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Just an update, my final scores are: GRE 800Q, 600V and 4.5AW, I got a 117 on TOEFL. Thus far I have mostly 2 concerns - one is that I'm thinking about skipping the subject GRE altogether, since it's gonna be a lot of work and I'm currently trying to pursue a project that will result in a publication we're hoping to submit in november this year, and since a lot of schools "Strongly reccomend" it, it seems kind of troubling. Another concern is that a friend of mine said that currently foreign students have no chance of getting into public schools in California (Like Berkeley) since they're short on funding and funding for foreigners is a lot more expensive than for locals there. I'd really like to take a shot at Berkeley though, but since I have no funding of my own I'm afraid I'll just be wasting my time... Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks for the replies, guys! I've already asked the two professors from my undergrad school for recommendations and it seems they'll write me really good letters. Now I guess only time will tell how my applications are going to fare...

Just an update - I did the GRE this week and got a 800Q/600V. Any comments on my odds of getting into one of the schools above for a CS PhD are still very, very welcome.

I see... Thanks for the advice, OH YEAH, you're really helpful! =) Any other comments on my chances are still very welcome!

Well, I could get a really, really good recommendation from my math advisor from the university, with whom I've presented a conference poster and studied functional analysis, but he's in pure mathematics (PDE) and he's not "famous" at all... (he does little research) From what I was told by some people at IMPA, I shouldn't get a recommendation from him, since the CG professors in the US won't know who he is at all. I could get 4 recommendations though (the three I mentioned earlier and this guy's) , I guess. So I guess it boils down to: what's better - a really good recommendation from a person no one knows or a moderately good recommendation from someone who is more known?

Thanks for your reply, OH YEAH! The "moderate" recommendations I wrote about there are from professors with whom I've done 2 Computer Graphics specific classes each during master's, and had some contact with for the projects, etc., but no actual research together. The problem with getting to know them better is that since I'm planning on applying in december/2010, time's running out... The other recommendation is probably going to be very good though. I'm even currently beginning a new project with this third professor that was my idea, so that'll probabaly look good. Any comments are very welcome... I'm being a little neurotic right now thinking I'll get rejected from all these universities, so anything that helps me gauge my application's potential is really helpful.

Hi everyone! I've poster a similar thread in College Confidential allready, but I'd like more opinions, so here I am! I'm a student from Brazil, and I really want to get into a "great" Computer Science or Applied Mathematics (I want to work with Computer Graphics) PhD program in the US. My current list of favourites includes: Berkeley Princeton Harvard Cornell NYU U. of Toronto U. of British Columbia ... and maybe a few others. (I'd like to try MIT and CALTECH as well, but I'm worried that I'm not competitive enough to get anywhere near an acceptance there...) I know most of these to get into, so I'd like to know what someone with more experience in these things than me could tell me about my odds. Here's some info about me: I am 20 years old. In high school, had a research scholarship in astronomy during the senior year. Won 2 national public school mathematics olympic gold medals (being 9th and 95th from ~6 million students). Have a gold medal in the brasilian astronomy olympiad. Finished university in Juiz de Fora (mathematics), with 85/100 average score, being the first in my class. (also finished the 4 year program in 3 years). I've also done a lot of computer science subjects, especially in Computer Graphics, all with good grades. During these 3 years I've had several government funded research scholarships, first in mathematics (from the olympics), then theoretical physics, then partial differential equations. I've also participated in the Computer Graphics group from the 2nd semester, and managed to publish 2 papers with the group, both in A rated international conferences (ICIP and ICCS). Currently I'm getting my master's in Computer Graphics at IMPA (probably Brazil's most famous school). I just began in january this year, but I'm hoping to be able to finish the master's program by july/2011, thus allowing me to pursue a PhD in the US in fall/2011. So far my average on the master's program is between an A- and a B+. I'm most likely going to get 1 really good recommendation from my Graphics advisor from university (the one I published the papers with) and 2 moderate/good recommendations from teachers at IMPA. I haven't taken the GRE or TOEFL yet, but I expect something above 100 on TOEFL and about 500 V and 750+Q on the GRE. I'm not sure if I can take the specific GRE, since I live in Brazil and the nearest test center is far away, but I'll probably try to do the math one, since that's the area of my undergrad studies. Do you guys think I have good chances of getting into one of the programs I cited above? Thanks in advance!!!