Invited to skype interview with potential PI.

Had phone interview first. 3 years of research experience and 4 internships. 2 conference papers (first author), no major publications.

Two-ish years of research, no journal publications, ~5 conference abstracts (2nd or 3rd author on most). Offer also included an all-expenses-paid visit to Ann Arbor in the start of Feb.

Accepted 2 business days after applying, no funding though

Email for a phone interview (~15 minutes). No journal pubs but 2.5 years of research of conference abstracts.

Also got an email offering me to go out and visit the campus and faculty. Travel reimbursed by them. As previous person said, they put me in a google group with ~50 people or so, so it appears semi-selective, though there may be more rounds of emails and groups, who knows?

I got an email inviting me to a "Preview Day" in January paid for by Berkeley. Described as a "special two-day event for a limited number of our top graduate applicants". A google folder for it was shared with about 60 people

TOEFL-110. Applied for M.Engg. program which is self-funded and so a rejection hurts. Wow, I thought this university was a good match for my profile. It appears that competition in this country is getting fierce by the day. Good luck to all other applicants.

I hold a 4 year research experience and worked on 5 different projects on engineering design research and management. I have published 3 articles in well renowned, indexed journals. I also have 6 conference papers, with 3 additional journal papers under review. Perhaps, journal papers are counted only to award a PhD degree but not for admission. LOL. Also, I got this notification much earlier this year, which means, the application was not even sent to the department.