Here's a list of applications I've submitted (for undergrad admissions, graduate admissions, job applications, fellowship applications, etc.), as well as application materials (when permitted). I've been fortunate to have a very successful career so far, but it has been extremely luck-based. So many opportunities I've had were due to random chance (I'm very grateful for them!).
2025
Fellowships
- Activate Fellowship - rejected w/o interview (this is fair, my pitch was too early)
2024
Summer Internships
Note: since the teams/roles I was looking for were all quite specialized, I didn't submit a formal application anywhere (nor were there formal postings anyway). Mostly was through warm/cold outreach and discussing opportunities with potential managers.
- Tesla (Optimus Intelligence Team) - offered, accepted
- Toyota Robotics Institute - offered, declined
- Figure - no response
- 1x - no response
Fellowships
- Siebel Scholars - Rejected
2022
Summer Internships
- DeepMind (Robotics team) - offered, accepted
- Google Brain - in host-matching, declines
- NVIDIA - no offer
Fellowship
- Google PhD Fellowship - CMU-level semi-finalist, rejected
- Microsoft PhD Fellowship - rejected
- Facebook Research & AI Mentorship (FRAIM) - rejected
2020
Fellowship Programs
- NSF GRFP - awarded: Personal Statement | Research Plan
- NDSEG Fellowship - not awarded
- Knight-Hennessy Scholars - not awarded
- DOE CSGF - not awarded
- NPSC Fellowship - not awarded
Ph.D. Programs (second time)
- Carnegie Mellon University, Ph.D. in Robotics - admitted, matriculated
- University of Southern California, Ph.D. in CS - admitted
- Columbia University, Ph.D. in CS - not admitted
- Stanford University, Ph.D. in CS - not admitted
- University of California Berkeley, Ph.D. in EECS - not admitted
- University of Washington, Ph.D. in CS - not admitted
- Embarassingly, accidentally didn't upload my undergrad transcript correctly...
- New York University, Ph.D. in CS - not admitted
- Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. in EECS - not admitted
- University of Texas, Austin, Ph.D. in CS - not admitted
2018
I (naively) applied to Ph.D. programs in robotics/ML without any real research experience in the field (had some ML experience, but not related to robotics). This was a big reality-check for me, and led me to leaving my job at Google to work in a robotics research lab at Samsung Research.
Ph.D. Programs (first time, rejected everywhere)
- Carnegie Mellon University, Ph.D. in Robotics - not admitted
- Columbia University, Ph.D. in CS - not admitted
- Stanford University, Ph.D. in CS - not admitted
- University of California Berkeley, Ph.D. in EECS - not admitted
- University of Washington, Ph.D. in CS - not admitted
- New York University, Ph.D. in CS - not admitted
- Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. in EECS - not admitted
- Harvard University, Ph.D. in CS - not admitted
- University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D. in CIS - not admitted
2013
College Admissions
- Princeton University - admitted, matriculated
- Yale University - admitted, declined
- Brown University - admitted, declined
- Northeastern University - admitted, declined
- Harvard University - rejected
- MIT - rejected
- Stanford University - rejected
- Columbia University - rejected
- Cornell University - rejected
- Northwestern University - rejected
- Williams College - rejected
- Swarthmore College - rejected