Profile Evaluation for PhD CS for 2011

[applyphd]

Hi,

I want to apply to CS PhD for 2011, in computer vision/multimedia area.

I really hope that you could recommend some universities that I may have a chance.

B.S. in computer Science + M.E. in computer Science in a top5 university in China

1) GPA of undergraduate (3.92/4.00)

2) GPA of graduate (90.5/100)

3) GRE general : 1320 (V+Q)+ 3.0 (AW)

4) TOEFL iBT 99(total)

A total of 11 papers published in related international conference and journal, including 1 ACM Multimedia (first author), 1 Computer Graphics Forum (Eurographics journal, second author), 1 ACM Multimedia Workshop (first author), 2 Computer graphics international, and some others. Some publications are graphics related, because I was in a graphics lab, does that matter? I am preparing a paper for PAMI, should I mention this in my CV?

I also has research experience in Microsoft Research, and first place in provincial calculus competition. I may not have good reference letters, even though I tried to. My analytical writing is low, it is an accident..

I really need an proper evaluation to help my application, and thanks for any response!

[newms]

Hi,

The most important parts of your applications are your research experience, your letters of recommendation and your statement of purpose. You seem to have good research experience, but I don't understand why you cant get good letters of recommendation if you have 11 papers published? If you can get good letters from Microsoft or especially from any of the profs you worked with to produce your research papers then you should be ok.

Edited August 12, 2010 by newms

[applyphd]

Thank you for your response! Actually I am trying very hard to get good recommendations, but I am not sure what the things turn out to be. In case I can get good recommendation from my advisor, how is my chance to get top 100, or better, top 50 university?

Hi,

The most important parts of your applications are your research experience, your letters of recommendation and your statement of purpose. You seem to have good research experience, but I don't understand why you cant get good letters of recommendation if you have 11 papers published? If you can get good letters from Microsoft or especially from any of the profs you worked with to produce your research papers then you should be ok.

[newms]

If you can get good recommendations I think you have a pretty good shot at top 50 schools.

[applyphd]

Thanks.Another thing I am worried is the AW score of my GRE. It is unreasonably low, and this would give a bad impression to the admission committee, I think...

If you can get good recommendations I think you have a pretty good shot at top 50 schools.

[newms]

Thanks.Another thing I am worried is the AW score of my GRE. It is unreasonably low, and this would give a bad impression to the admission committee, I think...

3.0 is on the low side. Is your TOEFL score ok? (I'm not sure what the acceptable scores are for TOEFL, but TOEFL would be more important than AW). Remember that the AW score for a CS Phd is not very important on the list of things they consider - if you have a well structured statement of purpose then it should be ok. If you have the time and money it could be useful to do the test over if it will settle your nerves. I've seen a cutoff of 4.0 or 4.5 on AW for some schools, but I don't know how many schools use a cutoff.

[applyphd]

My TOEFL is 99 (iBT), I guess not so bad as my AW, but still not high. Thanks for your information!

3.0 is on the low side. Is your TOEFL score ok? (I'm not sure what the acceptable scores are for TOEFL, but TOEFL would be more important than AW). Remember that the AW score for a CS Phd is not very important on the list of things they consider - if you have a well structured statement of purpose then it should be ok. If you have the time and money it could be useful to do the test over if it will settle your nerves. I've seen a cutoff of 4.0 or 4.5 on AW for some schools, but I don't know how many schools use a cutoff.