CS PhD Program, Please Evaluate

[jawaiah]

Hey guys thanks,

Academic:

Graduating from pretty low-key school, University of Hawaii (best CS program in the state!) with a BS in CS and math minor

Only a 3.0 overall (rough times early on) but 3.5 the past two years and 3.89 last year.

I want to get into a PhD program because I am genuinely interested in research.

I'm interested in text data mining right now, but mostly because I want to get a good start in the field of machine learning in data mining.

I'm also interested in neuroscience, but only extracurricularly.

Research and Work:

I had a small geoscience database research project a couple of years ago, but it's barely worth putting on the resume.

I spent a summer and a winter working as an intern software engineer for the WM Keck observatory here on the Big Island, doing some cool (but fairly rudimentary) database and web interface stuff.

This past summer I traveled to South Carolina and did a text data mining REU internship at a university.

Currently I'm working on an avalanche classification machine learning project for my school, which I'll have a paper for probably in January or February, but not in time for this application season. I'm also doing assignment preparation for a python bioinformatics class next semester.

GRE:

I have 800 quant. and 650 english but only 4.0 on the writing part (I accidentally skipped the last portion of written material because I thought it said it was optional).

Recommendations:

My department chair (known me for 6 years, taught me AI), my current boss for the avalanche project (was also my database teacher for one year), and my mentor from this past summer's south carolina internship. fairly strong references from each of them.

My biggest concern is that text data mining doesn't seem like a particularly well-funded field; and the best places to study it are top-30 schools, which I don't think I'm really qualified for (see list below)

However it is the only thing in which I have serious research experience at this point, so I can't see justifying applying to grad school under any other premise. Would it make more sense to just change my field of interest in the applications?

Top-Schools:

Brown University

Johns Hopkins

Washington University in St. Louis

Stony Brook

Rensselaer

Columbia University

Mid-Schools:

Northeastern

UMass Boston

Worcester Poly Inst

Safety:

University of Rhode Island

Fellowships (so far, planning on a couple more):

NSF GRFP

Am I aiming too high? What are my chances of getting in to something?

Also, any ideas on good fellowships?

[newms]

Would it make more sense to just change my field of interest in the applications?

I wouldn't recommend changing your interest just to get into grad school. Your interests are what you're going to be working on for at least 5 years in school and then in your career after that. Granted your interests are going to change naturally over time, but I don't think you should just say you're interested in a field to get into grad school - adcomms will probably be able to figure out that you're not very interested in that area if you really aren't interested in it.

As for your chances, I think you have a fairly good chance of getting into a few of those schools you have listed there. Brown, Johns Hopkins and Columbia will be very difficult to get into (around 10% or less). Rensselaer isn't a very highly ranked program but it's acceptance rate is around 12%. I think you would have a fair chance at Stony Brook and you should have a pretty good chance at the other schools you have listed. Also, don't short change your research experience - you have research experience, which is a very important part of the application. That alone will help you to stand out. Also while your GPA is 3.0, the fact that it improved significantly over the last two years will help mitigate that. All best!

[jawaiah]

I wouldn't recommend changing your interest just to get into grad school. Your interests are what you're going to be working on for at least 5 years in school and then in your career after that. Granted your interests are going to change naturally over time, but I don't think you should just say you're interested in a field to get into grad school - adcomms will probably be able to figure out that you're not very interested in that area if you really aren't interested in it.

As for your chances, I think you have a fairly good chance of getting into a few of those schools you have listed there. Brown, Johns Hopkins and Columbia will be very difficult to get into (around 10% or less). Rensselaer isn't a very highly ranked program but it's acceptance rate is around 12%. I think you would have a fair chance at Stony Brook and you should have a pretty good chance at the other schools you have listed. Also, don't short change your research experience - you have research experience, which is a very important part of the application. That alone will help you to stand out. Also while your GPA is 3.0, the fact that it improved significantly over the last two years will help mitigate that. All best!

Wow thanks bro, that really boosts my confidence. I appreciate it much.

[BKMD]

I think your research area is actually more popular than you think. My understanding is that text mining is really big these days, with tons of money coming from both government and industry. Don't worry about this.

To me your application looks pretty decent but not great. You have some research experience and you seem sincerely interested in it, so it will help if you let that come across in your SOP. My main worry is your GPA - while it will help that you've improved in the last 2 years (and most schools will say they give much more weight to these last 2), it's possible that your app will get filtered out before they even look at it just because the overall GPA is on the low side (though at least it's not below 3, so you'll be okay at a lot of schools).

I don't think you'll get into a top school, but you never know. Pick your favorite and apply. JHU is nice because it has a low application fee ($25).

I would aim for mid-range schools. BTW is there a reason you're only considering schools in the northeast?

The best thing you can probably do at this point is to just have a strong and focused essay. It helps if you have specific research ideas with citations because it shows you know what you're talking about. Don't do what you suggested and be shy about your interests, be enthusiastic and name specific faculty that you think you'd be a good match with, to show that you're interested in their department. Generally to get admitted, there needs to be at least one professor who wants to advise you, so be sure to find the right schools for your area (but like I said, it's actually popular, at least at the bigger schools, so this should be okay). Good luck!

[BKMD]

Oh yeah I was going to make suggestions for schools... Kansas State is good for text/data mining and you'll probably get in. Some more competitive schools but maybe in your range that I think are good in this area are U Pittsburgh, UC Irvine, and UT Dallas.

[starmaker]

I think your research area is actually more popular than you think. My understanding is that text mining is really big these days, with tons of money coming from both government and industry. Don't worry about this.

As a current job-hunter (I'm a part-time MS student who works full-time and plans eventually to go for a PhD - and my contract at my current workplace is about to end), I agree that this is pretty big in industry right now.

[cscat]

Hi friends,

I would be really thankful if you can let me know of my chance for getting into CMU (Joint Ph.D. program in Stat and ML) (and other universities if possible). Please look at my signature.

I did my masters at Dalhousie University, Canada.

Thanks

Edited December 18, 2010 by cscat

[starmaker]

Hi friends,

I would be really thankful if you can let me know of my chance for getting into CMU (Joint Ph.D. program in Stat and ML) (and other universities if possible). Please look at my signature.

I did my masters at Dalhousie University, Canada.

Thanks

The information contained in your signature is basically useless. It's just GPA and GRE scores. Those alone won't get you in anywhere. Your verbal score seems awfully low.

If you want to see how CMU evaluates PhD applicants, read this (by a CMU CS prof):

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~harchol/gradschooltalk.pdf