PhD Admissions Fall 2019 Computer science

[Rajiv_ranjan_buff]

Hi,

I am a Computer Science grad student at the University of Buffalo. My grad Cgpa is 3.9. My undergrad GPA was 7.35/10.00. I am applying for Ph.D. admissions this coming Fall 2019. My research areas are NLP and Computer Vision. I don't have any publication. I do have a research internship of 3 months as an undergrad. Also, 3 years of work experience, but that doesn't count I guess. What schools should I apply to? I can get decent LORs from my university professors. GRE 322(152V, 170Q, 4.0). Toefl will have to give again(105). Any suggestions.

[Karlin]

Maybe you can start by using http://csrankings.org/

Scan some potential profs and research groups, because I think for PhD study, a suitable supervisor/lab is more important than the school itself

Consider their research topics, styles, and maybe talk to their students

[skarsk17]

I have a somewhat unusual background, and am curious to know whether my experience is at all suitable for the schools I've applied to: 

 

Undergrad: an Ivy, top 10 school in CS

Major: Neuroscience

Minors: CS, Linguistics

GPA: 3.60, CS GPA: ~3.5

 

MS in CS: a different Ivy, top 20 school in CS

Focus: ML

GPA: 3.98

 

GRE: 165 Q, 170 V, 5.0 W

Research Experience: 

• 1 first author paper on biorXiv with undergrad advisor currently under review at a journal applying deep learning to a problem in neuroscience; unpublished senior thesis on the same topic
• 1 first author deep learning paper on arXiv with professors from MS institution 
• 1 poster at a minor neuro conference

LoRs: all 3 are in computational / theoretical neuroscience and I believe have written strong recommendations; 2 are from MS institution (co-authors on arXiv paper), 1 is very famous in comp. neuro, 1 is less well-known; 3rd LoR is undergrad advisor, who is well-known in comp. neuro with strong ML credentials (his small research group got ~5 papers accepted at NeurIPS in 2018)

 

I've applied to a mixture of Comp. Neuro and CS programs; here are the places I've applied for CS (wishful thinking, I know): 

UC Berkeley

Oxford

Princeton

Harvard - have received a Skype interview invite from a POI

UCLA

MILA

U. of Toronto

 

Are these unrealistic given my lack of a major conference publication and the fact that my LoRs are primarily in neuro departments?

 

 

Edited January 4, 2019 by skarsk17