newms

Just to update this thread. I met with the POI earlier this week and it went ok I think. We talked about my background and about my interest in his research. He sent me reading materials and told me I should send him questions I have about the literature so that he could see how I think and I could see how he thinks. He said I should stay in contact with him and let him know when I apply later this year, since if he didn't look out for my application, there would be a chance I'd get a batch reject. He said that had happened to a potential student before that he was interested in - he didn't know they had applied and he didn't see their application among the hundreds of others, so it got a batch reject. I was definitely nervous for the meeting, but overall it was a positive experience and he seemed interested in me. I would definitely recommend contacting profs (as long as they don't say not to), especially so they can get and idea of your abilities and interests and so they can look out for your app.

I'll look at it and give you my thoughts if you'd like. PM me if you're interested.

It's just under 1300 words so its a little lengthy for programs that recommend about 1000 words (about 2 pages) but some programs recommend no more than 1500 words, so I guess it depends on the program.

Thanks for the reply. I agree on the cheesy part. I wonder how adcoms feel when they have to read through hundreds of SOPs opening with a quote or a cheesy story. It would be great to have a fantastic opening to grab their attention, but if I don't have a fantastic story to share I think going the route of a banal quote or story might leave a blah taste in the adcom members' mouths, so to speak. I think I might go with the direct approach this year.

A couple suggestions from someone who's working on a SOP too FWIW: 1) I'd have the 'fit' paragraph as the last paragraph and have your motivation for research much earlier in the SOP. 2) Don't let your concern for casting too small a net prevent you from laying out a vision of what you would like to research. I think this is an important part of the SOP - to show to the admissions committee that you are capable of putting together a coherent, workable research goal. I don't think that they are going to expect you to stick precisely to that goal over the next few years, since your research might lead you into a direction you hadn't anticipated. 3) I think you should mention the profs' work and specifically how your research vision and/or background would fit well with their work. I don't think the adcom is going to be impressed with only dropping names from their website.

I'm not 100% sure about how I feel about opening with a quote. I opened with a quote on my applications last year and in retrospect I think it was kinda cheesy. What do you think would be a good opening?

Thanks for the great advice American in Beijing - its been a big help.

Hi all, I'm meeting with a POI in a couple of weeks. I'm applying for fall 2011 (Computer Science) and I was wondering if anybody has advice for a meeting with a POI. This would be my first meeting with a POI so I'm not entirely sure how this kind of meeting is supposed to go. Are there any questions I should make sure I ask? Is there anything in particular I should carry with me? What about a dress code - how should I dress? Thanks in advance for any tips!

Hi Phong, I think you have a decent shot with your high GPA and research experience. It would help a lot IMO if you were to get some of your work published. Your GRE is not the most important feature of your application, schools will look at your research experience, GPA, SOP and recommendation letters firrst. However you need to have a high GRE score to have a shot at Stanford - for the Math you really should be aiming for at the very least 780 - many EE applicants will have an 800 so if you get 760 on Math it may not be too impressive for a EE applicant. I wouldnt worry too much about the verbal score as long as you can put together a good SOP. Hope this helps!

Hi Kelya, I'm not in your field so I can't give you specific advice, but generally I think you have to know yourself to see where you would be competitive. Are you a top 10 school student? Is your resume competitive enough to be among the top 10% of applicants to a top 10 school? Admissions committees often look at stuff like your GPA, research experience, publications (if you have any), your SOP and recommendation letters and your GREs. A good strategy when applying I think is to apply to a couple schools that you think are at your level, apply to 1 or 2 that are 'reach' schools - schools that you would love to get into but you're not sure you're competitive at, and to 1 or 2 that you think you have a very good shot at getting accepted at, but may not the most prestigious reputation. Ultimately the strength of your resume/profile will determine where you're competitive at, but applying to a good mix of schools is probably the best strategy. Hope this helps!

You can email grad students or the advisor. Something I've also found useful is http://videolectures.net - chances are they'll have a few lectures by advisors you're interested in and you can at least get an idea of how that person interacts with an audience.

Hi Carlos, It depends really. Some professors don't want to be contacted and say so on their pages, so the first thing you should do is make sure that person is ok with being contacted by an applicant. I've read where some people contact the grad students on the supervisor - they are usually sympathetic since they were once in our shoes and they can give you an idea of if the supervisor is approachable by an applicant. If the supervisor is approachable, some hints I've read in other places are to send an email (not a template one) that is relatively brief, but at the same time shows that you have read up on their latest research and that you have a legitimate interest in their work. Don't attach any files on your initial email - just briefly say who you are and why you are interested in that person's work. It can be helpful to your application to get your name in the potential supervisor's mind and to show them that your interests and work line up with theirs. I'm not in your field so these hints are general ones and there may be specific things you should do in your field that I'm not aware of. Hope this helps.

Yeah it's generally recommended but not required. I understand that it's not high up on the list of things that adcoms look at, but it can give you an edge over a similarly qualified candidate. Its also very useful if you've been out of academia for a while.

naimulkhan - Was this the website you mentioned? http://www.cs.prince...ek/gradapp.html

Some of the top 20 schools are a little more than 10% percent. I read somewhere that Michigan was just under 15%. Wisconsin (top 15) published their admission info and their acceptance rate for 2009 was 10.3% (http://www.grad.wisc...ofiles/229.html) One useful resource I've used is looking at the results posted on thegradcafe results page for the different programs. There's a lot of information there from people who have been in contact with the different schools, for example applicants to Iowa State posted the link to the Iowa State results page. Iowa State (ranked in the 60s by US News FWIW) accepted around 23% of applicants (http://www.cs.iastat...m/f10status.htm), so you can use that as a judge for where other schools ranked in that area might be.

That's an easy question to answer. It's hard - very hard. Washington accepted 7% of applicants for Fall 2010. I'm not sure of the exact statistics for the other places, but I know MIT had 2700 applicants last year and I can't imagine that they admitted more than 5% of them - probably half that. Cornell, UIUC, CMU, MIT, Princeton, UT Austin, University of Washington are all top 10 computer science schools and the admission rate wouldn't be much more than 5% for each of them. The other schools are top 20 programs and I would estimate that the admissions percentages for those schools are probably somewhere around 10%, maybe less in some cases.

You're very welcome McQueen. I wasnt successful this year and am planning to apply to Minnesota next year - could you post or PM me your profile so I can see if I would be competitive at Minnesota next year?

If it were me too I would choose McGill because McGill matches my interests more and I think it would be higher ranked. As joro said, either would be good for a MS if you want to work in industry. I wasn't successful this year and am reapplying next year and am planning to apply to McGill- could you post or PM me your profile so I can see if I would be competitive at McGill next year?

Are you applying for a research based program or a professional program? If it's research based, I think you will probably need at least 2 academic LOR and you could probably use 1 from a previous boss. I would go with the former professor from Harvard Extension School as well as aim to get a LOR out of the summer class - that's not too late in my opinion and they will have you fresh in their minds. The professors from you undergrad days might not necessarily be a good option since its a different field and since you think they would give you a generic letter. On the other hand - if its a professional degree you're applying for then you can use LOR from former bosses. I hope this helps.

I noticed that Stony Brook fell in the US News CS rankings from 31 last year to 44 this year (UMN is ranked in the high 30s). I don't know why that happened or if that would have any impact on your decision.

Thanks. Best of luck to you with your decision and your grad studies.