Keeping things vague to not dox myself. Primarily aiming for Stanford, but will only apply to similar programs (Berkeley, etc.) as I really do not need a MSCS to progress my career in the industry and I am interested in potentially doing a PhD at a top tier school.
GPA: 3.2 from a good state school due to two very poor semesters (D's in sophomore year, will touch on it briefly in SOP), otherwise straight A's, 3.7-3.9 other semesters of study. Also finished Stanford SCPD for AI over a year ago and I have straight A's as well. Two of the courses I took were CS221 and CS229.
GRE: I have not taken this yet due to not needing it for Stanford but I assume I should do so to supplement my poor undergrad cGPA? I am confident I can do well in it if I study for this, but I am not sure if it would mean anything to Stanford.
In-school exp: Internship experience at Apple/Meta/Google/Microsoft, 8x CS TA in school (I have helped with more than once course at a time while in school), lots of leadership extracurriculars. No undergraduate research.
Current exp: SWE at Google Brain for 2 years working on contributing to some publications before applying to Stanford, planning to apply with one or two publications from Brain. I believe I am in a sweet spot right now because I could theoretically amass infinite research experience where I am, but I do not think that would be necessary to get into a MSCS program...
Letters of rec: 2 academic letters and 1 industry letter
I am hoping to do the MSCS with research - is it possible to meet faculty supervisors before applying to express my interest? Is there anything critical that I am missing in my profile/something that I can do to noticeably strengthen my profile? Also, is the MSCS with research more competitive than the regular MSCS at Stanford?
Chances of getting into Stanford MSCS with 3.2 GPA (two poor semesters) & Google Brain publications
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Keeping things vague to not dox myself. Primarily aiming for Stanford, but will only apply to similar programs (Berkeley, etc.) as I really do not need a MSCS to progress my career in the industry and I am interested in potentially doing a PhD at a top tier school.
GPA: 3.2 from a good state school due to two very poor semesters (D's in sophomore year, will touch on it briefly in SOP), otherwise straight A's, 3.7-3.9 other semesters of study. Also finished Stanford SCPD for AI over a year ago and I have straight A's as well. Two of the courses I took were CS221 and CS229.
GRE: I have not taken this yet due to not needing it for Stanford but I assume I should do so to supplement my poor undergrad cGPA? I am confident I can do well in it if I study for this, but I am not sure if it would mean anything to Stanford.
In-school exp: Internship experience at Apple/Meta/Google/Microsoft, 8x CS TA in school (I have helped with more than once course at a time while in school), lots of leadership extracurriculars. No undergraduate research.
Current exp: SWE at Google Brain for 2 years working on contributing to some publications before applying to Stanford, planning to apply with one or two publications from Brain. I believe I am in a sweet spot right now because I could theoretically amass infinite research experience where I am, but I do not think that would be necessary to get into a MSCS program...
Letters of rec: 2 academic letters and 1 industry letter
I am hoping to do the MSCS with research - is it possible to meet faculty supervisors before applying to express my interest? Is there anything critical that I am missing in my profile/something that I can do to noticeably strengthen my profile? Also, is the MSCS with research more competitive than the regular MSCS at Stanford?