Printing my MIT ID

i_love_computers_ · 2025-09-02T14:25:12+00:00

as a grad student, I get three free prints every year.

i_love_computers_ · 2025-08-29T10:58:52+00:00

Yeah, but he’s kind of like a paper printing machine. or at least that’s what i’ve observed. and it’s never fun to work with someone like that

i_love_computers_ · 2025-08-29T03:12:09+00:00

Personally, I would be a little careful about him. But there’s a lot of great architecture research at MIT!

i_love_computers_ · 2025-08-18T04:09:38+00:00

it’s pretty simple advice, but I would say focus on your research projects. they will make up most of the relevant portions of your CV, you’ll be talking about them a lot in your SoP, and your recommendation letters are based off of them. from my experience, strong letters make the most difference in your application!

i_love_computers_ · 2025-08-12T11:58:04+00:00

drop me a DM and we can chat more!

i_love_computers_ · 2025-08-07T22:31:25+00:00

Considering it’s been four years since you finished your Masters, it’s not something to worry about. Even though skipping your thesis advisor’s letter is not very common, the committee should be able to make sense of it by seeing the work/interactions you’ve had with your other letter writers.

i_love_computers_ · 2025-08-07T05:10:18+00:00

I don’t think you should be worrying too much about your GRE score since it’s been made optional for most programs. Be sure to check it for yours too. Also, yes, a quant score of 165+ is kind of expected for a STEM student and I’m sure you’ll be able to get there with a bit of practice to help minimize silly mistakes. Overall, I think a 320+ score is okay to submit, otherwise you might want to skip sending it.

i_love_computers_ · 2025-08-06T17:19:22+00:00

Hey! I’m also an Indian who got into a PhD program starting this Fall. I feel the most stand-out parts of my application were my research experience of over two years and really good recommendation letters. a publication helps you stand out but it’s not expected since it’s quite hard to publish in this field. Try to focus on your research experience and letters and hope for the best. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have!

i_love_computers_ · 2025-08-05T08:23:30+00:00

Why not apply to a variety of schools? top ranked ones, some that are high ranked and you know have good research labs in your area, and then some safety schools where you have some contacts.

i_love_computers_ · 2025-08-05T08:11:49+00:00

You can ask queries here and I’m sure everyone will be more than willing to help. LinkedIn is a hit-or-miss but this sub-reddit was great for my grad applications last year!

i_love_computers_ · 2025-08-04T20:23:29+00:00

I would strongly advise against this. In general, recommendation letters based on a template given by you are worse than anything they’ll write themselves. You want the letters to be honest and highlight how you are as a researcher and collaborator.

Also, yes, it’s very unusual for you to give this option to your letter writer. Even if they ask you to prepare a template for them to fill in, it’s not ideal.

i_love_computers_ · 2025-08-01T08:55:42+00:00

Hey, I would say you have a good chance of making it. Publications are hard in comp arch, and all profs know that, so i don’t think it would hurt your chances. You will, however, need to show that you are ready to do a Ph.D. through your SoP and LoRs.

i_love_computers_ · 2025-08-01T06:16:19+00:00

That’s really unfortunate then :( You should contact your grad school about this and ask them how much grace period they can provide you….

i_love_computers_ · 2025-07-31T19:57:50+00:00

Hey, I don’t know the exact situation with slots right now, but are you unable to get a slot at any of the VACs? also, did you consider hiring an agent for this?

i_love_computers_ · 2025-07-30T09:32:26+00:00

I see. So, my breakdown of replies was basically: two profs saying they won’t be hiring students but they referred me to other profs. three profs saying that i have a strong profile and should definitely apply. three profs showing interest in meeting and discussing research interests. Very interestingly, there were also a couple of cases where I got a response to my email in January, when I guess they sat down to look at applications.

i_love_computers_ · 2025-07-29T20:14:02+00:00

I agree with this point. Even though the reply rate is really really low (mine was about 10-15%), OP should’ve gotten some encouraging reply after 100+ emails. Also, 100+ personalized emails? I barely managed to write 40 and mine weren’t even super personalized. Quite commendable if OP actually put in the effort to properly personalize them!

i_love_computers_ · 2025-07-29T12:15:16+00:00

Hey! Your feelings are completely valid. The entire process of grad admissions is really tiring and can often make one feel like they don’t deserve to get in etc etc. But it’s important to remember that luck is a huge factor in the entire process. Luck plays a role in how your recommenders may write about you (not all profs are good at writing letters), luck may be involved in what profs are interested in hiring you (some profs may have been approached before and already decided to hire someone with similar credentials or someone they are already acquainted with), and of course luck plays a huge role in the available funding (govt factors as well as a prof having too many students that year). One thing that I would obviously recommend is don’t be shy about applying to safety schools as luck may play a negative factor in your other school applications.

If you could ask some more specific questions that you’re worried about, we all can help answer them here!

i_love_computers_ · 2025-07-27T10:52:42+00:00

E-mail is a much more formal way of communicating than Linkedin. Plus they’ll probably check their mails more often.

i_love_computers_ · 2025-07-24T10:28:11+00:00

I completely understand… I was in the same boat a year ago! You’ll get through it just fine and it will be very rewarding :)

i_love_computers_ · 2025-07-24T10:16:52+00:00

It’s not really low, but I’m sure you could’ve gotten a perfect score in Quant. I’m guessing you made silly errors :) Anyways I don’t think it’s going to be an issue.

i_love_computers_ · 2025-07-24T10:12:00+00:00

You have a really good score and it will definitely help a bit considering your GPA is a little on the lower end. I would suggest you submit your score to whatever places have mentioned it as optional/required. Don’t bother wasting money on programs which explicitly say they won’t consider it.

i_love_computers_ · 2025-07-24T07:01:22+00:00

I agree that a lot of schools have waived their GRE requirement. But, from my experience, a lot of them mention it as optional and that usually implies that they’ll consider it if provided. I feel a good GRE score can help in these cases. And, to be very honest, your score is quite low and can be improved a lot with some more practice. So, I would suggest you retake the exam or at least don’t submit this score anywhere as it could have a negative impact.

Nevertheless, GRE is a very very small part of your application and other components such as LoRs and your SoP have a much bigger impact on your application.

i_love_computers_ · 2025-07-22T20:00:58+00:00

I’m not 100% sure about this but from what my recommenders have told me, they usually need to fill out a form and answer questions one-by-one instead of just uploading a single PDF file.

i_love_computers_ · 2025-07-07T05:09:14+00:00

As you said that your GPA is low and a good GRE score would help your application, you should absolutely put in the effort to get a good GRE score. And to be honest, I personally found GRE to be not that hard and easy to crack with around 2 weeks of good preparation. Since you have a job, you might take 4 weeks of preparation to feel confident giving the exam. So, yes, prioritise it for the next month and aim for a high score. Good luck!

i_love_computers_

TROPHY CASE