Undergrad: currently junior at a meh private university barely in the Top 100 USNews ranking
Objective: Data Science, AI careers in industry
Major: Computer Science
Minor: Statistics, Mathematics
GPA: 3.5 (affected by freshman year 2.8 GPA)
Demographics: International, Asian, Male
GRE : don't know yet, but expecting top 10 - top 5 percentile scoring
Courses:
Computer Science: Various Low and High Level Programming Courses (A, A-, B+), Algorithm Analysis (A), CS Theory (A), Data Mining (A), Big Data (planned), 2 Independent Studies in Computer Vision/AI (A, A)
Math: DiffEq (A), Multivar Calc (A), Linear Algebra (C+ during Freshman year, A- after retaking), Discrete Math (C during Freshman year, A after retaking), Numerical Analysis (planned)
Statistics: Prob&Stats for Engineers I (A-), Prob&Stats for Engineers II (B+), Mathematical Statistics I + II (planned), Multivar Stats (planned), Econometrics I (A-), Econometrics II (A-),
Programs Applying: Stats masters
Research Experience: First author on a third tier workshop paper in machine learning, more papers in the pipeline
Work Experience: Incoming summer analyst at a Wallstreet bank, role to be determined (most likely fintech)
Letter of Recommendation: don't have any yet but plan on getting some from the professors I work with
I have two main questions here:
1. Should I even bother applying. Looks like everyone else here has 3.8 GPA from an Ivy.
2. If so, what tier of masters programs should I apply to maximize my admission likelihood and career objective?
Thanks all.