QUESTIONS
1. Considering my background, which schools should I be looking at?
-Reaches?
-Targets?
(I've communicated to my recommenders that I would be sending about 10 applications.)
2. Would taking the subject test GRE help a person in my situation?
BACKGROUND
-4 publications:
1 journal (was not main contributor)
3 conferences
-Research focus on distributed systems, a little bit of parallel computing.
-Large state university (CS Dept. Rank 30~50)
-GPA: 3.55/4.00, CS GPA: 3.82/4.00
-Very close relationships with 2 full professors, 1 assistant professor: I continue to meet two of them while working in industry to have coffee and to discuss publications/personal life, also volunteer to come into class room to have talks about industry, and so on.
-2+ years of development experience (web services) - coding/implementation skills
-2 semesters Undergraduate Teaching Assistant
-1 semester Undergraduate Research Assistant
I have NOT taken GRE yet, but I assume I will have a pretty high Verbal/Writing scores (I was also a humanities major, and scored in 90th+ percentile on the LSATs when I was considering going to law school). I'm fairly decent with maths, so I'm not too worried. I will begin applying in 2012.