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Perhaps there is a roundabout way that you could mention your gender without it looking like you're "playing diversity card." For example, were you a leader in any "women in engineering" types of programs?

Sure, happy to exchange SoPs.

Is there any downside to proposing a project? Even if it's not required, it shows that you've really done your homework.

not sure, but I'm curious what other gradcafe people will say...

I'm also interested in exchanging.

Good to know. How would you make it better? Would you add more about the motivation for pursuing research and why the research is enjoyable?

I'm also curious about this. I'm not looking for the "easy way out," but faculty often do hold joint appointments in CE, CS, and/or EE. It'd be interesting to know the differences in acceptance rates between these closely related departments. If you are interested in a particular faculty member who has a joint appointment, then you can do the same research and similar coursework in any of these departments. It's worth knowing which is the easiest "door" into such an opportunity.

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I recommend discussing research that you hope to pursue with faculty in the department that you're applying to. (If you haven't figured out which faculty/projects are interesting to you, now's a good time to start.)

I found what I think is a good example computer science PhD Statement of Purpose. Using this Statement of Purpose, Mihai Patrascu was accepted to MIT, Princeton, and U Washington. I hope this is helpful to others who are applying to CS PhD programs. I think this SoP is "pretty good." It uses good grammar to tell a coherent story. The author's admission to some really good schools suggests that this is a good SoP. However, I have a few questions about this SoP... 1. This SoP begins by discussing the Romanian National Olympiad. Winning this competition several times is very impressive, but I wonder if it would be better to begin the essay with 2-3 sentences about research goals. My rationale is that, if the introduction doesn't discuss research, the reviewer might not finish reading the SoP. What do other people think? 2. I've been fortunate to have had the opportunity meet with with a department head at Stanford. She told me that, despite the typical 2 to 3 page SoP space limitation, I should make sure to limit my SoP to one page. The rationale is that reviewers are busy, and they probably won't read the SoP carefully if it's very long. Does Mihai Patrascu's SoP strike other people as being too long? 3. This SoP talks a lot about past and current research, which is good. However, no potential graduate advisors or research groups are discussed. Is this a problem? Also, if anyone has found successful (e.g. admitted) computer science statements of purpose, feel free to share them here!

Absolutely. Most (or at least many) academic papers have multiple authors. All of the authors can say "this is my paper."

I'm also curious about this.

Sure, I'd be happy to. I'll send you a PM. Should we have an "internal deadline" to exchange essays on Dec. 1?

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It looks like you did everything right. You did research, you did well in classes, you pwned the GRE, and you have two strong letters from research advisors. I think you have a good chance at all of the schools that you mentioned. Other applicants may have publications, but I expect that your recommenders can explain why your work hasn't been accepted for publication yet. If you can find a third letter writer (perhaps a postdoc or research scientist in your research group), this would boost your application a bit.

Is anyone on the forum applying for Phi Kappa Phi this year?

The ARCS Foundation Fellowship is discussed in various places on the University of Washington website. (You may wish to each of these pages for "ARCS.") Does the ARCS Foundation still have a fellowship? Where is the application? Is it a Washington-only award?

I'm interested in applying for the Symantec Research Labs Graduate Fellowship. This is a smaller program, and it awards 2 or 3 fellowships per year. The program heavily emphasizes computer security. Fortunately, my some of my research interests/experience lie at the intersection of computer security and computer systems. I haven't been able to find any advice on the Personal Statement of Interests that Symantec requires. Before I start contact past award recipients, can anyone offer any advice or relevant web pages? I'm also curious if anyone knows how many applications Symantec receives for these awards. (Now that I've made this post, perhaps the number of applications will increase a little bit...)

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread. Does anyone have any experience with the NASA Jenkins, NASA GRFP, or NASA Aeronautics Scholarship? I've had trouble finding advice (or sample essays) for these programs.

Thanks! I'm pretty mathy, so I don't have any qualms about the ICME course requirements. I think the CS and ICME course requirements both align well with my interests. Any thoughts on which program (CS or ICME) is less selective?

I'm an senior undergrad in CS, and I'm applying to grad school for Fall 2012. I've found several interesting distributed systems papers written by Prof. Leonidas Guibas and his lab, and I'm interested in working with Prof. Guibas. It turns out that Guibas is a Prof in both ICME and CS. I don't have much preference for whether my degree comes from ICME or CS--I just really want to work in Guibas' lab. Unfortunately, Stanford only allows prospective PhD students to apply to one Stanford program at a time. Here's my question: should I apply to ICME or to CS? Is one program more selective than the other? For reference, my stats are... 3.5/4.0 GPA 1 journal paper (third author), and one other journal paper (first author) in review 5 conference papers (3 are first author) 4 summers of academic internships (REU and national labs) 1 industry internship 3 strong letters of recommendation I'm scheduled to take GRE in a couple of weeks, and I'm expecting 800 math, 550 verbal based on practice exams.

anacron, You're right--the "Self Reported Exam Scores" tab doesn't force you to self-report a subject GRE score. However, the Exam Requirements tab says "Applicants must take a GRE Subject Test." Does your application say something different from this?

I think the MCS in CS is a useful program, but only if it corresponds with what you're looking for. You mentioned that you're compelled by "research on user interaction and animation." However, while UIUC's CS program is very good overall, HCI and animation are at the outer fringes of the department. Furthermore, if you care about research, it might be wise to target research-oriented masters or PhD programs instead of a professional masters. It's worth noting that the MCS is the only UIUC CS grad program in which most students aren't funded. The overwhelming majority of UIUC CS MS and PhD students have RA/TA positions. If you're not interested in research and just want to be a web developer, why bother with a masters? I guess you might get a nominally higher salary as a developer with a masters. If you're lucky, they'll you a "head code monkey" t-shirt, too.

Interesting. The quote that I posted above is directly from the 2012 UC Berkeley CS online application (not sure you can see it unless you create a username/password on the UCB application system). Seems that the application and the department website contradict one and other? I'll see if I can get in touch with an administrative person at Berkeley to find out which is correct.