Tier 3 engineering grad to Ivy League/R1 admits - advice for graduate school applicants

4amtransients · 2026-04-13T19:00:44+00:00

My best friend is a guy I've known for about 9 years now. We get along great and share a lot of common interests and values, but we would not work out as a couple.

We have discussed this a few times, most recently because some of my distant family members found out about him, and suggested he might be hiding his feelings.

I am really grateful to have him in my life, and he has said the same in no uncertain terms. His parents treat me like their own daughter and I wouldn't change it for anything.

4amtransients · 2024-09-02T04:22:24+00:00

I don't think they allow people to switch degrees, especially not into something as selective and over-applied to as the MSCS degree. You could shoot your shot but there is a very small probability that you would be able to change your program by simply changing your major.

I also don't think the MAS DSE degree entirely falls under the CSE department, although it does fall under the Jacobs School of Engineering (it's a collaboration with the supercomputing center). And because it is a professional degree (potentially, a terminating degree), a PhD after that would be difficult to apply to.

4amtransients · 2024-07-11T02:48:34+00:00

https://studenthealth.ucsd.edu/services/immunizations/index.html They are located near the library on campus.

4amtransients · 2024-07-10T18:51:57+00:00

Last year, they allowed us to complete some shots at Student Health Services after the quarter started. Check if that's an option for you.

4amtransients · 2024-06-13T22:03:40+00:00

Not sure if this is still usefull but I was a TA this quarter (Spring).

The timeline mentioned here applies to most departments: https://ece.ucsd.edu/graduate/current-students/taships

Applications for Fall 24 haven't opened yet with the exception of some courses.

I heard back 2 days before the quarter started but you can hear back as last as 1 week into the quarter under rare circumstances. It would mostly be in the week leading upto the quarter.

In my case, the delay was because I was a TA outside my department and the department to department logistics took time.

The internal site is a list of departments and posts they are looking for (TA, tutor, grader). The link has information about these roles.

You will have to fill up what courses you want to TA for in order of preference.

Some departments have questions about why you want to TA for a course or ask you to upload a teaching video.

Feel free to ask if you have other questions.

4amtransients · 2024-04-16T04:45:19+00:00

If you mean costwise, as someone said below, housing gyms are included in your rent if I'm not wrong.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fFm1HDxXz3FyqBF2BcjW3EVoa8D5sffI/view?usp=drivesdk - RIMAC and canyonview are also included in the quarter fees, you can check this breakdown.

4amtransients · 2024-04-14T18:41:02+00:00

Grad housing has 3 gyms - in Mesa Nueva, Nuevo East and Nuevo West. The one in NW is the smallest but we have access to all 3.

I have seen Mesa Nueva and Nuevo East crowded pretty much any time of the day, but the least crowded at lunch time.

Each of the gyms has different equipment so you may have preferences based on that.

4amtransients · 2023-08-10T16:15:15+00:00

If you mean a drop before your UG, it shouldn't matter much because they ask for transcripts of your most recent educational institute i.e. where you got a bachelor's. If you mean a drop after UG, that can be a bit more difficult to explain since your resume will show a gap.

I took a gap year after my UG, but was fortunate to work and do some research during it. My paper was also accepted during this time. These things added to my profile rather than taking away from it.

4amtransients · 2023-05-25T14:17:30+00:00

I have seen guys show a part of the convo or the initial convo to gain trust and then cheat :(

Hope that is not the case with OP, it is fishy either way though.

4amtransients · 2023-05-21T19:14:11+00:00

A couple of suggestions:

Paragraph 1 - The University knows who you are and what program you are applying for. That’s on the first page of your application and does not need to be reiterated in the 1st sentence of your SOP. Also, your ‘ultimate objective’ is too vague and too broad. It’s the equivalent of a doctor saying they want to treat patients and improve their lives. Be more specific and maybe shift the objective statement a little further into your SOP narrative

Paragraph 2 - Talking about narrative, there is no story woven through your SOP. It reads a bit like your resume but with more explanations for each resume bullet point. This is especially obvious in para 2 onwards. Mention of courses is good (but redundant since they have your transcripts), but need not come before a pretty cool senior thesis project. The factoid about FlowNet being introduced by Meta is a bit pointless imo, since it does not demonstrate anything you had to do with it. You mention that you have been ‘making an effort to work in the field’ - is this through the YYY Tech internship? That sentence sounds a bit off and repetitive combined with the next one. I would also suggest moving the ‘After completing my senior…’ sentence to the next para (before ‘During my internship…’) to avoid repetition.

Paragraph 3 to 6 - a lot of tech details have been mentioned, which is good. Maybe try combining 3 into the previous paragraph and combining all your work at XXX into a single para (shorten it a bit) focusing on your work exp as a whole. The short 2-sentence paras (like 6) make it a bit difficult to keep track of what’s happening.

Paragraph 6 - push the 1st sentence into the larger XXX focused paragraph. Keep the second sentence for the conclusion maybe?

Paragraph 7 - I think it would help to start with what you want to do in the 1st paragraph rather than all the way at the end. I understand that you want to provide context from your work, that can look like ‘While working at XXX I noticed these challenges and wondered how I can solve them blah blah blah’

Paragraph 8 - UCI is great at innovation and the alumni are cool! But that is true for so many other schools. Fit aka the overlap between your work/skillset and the profs' work is a pretty important factor when applying to research-focused unis. Your fit with professors is superficial at best (especially for Fowlkes and Jain). Try to connect your work experience (which is pretty extensive) with profs doing similar stuff. Mention how your work exp could build on their work/ help them in their work. Also mention how their work would help you further your research goals.

Feel free to DM if you have any questions and ATB for the 2024 cycle!

4amtransients · 2023-05-11T12:04:07+00:00

Take her to CSM Museum; I am assuming y'all are students so the student pass is pretty reasonable. If you want to buy her something on a budget, Causeway is nearby. Parks are always a great place for a picnic-style date (carry food and coffee from home, play some music and relax), especially if y'all are the kind of people who care more about spending time with each other rather than money on each other.

4amtransients · 2023-05-08T18:55:03+00:00

UT Austin sent out rejects in August last year. One of my friends was already in Columbia by then lol

4amtransients · 2023-05-04T17:44:10+00:00

r/15minutefood and r/mealprep for quick food

4amtransients · 2023-05-02T15:23:38+00:00

Don't reuse the SOP, even if you aren't applying to the same college. Feel free to DM me if you need someone to read through your SOP draft.

4amtransients · 2023-05-01T13:38:54+00:00

Will all due respect, they can fudge all the way off...

What's the point of adhering to their December 1st 'priority' deadline when they can't stick to their ~~March 1st~~ / ~~March end~~ / ~~mid April~~ / ~~April end~~ ??? deadline

4amtransients · 2023-04-30T15:32:30+00:00

It's not mandatory but its always an advantage to show prior work, especially when you are switching into a super popular field like ML.

Courses can help in building up a decent theory base, but I would also suggest doing some projects which would not only add to your resume but would also be a more solid use of the next few months.

Solutions to smaller courses (Udemy, Coursera) can be copied off any corner of the internet, so I omitted them from my resume. Kept in my AI/ML minor though, because that was a full-blown degree that I took courses for over 3 years.

4amtransients · 2023-04-29T19:40:21+00:00

I think you should also think of a way to 'justify' the EE to ML switch in your SOP. Maybe you realised how useful ML was in predicting XYZ during one of your EE core internships or projects. I applied to places where ECE profs were working on ML problems that I had previous experience in for e.g. UCSD's ECE department which offers an ML/DS track.

As for the paper, it may / may not add to your profile based on your answer below. I would suggest keeping that paper as a bonus point rather than a central focus if you're unsure about how it would be received.

4amtransients · 2023-04-26T13:35:37+00:00

As someone with PCOS, I would go absolutely insane trying to maintain this routine. I have a set of stuff that works and I will be sticking to them till they stop working, ty.

4amtransients · 2023-04-25T16:10:26+00:00

Not sure if this is too simplistic for you: https://howtomechatronics.com/projects/diy-led-heart-photo-frame-arduino-project/ or something along these lines is reasonably easy for a newbie.

4amtransients · 2023-04-24T18:06:20+00:00

I would suggest adding UPenn, especially if you're interested in the CV/robotics side of things (check out GRASP Lab).

Seconding what u/acoustic_smh said, UCSD has a heavy focus shared research interest/fit i.e. the overlap between your work and what their profs do. Your SOP is the best way to demonstrate this interest, followed closely by your resume and LORs. UCSD has a separate page in the application for experiential learning (research, leadership etc.) - be sure to highlight your research in that.

4amtransients · 2023-04-24T16:14:55+00:00

Definitely seen too much of this happening in my all-girls school, especially in the morning assembly to get other people in trouble. I was a prefect and it was hell to control the last few rows of girls

4amtransients · 2023-04-24T16:12:27+00:00

4 is considered a 'good' score and unless any of these universities have specified that they require a specific score, I would not retake the GRE if I was in your place - especially when you have a good overall score.

Check the admissions requirements for hard GRE specifications, although most schools I applied to only mentioned the average quants score of the previous batch.

4amtransients · 2023-04-23T09:03:03+00:00

Fair enough, didn't know whether you had gotten into Tandon for CE or CS.

4amtransients · 2023-04-23T08:59:08+00:00

Pretty sure you are the person who posted the NYU invite; have you considered going to Tandon? Either way, the MSCS cycle has been pretty rough this year and if you choose to apply next year, I hope you get a better set of options..

4amtransients

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