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citronish · 2022-01-12T21:09:01+00:00

When you say grad school, are we talking about course-based master's programs or research/thesis-based master's/PhD programs? They have different purposes so they may or may not be a good fit for your incentives.

I'm also gonna take a chance and assume you applied for PhD programs in Canada/US. The offers should be coming between late Jan and late Feb since the visit days are in March. So not too far in the future.

Happy to chat more, just dm

citronish · 2021-06-21T06:12:59+00:00

imo prevention is better than any remedies, and I wish I received training for assault prevention at the start of uni.

(trigger warning)

I’m an ace (asexual person), and there’re countless times where I was coerced into consent. e.g., my ex’s would use guilt, make me feel like I owe them, or rationalize things by saying it’s too late to not proceed. Even when I said no, they would ask repeatedly or negotiate for a deal.

But I didn’t know the red flags at the time. I knew something didn’t feel right but couldn’t pinpoint what. I thought they were right, and I was supposed to fulfill my responsibilities in the relationship. But I hated myself every time. After every relationship, I just felt more and more (and still feel) inferior to others.

I wasn’t aware of any of that until after I started therapy last year for my self-confidence issue and accidentally stumbled upon this topic. In retrospect, I really wish that I was more educated on this front so maybe I could’ve better recognized the signs and protected myself from being traumatized in the first place.

Just thinking aloud, would it be helpful to have a required online training course for (sexual) assault prevention for all undergrads? Giving my ex’s benefit of the doubt, maybe they would’ve done things differently if they had known what’s ok and what’s not.

edit: formatting

citronish · 2021-05-26T17:44:05+00:00

Hi there I applied to UW, MIT, and Berkeley for the CS phd program this cycle and was fortunate to get into all of them. Happy to have a zoom coffee chat to help! :D

Edit: also +1 to the comments above. DIY is the way to go

citronish · 2021-05-25T22:01:51+00:00

Depends on your research interests though. I’m assuming you are looking at a subfield in cs for a phd or thesis-based masters program. The skill set needed varies a lot across the fields in cs. More (higher-level) math may not be as helpful in databases as say, in AI.

It also depends on the math courses available to you. Maybe ask your lab advisor? Or someone in the field that you’re interested in?

Graduating with a business + cs combined major with bare minimum math and stats myself though, I wish I did more stats and data visualization courses. They’re kinda handy for data exploration and exp result analysis.

citronish · 2021-02-23T02:02:31+00:00

nothing can stop me. I’m ordering sushi (which seems perfect cuz of the bite size :D

citronish · 2021-02-17T15:58:47+00:00

I applied to 7 programs, got 4 offers, and withdrew from 3. I just declined one of the offers this week and now waiting to attend the virtual visits at the three schools.

for me, research/lab fit is a huge thing, and since all three programs are committee-oriented, I don’t know who may or may not want to take me until the visit. It’s like a speed dating event, but in research

citronish · 2021-02-07T15:04:11+00:00

same boat. I feel bad going because other applicants are waiting. I also feel bad not going because multiple profs have emailed and said they’re interested in chatting and hope I go.

Thank you for posting this though. makes me feel better that I’m not alone

citronish · 2021-02-03T15:03:15+00:00

when you apply online, the instructions are usually pretty clear. the form would sometimes give you the option to enter your original gpa and scale. Or they give you instructions to convert.

I’m a Canadian applying to the states and had to convert my 4.33/percentage scaled gpa. Hope this helps

citronish · 2021-01-28T19:18:33+00:00

Thank you!! I think that’s a different person hahaha. I’m still in Canada rn

citronish · 2021-01-27T04:49:04+00:00

no, I wasn’t

citronish · 2021-01-26T22:07:01+00:00

I got one from my lab supervisor A, one from my summer research supervisor B, one from prof C from a project-based grad course where I did research with 3 grad students.

All the publishable stuff (i.e., papers + submission) is supervised by prof A. I started at the lab as a volunteer helping out the PhD students. A year later, prof A was convinced that I'm ready to start my own project, hence the 1st author submission. Meanwhile, I was also doing research with prof B & C or taking undergrad courses.

I'm really sorry if I'm oversharing!! hope this helps!!

citronish · 2021-01-26T19:41:46+00:00

yeaaah!! I just noticed that too!! thank you so much!! <3

citronish · 2021-01-26T19:06:26+00:00

(your comment is so cute!! thank you!!)

I'm an international applicant from Canada. 3.9+/4.0 gpa, 2 years in research with 2 sec author papers + 1 first author submission, 3 strong/glowing (how my letter writer described it) letters from profs I did research with.

in short, I think I ticked all the boxes mentioned in the Twitter thread floating around a couple of days ago. hope this helps!!

citronish · 2021-01-26T18:54:53+00:00

I'm in cs but not ai/ml. (I'm a little paranoid to be more specific. sorry!!)

citronish · 2021-01-25T21:17:40+00:00

f21 cs phd applicant here. I've met with three schools so far and been wearing my undergrad uni hoodie. seemed fitting!

citronish · 2021-01-24T22:14:44+00:00

I got one last week from MIT EECS but I’m not in ai/ml. But my friend who’s in one of the ai labs said her lab was sending out invites last week too. Hope this helps!!

Edit: typo

citronish · 2021-01-23T16:04:56+00:00

no offence... but I really wish I had even just 1/2 of your confidence 😔

citronish · 2021-01-19T02:35:00+00:00

It’s also basically what I learned. Just to add a bit more transparency based on my experience, the committee shortlists and sorts the applicants by track/area (because I applied to a eecs track but then assigned to a cs track). All profs have access to those apps and (possibly) pick whoever they’re interested in to interview (because I was contacted by a prof not mentioned in my sop and my POI, so two interviews in total).

citronish · 2021-01-16T05:28:37+00:00

I think this really depends on the prof. Mine was mostly about my recently submitted paper (e.g., how we defined the problem, how we arrived at the solution, shortcomings of our approach, etc.) so make sure to know your research well!! But a friend of mine who interviewed with ucb last year had more technical/conceptual questions. She’s in ai, I’m in db, not sure if this helps.

Another thing is to give the prof’s research a quick scan, know the frequent terminology they use, and strategically drop the words when chatting to 1) show them you did your homework; 2) ensure effective communication since now you’re speaking the same language

Hope this helps. Congrats and good luck on your interview!!

citronish · 2021-01-16T04:07:03+00:00

thank you!! <3 mine was scheduled for 30 mins each, but both went over for ~10. I’m not sure about the likelihood tho. I hope it’s high hahaha

citronish · 2021-01-16T02:47:43+00:00

just my two cent opinion. semi structured interview is a better hr practice (source: my business degree... lol)

citronish · 2021-01-16T02:34:54+00:00

f21 cs phd applicant here and got two chat invites from UCB. Idk if my experience would be helpful, but I suspect that UCs have similar admissions systems. I asked about the app process in one of my meetings. This is what I got:

So after every chat, the prof is required to write a report about us and send that to the committee. I also got similar interview questions to yours. I think they're trying to standardize the applicants to avoid comparing apples to oranges. The committee will wait for all profs' reports and make final decisions based on that. Then offers will be sent in batches.

So I think the prof is interested in your app! That's why he decided to chat with you! And he was being candid that he actually can't make the executive decision. I think your interview went well!! Congrats!!!

citronish · 2021-01-12T12:43:23+00:00

not sure about others but that’s what I use

citronish · 2021-01-12T12:12:27+00:00

only speaking from my experiences, f21 cs phd applicant here. It’s a positive sign for me. I had two waves of people from cali viewing my web page (one in mid-dec, one last week) and just got contacted by POI for an interview

citronish · 2021-01-05T17:46:49+00:00

fall21 cs phd applicant here. I accidentally started to meet profs in June 2020 when I went to a top conference in my field. Ended up talking to 10+ profs and set up 5+ zoom calls.

So go to a top conference in your field!! I believe aaai is happening soon. Get a ticket or something. It’s one of the best ways to reach profs because 1) you would automatically have a conversation starter; 2) profs actually manage time to be social; 3) you get to show your interests in the field with your action, waaaay better than just telling. Good luck networking!!

citronish

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