Applying for the Second Time - PhD CS / Software Engineering

[newmanhattan]

Hi,

I am an MS student - international student- (will finish in Dec 2011) applying for the Fall 2012 Admissions to PhD programs in CS and SE.

I had applied for Fall 2011 as well but got rejected from all but 1 schools. I am applying again this time, Any advice for me?

Should I refrain from applying again to the places that I had applied before or should I make sure to apply there again?

One of the places that I had applied to was CMU and had made it to the waitlist however couldn't clear that. Would applying again make a difference?

Changes in my profile since last time ..

1. Added 1 journal paper (journal ranked around 15 in the area) and 1 editorial in a journal - Both co-authored.

2. annual excellence award from the college of engineering - given to one student from the UG and Grad student body in engineering every year.

Fellow second timers, nth timers and others .. Please let me know the dos and don'ts for a second time applicant like me, if you have any inputs regarding that.

Thanks.

[newms]

I think it would be worthwhile to re-apply to CMU. Were you in contact with a PoI there? If so, perhaps you could politely ask him/her for advice on what could make your application stronger (you'd have to be careful in wording such a request). Some people have had success asking a PoI for advice in re-applying and others haven't, so it varies.

The journal paper (is it a well-known journal?) and your award should help to strengthen your application for this round. Sometimes you just need a little luck, since sometimes the PoIs you're interest in working with aren't taking students and you end up not getting admitted.

Do you think your SoP was strong enough last year? Perhaps you could refine it for this year. Were your school choices good fits for you? I think re-working my SoP and choosing schools that were better fits for me were the top two things that I did to help me when I re-applied.

Edited July 28, 2011 by newms