svent

Except it is a good indicator of your ability to understand calculus. Note that your ability to teach calculus is to some extent what they're hiring you to do in a Ph.D. program. Also if you need to pass quals in algebra or analysis or topology, it's a good idea to recruit students with a decent understanding of those subjects.

No, you should still submit it. Read my first post. But don't expect to get admitted. Apply to some less selective schools.

If your background is in engineering, and not math, then a 650 is pretty solid. Still probably doesn't get you into UCLA or Duke though, especially as an international student.

650 isn't awful, but you should submit it (don't expect to get in though). If they say strongly recommended and you don't submit it, they'll probably assume you got like 500 on it or something (or less). It's sort of like graduating with a 3.2 GPA and applying to entry-level jobs without including your GPA on your resume. Recruiters will assume it's < 3.0 and trash it.

There was some website out there that I guess condensed the list of essay topics and sorted them by frequency (not sure if by number of times in the official list or somehow else). Does anyone know the link?

Major GPA isn't always so well defined. For mine, I just put all the classes I took in my major department. But I took plenty of electives beyond my major requirements. I could have a higher GPA by just listing the courses I wrote on my major declaration form in my Major GPA, and not all courses in my department. But that feels like "cheating" to me. There's no official major GPA on my transcript. I wouldn't worry about it. Just write down what you think makes the most sense. If they have questions, they can ask you. You're paying application fees for a reason.

I see. I disagree in that most schools do list that they want to see it, although it's not as vital as certain other courses, so admission without it is certainly possible. In any case, I'm probably going to move back to where I was last year, and just take OS there in the spring. It turns out this year it's being taught with a real OS book. I guess it's just last year's professor who "dumbed it down" a bit (for lack of a better expression). This does mean I won't take a principles of programming languages class, but oh well. That's not as important, and it's quite similar to automata theory anyway, which I have taken.

I agree. Verbal is kinda bad but not awful. Writing is awful. But Q is solid on #1, and that should help.

No, it shouldn't make a difference for funded Ph.D. (or at least not from your perspective). That said, California makes it very tough on people to get in-state tuition. I think you need to spend a year working while not being a full-time student to establish residency.

Depends if you have something to do for the next year instead of grad school.

I think so. I think ASU uses 4.3 scale for A+, but you have to get like a 98% or something like that (typically). Sure some students will have a slightly inflated GPA, but it's nothing like the high school kids with their silly 4.8 GPAs. Edit: They can read your transcripts anyway. I don't think schools usually want you to do your own calculations.

Well mine was more like 900, but I deleted a lot.

Is this the general consensus? I'm trying to cut mine down to 500 now (it's closer to 550). Anyway, one school on the CS page just describes the desired length as "brief." The main university page says at least 2 pages, which sounds ridiculous (and also depends on how I format it obviously). I figure most schools don't want to read 1000 words anyway, and if schools specifically mention 500 words, I'll just delete a few sentences about being a TA or something. Edit: Yep, mine is exactly 500 without the TA stuff. Sorry to hijack.

Of course they might not find out. But if I ended up going to a school that only asked for 2, I'd still thank them for their time and tell them where I ended up.

Most programs I'm applying to want 3, but a couple only ask for 2. Would most of you submit the 3rd anyway as an extra one, or just 2? Would it be awkward at all to tell the 3rd professor you don't need them for some of the apps? For the record, my 3rd one is probably DWIC, but maybe also "works well in teams."

Oh yeah, teaching experience is good to talk about that. I have a lot of that. I have some stuff to explain with some awkwardness in my academic history, but that actually is better fit to put into my SOP in my case. I only see a couple mini-essays, and they look like they'll be very easy to tackle once my two essays are done.

Hmm, I'm guessing it's something the university cares more about than the department, sort of like general GRE scores. I guess I'll write a short "essay" about my time abroad, and maybe try to find a way to tie it together with my CS studies (even though my language study is quite irrelevant).

At some UC schools, they want a Personal History/Diversity Statement (UCSB and UCD for Computer Science) in addition to the SOP. UC Davis Prompt: The purpose of this essay is to get know you as an individual and potential graduate student. Please describe how your personal background informs your decision to pursue a graduate degree. You may include any educational, familial, cultural, economic, or social experiences, challenges, community service, outreach activities, residency and citizenship, first-generation college status, or opportunities relevant to your academic journey; how your life experiences contribute to the social, intellectual, or cultural diversity within a campus community and your chosen field; or how you might serve educationally underrepresented and underserved segments of society with your graduate education. UCSB Prompt: UC Santa Barbara is interested in a diverse and inclusive graduate student population. Please describe any aspects of your personal background, accomplishments, or achievements that you feel are important in evaluating your application for graduate study. For example, please describe if you have experienced economic challenges in achieving higher education, such as being financially responsible for family members or dependents, having to work significant hours during undergraduate schooling or coming from a family background of limited income. Please describe if you have any unusual or varied life experiences that might contribute to the diversity of the graduate group, such as fluency in other languages, experience living in bicultural communities, academic research interests focusing on cultural, societal, or educational problems as they affect underserved segments of society, or evidence of an intention to use the graduate degree toward serving disadvantaged individuals or populations. Do you think the CS departments even care about this? Sure I could write a couple sentences about studying abroad for a summer (language classes, nothing relevant to CS study). But nothing to fill out 1-2 pages.

I was a Math major too. My plan is to ask my advisor who knew me well (math professor), as well as two professors with whom I've taken graduate level CS courses since graduating, though they don't know me as well. It's just not easy to get to know a professor so well in such a short period of time. Different story when you're hanging out in the math department every day for 3-4 years for classes, office hours, TA meetings, grading exams, social events, things like that. Math is close to CS though. Linguistics seems like a shaky choice. I don't know your situation though.

I've never taken an OS course, and most schools want to see this as a pre-req for admission (I'm no longer in college). I'm hoping to get into an OS course in January at my local university as a non-degree student, but that depends if there's a spot available. I took a Computer Organization class in college that covered the entire text by Bryant and O'Hallaron. The second half of this book focuses more on OS concepts (processes, threads, virtual memory, semaphores, files, I/O, etc.) Maybe not at the level of a full OS course, but we still learned a lot of OS stuff and even did some relevant projects. In fact, I tried to take a course at my local school last year (I moved since then, so not the place I'd take it in January). I couldn't get a seat in the class, but I still sat in on the class the first day. That school just covers the 2nd half of Bryant and O'Hallaron in their OS class. In fact, 3 of the 4 class projects were exact projects I'd done in my Computer Organization class. Had I been able to get into that class, I would have just been spending money to see the words "Operating Systems" on a transcript and wouldn't have actually learned a huge amount (still would have learned some stuff though). Anyway, I don't want to waste valuable space in my personal statement discussing the OS stuff I learned in my Comp. Org. class (especially since my interests are in theory), but would you recommend explaining this in one of the additional information questions on applications (in case I can't get into an OS class in January), or just saying I intend to take the class this spring?

What is UC Santa Clara? I'm not familiar with CGPA numbers, but your stats look pretty bad, and getting in will be a stretch at most if not all of these schools.

Above average? Are lower numbers better grades in the UK?

Sounds like something someone working in industry would say.

I think professors tend to be very lazy when it comes to these sorts of things, and having all your relevant information in one compact document is very useful. Especially for your LOR writers, not just adcoms people. If it's below 3.0, don't list it. If it's below 3.3 or 3.4, maybe don't list it.

If it's good, there's no reason not to. It doesn't take that much space. 1-2 pages (GPA, other academic stuff, research, languages, computer skills for some fields, TA experience, etc.) to give a good overview of who you are is a good document to have.