Hi,
I have a very average profile. I am from a distant country. I have no relevant research exprience. One publication in an absolutely unknown journal. I have considerable work experience in various companies. I will get very strong LORs from my employers. My GRE is Q800 V550 AW4.
However, I really know what i whant to do, which is OS related things. I also believe I can produce strong SOPs.
I want to get into a PhD program. However, I think my changes of getting into a good school are quite weak. In the same time there are only a few schools ouside of top20 who do sensible OS reasearch (or am wrong?).
Anyway I will apply to whole bunch of schools between top 20 and top 50. Here is the list. Do you think I have a standing chance there or should I aim even lower?
University of Massachusetts--Amherst
North Carolina State University
University of California Santa Barbara
University of Southern California
Duke University
SB SUNY
UC Santa Cruz
Ohio State University, Columbus
Rutgers
I also think maybe to apply to some masters programs. But I keep getting an impression that in most schools the admission rate to MS is just as low as to PhD. Here is a list of some top schools which really interest me. Could you say that yes I am right and I have not a chance there even for MS program (or is there one that is worth trying?):
University of Texas--Austin
University of Wisconsin--Madison
University of California--San Diego
University of Michigan--Ann Arbor
Thanks a lot in advance! I would appreciate any response.