[TTBP]: I totally agree with your point. My friend got in Stanford MS because he knows a prof there who is willing to work with him. Many others I know as well. So, more than LUCK, it is about CONNECTION and knowing the RIGHT PERSON.

As a parent of a boy who has got admission into PennState, who wont be taking it since he has got Purdue and Wisc Mad PMP and will be most likely taking the former and will be considering OSU (another seat) along with PennState as trophies, I thought it right to comment about the situation this year as I have been following this site steadily for the past few months. My son has high end CGPA+rank from a top State college in India (forget this stupid Tier 1 etc that many Indian students rant about...I personally am an IIT B.Tech, IISc M.E. of yesteryears (1980s) and wont rant about it unnecessarily!) has 6 publications as on date (journal + conference...decent International ones...not the top most ones!) and I must say without doubt has been lucky to get what he got. I am aware of others with almost similar CGPA not getting any top 20 college, even some who are again seniors and rankers of my son from his college. I am also aware of some with lower CGPA and zero experience who have got top 20 from his college. While I admit, that I am illiterate in talking about SOP etc (as I never tried to go for higher studies in US in my times!), I can say that the idea that SOP defines the possibility sounds ridiculous. In fact one stupid comment I get from my son's contacts and even on net is that "dont mention financial help in SOP". To be precise my son mentioned it in almost all cases. There are comments about "dont underline or use bold" and I as the person who was helping review my son's SOP and even the LORs (which of course were accepted by his recommenders!) had BOLD, UNDERLINE and ITALICS. What I want to tell as a senior person about this GRAD program looking students are the following. 1. Getting a Univ in US (did not try other places) based on my son's and the others that I could track shows that IT IS JUST A LOTTERY. So many who are frustrated that what you perceive as you being better and not getting a college while somebody bad got it, just shows that you did not win the lottery. 2. While I said 1 above, certainly a CGPA of 9+ helps though I think 9.5+ seems to have a bit of negative effect especially in the top 30 colleges sometimes. They probably rejected you because they thought you were not going to join or you were not the right fit. 3. Coming to the above point, RIGHT FIT is what the Prof who took your Application thought about it. So if the right Prof got your appln. and he wanted you, may be you got it. In simple there is a high level of randomness and so dont curse yourself for failure. Bad luck. 4. Finally this year is THE REAL BAD YEAR. Penn State that my son got and will not be taking seems to have hardly taken more than few Indians. Strange but true. Many with decent profile didn't get it. I am not even talking of WiscMad rejecting hordes for the MS Traditional program. Overall, it looks like that Covid year is a big game where the Colleges were trying to find the right match and they had invariably hangover of previous year students who had deferred it. 5. The scene might only improve marginally next year as per my guess. Since the carry flow of the deferrals and the space lost last year (by folks not joining) will get into the next academic year, I dont think situation will be same even in 2021-2022 as it was in 2019-2020 and before. So the trouble you saw this academic year might actually continue for one more year if flow control exists. Anyway colleges have their ways of dealing with it. 6. Finally, I find there are 2 types of US colleges. Ones that you pay and get a seat easily potentially with say 9+ and nothing more (Columbia, UPenn, USC and even quite a few branches of CMU and well WiscMad PMP!) and others where you need to slug it out. If my career in the SWindustry of the past means anything, nobody in US in a job really cares so much about college etc (the Tier based approach so sadly seen in Indian colleges!) once they are placed in a job. So if you joined NCSU and I joined Cornell, it is not really that in the end you are low class and I am high class. Please try to understand that. Something I tend to educate my son as well. The truth is you are worth what you are and the colleges took you for what they felt you were. Good luck.

Generic rejection mail. Hopefully, I got accepted from another favorite school.

No GRE. Email received around 2 pm ET time. No communication/interview before receiving the offer. Most likely will decline, the deadline is 15 May,

[Not WL] I am also waiting for the admission results. Glad to see I'm not the only one... Hang in there guys...

TTPB: Still waiting for PSU. I know a handful of people who are too. Should we still be hopeful or should we just move on.

Had an interview with a prof whom I mentioned as my POI. I will work under his supervision. Area: NLP. Will receive the offer letter by this week's end. Ugh..... Finally. Hang in there, guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Got noticed via email. Had an interview with 2 professors interested in co-advising me (AI) on 2nd April. Received a letter recommending me for admission on 5th.

Wtf PSU is doing. Can just give out results and let us live peacefully. What a drag.

"Admission to the CSE department is extremely competitive. Each year more than 900 applications are received. Approximately 50 students are admitted in the fall semester, and an overwhelming majority of funded applicants are Ph.D. students." - PSU EECS website. Afaik, about 25 admits have been given already, they send decisions up to May second week.

TTPB: Can you please share your stats? I honestly don't know how competitive PSU is. Also, do you know what the intake of the program is and how approximately many admits have been sent out? Thanks a lot!!

Ignore WL: PSU deadline for accepting the admission was 15th April. Now it is high time for uni to send the acceptance/reject to waitlisted apps. Any idea if they would send it soon or by next week??

Ignore the waitlist: PSU is my last hope. This season I got zero acceptance, seems like this season was a waste of money. Hope all of you are holding on strong. #WeDeserveBetter

[Not WL] I am waiting for the admission results for the CSE program as well. Do you think their intake will be shrunk compared to last year because of COVID?

Will Penn State offer any admission to Fall 21 MSCS program this year? I am waiting only for PSU's results and with the whole visa slot fiasco, I am not sure how long should I wait. Is anyone desperately waiting like me? Also does PSU offer admits for freshers