Please, evaluate my profile. Computer Security

[edvolkov]

Now i'm finishing one of top 5 Russian schools in Computer Science. My GPA is 4,92 of 5.

GRE Q800/V460 AW - not available yet. (but I expect something about 4)

TOEFL 94/120

3 years of research experience in Computer Security Lab, 7 publications (+1 in process), 2 on international conferences.

3 years of work experience in one of the leading russian companies in Computer Security (for example IBM is among my company's partners).

Excellent recommendations from:

1) Professor from my university, he is rather famous in cryptography. He was my lecturer for two years. I've done one research with my mate under his supervision on my own initiative.

2) My advisor. He is Associate professor in my university, he has about two dozens pubs in international conferences and journals.

3) One of directors from my company. (In fact he is also professor from my university). He knows me very well, because I've done several projects that he co-supervised. Also I was with him as a technical expert during several negotiations in US.

I don't know, my TOEFL really drives me to distraction. In fact I'd retook it three days ago, but I don't expect that next result will be significantly better.

I've divided list of the universities in three groups: hard, moderate and safe:

hard: Cornell, Stanford

moderate: UCSD, UCI, UCD, Columbia, UNC, Un of Texas at Austin, UCSC, Penn State

Safe: Central Florida, Bighampton, University of Cincinnati

I'm expecting some comments:)

Edited November 15, 2010 by edvolkov

[newms]

I actually think you might be underselling yourself depending on the quality of your publications. Are the international conferences highly rated? You are applying for a PhD right? If so I think you have a pretty good range of schools and if your publications are at top notch conferences then you should have a better than average chance at a top 10 school.

[edvolkov]

I actually think you might be underselling yourself depending on the quality of your publications. Are the international conferences highly rated? You are applying for a PhD right? If so I think you have a pretty good range of schools and if your publications are at top notch conferences then you should have a better than average chance at a top 10 school.

Thanks for your comment! In fact I don't expect that these conferences are in top, their acceptance rate is something like 35 percents. Also I didn't got the following: does it mean that my work experience in a company that is related to my research field weights very little during the admission process.

[newms]

Thanks for your comment! In fact I don't expect that these conferences are in top, their acceptance rate is something like 35 percents. Also I didn't got the following: does it mean that my work experience in a company that is related to my research field weights very little during the admission process.

Anything that shows your research potential is important. So if your work experience is related to your research field and can help to show your research potential then it will be looked on favorably.

[edvolkov]

Damn, I've just received AW - 3.0. I'm so unlucky. What do you think, is AW important during admission?

[Amogh]

Damn, I've just received AW - 3.0. I'm so unlucky. What do you think, is AW important during admission?

Well from what i'v read around, the gre itself isn't really given much weightage. the aw very little. just make sure your sop is well written to show you can write well..

[krok]

If you are applying to Stanford you should try Carnegie Mellon as well. They have one of the largest research labs in security in the US (CyLab) and CERT is housed at CMU as well. Also Adrian Perrig, one of the most cited researchers in the world for security is at Carnegie Mellon. Plus they have one of the top-ranked PhD's in CS, though it's really hard to get into. Not sure about Cornell. Never heard of them for security.