rafi_dery

An Update: MIT, CMU - Rejected, as expected. No reasons on the phone; they just said again the importance of research experience. UCSD, Caltech - no decisions yet. expected until the end of the month. In UCSD they say that decisions are final for domestic applicants only. Enough for one day.

Thank you guys for your comments. As I heard nothing until now, I decided to call some departments tomorrow. Promise to update soon...

Hi all, As some of you know I applied to PHD in Computer Science. This weekend I received two rejects (Berkeley & Princeton), to join the old one from Stanford :shy:. It is a suitable opportunity to have a intermediate summary, with your help of course. I still haven't heard of Cornell, Columbia, CMU, MIT, Caltech and UCSD. I know from usnews that Cornell and CMU had their accepts weeks ago, so I probably should expect a reject from them (probably doing its way in snail mail, or like it happened in Berkeley, I should contact them in order to be informed). UCSD should have their visiting day shortly, so I guess no news is bad news, though they say in their website that decisions might arrive even on early April. Columbia and Caltech are still a mystery to me, as I don't know of anyone who heard from them (for good or bad). If you have more information regarding these two, please share it here. MIT sent rejections (I refer to Course VI) but I don't know what was the manner (email or snail mail). I do believe that if I haven't heard from them till now, again, the rejection is doing its way in snail mail. If anyone has comments or insights, I'd be happy to hear. Rafi

Congratulations nonevent! I was very happy to hear that you made it to your first choice! CMU is a great place... Good luck in grad school, Rafi

dionysus, was it an email or snail mail? in case of snail mail, what was the date of post? thanks, Rafi

Congratulations Hendrik! Stanford is a great place, I'm sure you'll enjoy your time there. Can you please tell me in what manner the acceptance (Stanford) and rejection (Berkeley) arrived? is it email, or snail mail? thanks, Rafi (who hasn't heard of any unversity yet [bomb])

Hi all, I have applied to Computer Sciences at CMU (about a month ago) but still got no response from them (any kind of confirmation about receiving my application). I intend to send them an email, but still I'd like to know whether anyone got any confirmation letter from them. Thanks Rafi

I got an email from them, on Jan 16th morning (Israel time). Here's the email, notice their email address at the end. I hope this helps. -=- Dear [firstname], We appreciate your graduate studies application to the University of California, San Diego. You now have access to the Graduate Admissions website to update address, email, and test score information on your application. When the decision on your application is complete, that information will also be displayed on this site. Each application you submitted to UCSD will have a separate Log In and Password. Please use the following information to access this site for your application to Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), CS75. Site: http://gradadmissions.ucsd.edu Log In ID: Use the last 8 digits of your application confirmation number. Password: [passwd] If you have misplaced your application confirmation number, go to the web site above and submit a Log In I.D./Password request. Please email gradadm3@ucsd.edu if you have questions. Sincerely, [name and family] Assistant Dean Graduate Admissions University of California, San Diego

Vinay, Sri, thanks for replying. Sri, I guess you are refering to the PhD program in Bio-Informatics. My question was about the PhD program in CS, where the research is aimed to the area of Bio-Informatics. I guess they do not demand a broad knowledge of Biology in this case. (It's worth it to ask them, though). Have you heard of UCLA in this area?

Hi, Does anyone knows what are the top Bioinformatics programs at the states? Do UCSD and UCLA included high in this list? I browsed through their webpages, but couldn't figure out whether their role in this field is significant... thanks, Rafi

I'm reporting 820 (84%), a bit disappointing, but as I said after the test, I had no indication while filling the ovals what my score is going to be, so I guess every score was acceptable (Ahhh! If I had only two more correct answers!) The fact that no one (until now) in TM scored above 90% is interesting. Have we done something wrong?

Ozgulker, I think your TOEFL is very good, no need to retake it. all the universities demand 250+ or even 230+, so you are more than "fine". About the old GRE report - I guess they refer to the last one only. Dont think it will harm you in any manner. Your TSE is a bit low - did you report it to any institute? I'm not familiar with most of the universities you mentioned (except UCSD, Georgia TEch) so I can not comment. Good-Luck!

Controlled Reporting of the GRE CS: It is on the edge, but possible: Some of the universities ask you to fax/email your GRE/TOEFL scores - the report you got home from ETS. They want you to do it to save time, and they treat the unofficial score you provided as the real one, at least for the first stages of admission. Eventually they will require the official report from ETS, to verify your unofficial one. I know at least Stanford act like this, and I'm sure it is not the only one. So what I suggest is: as soon as the report arrives to you and it is satisfying, fax/email it to the universities, and start the procedure of the ETS Reporting. Why I say it is on the edge? if you took the Nov. test there were more chances your report would arrive on time. December? I'm not sure... Maybe email some grad offices to see your chances. Good Luck in the GRE CS! Rafi

Hello all, Happy to be done with it, what ever the results will be... I took the test today (Monday test). The level of the questions in my form was higher than the ones in the practice booklet, but not significantly. Like beanfootage and Godel, I noticed several questions in topics I havn't reviewed at all (like networks), though these question were quite basic for someone who took a course in the relevant field. My stategy was going like this: read the question. solve for the "best" answer. In case of doubt, choose the most likely to be the right one, and mark it on the answer sheet. If you are uncertain, mark the question with a circle on the questions form, to be review at the end if the time allows. If you are completely uncertain, mark two circles. The logic was: in most of the questions in doubt I knew to eliminate at least two choices. Thus, it is worth it to guess. Thus it is better to have something on the answer sheet in case I won't have the time to go over at the end. At the end I had time to go over most of the single-marked circles only... Thanks everyone for the help. I wish you all good luck in the application process! Rafi

A wild guess: the Ci and Ri might also form linked lists of their own... so it might be the missing 20 links... :). Anyway I suggest we forget about this question, as you said nonevent, the question is not clear enough.