Fall 2018 Admission

[Besivance]

4 minutes ago, ray92 said:

 

Thank you!

I applied December 15th and I received my letter of acceptance on Feb 20. Did you also apply? Are you waiting for an email

Yeah. Applied on Dec. 14th. Haven't received any communication since.

[ray92]

1 hour ago, Besivance said:

Yeah. Applied on Dec. 14th. Haven't received any communication since.

Ah How many school have you applied to? Some schools I have applied to went dark as well

 

[Besivance]

3 hours ago, ray92 said:

Ah How many school have you applied to? Some schools I have applied to went dark as well

 

Quite a few actually. I spent the last 3 years in a completely different, unrelated domain, so I had a hunch that might count against me. I have had an offer from SUNY UB and a couple of rejections till now.

[ray92]

8 hours ago, Besivance said:

Quite a few actually. I spent the last 3 years in a completely different, unrelated domain, so I had a hunch that might count against me. I have had an offer from SUNY UB and a couple of rejections till now.

Congrats on the offer.

I have not had any rejections yet. The only school I have heard back from was Utah so I don't know if I am on a wait list with the other schools or  the schools just keep everyone in the dark and send out a mass rejection email once all the spots are filled.

I also think unrelated domains could work for you as well. I worked with foster care children for a couple of years and I stated that in the personal statement. I roughly stated that I know how to communicate tougher subjects to someone that may not have the same level of my understanding as myself. I personally think every experience can contribute to ones research, it just depends on how you look at it such as  character building, communication and finding oneself.

[spamhaus]

@ray92 I think there are a lot of silent waitlists going on. I just emailed a POI at GATech, and heard back that I'm on a short waitlist. Of course, that's unofficial, but it could be what's happening to a lot of people. Until I emailed, it had been radio silence from the program.

I like to think of admissions as an optimization problem. Due to the explosion of applicants to CS programs, it is a non-trivial problem to optimize admissions results, such that schools get the top applicants they are capable of attracting. As the competition grows, students rightfully fear rejection, thus apply to more schools. The stronger applicants are likely accepted to many programs, essentially holding those spots hostage as they decide. Many wait until campus visit day before accepting an offer, which is often a month or more after initial acceptances are sent out. This is exacerbated by large numbers of applicants, e.g. just got back from UMass Amherst where they stated they received 2500 applicants for grad school this year.

Considering these are CS schools we are talking about, hopefully they can figure out a better algorithm for acceptance/rejection that is more optimal. That will realistically only happen if it effects the quality of applicants accepted to their programs.

[brcs]

@spamhaus good luck with your GT application!! I hope you have good news soon

[ray92]

53 minutes ago, spamhaus said:

@ray92 I think there are a lot of silent waitlists going on. I just emailed a POI at GATech, and heard back that I'm on a short waitlist. Of course, that's unofficial, but it could be what's happening to a lot of people. Until I emailed, it had been radio silence from the program.

I like to think of admissions as an optimization problem. Due to the explosion of applicants to CS programs, it is a non-trivial problem to optimize admissions results, such that schools get the top applicants they are capable of attracting. As the competition grows, students rightfully fear rejection, thus apply to more schools. The stronger applicants are likely accepted to many programs, essentially holding those spots hostage as they decide. Many wait until campus visit day before accepting an offer, which is often a month or more after initial acceptances are sent out. This is exacerbated by large numbers of applicants, e.g. just got back from UMass Amherst where they stated they received 2500 applicants for grad school this year.

Considering these are CS schools we are talking about, hopefully they can figure out a better algorithm for acceptance/rejection that is more optimal. That will realistically only happen if it effects the quality of applicants accepted to their programs.

Did you just email the program email on their website and state that you were curios about your status as an applicant?

[brcs]

8 minutes ago, ray92 said:

Did you just email the program email on their website and state that you were curios about your status as an applicant?

@spamhaus said they emailed a POI, so they emailed a professor directly. They’ve probably been in contact beforehand though.

[waitingGame2018]

So I applied to 6 colleges and so far all of them are maintaining dead silence. Only 2 universities status has  changed from Submitted to Under Review. Probably Google  will block me for the number of times I check the mail in a day.

[torchic]

1 hour ago, waitingGame2018 said:

So I applied to 6 colleges and so far all of them are maintaining dead silence. Only 2 universities status has  changed from Submitted to Under Review. Probably Google  will block me for the number of times I check the mail in a day.

The silence of the lambs. You are not alone, buddy.

[seems_fair]

22 hours ago, spamhaus said:

@ray92 I think there are a lot of silent waitlists going on. I just emailed a POI at GATech, and heard back that I'm on a short waitlist. Of course, that's unofficial, but it could be what's happening to a lot of people. Until I emailed, it had been radio silence from the program.

I like to think of admissions as an optimization problem. Due to the explosion of applicants to CS programs, it is a non-trivial problem to optimize admissions results, such that schools get the top applicants they are capable of attracting. As the competition grows, students rightfully fear rejection, thus apply to more schools. The stronger applicants are likely accepted to many programs, essentially holding those spots hostage as they decide. Many wait until campus visit day before accepting an offer, which is often a month or more after initial acceptances are sent out. This is exacerbated by large numbers of applicants, e.g. just got back from UMass Amherst where they stated they received 2500 applicants for grad school this year.

Considering these are CS schools we are talking about, hopefully they can figure out a better algorithm for acceptance/rejection that is more optimal. That will realistically only happen if it effects the quality of applicants accepted to their programs.

 

I think that the admission process is extremely risk-averse adds another layer of complexity. Given the number of applicants, if you are non-usual applicant (i.e. 30+, switching areas or have uncommon personal history) you are at a disadvantage because there are a lot of comparable candidates which look 'safer' (i.e. solid undergrad with good GPA and decent ML-research experience even without publications). I am in similar position as you (I am 30+) and got only one offer so far although I have 4 first-author publications in related field (but I also have really bad undergrad GPA and very decent MS).  

[spamhaus]

1 hour ago, seems_fair said:

I think that the admission process is extremely risk-averse adds another layer of complexity. Given the number of applicants, if you are non-usual applicant (i.e. 30+, switching areas or have uncommon personal history) you are at a disadvantage because there are a lot of comparable candidates which look 'safer' (i.e. solid undergrad with good GPA and decent ML-research experience even without publications). I am in similar position as you (I am 30+) and got only one offer so far although I have 4 first-author publications in related field (but I also have really bad undergrad GPA and very decent MS).  

Very true. I wonder if it’s also partly due to younger applicants being more of a blank slate to be molded. This article makes a similar case for Silicon Valley. Then again, when you consider the monetary investment they put into a PhD student, let alone the time, it’s understandable why they are so risk averse.

[spamhaus]

Not sure why the formatting is weird on my previous post...

[seems_fair]

2 hours ago, spamhaus said:

Very true. I wonder if it’s also partly due to younger applicants being more of a blank slate to be molded. This article makes a similar case for Silicon Valley. Then again, when you consider the monetary investment they put into a PhD student, let alone the time, it’s understandable why they are so risk averse.

I thought about it as well and I agree about effort and money part. Still, I think that this process is very inefficient (as you mentioned earlier) especially comparing the number of open postdoc positions (almost every lab has them) to the number of accepted phd students. It looks like training process fails to supply the demand in good researchers. Or maybe the field (ML/DL) is new that's why there is a shortage of good researchers in this area. 

But that's the reality we live (and apply) in. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

[José Neto]

Has anyone got official acceptance letter from UCR?

[Billiam]

2 hours ago, José Neto said:

Has anyone got official acceptance letter from UCR?

I received one yesterday afternoon after several interviews.

[José Neto]

4 hours ago, Billiam said:

I received one yesterday afternoon after several interviews.

I guess I won't be admitted there

Rejection is coming.

[mayank-kgp]

I got admission in University of Chicago MPCS program. Let me know if anyone has got same admit.

Whatsapp - +91-8875432718

[brcs]

Has anyone heard from Illinois?

[Besivance]

On 3/4/2018 at 11:33 AM, ray92 said:

Ah How many school have you applied to? Some schools I have applied to went dark as well

 

Well the good news is Utah has shed some light.
Bad news is the shade of said light is red. 

[waitingGame2018]

14 hours ago, Besivance said:

Well the good news is Utah has shed some light.
Bad news is the shade of said light is red. 

Same here! Hope its not the same with other universities 

[Besivance]

1 hour ago, waitingGame2018 said:

Same here! Hope its not the same with other universities 

Yeah I'm hoping for the same, but the patterns look similar. Not holding my breath. 

[minsifye]

Applied at 4 universities, no result, no change in the application at all... 

Getting impatient now...  

[there_is_a_so_long_wait]

23 hours ago, minsifye said:

Applied at 4 universities, no result, no change in the application at all... 

Getting impatient now...  

i understand.

which 4 universities ?

[minsifye]

Canada- SFU, UBC

US- Suny Buffalo, Rutgers

Data science courses