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My commute to Stanford was roughly 1 hour and 30 min long. That was a combination of both bike and bus. Biking 2 miles to the bus stop at 630am trying to catch the last bus to Stanford from my area. Then 40 min later, getting off and biking another 2 miles to get to the campus and then to the building I worked at by 8am. Then the same thing on the way home.

As an undergrad, I commuted to campus and work. My typical Tues/Thurs was waking up at 7am to get ready and to get to school by 730am, takes about 15 min to get there, to drop off papers I've graded and pick up new papers to grade. Then I'd head to work and make it in by 8am. After work, I would go straight to school which would be about a 20 min drive. I took 6 classes during this time completely maxing out the number of possible units I'm allowed to take and would end up getting home from school at around 12am. I came home late because I stayed at school to study and work on my homework. My Mon/Wed is the exact same thing except I would just head to work in the morning then school afterward. My GPA for that term was a 3.65. So I think it's possible to manage it all. Most of my friends work and go to school at the same time.

I would also like to note that I'm also looking at schools in Canada.

I know this thread is a tad old (just a few months, but still). But speaking of sub 3.0 GPAs, I am one of those with a 3.11 (GRE: 760q, 490v, 4.5awa) and reapplying for Fall 2010. Just to give some hope to those GPAs like me, I was accepted last year into the USC M.S. Computer Science grad program. I didn't go due to financial problems and what not. This coming Fall 2010, I should qualify for a tuition waiver (as long as I don't work again) for all California Public Universities and will be able to afford to pay for any miscellaneous fees. Private Universities and schools out of state will be a bit difficult to pay for, but I will be taking out a student loan if I must. Hopefully, I gain acceptance into a few schools out of the 10 - 15 I'm applying to for Fall 2010.

There's one computer graphics professor at UCSD that I'm aware of based on what is shown at the graphics lab, Henrik Wann Jensen. There are other faculty members, but they're part of the vision lab.

If you guys have low GRE scores, then I must have very low scores then. 1250, writing 4.5 I got into USC and UC Irvine, but reapplying this year and probably retaking GRE. gradcafegirl: Are you by chance attending CMU + University of Pittsburgh program?

I'm definitely applying for Fall 2010. I've written my SOP and starting to do some revisions. I hope to have it done by the end of this week so that I can start studying a bit for the GRE. I'm not too happy about my score from last year, everything was okay except for my verbal score which should have been between 60 - 100 points higher. If I do retake my GRE, I need to be certain that I can get at least 200 points higher in total than my original score. I have a list of schools, but I'm trying to narrow it down a bit and identify others I've overlooked. I wish everyone applying the best of luck and hope you guys get into your top choices.

I'll say that even though my goal is to be a Technical Director, I'm still interested in doing research. I don't necessarily need a program geared towards my goal since I should be able to apply everything I will in class or in research to it. I would also consider Caltech if I thought that there was a small possibility of me getting in. I would also love to go to University of Washington, they seem to be doing tons of research in computer graphics. I know Stanford is on the list, but it's there because I worked as a research assistant at Stanford for a year after graduating from SJSU (lesser known unranked school in the same area) and one of my 3 references is a Stanford Professor and also the Director of the research lab I worked at. So I figured why not give it a shot. Thanks for the response by the way. You go to UCSD, right? I did a little scouring in the forums and saw you explaining the program a bit. Any advice on getting in?

I originally applied last year for graduate school and there was some miscommunication between myself and one of my references. In the end, I had only 2 letters of recommendations submitted for each school I applied to and found out only after I had been rejected because the schools would not view an incomplete application. However, I still got accepted into the M.S. in Computer Science program at USC and UC Irvine. I'm reapplying this year, will definitely have my 3 letters of recommendation, and hopefully have a new stellar SOP. My undergraduate gpa is very low (3.11) and my GRE scores could have been better (760q, 490v, 4.5w). I'm also taking online classes to learn cg related things (ex: Renderman, Maya, RealFlow, etc.) Also does anyone have any advice on making my application look "better"? Can anyone give me some advice on other schools to apply to which either offer a M.S. in Computer Science with awesome computer graphics research or a interdisciplinary graduate program between art and computer science? My main goal is to work in the visual effects and animation industry as a Technical Director. My list of schools I'm considering apply to consists of the following: Texas A&M Clemson University Stanford University University of Utah UC San Diego UCLA UC Santa Barbara UC Berkeley UC Davis Arizona State University WashU University of Maryland, Baltimore County & College Park University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Purdue University If anyone has any other schools I should consider. I know CMU has an awesome PhD program and now they do research with Disney, but I think my chances of even being considered is too small. Thanks!

I'm also interested in this information.