gmh

So much for my day dream. Congratulations for you who got admits

under consideration

High pressure

The UPenn prospective student chat is my fake out moment. I praised God when I read the subject line on my cellphone, when I continued reading it, it was just damn!

Whew, I got lot of friends here. I also applied MIT just for my long shot. It has been my ultimate dream to study at MIT, although seeing those people who have stellar resume were being rejected, I think my dream will stay as a dream. Hahaha. I am a good undergrad students, not stellar one, did undergrad research, got one paper published by my professor to a regional event, which non-existent at Google, unfortunately, due to poor event organization during my time. Did undergrad assistantship for 3 years, and working 3 years in non-academic institution, more of a major IT consulting. I tried to shape my experience as best as I could via my SoP. I mentioned my undergrad thesis, although I think my research was too simple compared to other people. I also put my 3 more years experience in my SoP hoping that they would care of it. But since then, I haven't hear anything from them, nor any interview request. Even from other universities I am applying. Anxiously checking e-mail every hour. Just pray for the best.

Perhaps someone is spamming the board, just to make us more anxious

Thank you very much for your input. I am now editing my essay based on your inputs. ​ Well, some of my applications are for PhD level because they do not provide Master degree. And unfortunately I don't have Master degree yet. So I expect I will gain more research opportunity upon enrolling to the university. I am addressing my work experience in my essay and hopefully it will sufficient.

I am going to include my website to show my selected works. So in case they are interested with the details of what I mentioned in my resume, they can look to my websites. Hopefully.

Adding to previous replies: Remove the story about your high school and extracurricular activity as it is very less relevant. The admission committee would only love to hear your academic and research performance in your undergraduate, and/or your professional career.

I read your SOP and please let me give some comments and questions: There are several grammatical errors that you have to fix such as capitalization, punctuation, and parallelism. These errors are quite noticeable and might turn off your reader. You already have Master degree in Electronics, you really have to check if the university you are targeting allows you to pursue another Master degree. "I feel good that I know what tickles inside processor" seems flat. Avoid such things in essay as reader might not understand with what you mean. The third paragraph is way too long. Rephrase it and make it more concise. It is actually very good that you brought up your personal limitation, but it is just too wordy and does not really punch out. Especially your story about your family, it is too bland. I think focusing on your hearing impairment is a very good idea. Fourth and Eighth paragraph seems redundant or dangling. It does not focus on anything. Put your experience regarding hearing aid in previous paragraph about your limitation. Fifth and Sixth paragraph seem talking about your persistence and effort, but it is crafted poorly. And perhaps it will be good for your final concluding paragraph, instead in the middle. Seventh is also too long. You once again mentioned your hearing aid, I think it is just too much (forgive my frankness), but it makes your essay unstructured. The way you address your university is quite good, which you mentioned the professors and their research. A good restructuring your sentences and omit the obscuring heading sentence will be good. It will be a very good idea if you write by outlining what you want to say before you start writing. Here's example of outlining I made based on your essay: The intention of pursuing Master degree in university Having 3 years experience in industry Eager to expand the knowledge with theoretical foundation and latest research Long term goal to pursue PhD Master degree in CS is one of my step My academic background and current experience Degree in Electronics and Communication Currently working in industry, protocol department. (Explain your duty/role) Found interests in CS after working in related area (Explain your experience why you finally interested in CS, and relate it with your job) My limitation that I have to overcome Suffered partial deafness in high school, limited my performance in class. Social stigma attached to someone with hearing impairment in my community. I turned my disability into my strength: I can easily focus on my study without being disturbed by external noise. The only restriction on my capacity is imposed by my own mind. Along with my economical advancement, I can purchase hearing aid to help me and overcome this issue. My undergraduate degree experience Explain what I do during undergraduate degree Explain experience in nailing the hardest exam in your country Reason pursuing Master degree in IIT My graduate research/coursework Try to focus on your BEST research work After graduating, joining CISCO, explain your BEST project What you learned so far How OS are designed, I learned it from my project, bla bla Software engineering methodology Relate it with your project Why I want to attend this target university Main reason Explain about professors and research briefly Final remarks Limitation is not disability I prove that I am highly qualified candidates despite my disabilities Good luck!

Although I might seems a bit ambitious, I want to study at top universities. But it seems that many applicants who have various research experience belittle my application. Unfortunately I came from Indonesia which has limited opportunity to do research outside of academia. I put this condition which affect my lacking experience in research. Please take a look a part on my Statement of Purpose below: My graduation was a major turning point in my life. Indonesia had not reached the technological advancement which provide variety of job in my particular field. Most of available careers were software engineers in a small to middle sized software houses, none of which is related to research, except working in campus. Due to financial constraint I have to overcome, which my parents are now in non-productive age group and working in campus in Indonesia would not give enough support for living, I decided to step out of academic life and work in an enterprise hoping that I would also gain experience in solving actual problems. is it okay to state that?

It seems that you have to input your CV in the text field provided. They also said that you may provide URL to your CV or additional documents that you expect them to consider.

@tll Thank you very much for pointing that SOP. It is a very strong SOP. I am now restructuring my SOP so it will have more concise opening and focused structure.