Icydubloon

No. Maybe one sentence if you want.

From what I can tell, you only have 1 point in this essay?

Manhattan tests (quant) is much harder than the actual GRE. Each Manhattan section is like the hard section on the real GRE. It's not strictly 1-1. It depends on a few factors such as how well you did in section 1 and if you missed a hard/medium/easy question. I left a question blank in section 2 ("type your answer in the box below"...) and still got 170.

About 22% of "CS applicants" get 165 or higher on the quant (some PhD are included). Although this isn't the exact body of students that apply, it should serve as a good starting point to answer your question. http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide_table4.pdf

I shall also bite: Applying to MS programs for computer science (academic/thesis based). Interested in computational biology, data mining, and machine learning. If I don't get admitted, I'll just go straight to industry. Domestic Asian Male Top State School (Berkeley, Washington, Illinois, Texas, etc.) BS, Computer Science and BS, Bioengineering GPA: 3.8 / 4.0 GRE (practice): 170Q, 163V Work Experience: 2 internships at software companies (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, etc.) 1 internship at a healthcare/biomedical company (Stryker, McKesson, etc.) On-campus TA/grader for a few classes. Research Experience: 1.5 years with a CS lab 0.5 years with a BME lab 1 publication in distributed computing 1 submitted publication in biology Others: Two letters from advisors who supervised my research. One letter from a professor of a class I did well in (tried to avoid this...) Pretty standard SOP. Schools: Mainly top schools (that offer an MS). Carnegie Mellon Stanford Berkeley Illinois Texas Michigan Brown Princeton Penn Johns Hopkins As far as applications go -- I will be taking the actual GRE once or twice before the deadlines. I'm working on my SOP now so I can have it reviewed during the fall semester. And I'm saving up for the application fees.

Has anyone taken the GRE Math subject test and submitted it for CS MS/PhD admissions? Is it worthwhile taking this exam? Or is simply the general GRE enough? Some schools recommend submitting a subject test (usually the computer science one when it existed). I've heard mixed reviews -- some say it doesn't help at all and some say it mildly helps. I wanted to see what others thought.

3.47 GPA is on the low side. More importantly, which CS courses have you taken? If you have a 4.0 with some architecture and discrete math, then you have a better chance. You could try applying to a bioinformatics / comp bio program and take CS courses on the side. That will utilize your biology background more.