Amogh

Well that depends on the quality of your thesis. Would you consider your thesis worthy of being published in a journal or a conference in that topic? If so, publish your thesis then! That will help you out.

Do notify the admission committee of the fact that you have papers in the submission pipeline. i am sure that must carry some weight in addition to the fact that you have already published one paper. Also the undergrad gpa really shouldn't penalise you cause well you'v proven yourself in research and in your ms gpa. so all the best. i'm sure you'll get in at least a couple of places.

a little more information like where your from what your looking for in terms of subjects etc would be useful to determine your fit in terms of schools.

read it too.. it's interesting how much things have changed in the 2 decades since that paper was written. .. take a look at jason hong's webpage for a complete list guys.(link)

A solid decision is one you can reason out and stand by. Good Luck for M.S. admissions. cheers

Hey my 2 cents, You have what it takes to do quite a bit of research as an undergrad. An opportunity not many get and even fewer have the willpower to see it through. So i think you have what it takes to see it through. why don't you reconsider?

Well im not really an expert on this stuff but i think it doesn't usually matter that you were from a non-cs ug program(could some1 else just clarify this thanks.) Now onto what you should do, you have a paper published thats great. Well as i see it over the next year you could try and get in touch with some people at the university you currently attend who are into visual computing and see if they will let you work with them. Works great for both your final thesis and if the work is significant enough another publication? also it shows the adcomm that you have the initiative and the drive for visual computing as you say you do.(lucky you. you atleast know where your interests lie ). If you cannot find some1 at your university, try the others in the same or nearby cities? also i think your gre score is decent enough cos its just a yardstick. doesn't really make an app and yours is ok enough. I'm not sure about the writing section, so i'll leave that to someone more knowledgeable. Look around the forums and you'll find other posters whose profiles are similar to yours and look into the unis they'r applying to. That should give you a good idea of where to apply etc. cheers Amogh

WOW! thats quite a bit! BTW guys, What does systems research fall under today? cos at my 5th semester, i realised i dont like networks, databases or software engineering as academic subjects. Liked System Software, OS, Automata. what does systems come under? theoretical cs?

Well from what i'v read around, the gre itself isn't really given much weightage. the aw very little. just make sure your sop is well written to show you can write well..

i think it seems fine. to me at least. .. well all the best then and do keep grad cafe posted on your app status ..

yeah.. i was thinking of the doing that. going out and seeking a professor who i could convince into letting me work with him. i guess that would be my only option.. .. not too interested in the whole ms by research thing. there is one other institute in the same city where i will be trying. .. Another option is interning at google, microsoft, ibm or hp labs (all their research labs are located in bangalore. yay..) but i think it would be more impressive to work at a uni right? Btw, what do you guys do? what field are you into?

Hey, no i am sorry i dont have any experience of this as a foreigner sadly. however, i guess the same would apply to both foreigners and locals if you were to get a job and settle down for a while in the usa. in which case the roi in a traditional sense is initially around 6%. This is what i read on some site so i'm not really sure. look around the internet for some starting payscales and see for yourself.

Hmmm, i thought i'd just correct one thing in my classification above, georgia tech wld come in between ambitious and moderate actually as it is also a top 10 program but their admissions scenario seems a little better than the rest. alright then don't fret about the gre score because as i said it really isnt used much by the committee from what iv understood. write your sop objectively. hope you'v read some of the articles on the other subforums on sop writing. very important are your recommendation letters. make sure they are strong and you should be fine. by strong i mean they should objectively describe you, your work ethic etc and not just be letters saying you did well in the prof's class.. As for other unis, here's a very good indicator of where you should apply. look thru ur insti's alumni records and look for people with a profile similar to yours.. email them and ask them where all they applied etc. lucky for u, ur at an nit where i think such resources are a little more easily available than for the rest of us attending state unis.. .. as another option look up the rankings here: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-computer-science-schools/rankings/ and you could use the top 10 as ambitious, 10-25 as moderate and below that as easy given your lors and sop are in order. choose schools to apply to based on your feeling to the school from their website and reading peer reviews. usually people tend to apply to 3 ambitious, 3 moderate and 2 easy. but then thats really up to you cos iv seen people apply to 15 schools.. lol..

That is, in my opinion, a very bad approach to things my friend. Your profile is quite strong according to me. To beef up your chances of getting into a phd program try getting an internship with some prof at tifr or iisc or one of the iits. Any research you do with them will be beneficial to both you masters and phd apps. If you are lucky, you may even publish and that is invaluable! If u are interested in research, most universities advice you to apply for a phd directly. Do you have an area or a couple of areas you are interested in doing research in? If you can name some areas that you are interested in or even better narrow it down to one or two, visit all the university websites and read up on the faculty and the various research groups at those univs and see if what they are doing is inline with your interests. apply there and specifically state who you want to work with etc. If that is not the case you can always apply to any of the unis that have a large cs school so that you are not later limited in options of what you wish to study. A lot of small top 50 schools have really good research groups for particular topics but not for all of them that is why you should visit faculty sites and do some research on this matter. As for applying for ms and then deciding on the phd: If u do go on to do a phd, you will have, in my opinion, wasted quite a sum of your own cash. This is because the ROI on an ms is much better if u go into the corporate world after finishing it than if you stay in academia. there is also the concern of repaying your student loan that you incurred during your masters study. and the interest that it incurs will be a source of pain. So, in my opinion ms and then phd just becomes really expensive. but then if you are really not sure whether research and academia is your thing, do go for the ms first. But do not be afraid to apply for that phd program because you think you are not good enough. As i said earlier to really improve your chances for both phd and ms, take a year off and contact a couple of the professors maybe at cern or one of the labs here and do some research with them. wont cost you much but at least you'll know whether ms or phd is your thing. and the research may lead to a publication which is just invaluable.

Please take my advice with a pinch of salt as i maybe be a little bit wrong as i too am new to the whole process of admissions but if i am not wrong, i present to you my understanding of things so far: First off, are you interested in research? that should be your criteria to choose between ms and phd. Ms is a terminal degree that will lead to corporate jobs. a Phd is meant to be a foot through the door into research. So you might want to reconsider your decision. If you have done any substantial research till date(whether it lead to a publication or not), you are on track for phd admissions. Now assuming that you want to apply for an ms, you could try for CMU, CALTECH, MIT, Stanford, Cornell and the other top ranking private colleges. You only seem to have chosen the top ranked state schools. You missed Washington btw. Your chances of getting in are pretty good afaik. try and get a recommendation letter from the professors you worked with at CERN. Those will carry a lot of weight with the admissions committee.. As far as your safe schools go, i think uv really gone too far down the safety net. PennSUUniPark, most of the other UCs, USC, Purdue, Ohio these could be added to your moderate to safe list though im not sure of their exact categorisation. of course some of the colleges i named are around 20th-30th rank but your application seems strong enough for them to me.. all the best. P.S. Some1 more knowledgeable than me please correct me if i am wrong. thank you.

thank you for the link..

Well, i'm kinda new here too but since i havent got any advice for the past two days ill just give you my 2 cents. take it with a pinch of salt because i'm not as knowledgeable as some of the other posters here. First off you might want to take the toefl(as most of them ask for it from us indians) as well improve your verbal score as the gre is actually used to confirm that you are comfortable with the english language(i.e. the verbal score). What this means is that getting a 700+ on the verbal and quant doesn't give you an admissions specific advantage but however a low score will live you at a disadvantage. as for categorizing colleges for you this is how i see it: Safe schools: UNC-CH USC Nanyang NUS University of California, San Diego Moderate: University of California--Los Angeles University of Michigan--Ann Arbor Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta North Carolina State University University of Florida Pennstate Ambitious: Carnegie Mellon University Cornell University University of Texas--Austin Ok i really hope some1 else clarifies any mistakes in my categorization because i'm more inclined to phd admissions and don't know much about ms admissions. but then i guess i shouldn't be off by too much ..

Are you interested in research or in getting a terminal masters degree? what i mean to say is that will you be taking up a MS by coursework or by research?

Also i was wondering if any1 knew of any international research fellowships i could try for after finishing my bachelors. is no1 alive out there? so many views but no1s said anything ..

Alright here's my profile for starters.. I'm in my 5th semester of Computer Science and Engineering at a college in Bangalore affiliated to Vishveshwariah Technological University. Let me be honest i wasn't all focused during my 12th standard and hence i didnt make it to the iits or an nit..(grumble grumble about reservations and my own stupidity when i was younger.. ) My current average after 4 semesters: 78% My research experience: none as yet. this is my Achilles' heel as such. i get about 3 - 4 weeks of holidays between every two semesters. yes i do not have any summer as such. :'(.. this has been a major source of frustration to me as i cannot apply to any research fellowships as all of them require a 3 month commitment period. Coming from the university i do, not much research goes on here. well my college has university appointed research labs but they are nothing more than staff rooms. the new HOD has agreed to help me out but iv hit a dead end there too as he isnt currently doing anything and wants me to read some literature myself and come up with some ideas.. i dont know where to start. i dont no what to do about this. i was thinking of taking a year off after my bachelors to work under some professor in some of the govt labs. is that ok? also im not too sure of what fields im interested in. of course iv just come into the major topics in my course but still.. is this an issue or will time tell as i take the other courses during the remaining 3 semesters? i think im at a big disadvantage due to my university. i dont no a single senior who has gone on to do a phd course! very few even go for MS.. any advice appreciated..