Application strategies after being rejected this year

[newms]

Hey Gradcafe community. I received my (expected) fourth rejection email today from the fourth and final school I applied to. I discovered this forum late in the application process last year and I think what I've learned since then would allow me to put together a stronger application in the future. I am an international computer science student (machine learning and theory are the areas I am interested in) that finished my undergraduate degree way back in 2002. I've worked as a high school teacher and a technology professional in the intermediate years. I studied at an international school that probably isn't well know. Here are my statistics:

GRE Q: 790, V:700, AW: 4.0 (I hadn't written an essay in almost 10 years before the test)

I didn't take the CS subject GRE test

My undergraduate GPA would be around 3.8. (My UG didn't use the GPA system back in the day - they used an A-F scale)

I had some UG research experience working as a technical assistant to one of my lecturers (MIT educated) who is a leading researcher in his field. I know he would have given me a good recommendation. Other than that though, I have no research experience to speak of. I was fortunate in that my recommenders remember me and I have kept in contact with them, but one of them submitted the LOR over a month after the deadline to 2 of my schools.

Looking back at the process my first big mistake I think was not applying to a broad range of schools. I applied to all top 20 CS schools (3 of them top 10) and was rejected at all of them. I also realize I have a few big weaknesses:

1) The fact that I finished my UG almost 8 years ago.

2) The fact that I have no publications and limited research experience.

3) The fact that my UG isn't well known and they didn't use the GPA system.

Having been through this process now, I think these are steps I could take to improve my application:

1) Seek my primary recommender's advice on the process - something I didn't do last time.

2) Do some independent research, maybe with my primary recommender's supervision?

3) Apply to a broader range of schools.

4) Improve my SOP - in retrospect I think the one I had wasn't good enough.

5) Take the CS GRE subject test

6) Possibly improve on my GRE general test scores - I know I can get higher on the AW.

Thank you for reading my thoughts. Just seeing them on the screen has helped and I would appreciate if you had any feedback on what I should do to improve my chances for next year. I have thought about applying for spring admission, but would that be worth it? Should I just wait until next fall admission season?

Edited July 25, 2011 by newms

[lily_]

The best advice on the applications process comes from professors who actually serve on admissions committees. Definitely demonstrating that you are capable of performing independent research will help, and I would take that a step further and see if this professor might be willing to list you as a second (or third) author on a project he/she might be working on.

I would also recommend having this professor you know and trust (who is writing you a positive LOR) rip apart the SOP you used this year. The only way to really make an impact in improving this aspect is to have someone rip it to shreds, give it back to you so you know how to make it stronger. Have him/her do this a few times if necessary. The SOP is probably the most important part of your application because it's your own time to show exactly how you as an individual would fit into your desired departments, succeed, and why you are better than all of the other applicants.

I believe that the AW section on the GRE is the easiest score to raise. I wrote about this on a similar post, but essentially the AW section is testing your ability to spit out a formulaic, logical 5-6 paragraph essay. Once you figure out the formula the graders are looking for, it becomes much easier to raise that score. Also, next time you take it, make sure to edit because it's easy to overlook grammatical and spelling errors that pull that score down.

I'm not sure how it is for CS students, but at least for my field the problem with applying to a broader range of schools is difficult because each departments wants you to "fit" intellectually and as far as interests are concerned with faculty members. However, applying to a safety school or two would probably help.

Best of luck!

[newms]

The best advice on the applications process comes from professors who actually serve on admissions committees. Definitely demonstrating that you are capable of performing independent research will help, and I would take that a step further and see if this professor might be willing to list you as a second (or third) author on a project he/she might be working on.

I would also recommend having this professor you know and trust (who is writing you a positive LOR) rip apart the SOP you used this year. The only way to really make an impact in improving this aspect is to have someone rip it to shreds, give it back to you so you know how to make it stronger. Have him/her do this a few times if necessary. The SOP is probably the most important part of your application because it's your own time to show exactly how you as an individual would fit into your desired departments, succeed, and why you are better than all of the other applicants.

I believe that the AW section on the GRE is the easiest score to raise. I wrote about this on a similar post, but essentially the AW section is testing your ability to spit out a formulaic, logical 5-6 paragraph essay. Once you figure out the formula the graders are looking for, it becomes much easier to raise that score. Also, next time you take it, make sure to edit because it's easy to overlook grammatical and spelling errors that pull that score down.

I'm not sure how it is for CS students, but at least for my field the problem with applying to a broader range of schools is difficult because each departments wants you to "fit" intellectually and as far as interests are concerned with faculty members. However, applying to a safety school or two would probably help.

Best of luck!

Thanks Lily. I will definitely ask him to look into my SOP. I agree with you about the 'fit' problem - which is one of the reasons why I only applied to 4 schools. I don't think its worth my while to apply to a school I'm not particularly interested in. However what I've realized is that a lot of schools may have good programs in one particular field of CS even though they might not have a highly ranked program overall. So I'm expanding my search to schools that I didn't consider last time that have good programs in the areas that I am interested in.

Best of luck to you too.

[grendel]

I can't fathom how the AW score on the GRE could matter much (the SOP is much more important and should adequately demonstrate your ability to write an essay). You have very good scores on the other parts of the GRE.

You should probably take the subject GRE (especially if you're confident you can get a good score) but not being in CS, I don't know how important it is.

Good luck!

[joro]

1. Take CS GRE if you have time.

2. Take grad classes at local university.

3. No need to retake GRE.

4. Find maybe a research assistant position in a university group.

5. Re-work SOP.

[newms]

Thanks for your input grendel. I agree that the AW shouldn't matter much, but seeing just how competitive admissions can be I want to make my application next year as good as I can. I think the subject GRE will help since its been almost 8 years since I left my UG and it'll be good to show that I still know my stuff.

Best of luck to you too.

[newms]

1. Take CS GRE if you have time.

2. Take grad classes at local university.

3. No need to retake GRE.

4. Find maybe a research assistant position in a university group.

5. Re-work SOP.

Thanks for these suggestions. I hadn't thought about taking grad classes-I'll definitely look into it.

[Think_Positive]

I also think that your GRE scores are excellent - and that there's no reason to retake it. The analytical writting may be a little weak, but since you are going in for Computer Science which is more technical than writing oriented, and you will also have your SOP to demonstrate your writing strengths, I would not waste the time and money on retaking it just to up your AW. I probably WOULD invest that time in taking the CS GRE however. Given how strong your GRE scores are, I think you'll likely do very well, and that's a nice little edge to put you over at least some other applicants in the process.

Like most people have suggested, strengthening your SOP and adding a bit more relevant academic experience will probably help as well. Schools want to make sure you can still handle an academic work load, which has a different set of demands than the working world.

I'm in a similar boat - applied to only four schools, because those are the only ones I felt had an appropriate fit to my interests. Updating my SOP, and reaching out to specific professors at each program are my goals before the next round of applications. By forming a relationship with a professor, I'm hoping that I can create an even more specific and relevant SOP for each program, and that the relationship might help solidify my application in front of the admissions committee.

[newms]

Thanks Think_Positive. I'm going to be contacting profs whose work I'm interested in as well to try to establish a relationship as well. I didn't do that this time around and I figure it cant hurt for fall 2011.