Received a call from POI informing me about the (unofficial) offer. Said that official offer letters will arrive very soon.

Interview with POI, Area: CV/ML

Admitted to MCS (non research) program, tier 1 undergrad in EE

An hour interview with POI

Interviewed with POI in my SOP

Recommender has submitted the LOR with wrong university name, but still I thought it would consider. But, I guess hence the rejection.

They sent out invites for virtual visit day. People don't keep up hopes after this. I applied to this place 2 years ago, and got rejected for a PhD focused on ML. Now I have 1 ICML first author paper, and 2 more workshop papers and a paper recently accepted at ICLR, and didn't get interview invite. Sad reality of ML PhD admissions :(

POI contacted me for a 20min informal chat, which turns out to be a 40min interview and quite technical. Go over some previous projects and math problems, but POI looks very nice.

Initially received an email notification stating that I was recommended to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. The status on the website was later updated to "Decision Made-Accepted-Deposit requested". (Masters by thesis-IELTS 8.0-Research Assistant experience plus a conference presentation-Prior experience with internships and employment as a software developer plus personal/academic projects-Contacted prospective supervisors before application.)