josefchung

Welp. I guess the Michigan results are out.

Here are the gradcafe results so far for PhD applicants. I would guess waitlists for Berkeley and Austin. San Diego and Amherst seem marginally better. Michigan probably has the most open slots left (?). Berkeley: 12 interviews (17-Jan to 24-Jan) 17 accepts (23-Jan to 9-Feb) 1 reject (24-Jan) Visit weekend (March 17-18, 2013) Austin: 18 accepts (23-Jan to 24-Jan) 2 waitlists (31-Jan to 4-Mar) 1 reject (5-Mar) Michigan: 5 interviews (24-Jan to 9-Feb) 5 accepts (29-Jan to 9-Feb; at least 2 with fellowship) San Diego: 2 interviews (25-Jan to 27-Jan) 21 accepts (25-Jan to 13-Feb) 1 accept (22-Feb) 1 reject (13-Feb) "Applicants are aacepted and rejected on a rolling basis until mid-April" Amherst: 1 interview (29-Jan) 11 accepts (22-Jan to 8-Feb) 3 rejects (18-Feb to 19-Feb)

Gotcha. Prior to 2010, the rankings had been updated every two years (2006, 2008, 2010), so the new ones are somewhat overdue. Meanwhile, they updated the computer engineering rankings for 2013: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/computer-engineering-rankings

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/2013/02/14/best-graduate-schools-rankings-coming-march-12 Will CS rankings be updated? Any predictions?

Congrats on acceptance from both schools! Obviously, your fit with the professor and the research group is by far the most important. But all things being equal, UIUC is a top-10 school (5th in some lists), while UCSC may not even be top-50. That said, UCSC has two things going for it: location [oceanside and near Silicon Valley] and high Ph.D. graduation rates with a median completion of less than 5 years. So I can definitely see pros/cons of both schools.

Hi xGeek, I agree with others that you should have a good chance! One thing that would have greatly boosted your chance is getting a recommendation from a Stanford faculty. Who your recommenders are matters a great deal, and getting a good letter from the professor of one of your NDO courses could have made for a stellar profile.

The reason why you don't see many interview results is because a lot of the CS programs do not interview candidates prior to admission.

Yah. The school administrators usually care much more about the GREs than the professors (some of whom might not even care at all).

Hi dontworry, Admission into a PhD program is extremely competitive (somewhat due to guaranteed funding) and the admission rates for PhD programs ranked 30-50 is still very low (many in the near teens). Because the admissions also vary widely year to year, I would hesitate to call a 70th ranked program a safety school, even for someone with a good profile. The process is more fickle than the MS admission, and if you can find a faculty member with a good fit, this will greatly help your chances in admission.

Hi dontworry, 4.5 is a good score, and I think you should have a decent shot at rank 20-70 schools. As for your undergrad institution, it will help if it is a university that the faculty might easily recognize. In this regard, it might help to apply to schools that have had a good contingent of graduates from your school (assuming they established a good track record). If you are looking for funding, your best bet is to apply to PhD programs. It is common for PhD students to quit after getting a Masters (some by design, some not). Getting funding with a PhD program is almost assured (at least for the first few years), while it is almost non-existent for MS programs. As you might know, getting into a PhD program is much more competitive (also I think deadlines for the good schools are past). Your sop/research plan and your recommendation letters become much more important when applying to a PhD program, while your test scores less so. The PhD admissions are also a lot more variable. In many cases, specific advisors are looking for a very specific type of a student to fit their needs. If you can find faculty members with whom you think you are a good fit, contacting them might be of some help. Some programs allow PhD applications where if you aren't admitted into the PhD program, they then review you for the MS program. Applying to these programs will give you the best bang for the buck. Best of luck!

Hi lookingandcooking, I think the most important (and almost prerequisite) thing that a non-CS major can do, aside from taking CS courses, is to do well on the CS subject GRE. The test is of pretty high difficulty and even CS majors have trouble doing well on the test. Doing well on this test is a very positive signal that you are prepared to do graduate work on CS. From what I have heard, many programs will take applications from non-CS majors with good scores on the CS subject GRE test. If you can couple a good CS GRE score with good grades on a few CS courses, then you should be in good shape for a lot of the programs! As for the transition to CS, if you have a good math/stats/science background, then the transition will be easier than from a non-science major. If you are from a non-science major, it is important to get a good fundamental understanding of logic and discrete mathematics that will be used throughout CS topics. As for getting into the industry, your skills matter far more than your pedigree or anything else. If you can demonstrate good skills and knowledge in grueling many hours-long technical interviews, then you should be in good shape.

Hi dontworry, As for the GRE, the writing score is usually the 2nd most important (after Q), so you would want a high writing score (at least a 4, but optimally 5+) if you are looking to get into a good MS program (i.e. top-25). The GPA is lower than what a good school would want. While it is somewhat remediated by your major GPA, unless you are from an elite undergrad institution that does not inflate GPA scores, this would hurt you the most in your applications. If you have an explanation for why the GPA is low (i.e. exceptional circumstances) explaining this in your SOP might help. As for the recommendation letters, the admissions committee favors letters written by professors over non-faculty. Unfortunately, a pretty good letter and an average letter won't do much to boost your profile. To get into good schools, you have to cultivate good relationships with the faculty (preferably renowned professors) and have them write you strong letters. Your research experience is good, so I'd make sure to highlight that in the SOP, while also laying out a well thought-out research plan. Overall, if you are from an average undergrad institution, and if your writing score is average (4 or below), then I think you have a slim chance at getting into a top-25 school. In this case, I would mainly aim for ranks 26-50, while also applying to some safeties (if you are okay with going to a safety school). On the other hand, if your writing score is also high (5 or above), and if you are from an elite undergrad institution, then I would say you have a semi-decent shot. In this case, I might do an equal share of top-25 and ranks 26-50, while also applying to some safeties. Best of luck!

Hey cs85.amar - best of luck in your applications! In order to get into a top CS program, I think there are several things that you'd have to be worried about, in order of importance. 1) Recommendation letters: Recommendation letters are extremely important at high-rank places, and you would need three fantastic letters from preferably renowned faculty to have a good shot. 2) Research potential: Submitted papers really aren't worth that much. However, if you can get a first-author publication at a top-ranked conference that is in a relevant field, this will help immensely at the top schools. In any case, you'd want to present a good research plan, and have an excellent SOP. 3) GPA: GPA above 3.8 is very good. Some top schools might prefer GPAs closer to 4.0, but GPAs don't matter nearly as much as the above two. 4) GRE: Way further down the list is the GRE. As others have said, the Q score is very important, while the V might not matter at all. 800Q and 400V won't pose much of a problem, while a 600Q and 600V will be an immediate reject. If your Q score is above 750, you should be good, although 780+ (or equivalent) is optimal. That said, there might be distinct advantages to doing a PhD at your school (rank 40-50). Keep in mind that even at the top programs, the PhD completion rates aren't all that great and many people flunk their prelims despite being geniuses.

I second what everyone else said. Your GPA's actually in good shape, because while it's not high, your major/last two year-GPA is good enough to offset it not being high. The only thing that made me worry from your post is that you had to "coerce" your profs into writing your recommendations. A good recommendation (esp from a renowned faculty) can make or break your application, so you want to make sure that the profs are enthusiastic about writing your letters, and that letters are very strong. Also, I would advise applying to more programs and definitely adding a safety or two next time. Best of luck!

The low GPA is a shame, because you have an amazing profile otherwise. If you had exceptional circumstances that led to your low GPA, make sure to explain that in your SOP. Unfortunately, the GPA matters a lot, and from my limited experience, it matters more for Masters than it does for PhD programs. Also, your graduate credits won't help much, because grades below B- are usually considered failing in graduate courses. I think another good option for you would be to leverage the relationships with your professors, and try to get into the Master's program at your school. I do think that the 3.9 GPA you mentioned and the exceptional subject GRE does make up for the low GPA - enough at least for the 25-50th ranked MS programs. My biggest worry is that the admission committee might not even get a chance to properly review your application, because it doesn't meet some minimum university/department GPA threshold. So it won't hurt to contact professors/admin committee, and let them know of your situation.

UC Berkeley is the top-ranked CS program (with Stanford/MIT/Carnegie Mellon), so it would be extremely difficulty for anyone to get in without a world-class potential in the field (and you most likely need letters of recommendations from faculty that the admission committee can recognize and respect). Caltech and Michigan are near top-10 programs (11th and 13th respectively), so again it would be very difficult to get in to these programs without a great profile. Optimally, you'd want higher Q and AWA scores, but the recommendation letters are much more important for the top programs (along with research experience), so the scores have to be good, but they don't have to be stellar (750+ Q and 4.0+ respectively; the marginal returns decrease considerably afterwards). Johns Hopkins is a mid-ranked program (28th), and based on the limited information you provided, I would say you have a decent shot for such mid-rank programs. The test scores are arguably more important for lower-ranked programs, so unfortunately, the GRE scores might hurt your chances here. If you will be applying again next year, I would strongly advise you to take the TOEFL and apply to more programs (2 reach, 4-6 at level, and 2 safeties). Keep in mind that even mid-ranked CS programs have close to single-digit admission rates, so it is not uncommon for a person with a good profile to get all rejects, even if they apply to more than 10 programs. Best of luck in your applications!