newms

I agree with the suggestion to go to PSU. I wasnt successful this year and am reapplying next year - could you post or PM me your profile so I can see if I would be competitive at those places next year?

I am re-applying for Fall 2011 to Computer Science programs. Ultimately I want to get a Phd and Im looking at programs to apply to. I am considering applying to a MS (research based) in Canada, but I'm wondering if I did that and was successful, would a school in the US give me credit for already having a MS and reduce the time to a Phd, or would I have to start the Phd program from scratch? Any help from people who have gotten into Phd programs already having a masters would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Think_Positive. I'm going to be contacting profs whose work I'm interested in as well to try to establish a relationship as well. I didn't do that this time around and I figure it cant hurt for fall 2011.

Thanks for these suggestions. I hadn't thought about taking grad classes-I'll definitely look into it.

Thanks for your input grendel. I agree that the AW shouldn't matter much, but seeing just how competitive admissions can be I want to make my application next year as good as I can. I think the subject GRE will help since its been almost 8 years since I left my UG and it'll be good to show that I still know my stuff. Best of luck to you too.

Which would you regret more if you didn't go?

Thanks Lily. I will definitely ask him to look into my SOP. I agree with you about the 'fit' problem - which is one of the reasons why I only applied to 4 schools. I don't think its worth my while to apply to a school I'm not particularly interested in. However what I've realized is that a lot of schools may have good programs in one particular field of CS even though they might not have a highly ranked program overall. So I'm expanding my search to schools that I didn't consider last time that have good programs in the areas that I am interested in. Best of luck to you too.

Hey Gradcafe community. I received my (expected) fourth rejection email today from the fourth and final school I applied to. I discovered this forum late in the application process last year and I think what I've learned since then would allow me to put together a stronger application in the future. I am an international computer science student (machine learning and theory are the areas I am interested in) that finished my undergraduate degree way back in 2002. I've worked as a high school teacher and a technology professional in the intermediate years. I studied at an international school that probably isn't well know. Here are my statistics: GRE Q: 790, V:700, AW: 4.0 (I hadn't written an essay in almost 10 years before the test) I didn't take the CS subject GRE test My undergraduate GPA would be around 3.8. (My UG didn't use the GPA system back in the day - they used an A-F scale) I had some UG research experience working as a technical assistant to one of my lecturers (MIT educated) who is a leading researcher in his field. I know he would have given me a good recommendation. Other than that though, I have no research experience to speak of. I was fortunate in that my recommenders remember me and I have kept in contact with them, but one of them submitted the LOR over a month after the deadline to 2 of my schools. Looking back at the process my first big mistake I think was not applying to a broad range of schools. I applied to all top 20 CS schools (3 of them top 10) and was rejected at all of them. I also realize I have a few big weaknesses: 1) The fact that I finished my UG almost 8 years ago. 2) The fact that I have no publications and limited research experience. 3) The fact that my UG isn't well known and they didn't use the GPA system. Having been through this process now, I think these are steps I could take to improve my application: 1) Seek my primary recommender's advice on the process - something I didn't do last time. 2) Do some independent research, maybe with my primary recommender's supervision? 3) Apply to a broader range of schools. 4) Improve my SOP - in retrospect I think the one I had wasn't good enough. 5) Take the CS GRE subject test 6) Possibly improve on my GRE general test scores - I know I can get higher on the AW. Thank you for reading my thoughts. Just seeing them on the screen has helped and I would appreciate if you had any feedback on what I should do to improve my chances for next year. I have thought about applying for spring admission, but would that be worth it? Should I just wait until next fall admission season?

Thanks for your replies.

It was a reach school for me, not the place I figured that I would end up at, so its not devastating. I would have really loved to have gone there, but I knew I had a small chance to begin with, so now I know I have pretty much no chance.

I had the wrong school in one place of one of my SOPs - I realized after I submitted and before the deadline was up, but they wouldnt let me change the SOP. Needless to say, I dont think I'll get in:( It was in the fit paragraph for school X where I said that study at school Y would be perfect for me. Someday I know I'll look back and have a great laugh at it.

Hello weninger. Thanks for your replies. I think your comment about the great record was directed at phatakaniket - and good luck to him. I have a question about UIUC and I wonder if you can assist me with it - I applied to the MS program and my interests are in machine learning and web mining. Do you know if MS students usually get funding?

Yeah, Im applying to Toronto as well and there's no box for that.

I'm asking because I didn't take the GRE CS and I'm seriously wondering if that was a mistake. I'm an international student and the next opportunity I'd have to do it would be in Feb 2010 and I'm applying for Fall 2010. I did the GRE general with 700 V, 790 Quant, 4.0 AWA. My UG was at a school that probably isn't well known internationally and didn't use the GPA at the time (I graduated 7 years ago), but I did get the highest possible grade I could get (A). I did have some research experience as an UG and I should get good LOR including one really good one from the lecturer I had my research experience with. I'm confident that my SOP will be good and I'm applying to Princeton, UPenn, U of Toronto, Illinois and SUNY-SB. In the 7 years I left school I taught high school for 4 years and have been working in campus IT for the other 3. Any thoughts?