Profile Evaluation - CS Fall 2011

[Nisha Patel]

Hi,

My profile:

10th % : 88.2%

12th % : 89.8%

Undergrad details:

Btech in IT from NITK,Surathkal

CGPA- 8.98

Internships: Acer Computers and Barclays Bank,Dubai ( 2 months each )

Major projects - Wireless networks, database, graphics

Work Details:

1.6 yrs of work ex at Bank of America (Snr Tech Associate)

Worked on java and cloud computing

GRE: Verbal:490, Quant:770, AWA: 3.5

Recos: 2 strong ones from my college and 1 from my manager at work

Interest fields: Graphics, Databases, Wireless networks, Cloud Computing

I plan to pursue my masters in computers. Could you please evaluate my opportunites and suggest a 3 easy,moderate and ambitious colleges. Below are the list of colleges i am looking at:

Carnegie Mellon University

Cornell University

University of Texas--Austin

University of California--Los Angeles

University of Michigan--Ann Arbor

Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta

North Carolina State University

California Institute of Technology

University of Florida

Pennstate

Columbia University

University of Utah

University of California, San Diego

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

University of Southern California

NUS

Nanyang

Could you please evaluate my chances into each? and suggest a few colleges (easy,moderate and ambitious)please help me choose my uni's! thanks in advance

[Amogh]

Well, i'm kinda new here too but since i havent got any advice for the past two days ill just give you my 2 cents. take it with a pinch of salt because i'm not as knowledgeable as some of the other posters here.

First off you might want to take the toefl(as most of them ask for it from us indians) as well

improve your verbal score as the gre is actually used to confirm that you are comfortable with the english language(i.e. the verbal score). What this means is that getting a 700+ on the verbal and quant doesn't give you an admissions specific advantage but however a low score will live you at a disadvantage.

as for categorizing colleges for you this is how i see it:

Safe schools:

UNC-CH

USC

Nanyang

NUS

University of California, San Diego

Moderate:

University of California--Los Angeles

University of Michigan--Ann Arbor

Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta

North Carolina State University

University of Florida

Pennstate

Ambitious:

Carnegie Mellon University

Cornell University

University of Texas--Austin

Ok i really hope some1 else clarifies any mistakes in my categorization because i'm more inclined to phd admissions and don't know much about ms admissions. but then i guess i shouldn't be off by too much ..

Edited November 9, 2010 by Amogh

[Nisha Patel]

Thanks for your help Amogh.

I forgot to mention my Toefl Scores.. i got 107.

But i wont be able to give gre again due to lack of time!

woudl you suggest any other uni?

Well, i'm kinda new here too but since i havent got any advice for the past two days ill just give you my 2 cents. take it with a pinch of salt because i'm not as knowledgeable as some of the other posters here.

First off you might want to take the toefl(as most of them ask for it from us indians) as well

improve your verbal score as the gre is actually used to confirm that you are comfortable with the english language(i.e. the verbal score). What this means is that getting a 700+ on the verbal and quant doesn't give you an admissions specific advantage but however a low score will live you at a disadvantage.

as for categorizing colleges for you this is how i see it:

Safe schools:

UNC-CH

USC

Nanyang

NUS

University of California, San Diego

Moderate:

University of California--Los Angeles

University of Michigan--Ann Arbor

Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta

North Carolina State University

University of Florida

Pennstate

Ambitious:

Carnegie Mellon University

Cornell University

University of Texas--Austin

Ok i really hope some1 else clarifies any mistakes in my categorization because i'm more inclined to phd admissions and don't know much about ms admissions. but then i guess i shouldn't be off by too much ..

[Amogh]

Thanks for your help Amogh.

I forgot to mention my Toefl Scores.. i got 107.

But i wont be able to give gre again due to lack of time!

woudl you suggest any other uni?

Hmmm, i thought i'd just correct one thing in my classification above, georgia tech wld come in between ambitious and moderate actually as it is also a top 10 program but their admissions scenario seems a little better than the rest.

alright then don't fret about the gre score because as i said it really isnt used much by the committee from what iv understood. write your sop objectively. hope you'v read some of the articles on the other subforums on sop writing. very important are your recommendation letters. make sure they are strong and you should be fine. by strong i mean they should objectively describe you, your work ethic etc and not just be letters saying you did well in the prof's class..

As for other unis, here's a very good indicator of where you should apply. look thru ur insti's alumni records and look for people with a profile similar to yours.. email them and ask them where all they applied etc. lucky for u, ur at an nit where i think such resources are a little more easily available than for the rest of us attending state unis.. ..

as another option look up the rankings here:

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-computer-science-schools/rankings/

and you could use the top 10 as ambitious, 10-25 as moderate and below that as easy given your lors and sop are in order.

choose schools to apply to based on your feeling to the school from their website and reading peer reviews.

usually people tend to apply to 3 ambitious, 3 moderate and 2 easy. but then thats really up to you cos iv seen people apply to 15 schools.. lol..

[Nisha Patel]

Yup.. i agree.. your comments have really been helpful..

did a lil research and thinking.. here's the almost final list i thot of..

Safe

University of Florida

University of South California

Moderate

Columbia University

Pennstate

Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta

Ambi

University of Texas - Austin

University of Michigan--Ann Arbor

Carnegie Mellon University

Any suggestions/comments on the renewed list?

Hmmm, i thought i'd just correct one thing in my classification above, georgia tech wld come in between ambitious and moderate actually as it is also a top 10 program but their admissions scenario seems a little better than the rest.

alright then don't fret about the gre score because as i said it really isnt used much by the committee from what iv understood. write your sop objectively. hope you'v read some of the articles on the other subforums on sop writing. very important are your recommendation letters. make sure they are strong and you should be fine. by strong i mean they should objectively describe you, your work ethic etc and not just be letters saying you did well in the prof's class..

As for other unis, here's a very good indicator of where you should apply. look thru ur insti's alumni records and look for people with a profile similar to yours.. email them and ask them where all they applied etc. lucky for u, ur at an nit where i think such resources are a little more easily available than for the rest of us attending state unis.. ..

as another option look up the rankings here:

http://grad-schools....hools/rankings/

and you could use the top 10 as ambitious, 10-25 as moderate and below that as easy given your lors and sop are in order.

choose schools to apply to based on your feeling to the school from their website and reading peer reviews.

usually people tend to apply to 3 ambitious, 3 moderate and 2 easy. but then thats really up to you cos iv seen people apply to 15 schools.. lol..

[Amogh]

i think it seems fine. to me at least. .. well all the best then and do keep grad cafe posted on your app status ..