm from the Atlanta area but I've been sick of the heat in the Summers here since I was in my early teens). Because of that alone more or less, I didn't even consider applying there. Well, I checked out San Diego on Wikipedia a couple of weeks ago, and it turns out that San Diego is actually pretty temperate and a lot cooler than Atlanta despite how far south it is...

University of Chicago is a place where I knew there was at least one really cool researcher that I liked. I got interested in manifold regularization last semester and thought it was a really cool application of some fairly abstract mathematics to a practical domain (I love crazy math and would really love to find some novel applications of the stuff I've learned in my higher math courses to stuff in machine learning). This guy seems to be the pioneer/king of that kind of stuff (or at the very least, one of his students was). Well now, I look at their faculty page for AI stuff and there are also tons of people there working to apply machine learning to natural language processing -- the other main thing I was interested in doing, which ended up being the main theme of most of my research statements. I never even considered applying there though. This one I think is because my overall approach to finding a school I wanted to go to was rather silly -- I basically made my initial list of schools I might apply to based on which CS grad programs were highest ranked

Anyway, if I get accepted to one of my top five or so choices out of the schools I actually applied to, I won't really mind that I didn't apply to these schools. If I have to pick between going to one of my bottom choices or trying to just do a masters first instead, though... I'll be pretty disappointed by the fact that I didn't try those schools. What's worse is there are one or two schools that I applied to that I really have little to no interest in actually going to. *sigh*

Anyone else have thoughts like this?

[Aunuwyn]

No. But, yes if I don't get in somewhere.

[joro]

I did not choose schools only based on ranking, but more on the specific programs. There are 5 schools I would love to apply to, but given my profile I don't think I'd even get noticed so I never bothered. You're actually applying to those 5: Stanford, CMU, Cornell, Berkeley, and U of Washington. Other than that, I applied to schools I want to attend and know I'll enjoy attending. My top 3 from my list would be TAMU, UCSD, and Utah. I think it's funny that I was a RA at Stanford and I can't even get in.

Edited January 31, 2010 by joro

[DJLamar]

I mean, rankings and names are one thing to consider for the future, so my way of going about it wasn't the worst, and I'm very happy with the vast majority of my list. I just kind of wish I had made a couple of small modifications to the list that I didn't make.

[profound_g]

I decided to only apply to a small number of schools. There were, I think, at least two I had in my final list I removed for that reason. I do not regret that. I think I'd get in, and this kept the fees (more) reasonable.

[whereiscarmen]

Almost. I'm glad I did some research in December and was able to sneak in 2 more schools than I had originally planned.

I really wanted to apply to Penn State but there was no way I would make the deadline in time since they wanted everything in hard copy before the deadline.

But I like my list for the most part.

[Timothy Vallier]

If money was no object I would have applied to two or three times as many programs. Unfortunately, apps are expensive! Also, if I don't get in anywhere I would give a large amount of money to go back in time and apply to more schools. Ah! Choices!

[eikko]

Just found out my undergrad school has a research center in exactly what I want to study... gah! How could I have missed that when I was looking for schools??? But maybe it's better not to go back to the same place again anyway-- I'm looking forward to a new environment.

[Deleted]

I wish I had applied to more schools, but that is really just the anxiety kicking in right now. I have applied to 11 programs which is a good enough number but mostly all programs that I would be thrilled to attend. I am just worried I won't get in, other than that I am pretty setisfied with my selection. I hope I won't be too disapointed...

[Deleted]

Just found out my undergrad school has a research center in exactly what I want to study... gah! How could I have missed that when I was looking for schools??? But maybe it's better not to go back to the same place again anyway-- I'm looking forward to a new environment.

Yes, a change is as good as a rest. Also, there was a topic somewhere here about how it was frowned upon to do your graduate studies where you did your undergrad, so it is probably for the best.

[JerryLandis]

I regret not applying to more places. I researched faculty and departments very far in advance (i.e. starting at least a year before applying), but still managed to miss a couple of places, despite visiting their websites and scrolling through their faculty. Since only a handful of professors seemed to have interests in common with mine, I couldn't apply to many programs. But then once I received some emails back from professors with interests only tangentially related to my own, saying that I sounded like a great fit and that they were interested in my ideas, I realized that I probably should have been a bit wider in my search for relevant faculty. Sure, it may have been a total waste of money, applying to places with loose fit, but I'd have more chance of being accepted. As it stands, I have applied to 3 PhD programs, one of which I have since decided I do not want to attend. If I am amazingly lucky enough to get into one of the remaining 2, I'll go. If not, I will get a Masters (I also applied to 5 MA programs, where my chances are higher).

The way I see it, if you're young, especially if you're right out of undergrad, waiting until the next application round may be a severe pain in the ass, but it's not going to ruin your future. I'm reminded of that when I talk to some friends I have who are pursuing undergraduate degrees in their mid-20s. I have plenty of time, and shouldn't be complaining! (But, I guarantee, I probably still will complain)

[NeuroNerd86]

I definitely have some guilt trips about not applying to a couple of more high ranked programs that place a lot of emphasis on applicant's research work (such as Hopkins and UPenn). At least I would have known I tried. Oh well, can't turn back time.

[Tarheel_or_Bluedevil?]

Yea I wish I'd applied to at least a couple more high level programs, might've been worth the money. But on the other hand I'm not disappointed with how it has turned out so far.

[katalytik]

I only applied to a handful because they are the only ones doing the work I am interested in. The rest of the peer level schools are just not making many strides in this space and don't have faculty with any real experience or strengths. If I don't get into any, I'll just stay at my job.......totally fine with me.