csKid

To the poster, check this. You can always look around for an year or so. What you've is most probably a teaching advisor and not a research advisor. Check with the students from your dept. about this.

Your profile is good. One point, there are no safe schools. If you're applying to Vision, consider RPI, UVA,WUSTL too. I got rejected by UBoston. And lots of indians apply to UC colleges. I see you've put all of them , in your list. Why not diversify? Selecting universities smartly will give you choices on where to go. On emailing profs, you can consider mailing graduate students also, about get info on the research more than you can see on the website. Having seniors from jadavpur univ in the places where you apply to, definitely helps them benchmark you, and you'll have better chances.

Which university in India did you study in?. You have a great profile. I'm not sure about spring admissions, but what area are you interested in?? If you want a professional program, why not consider MSIT or MSIS.?

water loo

All these programs have high acceptance rates for MS. Write a good SOP and make sure you meet the requirement courses. (if you're bsc CS was three years) and the ace the GRE.

Still didn't get reply from Waterloo. "Your file has been reviewed and approved for circulation amongst the faculty. At this time, a supervisor has not been found. There has been no decision regarding your application. We do not have a set date on which decisions are made."

frequent flyer

In my first few versions of SOPs, I used a lot of adjectives, which I removed after advice from reviewers. Facts are important. For my program, SOP can be 1-2 pages. But I restricted myself to a single page. Particularly for applying to different programs, I didn't tell specially what interests me in their program except for different broad fields of research and faculty Things that can be included 1. names of Projects 2. Names of profs. 3. Specific research areas 4. journals or publications from the faculty u've read and enjoyed. For any engineering field, facts are more important than adjectives, or college-club involvement. But Perseverence is a trait, that can be shown, with what we did outside coursework/research, because, research requires lots of it. I didn't show any trait in myself that made them believe i'll do research for lots of years. There are lots of blog entries and advice for writing SOP for CS. It is important to read them, or know what they talk about before attempting to write one.

exam tension

1. Professors usually write LORs, for all students they worked with. It is incumbent upon them to do so, and encourage their students to continue studies. I'm also from foreign country and they do write LORs for students, because they respect students who choose education over jobs. If you tell them your interests along with reasons for pursuing a phd (A copy of SOP for that school), it will be easy for them to relate their experience with you. One of my profs. was not sure, what to write exactly. She told me that she was going to project me great, academically, and talk about the courses I did with her. Though I agreed to her, I gave her this link. http://www.cs.brown....d-School-Recos/ But giving a link might not work for you. What you do is make a packet to each professor with, 1. The names of the schools 2. Their deadlines. 3. Courses in which you're applying, if they are different. 4. Some links on how to write good SOPs for your program. Professors can only submit LORs. Some universities accept paper LORs(hard copies) which are letters in sealed envelopes from your professors, which you're not allowed to fiddle with. You can courier them together, but not allowed to open the seal. 2. Yes, People write different SOPs for different schools. There is lots of advise on writing SOPs in other forums. It differs with programs. Usually, it is strongly advisable to apply to schools with research areas that align with your interests. Finding 5 schools with similar interests would not be much trouble if you go through few schools in your field. In applying to schools, applying to schools in which you have seniors from your school will significantly improve your chances, since the adcom know about the quality of people from your program. Also, write details of how your school/program is ranked in your country if they do not know about your current school. On writing SOPs for different schools, generally people reserve the last paragraph for writing about why they want to join that school in particular, and rest remains the same for all schools. 3. Application to US universities is a costly process. My applications took more than 2 months of my gross salary. Some people pitched in when I needed. If you want it badly, you can afford it, and will do the right things, and do a lot of research before clicking the submit button. If you think your financial state is keeping you from applying you can mail or talk to graduate admissions office, and they might consider your case specially, and waive the application fee. One idea to cut down on the fee is to take online coaching

I had similar GRE scores and was in a similar situation. I took a job a R&D job, (R never happened) and it worked out for me. Be sure, you work in a area you like,and can switch to education asap. The "small" financial firm might have some people, who are going to grad school. In my case, when I joined my job, i was replacing someone who was going for Robotics in USC, and I could see myself standing tall after an year or two. The GRE Scores can definitely be improved, and a reco from UMass REU will definitely boost your chances for next year. Not everyone gets it right the first time. Finally , I would read books and develop cool software/prepare and give GRE rather than attending distance programs/ getting certifications. Most certifications wouldn't be useful for MS/Phd programs. I would take the Distance learning program only if it made sense to read all the material that they prescribe.

should we start this early?

admissions season

I totally agree with starmaker. 1. Applying to graduate school requires a lot of effort, it better be stretched over few months. I applied to graduate school over 3 months including the test taking, and the the applications to the schools I applied early didn't look good on retrospection. I would advice to have reminders for deadlines, spend a particular time of the day,each day, for reviewing everything about graduate school apps , including peer reviews for SOP. 2. Review applications before hitting the submit button. [Even if you get everything right all the time] 3. Decide on schools somewhat early. At least a 15 days time before hitting submit button would do good. 4. There are no safety schools. I got rejected both of my safety schools. Got a few links for Phd CS applicants only two/three of which I went through. I actually gave the last link to one of the profs who asked me how would you want me to write it Advice for Foreign Students Wishing to Pursue Graduate Study in Computer Science at UCSC I did a PhD and did NOT go mad Applying to Graduate School in Computer Science Choosing a Ph.D. program in Computer Science Applying to Ph.D. Programs in Computer Science 1 Introduction Contents Jason Hong's Homepage - Grad School Advice Tips on Writing a Statement of Purpose A graduate school survival guide: "So long, and thanks for the Ph.D!" Shriram Krishnamurthi: Advice to Graduate School Recommendation Letter Writers