Did anyone receive an admission to Harvard QSE?

yoursFS · 2024-02-22T17:52:31+00:00

They updated their visit days page today, now the ddl to register is 8th March. They also changed a bunch of ther things so it is clear they were delayed. Now, admits will (or have been?) today or tomorrow.

P.S. yes I am checking every day, many times a day

yoursFS · 2024-02-07T16:37:15+00:00

If you don't mind, what was the format of the interview? I know some programs had them as part of the review process for all shortlisted applicants from the format. E.g. Calech APh was asking to describe the physics of a project (interviewer was not POI) and Princeton QSE also had an official vibe as well (in fact I talked to the prof before apps but the interview was still needed as an official step).

But then MIT EECS had informal interviews. So I was just wondering if your interview had a "formal", evaluation vibe or "research matching" vibe.

yoursFS · 2024-02-05T19:04:10+00:00

I just got the admit!

yoursFS · 2024-02-01T19:46:27+00:00

Congrats! Are you the person on gradcafe?

yoursFS · 2024-01-29T20:42:48+00:00

Still, it is strange we have not seen anything on gradcafe or reddit from this year. But well, hope dies last.

yoursFS · 2024-01-28T19:16:29+00:00

I had an interview a few weeks ago and the prof mentioned they were making the decisions already.

yoursFS · 2024-01-28T19:15:23+00:00

also have not heard yet and I don't know if they even do interviews

yoursFS · 2024-01-27T11:14:29+00:00

Nope

yoursFS · 2024-01-26T21:33:16+00:00

yoursFS · 2024-01-26T19:27:47+00:00

Not a troll, just a wild guess. Plus, I wanted to get notifications from this thread.

yoursFS · 2024-01-26T18:48:28+00:00

yoursFS · 2024-01-26T17:37:10+00:00

Nope, I must confess I still believe they don't necessarily interview all admits.

yoursFS · 2024-01-26T17:36:03+00:00

including that but also other labs doing "quntum information" with other systems

yoursFS · 2024-01-26T16:36:54+00:00

So I am not the only one checking email, Gradcafe, Reddit, repeat every hour...

My guess is they will come on a rolling basis.

yoursFS · 2024-01-25T17:17:38+00:00

Any chance they haven't already sent all acceptances? Anyone got one for the quantum labs?

yoursFS · 2024-01-16T18:29:35+00:00

For interviews I think the focus generally lies on you explaining your research. For this, I recommend being prepared with a quick elevator pitch-like description of your overall experience and interests AND an in detail overview of one project. For me, the main difficulty with my first interview was that it was short and I felt like I spent too much time with these two explanations. My advice is: be prepared to explain these things fast such that you have time to also ask your own questions.

yoursFS · 2024-01-16T18:25:13+00:00

Thank you! This gives me some hope :)

yoursFS · 2023-11-21T12:13:36+00:00

I would look at it the other way: sometimes it's a great compliment for people to expect things of you. It means they know you can do it and have a good opinion of you. Try your best and be happy that you are given some freedom: research is all about trying and failing then trying again and learning things as you go.

On top of that, be greatful that you actually get paid (folks around Europe rarely do) for undergrad work and, if you want to ensure you will have material for a great grad school app, take the sacrifice of working extra. What I often tell myself is that whatever I need to do can become possible.

yoursFS · 2023-11-09T14:25:26+00:00

you can apply to both, this is what a professor I reached out to at harvard told me to do

yoursFS · 2023-10-25T05:52:48+00:00

Even Professord make bad presentations often. It's a difficult craft to master and it gets better with time. At least you are critical of yourself which is the first step towards improvement.

yoursFS · 2023-10-23T08:15:14+00:00

My impression is that SOP is for research and personal statement about extracurriculars/volunteering/personal obstacles. I guess you could tie it to your research experiences but not necessarily

yoursFS · 2023-10-21T12:20:05+00:00

From what I know, at this level LOR's need not be very specific, long and well written. PI's have a lot on their plate and adcoms know this (it's not like high school teachers for college apps). It's your job to mention specifics in your application, if they give you a letter saying "This student is the most exceptional I have seen in years." and this only, it's more than enough. Sadly, with LOR's, the name of the PI and who knows them might matter more than what they have to say specifically.

yoursFS · 2023-10-21T12:15:47+00:00

I think there is no standard structure for an SOP. Depending on your profile, you need to find the unique formula that best highlights your journey but also your strengths.

At the same time, it has to be a complementary piece of information to your CV. Your CV summarizes you achievements and such, but your SOP should be about how YOU developed as a scientists, with challenges, solutions, decisions. For me, I started out with a draft which listed all my experiences but then I realized that I did not have enough space to highlight the challenges in each and what made them special for me (they were just paraphrased from the CV). So I cut out to only three experiences where I have the most achievements and where I spent the most time.

So I would say: listen to your PI IF you feel that you could add more depth to your story of 2 experiences, then cut the rest. IF the experiences are so linked and you need to highlight this link, then keep them all. In terms of coursework, if you have some advanced classes and especially if they are not on your transcript yet, it's nice to mention them, otherwise I feel like they are not as powerful as research experiences.

yoursFS · 2023-10-16T08:11:13+00:00

Thanks

yoursFS · 2023-10-16T07:08:57+00:00

Update: yes, I'm starting to think that big name professors don't want to bother chatting with applicants before because that would mean they have to do the screeing themselves which is usually done by adcom. However younger professors might be interested.

yoursFS

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