cs0223

With so many profile evaluation threads here, it might be more useful to ask this question: How did you (or people you know) decide where to apply for graduate school? I know that you ought to narrow it down based on specific professors or research projects you may be interested in, but how do you even start - they say you should apply to 2-3 schools at your level, 2-3 reach, and 2-3 backups, so how do you figure out which schools are at each level for you? Do you go by the school's department rankings from grad school ranking sites, or do you go by information more specific to your subfield, or advice from professors and researchers you know? Should you measure your GPA/GRE against the averages for the schools to see if you likely will or won't get in? What else would you suggest? Thanks all!

I don't have any publications, which is one reason I am unsure. I also cannot guarantee my recommendation letters will be extraordinarily strong - I've been a top student and good worker, so they will certainly strongly recommend me, but there is nothing very personal or meaningful beyond that. I will probably go for something related to computer graphics, but I would be open to other areas as well. Thanks; I appreciate any advice!

I'm looking at applying for PhD in CS and trying to narrow down which schools to apply to. My profile: Undergrad at a fairly good state university, double major in math and CS. GPA: 4.0 GRE: 170Q, 168V, 4.5AW Two semesters of research experience (in graphics), and one internship at a large engineering company in software research and development. Recommendation letters will be from my research advisor and other professors, none of whom are particularly famous as far as I know. Do I have a reasonable chance of getting into a top 5 (MIT, Carnegie Mellon), top 10-5 (U Washington, Princeton), or 20-10 (Columbia, UCLA) school? Or should I stick to mainly lower than that? I know it probably varies by school, but I'd like to narrow my aim down a bit. Thanks!