How competitive am I for (future) a CS PhD applicant

[prospectivecsgrad]

I just graduated with a B.S. in CS (a SUNY state school, but Top 40 program in Computer Science)

Stats: 3.27 UG GPA, have not taken GRE yet.  Had a rough first semester and junior year causing the GPA to be lower than desired.

Research Exp: 1 summer REU in data science at a Top 10 school and a small semester project at my home institution.

Interests: ML, NLP,  Data Science, as well as Distributed Systems.  Have taken a challenging courseload during my undergrad, including two graduate courses in NLP and Logic

My desired schools: Michigan, USC/UCLA, Washington, Illinois, Maryland (College Park), Minnesota, Rutgers, UPenn, Princeton, Purdue, UMass Amherst, Penn State, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Ohio State, GA Tech

My question is do I stand a chance applying for a PhD at these schools, or if I have to choose between applying to only the PhD or MS program, I should apply for the MS instead?  Also being that I am currently taking a break after graduating, should I be looking at ways to improve on my research experience before applying?

 

•  

Edited February 22, 2020 by prospectivecsgrad