GRE scores for computer science

[kartik.thapar]

Hey guys.

I have kind of messed up my entire GRE score due to poor preparation (ongoing projects) and time management before and during the exam.

My scores are:

Q: 166

V: 146 (Pathetic)

By bachelors is from School of EEE, University of Manchester in 'Computing and Communication Systems Engineering'. I haven't converted my results to GPA yet, but I believe it's > 3.9; maybe 4.0.

I have almost 1.5 years of industry experience and 2 university scholarships + 1 state scholarship (New Delhi), some 6 years back. My final project is a research project in the field of Green Heterogeneous Networks.

I am here counting my chances for M.Sc or Ph.D from top universities in the US. (Stanford/Cornell/CMU/Texas-Austin/UIUC/Gatech)

I did take an IELTS in Jun '08 scoring an overall band of 8.0.

What do you guys think my chances are? Any suggestions or advice?

EDIT: I believe my 3 recommendations are pretty strong. One of them is by the head of the school; I don't know how crucial could that be.

Edited December 5, 2011 by kartik.thapar

[kartik.thapar]

Guys, anything?

[stackoverflow]

If you're looking at only top schools your GRE school shouldn't matter too much, unless it is strikingly bad. What are your percentiles? I'm not familiar with the new scoring system. How much research experience do you have? I think that will help/hurt you more.

[kartik.thapar]

If you're looking at only top schools your GRE school shouldn't matter too much, unless it is strikingly bad. What are your percentiles? I'm not familiar with the new scoring system. How much research experience do you have? I think that will help/hurt you more.

Thanks for the reply.

I recently finished my industrial placement (1 year) with Texas Instruments, UK where I worked in the R&D for about 7 months. It was mostly VLSI and FPGA design rather than something in Computer Security. My final year project is totally research based and I have a recommendation from my supervisor supervising this research project.

I am not very sure about percentiles as the score is not out yet. But I scored about 146 in Verbal which would be ~40%. In contrast to that I scored an 8 overall in IELTS, approx 3 years back.

[kartik.thapar]

Any advice or suggestions, people?

[stackoverflow]

I wouldn't worry about your scores. From what I can see your quant score is very high (assuming the percentile is around 90%+), and the verbal shouldn't hurt you much. I don't think a CS department would take that into account unless your writing reflects that score.