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Thanks, newms. I'll definitely look into UM-CP.

Hi Everyone, I think I've finally narrowed down to a list of schools and I would like to get some feedback on my choices. My background: CS Major at a small liberal arts college in the US Overall GPA: 3.5, Major GPA: 3.8 GRE, Quant: 770, Verb: 490, Writing: 5.0 1 Paper accepted at regional conference, presented 1 REU with paper submitted to regional conference, 1 poster submitted to low-tier national conference 2 Research projects in progress 3 Letters of recommendation from professors I've done research with Interested in NLP, Information Retrieval, and Databases I think that is it...let me know if there is any other info you need. Schools: NYU University of California - Riverside Harvard University of Washington Boston University Columbia University Northeastern University University of Pennsylvania (If you have any suggestions for schools in the areas I'm interested in please let me know, it's been difficult to find good matches) Thanks!

Hey all, I'll be filling out PhD applications shortly, and am having a little trouble with researching which schools have active IR labs. Does anyone know any schools in particular that are known for their IR research/professors? Thanks!

Great, thank you guys for your advice.

Don't feel defeated because of this exam. If you have the free time, I would suggest spending a solid 2 or 3 weeks studying for the exam, and retake the new test. If you are Chemistry, what are your other credentials? Strong research experience can make up for a low GRE score, though it may stop you from making initial cuts at some schools.

Hey all, I'm currently planning out my SoP for a PhD in Computer Science, and am a little worried about how I should be stating my research goals. Although I have a decent amount of research experience (3 independent research projects and 1 REU), I am not sure exactly what area I would like to study in. I find myself interested in IR and NLP, but I don't know if this is exactly where I want to be for the next 5+ years of school. Do I necessarily need to have a clear vision of the topic I would like to study in my PhD?

I don't think it's very common for people to take the paper-based GRE, or if you are even able to take it without any special needs. I would stick with the computer-based if you don't fit into that category.

Considering your research experience, I don't think you should worry about your GRE scores too much. However, the quant score may raise some flags for the lower-ranked schools. Good luck with your applications.

Hey avee, I had a similar problem. I only have macs in my house so I wasn't able to use the ETS software. Instead, I bought the princeton review prep book which came with a couple free practice tests that run through the web browser (and compatible on multiple platforms). From what I hear, they are of similar if not better quality. The book was fairly helpful as well.

I think there is no way that you are going to change your mind, but even if you do end up pulling this off, how to you intend to explain to your prospective employers that you cannot produce a recommendation from any of your Masters advisors? It's going to be extremely easy to see through your intentions, unless you are really as maniacal as you sound. It's probably not that easy to produce the feelings that a struggling PhD student exhibits when they're considering dropping out.

I think your lack of research experience will definitely put you at a disadvantage when applying to these top schools. Most of the candidates considered will have excellent GPAs and GRE scores, so you can't really depend on those too much. Your work experience may work in your favor when applying to programs focused on Software Engineering, though not as much as prior research experience would. Have you tried doing research? Are you sure that is the direction you want to go in?

I used the Nova book for the GRE and was very pleased. The book is extremely thorough, and doesn't really pull any punches as far as strategy goes. I found that I felt very confident with all of the different types of questions outlined in the book, and scored very well on the exam. Not sure if they have a book for the New GRE, but if they do I would recommend them based on their book for the old GRE.

Good to hear. Were those all for masters programs? Or just U-Virginia?

I would say the hard questions are probably around a 700 difficulty level, but there isn't really a way to tell for sure. I would say that you should definitely be able to complete all of the hard questions, and (maybe) some of the very hard questions. The ones labeled medium and easy should be very simple for you. The main thing you should focus on with the Nova book is to know your strategies very well and be able to identify questions based on the difficulty and appropriate strategy. If you feel confident with the entire book, you should have no problem getting a 750+

If your biggest concern is your AW score, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Apparently most schools don't really pay attention to it unless you are an international student. I think your scores are sufficient, you may want to increase your Quant score a bit but I don't think that many points would hurt you too much.

Thanks for all of the advice, guys. I just received my official scores and scored a 5.0 on the writing part. I think that, along with my publication and research experience will be enough to make up for my low verbal score. I'm leaning towards not retaking it, for fear that my math score will go down (and the new GRE will be in effect by the next time I can take it).

You don't need an admission ticket for the computer based test, but it may be a good idea to hold on to your confirmation number (it was emailed to you when you registered for the test) just in case. As for scores, I'm not sure about your specific department but if you did that well on the CR and math on the SAT, I would guess that you could get a similar score on the Verbal and much higher (probably around 720) in Math. These are good goals but you should just aim for your best after looking at what the test material entails.

My recommendations will be from professors that I have done research with, definitely one from the coauthor of my paper (of which I was the first author--and was the main contributor). My other research courses are very independent projects ranging in subject matter (networking, information retrieval, security, etc.).

Thanks for the advice. My GPA is around 3.5, I've done at least 4 research courses in my undergrad (small, unknown program), and will be participating in an REU this summer. Hopefully this is enough to make up for my score, but I'm going to consider taking the test over again since I probably won't be looking at top schools (I'm assuming the rest of my application is lacking a little too much).

For the quantitative test, I used Nova's GRE Math Prep Course: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1889057592 The material was well organized and very thorough. I got through all of the chapters in a matter of a couple days, and scored very well on the exam.

Hey all, I took the GRE this past week after two weeks of studying for only the quantitative part (I didn't think I would have enough time to study for the verbal portion). I scored a 770 on the quant and 490 on verbal. Is my verbal score going to hurt me a lot in my applications? I have a paper published and I'm hoping my SoP will be decent enough to supplement the poor score, but I'm wondering if anyone else had similar scores and knew what the results were. Thanks!

Hey Everyone, I'm new here and been looking through the forums for a couple days, currently researching CS PhD programs for the Fall 2012 season. Everyone mentions tiers and rankings, but I was wondering what actually determines these rankings, or if it just an unwritten kind of system. I know about the US News rankings but I've heard from some professors to take these with a grain of salt. Are there any better resources out there? Thanks!