Profile evaluation

[ouais]

Well, I'm a top class CS student in a five year program majoring in AI, I did several relatively big projects within coursework and some extracurricular, published a book about computer for children, I have 2 internships under my belt one in an ERP firm, the largest software firm where I come from, the other from a research house where I did socioeconomics, participated in programming contests, math contests and I'm very likely to graduate top of my class.

I'm not an american and where I come from, research is very limited and the culture of working on a research in summer is inexistent. However I will try to do some research of my own this summer, my current project is on sentiment analysis in documents.

I'd appreciate some advice on what do you think I need most to strengthen my application, like everyone else, I dream of getting to one of the top schools, MS or PhD programs (preferably PhD), the likes of MIT, CMU, Berkley, Waterloo...etc

Thanks alot

[OH YEAH]

Well, I'm a top class CS student in a five year program majoring in AI, I did several relatively big projects within coursework and some extracurricular, published a book about computer for children, I have 2 internships under my belt one in an ERP firm, the largest software firm where I come from, the other from a research house where I did socioeconomics, participated in programming contests, math contests and I'm very likely to graduate top of my class.

I'm not an american and where I come from, research is very limited and the culture of working on a research in summer is inexistent. However I will try to do some research of my own this summer, my current project is on sentiment analysis in documents.

I'd appreciate some advice on what do you think I need most to strengthen my application, like everyone else, I dream of getting to one of the top schools, MS or PhD programs (preferably PhD), the likes of MIT, CMU, Berkley, Waterloo...etc

Thanks alot

I don't think you have a very good chance at getting into MIT, CMU, or Berkeley at the moment. Things like "top of class", "projects in coursework", "internship in industry", "published a book for children", "participated in contests" are great, and I'm sure you've learned a lot from the experiences, but they don't really count for much in terms of PhD admissions: the currency of PhD admissions is research *with other people*. The most important part of your package is letters of recommendation from people who can attest to your research potential.

My advice is to try to find a professor to work under over the summer. You can do your own stuff (that makes it all the more impressive ) but it is crucial that you have a mentor watching the progress of your project so you can get a good recommendation letter from them.

Good luck!

Edited May 11, 2011 by OH YEAH

[ouais]

I don't think you have a very good chance at getting into MIT, CMU, or Berkeley at the moment. Things like "top of class", "projects in coursework", "internship in industry", "published a book for children", "participated in contests" are great, and I'm sure you've learned a lot from the experiences, but they don't really count for much in terms of PhD admissions: the currency of PhD admissions is research *with other people*. The most important part of your package is letters of recommendation from people who can attest to your research potential.

My advice is to try to find a professor to work under over the summer. You can do your own stuff (that makes it all the more impressive ) but it is crucial that you have a mentor watching the progress of your project so you can get a good recommendation letter from them.

Good luck!

Thank you for the advice, I guess I will go for research this summer, thing is, in those "projects" I did previously, I had to do readings, make design choices, implementations, experimentations, along with teams of 2-3 people, with of course a professor watching over the progress, do you think such projects would classify under research? I thought they might cause the experience wasn't really a streamlined straightforward kind of thing, it was moreof a "pick a project idea" then "see what others did" then "try to improve", it also involved things research usually involves, I meet with my mentor once a week to discuss my progress, I meet my supervising engineer more frequently to discuss more technical issues, you go in the project not knowing if any meaningful result could come out of it...etc

Do you think I should capitalize on such ideas in my statement of purpose? or are they irrelevant?

thanks again

[OH YEAH]

Unfortunately, I don't know the nature of your work so I can't comment. For instance, I worked independently, read stuff, and made design choices when I worked as a professional web designer, but I restricted my discussion of that to about 3 lines in my SoP. If you were improving on the state of the art, it sounds good, but I think the best person to ask would be the professor you worked under--if they think they can comment favorably and realistically on your research potential based on your work for them, then I think you're fine. (Of course, you might not get a straight answer, so take what they say with a grain of salt)

[frenzydude]

one of the top schools, MS or PhD programs (preferably PhD), the likes of MIT, CMU, Berkley, Waterloo...etc

Waterloo is nowhere near the others you mentioned.

[ouais]

Waterloo is nowhere near the others you mentioned.

Thank you, and I'm aware, just wanted to see if someone might go that "it won't get u to MIT, but perhaps waterloo"

[achapiro]

Waterloo is nowhere near the others you mentioned.

It's almost like those IQ exams -

Pick out the one that does NOT belong in this group:

1) Glove

2) Hat

3) Stove

4) Pants

I almost read Stanford instead of Waterloo in that sentence...