humdrum

Are there any top-100 universities which are known admit students in masters program in C.S without letters of recommendation? I know of Univ. of Southern California, does anyone know about others? My profile in brief - I did my UG from a tier 2 univ. in India. - low GPA - 6.6/10 GRE 790Q/730V/3 GRE CS - 760 (67th percentile) Unfortunately I wont be able to arrange for letters of recommendation at this late date. Would appreciate any information, Thanks. P.S - My research interests - machine learning and AI

Hi folks, I have applied for PhD in CS. And now I am applying to some universities for M.S as well. (I think its worth doing a Phd only from a top 30 university or so, and Im not sure of an admit at all) My question is - what are the essential differences between a PhD SOP (which I have already written) and a M.S SOP? I need to convert my PhD SOP to make it more suitable for M.S application. Of course I have changed the program names and all....But any other important changes? Thanks.

Didn't mention my research interests in my last post. I am currently working on Static and dynamic analysis, and software testing. I am also interested in PL research.

Hi, Although I have already applied to 5 decent universities for PhD, I am not at all sure that I will receive an admit from any. Determining a safe school for my profile is tough. Here is my profile - I did my UG from a tier 2 school in India. - GPA - low (2.5/4) GRE 790Q/730V/3 Research experience - working as a research assistant at IISC - top research university in india, no papers yet, but working on one. LORs - decent not spectacular. I think applying for a M.S would be a safer bet, and would get my food in the door for doing a PhD later. I would like to have suggestions for universities that match the following criteria - 1. Low tuition cost ( Funding is rare for M.S as far as I know) 2. Decent ranking in CS (Top 60-ish) 3. Deadline for application close to, or after feb 1st Would appreciate some help!! Thanks.

I got a recommendation from my current boss, who is a prof. at IISc. One from my ex boss, the founder of the company where I used to work before, and one from a prof. from my UG college. I worry about the last recommender the most. In his email - he said that he had a hard time recalling the work that we did together, but would write me a recommendation anyway. Frankly I prefer this to him remembering what work we actually did. :-)

Im in a bit of a quandary here. Consider my case - I got really bad grades in my UG (in computer Science) - 2.5 (I had no intention of applying to grad school at the time and was having a good time. No good excuse really) But after working for a couple of years in the industry as a programmer, I realized that working as a programmer was not my thing, and research is what I want to do. I do have a couple of good things going for me - good GRE scores (730V/790Q), And I am working as a research assistant at IISc - which is the best research institute in India. I expect my LoR's to be decent - not spectacular. So, this is my plan of action - I have applied to about 5 good schools for PhD - among the top 20. With my grades I think it will be really difficult to get a admit to a good Phd program directly, so I am thinking of applying to about 5 mid-ranked universities for Masters. I plan to continue for a PhD after doing well during Masters. What I am really worried about is that my application will be thrown out due to my low GPA even before the rest of it is evaluated. Is there any way of preventing that? Do you think emailing prof's and requesting them to lookout for my application will help? What do you think about my chances for getting admitted for masters? I have heard that for masters, mid-ranked universities take the GRE score more seriously than the top universities do. Is that accurate? Do you think this is the best plan of action? Any suggestions at all?

I am looking to do a PHD in compter science. I know the AWA score is not very important for non humanities courses, but im worried about the minimum AWA cutoffs at universities. Do you know of cases where a score review has resulted in a significant change? Or is it possible to retake just the Writing section?

I took the GRE a few weeks ago, and got a decent score - 730V and 790Q. I opened the ETS website to see my AWA score, expecting to see a 5.0 or at least a 4.5, but got a big shock to see 3.0. I know I didn't do as well on the writing section but I cannot believe that I did this badly. I am considering going for a AWA score review but wanted to know the experience of other people first. Does this kind of thing happen often with the writing section score? Is the review worthwhile or is it just a waste of $55? If it doesn't work, I am considering rewriting the GRE because such a bad score in AWA will seriously undermine my application. Is it possible to rewrite just the AWA section?

Hello, Im planning to apply next year for CS Masters in Spring 2011. I know it usually depends on the university, but are there some general downsides to applying for the Spring admit? Are less number of admits given for Spring semester? Thanks in advance... P.S - Im going for the spring admit as It will be difficult to get a LOR from a prof im currently working with before Feb 2010, and by then it will already be late to apply for Fall 2010.

@belowthree Thanks again! Does anyone have some experience with European universities? What kind of rules do they have with regard to low GPA?

@belowthree - Thanks for the advice. Is it easier to get into the PHD program rather than the Masters? Because PHD is usually accompanied by a monetary grant i would have guessed otherwise. What kind of research were you involved in? Was it undergrad research or was it on the job? Also, do you have any papers published?

Hello, Ive got a pretty low GPA in my undergraduate CS studies - 2.5. I know, i messed up big time... Im looking to apply for masters in CS, what schools can i realistically expect will admit me? Assuming I get a couple of LOR's and a great GRE score - What are the chances that a top 30 school will accept this kind of a profile? Also, what advice would you give to mitigate the effects of a low GPA? btw, i did my undergrad from a top 10 school in India.