UC Berkeley EECS (Fall 2010)

[Queues]

I finally decided to start a forum about Fall 2010 UC Berkeley EECS applications, so we don't have multiple post discussions on the Results Search.

I applied to EE COMNET, got a phone interview (which lasted for about 20 minutes), and was late informed by the professor that it was now in the hands of the committee (now being last Friday). I haven't heard back from him (or from anyone at Berkeley) since.

Anyone else heard back? If so what decision, how, and which track? As far as I know, they've already decided, but I'm still reluctant to e-mail my professor and ask him how it went. I imagine they're not informing everyone officially until they determine what kind of funding everyone gets, who gets which fellowship, etc., but I could be wrong.

Anyway, discuss and report!

[quadsbaby]

I got an official email from the department today re: my admission. Just the standard "It is my pleasure to inform you...". No financial information yet, apparently it's coming in the next few days.

I applied at some intersection of Physical Electronics, MEMS, and Energy.

Edited February 5, 2010 by quadsbaby

[underthemoon]

k

Edited February 5, 2010 by jaeyeon

[Confused Goose]

Eeek! I see many more Berkeley decisions on the results page! And I'm still waiting :-SS !

[nh88]

Eeek! I see many more Berkeley decisions on the results page! And I'm still waiting :-SS !

I am waiting as well. I think I'm starting to prepare myself for a (more likely) rejection. At the end of the day, I think we should realize how many qualified candidated do apply to this program and (try to) not take it as a personal rejection.

[Confused Goose]

I am waiting as well. I think I'm starting to prepare myself for a (more likely) rejection. At the end of the day, I think we should realize how many qualified candidated do apply to this program and (try to) not take it as a personal rejection.

Yeah, but I can't help chewing my fingernails (figuratively of course) :-SS More so because Berkeley's is first series of official decisions from any of the programs to which I've applied :-SS EeeeK!!!

[ImNotAGenius]

what fields are you guys applying to for EECS?

and whats with the Berkeley rejections of ppl with ridiculous stats.

[nh88]

what fields are you guys applying to for EECS?

and whats with the Berkeley rejections of ppl with ridiculous stats.

I applied to Signal Processing.

Regarding the rejection of well-qualified candidates, it's pretty simple.

Look at their own stats from last year (Source: http://www.eecs.berk...Competition.htm):

Most successful applicants last year had GPAs above 3.7 and GRE quantitative scores above 90%. Many successful Computer Science applicants took the GRE Computer Science Subject test and scored above 90%. For Fall 2009 we had approximately 2800 applicants for about 100 slots.

Clearly, if there are only 100 available spots there will be rejections of well qualified individuals. Moreover, some fields will get more applicants than others. This might result in someone "less qualified" being admitted in one field and someone "more qualified" being rejected from another field.

Edited February 5, 2010 by nh88

[quadsbaby]

This might result in someone "less qualified" being admitted in one field and someone "more qualified" being rejected from another field.

I don't think this is that likely. Your choice of "field" is mostly used to determine which profs evaluate your apps (also to determine GRAships), and since Berkeley has a pretty strong reputation throughout the whole of EE, I would imagine that there isn't much difference in the quality of candidates admitted between the various subfields.

Edited February 5, 2010 by quadsbaby

[nh88]

I don't think this is that likely. Your choice of "field" is mostly used to determine which profs evaluate your apps (also to determine GRAships), and since Berkeley has a pretty strong reputation throughout the whole of EE, I would imagine that there isn't much difference in the quality of candidates admitted between the various subfields.

I didn't mean to imply that the quality of candidates in one field is inferior to another at all and am sorry if it came across like that.

I was alluding more to the scenario where Person A in Field X with a 3.8 CGPA, 800Q, 640V got in but Person B in Field Y with a 3.85 CGPA, 800Q, and 660V was rejected. In such a scenario, I was merely trying to illustrate that there are more factors at play, one of them might be specific needs of professors in the differen fields that aren't represented in the hard credentials.

[Confused Goose]

what fields are you guys applying to for EECS? and whats with the Berkeley rejections of ppl with ridiculous stats.

I have observed that students from my school are accepted to Berkeley every alternate year, more or less. Can't say that it is by design or not. Last year, they rejected a friend of mine who is now in MIT. They admitted one guy the year before and one a couple of years before that. Go figure! I guess then that the competition's so intense that they are perhaps resorting to non-academic factors in making the final decisions (you may also read this as a conspiracy theory from someone who's desperately awaiting his decisions )

Anyway, I'm applying in the Physical Electronics track. Waiting and watching...a lot of gradcafe results posts :-SS

Forgot to add - Someone from my school got an admit to Berkeley yesterday. I guess they've filled their quota for this year then ;-)

Edited February 6, 2010 by thecaesar

[quadsbaby]

I have observed that students from my school are accepted to Berkeley every alternate year, more or less. Can't say that it is by design or not. Last year, they rejected a friend of mine who is now in MIT. They admitted one guy the year before and one a couple of years before that. Go figure! I guess then that the competition's so intense that they are perhaps resorting to non-academic factors in making the final decisions (you may also read this as a conspiracy theory from someone who's desperately awaiting his decisions )

Anyway, I'm applying in the Physical Electronics track. Waiting and watching...a lot of gradcafe results posts :-SS

Hehe, I'm pretty sure they don't have a quote by school. That would be silly. Also, Berkeley always admits a couple of students from my school every year.

Try not to worry too much, you've applied to enough good schools that you are going to get in somewhere awesome.

[prince]

I have observed that students from my school are accepted to Berkeley every alternate year, more or less. Can't say that it is by design or not. Last year, they rejected a friend of mine who is now in MIT. They admitted one guy the year before and one a couple of years before that. Go figure! I guess then that the competition's so intense that they are perhaps resorting to non-academic factors in making the final decisions (you may also read this as a conspiracy theory from someone who's desperately awaiting his decisions )

Anyway, I'm applying in the Physical Electronics track. Waiting and watching...a lot of gradcafe results posts :-SS

Forgot to add - Someone from my school got an admit to Berkeley yesterday. I guess they've filled their quota for this year then ;-)

Hi

Can you please tell in which area your friend (who got selected) applied. I am asking this because I have applied in the field of analog circuits.

Edited February 6, 2010 by prince

[Confused Goose]

Hi

Can you please tell in which area your friend (who got selected) applied. I am asking this because I have applied in the field of analog circuits.

He works in Information Theory. Don't remember which track he had applied in though.

[footestlavie]

I got an official email from the department today re: my admission. Just the standard "It is my pleasure to inform you...". No financial information yet, apparently it's coming in the next few days.

I applied at some intersection of Physical Electronics, MEMS, and Energy.

Did you get an OFFICIAL acceptance from Stanford?

[awaiter]

@thecaeser:

I too applied for Physical Electronics. Actually I am from a communication systems background. Looking at the way things are going, my chances of getting in look remote. What school did you go to ? Were you able to get in touch any of the faculty there through email. I emailed folks in Prof. Yablonovitch's lab about the type of research etc, but haven't heard from them. Do they typically respond to such emails ?

Edited February 6, 2010 by awaiter

[Confused Goose]

@thecaeser:

I too applied for Physical Electronics. Actually I am from a communication systems background. Looking at the way things are going, my chances of getting in look remote. What school did you go to ? Were you able to get in touch any of the faculty there through email. I emailed folks in Prof. Yablonovitch's lab about the type of research etc, but haven't heard from them. Do they typically respond to such emails ?

Normally, I get some sort of a reply to every 1 in 5-6 mails sent to professors. I sent mails to a couple of profs at Berkeley, including Yablonovitch, but no reply. Didn't expect one either. Truthfully, getting admits is highly unpredictable, except perhaps for the most well qualified candidates. So, you needn't worry about the fact that you have a different background. As long as you have explained and justified your proposed area of work, it won't matter.

[quadsbaby]

Did you get an OFFICIAL acceptance from Stanford?

No, I've said pretty much everywhere that it was unofficial. So far just the unofficial acceptance from Stanford and the originally-unofficial-but-now-official offer from Berkeley.

As for thecaeser and awaiter:

Yablonovitch is actually the person who called to give me my unofficial admit to Berkeley, so I talked to him for a while. You can try emailing him directly, I've been in communication with him this way. It may help that I met him in person when he came to give a talk at Caltech. He seems like a pretty chill guy.

I will tell you that Yablonovitch didn't have that much to say to me until I was admitted, and he seemed to say something like "I wanted to make sure you could get through the admissions process first, because we have so many applicants, etc." In other words, I don't think he's likely to respond until you're admitted.

Edited February 7, 2010 by quadsbaby

[nh88]

just wondering what you folks think ... with this round of acceptances going out, do you think it's the end of the line for those who haven't been offered admission to Berkeley?

[Confused Goose]

As for thecaeser and awaiter:

Yablonovitch is actually the person who called to give me my unofficial admit to Berkeley, so I talked to him for a while. You can try emailing him directly, I've been in communication with him this way. It may help that I met him in person when he came to give a talk at Caltech. He seems like a pretty chill guy.

I will tell you that Yablonovitch didn't have that much to say to me until I was admitted, and he seemed to say something like "I wanted to make sure you could get through the admissions process first, because we have so many applicants, etc." In other words, I don't think he's likely to respond until you're admitted.

hehe...I sort of figured it must have been him. That's why I've been sceptical about Berkeley since you said you had an interview and then an unofficial admit . But this sort of thing is common. Many professors don't respond till admits are sent out, but worth taking a gander with emails. I got replies to a few emails I sent, and they help a lot in deciding where and to whom to apply.

just wondering what you folks think ... with this round of acceptances going out, do you think it's the end of the line for those who haven't been offered admission to Berkeley?

Well, definitely not the end of line for everyone, since many will be on the wait-list. I, however, am not too optimistic with Berkeley.

[nh88]

hehe...I sort of figured it must have been him. That's why I've been sceptical about Berkeley since you said you had an interview and then an unofficial admit . But this sort of thing is common. Many professors don't respond till admits are sent out, but worth taking a gander with emails. I got replies to a few emails I sent, and they help a lot in deciding where and to whom to apply.

Well, definitely not the end of line for everyone, since many will be on the wait-list. I, however, am not too optimistic with Berkeley.

Haha, so new strategy: hope to avoid the rejection rounds .

[mallu]

 Any idea about the Computer Science (Masters)? I saw one acceptance posted in the results forum.

[ilge]

I got an acceptance e-mail from Berkeley few days ago. I just wonder if you have any idea when the financial issues are supposed to be decided/announced? I'm pretty worried that they might not provide any financial aid at all

No, I've said pretty much everywhere that it was unofficial. So far just the unofficial acceptance from Stanford and the originally-unofficial-but-now-official offer from Berkeley.

As for thecaeser and awaiter:

Yablonovitch is actually the person who called to give me my unofficial admit to Berkeley, so I talked to him for a while. You can try emailing him directly, I've been in communication with him this way. It may help that I met him in person when he came to give a talk at Caltech. He seems like a pretty chill guy.

I will tell you that Yablonovitch didn't have that much to say to me until I was admitted, and he seemed to say something like "I wanted to make sure you could get through the admissions process first, because we have so many applicants, etc." In other words, I don't think he's likely to respond until you're admitted.

[awaiter]

@thecaesar & quadsbaby:

Thanks for sharing the information. I will try and see.

[ImNotAGenius]

I got an acceptance e-mail from Berkeley few days ago. I just wonder if you have any idea when the financial issues are supposed to be decided/announced? I'm pretty worried that they might not provide any financial aid at all

congrats! what field did you apply in btw?