Jayanandh_Ogre

Hi. Anybody headed to Texas A&M or University of Calif. at Santa Cruz, please PM me or do reply in this thread. -JO

My dearest TMians, Before I even begin saying how much all those replies meant to me, lemme just say this. I love you all and I love this simply amazing TM community. People here are all heart (and a lot of brains, ofcourse). Thanks a million. For a while now, i was not sure about anything and I began doubting myself, my abilities and my achievements. When i read your posts, i felt that at least these people understand the things that i am going through and all effort that i put in..... it means so much to me. Here at home, not everyone seems to understand that I did try my best. some of them (owing to their high expectations) seem to think that i must have not been good enough and when i try explaining, it just gets worse. however, i feel much more stronger now. I know that there are people who know that I did good and thanks to the pointers I feel i can still focus my strength and nuture some hope back into my life. I am going to take some time, finish my final exams n then, as ranji said, am gonna get into the brawl...again.. will PM each n every1 of u once again I love u all. cheers jo (p.s.: forgive me if u get the feeling that i seem overemotional)

Dear folks at TM, Hi. Its been a long time since i posted here. Its only because I was hitting one low after another and right now i am right there at the 'mariana trench'. I have been rejected at all the top univs that I applied to. The only admits that I have got are from UCSC and TAMU (with aid) for PhD in CS (Networking). Neither of these schools are great. they are probably good, but i had my sights set much higher and for the all effort that i put in (for the past 2.5 years) I feel throughly dissapointed. I am quite shocked that none of the universities found my profile attractive, even though I had proffed at most of them. The professors wrote back saying that my profile was good enough to get me an admit. However, when i contacted them after the decision was out, they seem to have all of a sudden vanished or on vacation!! I honestly dont know what went wrong. If any of you TMians care to make a suggestion, I would be grateful. Just to refresh your memory here's my profile: GRE: 1500 Q:780 V:720 Sub GRE : 830 87%ile CS TOEFL: 287 TSE: 50 Undergrad School: Anna University (chennai-TN) Undergrad %age : 85.4% (approx major GPA 3.75) topper in dept. Research Exp.: 2 papers in IEEE international conferences in the US and a ACM conference at Singapore and a number of technical papers at local conferences Internships: 2 summer internships; at a startup and a multi-million dollar conglomerate based in dubai, worked on establishing their local MA-network and also helped designing their web presence. Recos : decent recos highlighting all aspects of my achievements, one specially from the dean of UG studies (an alumni of UIUC). SOP: I thought it was quite good, as it highlighted my passion for research and my achievements to support them. I tried to be clear about the area in which i wanted to work in and I had specific sops for each univ adapting it to the programs being offered there and clearly indicating the reasons for selecting that particular school and program. Contests: Ranked __ in the ACM ICPC contest at the ASIA regionals beating a number of top schools from india like IITs and BITs Well there's that. I am right now at my wits end. I am planning to sit out for one year and try applying next fall again. Though I honestly dont see how i could improve my application. I mean, yes I could do a project at a research institute or an internship at another top company but i still dont see that as the reason why i was rejected. The univs that I have got admit from were the safest bets and even among them 1 has not offered any financial assistance for a PhD program!! I really wonder how they expect a student to show a source of funding for 4-5 years (which is what i heard they expect at the visa interview). Some of my friends suggested that I take up the UC offer and try transferring to a better univ within the UC system asap, but since there is not aid offer there i have to rule out that option. Coming to TAMU, i hear that the CS dept is hardly as good as the rest of the engineering divisions and that its a dead end place for any CS research (i wonder y i even bothered to drop an app there.) So its curtains for me. Its so damn depressing..... anyway, i have been seeing the rest of my buddies at tm are making it to great places! a big congrats to all of them. @gforce: congrats dude u totally rock! u have the best record of top univs for an intnl studnet i guess.. @bnm: good luck with that UCD thing...am sure u will make it @ranji: hey hope to hear from u buddy @tbucg: wow! gatech..party on.. and so many others... wish u the very best for a great future !!! cheers..( :( ) JO (the mere thought of going through the entire process of applying has made me go even deeper than mariana trench(-the lowest point on earth when i studied geography in school))

hey g, nothing yet from ucb? (is tht good or bad!!??) true ucsc is my safe bet, i know ppl there n the profs n all. I was just thinking through the worst case scenarios (the paranoia is catchin up...) and was wondering what tmians thought of ucsc...

how good is UCSC for CS? any thoughts on that?

congrats there

Aw man! shucks! tell u what vog, just keep cool for another week or so... u r def gonna get some great news soon... u wanna know y? well its coz the saturn is moving into the 6th palce and the jupiter is in retrograde motion while mars is causing some switches in the 4th house, your troules will vanish within a week when moon gets its power back...... well, if tht aint a good reason enough, i have been saying to myself that next week will be different to myself, and i wish the same for you to.... -JO (i can feel the j.arthritis setting in slowly but am gonna keep it crossed right till the end, one way or the other :) )

rock on dude!!!! a big congrats!!!!!!! RA wow!! keep that up!! -JO [clap]

vog dude, i thought i made it super clear that hes posted in the cs-gre thread... well anyway here's the link http://www.www.urch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19709 the other fella is my friend whose profile is in the thread that gforce had posted.. hope tht settles it :) btw does anyone know about a PhD admit with aid from any top univs for an INTERNATIONAL student (esp Indians). I mean most of the admits from the top univs have been for Domestic Applicants (or green card holders, etc). What i would like to know is, if univs have started sending out notifications for International PhD applicants (plz note the fundae about 'with aid').... for those of you who feel that my question is quite retarded plz forgive a nervous 20yr old whos got no score on the board of admits yet! -JO

hey kamer there is this dude in TM itself who goes by the nik aragon (mebbe argon) he's updated in the cs-GRE thread that hes been officially informed that he has been admitted into the CS-PhD prog with full aid at UIUC. U should ask him for more info. cheers! JO

hey my sentiments exactly. the forum is for ppl who have made it into univs while the thread gives stats about friends of tmians who have made it elsewhere, which kinda gives perspective on admit policies for lots of applicants. so yup, as erin put it, ppl will keep posting there n it will remain on top by its own volition. (though personally i wouldn't mind it even if it is a sticky!! coz thts the thread i read the most right now..) -JO

hahahaa...ok tbucg..i am gonna say this just once..coz otherwise am gonna get old congratulating u !!! CONGRATS !! (psst.. i just remeber saying wow for your Upenn admit!!) :D rock on mate!! -JO

good going yousuf... -JO

congrats

hey congrats weimin!! good luck with ur graduate studies..!! JO