frenzydude

Not really so. Different research groups have different strength areas. The lab where I work for instance, would easily accept people interested in applied machine learning, and not those interested advancing machine learning theory itself. So just focus on your strengths.

A very inappropriate way to ask that question for a newcomer. You haven't even written what you want to apply for - MS or PhD ! Things are a little different here, and this is not edulix.

If you are looking for a funded MS in Canada, you should definitely try for the very best : Toronto, UBC, Waterloo, McGill. The US is significantly more complicated and you might need to look deeper. The best thing to do would probably be to ask your advisors/post-doc where they think you should apply and if they have contacts anywhere.

You can take courses from both areas but it won't be possible to work in both labs in the first year.. Just stick to working in the prof's lab who admitted you (if you like the work there, its the best case scenario). Or you may impress some professor in your other interest area who may give you a RAship after the first year.. or you may even decide to do your thesis (long-term) in an intersecting area being co-advised by both profs. Stay positive and use whatever resources are at your disposal. :-)

It will be difficult for you to get a funded MS at any top 20 institution. However you can easily get non-funded MS admits from some of them. Would that be acceptable to you ?Do you want to do a research-based masters or a professional masters ? in other words, do you intend to do phd later ? or do you just want to do MS so that you can get a highly paid job ? or do you want to work in a research lab after MS ? these are the questions you will have to think over and answer.

You certainly do have a stellar profile. In fact, you are already doing what many people would like to do after getting a PhD, so you might as well continue in the job :-)

You profile looks good so there must be some weak links from these three. Where did you do your undergrad ? Where did you publish your papers ? Who were your recommenders ?

@Sandipan, I think I have replied you already elsewhere, haven't I ?

I would strongly advise you to lower your aims as it will be very difficult for you to get an admit from a top 20 university. Universities like UCB, CMU, UIUC (which are all in the top 5) do not take guys from MU or VIT for PhD programs. However you have a lot of time to build up on your application. Try to do some research in this time - to get you better recommendations, or one more paper. Also, you have the time to write a good customized SOP for every university to apply to (something I couldn't do due to lack of time). You also have the time to look into professor's research work and interests at various universities and find good matches to those of yours, you may even contact them by email (this can help you a lot - maybe even get an admit in a top university). You can look at seniors from your university with similar profiles and where they are admitted/rejected and apply accordingly. Who are the people recommending you? Will any of them write a glowing letter? Is any of them well-known to US university faculty? If yes, apply at places where your professor knows other professors. All the best.

I think you have a very strong profile and should deifinitely apply to top 20 schools. You should apply to professors whose interests match yours and show that you have broad capabilities without being too limited. This lab at UCSD may interest you : http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/cal/ You can also look at overlapping areas like Human Computer Interaction, Machine Learning and Data Mining.

That is an amazing answer. +N !

i think it might be worth it to go to USC but not sure. also the software engg group at USC has Barry Boehm who is old and well known in the field. I would like to know seniors' perception of USC ranking - for a research-based PhD as well as an industry-oriented masters. Its not in the top 10 for sure. USNews ranks USC as #20 in Computer Science and #15 in AI.

I would advise you to choose by the location you prefer, since you are unable to decide by other factors.

Even after reading all the above comments, I would say trust USNews subjectwise/areawise rankings for the one rank number you are looking for. There is a ARWU ranking and TIMES (for overall univ ranking) but nothing else comes close. Of course, a match between the faculty and your interests and funding are probably more important issues than rank for a PhD program.

Waterloo is nowhere near the others you mentioned.