Our decision making process will begin in February. At that time we will nominate students who qualify for fellowship awards from the University. At the beginning of March we will select a second group of students who qualify for Departmental fellowships. These awards are based almost entirely on applicants' undergraduate academic performance and GRE scores. The selection committee has not received any application folders from the university as yet, but I suspect they will start to arrive over the next couple of weeks.

　　上面是一个教授（系主任）发给学生的信。不是rolling制的学校在2月初便可以得到fellowship的消息，而3月便可以得到TA或RA的消息。当然也有学校例外。曾经北大物理系有一人在6月底得到了MIT的FA，这就有可能是有人将MIT拒了，而他在waitinglist上。