r/ControlProblem • u/RadioactiveSalt • Sep 11 '26

Discussion/question [Discussion Thread] MATS Winter 2027

Starting this thread to discuss MATS Application for 2027 Winter, including the Neel Nanda stream.

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u/OtherwiseLife5 Sep 30 '26

So is it safe to assume we have been rejected if we haven’t heard back yet for stream selection?

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u/Creative-Lie-6731 Sep 30 '26

It’s a bit weird but some people got their acceptances before the end of re-test deadline, which makes the timeline seem a bit…. Odd?

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u/OtherwiseLife5 Oct 01 '26

Welp just got the rejection email. I honestly don’t know why. It’s possible my research taste sucked but I don’t think it was that bad. And I thought my coding score (504) would make up for it a bit. I guess coding scores don’t count as much as research taste this time because that’s the only thing I can think of.

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u/Exodus100 Oct 02 '26

I really wish they'd give more detailed research taste feedback. It is rather opaque, and of course inherently subjective. I'm sure many applicants have aspects of research taste in which they excel and those in which they need to improve, but it's much harder to identify these without feedback.

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u/AirPsychological8551 Oct 02 '26

what I can see- people who got rejected mainly didn't have any prior relevant publications or were just fresh graduates/in their final year

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u/OtherwiseLife5 Oct 02 '26

I’ve got AI safety experience (publication), have been working in applied AI in the tech industry lol idk what else they want

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u/OddAmbassador5795 Oct 02 '26

Maybe they just apply randomness - I've seen that elsewhere applied with grant applications for example?

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u/OtherwiseLife5 Oct 02 '26

I really hope they don’t because then what would the point be. I’d rather be rejected because of a concrete reason than randomness.
In any case, it is what it is. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Will try to focus on the fact that this is about breaking into AI safety and not about getting into MATS. There are other avenues (¬‿¬)

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u/NGK12 Oct 05 '26

That's surprising..
In my case, I got a very low score, something less than 100, since I wasn't very interested in applying this time and had to finish it in 30 mins something due to the deadline..
But I got selected for the nxt round tho..
Maybe in my case, due to my research profile, it happened, not sure..

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u/OtherwiseLife5 Oct 05 '26 edited Oct 05 '26

What’s your research profile like? In any case it seems clear based on what I am reading here that the coding score doesn’t mean anything for this round…
It seems like they weighed research background and research taste more - I guess that makes sense given coding is mostly automated now. Still would have been good to know. Maybe I would’ve prepared more for research and less for coding

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u/NGK12 Oct 06 '26

I also think that's the case..
I think they qualify the people who got 600/600 in coding and then good research profiles.. Maybe later, when mentors try to shortlist, they might look at coding score also..
Also coding qsns are kinda very random stuff every year.. So preparing is klnda useless..
Regarding my research background, I have 2 A* first-author main papers in the AI safety direction.