Getting admission into Phd with a 3.0-3.2 GPA in Msc Computer Science

[Jane Shankar Prasad Goody]

Hi,

Are there any Universities in the US or elsewhere, that accept students into a funded Phd program with a 3.0-3.2 GPA in there Msc? My Msc is from a uni that is in the top 120. I corresponded with IIT(illinois) and they said minimum requirement is 3.0 but gave a generic answer to the funding bit, i.e. that funding is 'competitive'.

There there was HKPU in Hong Kong, and they said that pretty much the same thing as IIT.

So if the members here know of any universities like this, kindly let me know.

[orangeMan]

I am watching this thread.

I think people need a bit more information to help. What PhD programs are you applying?

I once went to the Fulbright commission's presentation in London about applying to graduate programs in US universities. They said 3.0 is THE minimum for most universities though some universities do make an exception from time to time. All universities that I applied seem to want 3.5 for undergrad GPA and 3.8 for grad GPA. UCLA even specifies universities from which they recruit for the PhD programs. I didn't see any UK universities except London School of Economics!

Edited December 15, 2011 by orangeMan

[Jane Shankar Prasad Goody]

I am going to apply for Phd in Computer Science. And/or Electrical Engineering. Plus, i dont really need to go to a top tier uni, my goal is basically too become a professor back in my home country (Pakistan) and right now all they require is a 'recognised' Phd...i.e. one that isnt fake.

[queller]

I really can not personally relate to your situation, and my information is all observational in nature with a small sample size.

However to get into a PhD program with funding it is my understanding you need a more clear idea of what research your interested in doing. As the research under a professor is the traditional funding source for PhD students. TAing provides income as well but I have never heard of it being a sole source of funding. So what areas of research are you interested in? Plus to get the PhD itself research is required, so using that to frame your university search is probably going to help narrow down schools.

As for looking at universities I might recommend also making a qualification ABET accreditation. As it sounds like you are looking for universities whose names might not carry outside there local area.

[Jane Shankar Prasad Goody]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply queller. Well I am not quite sure what you mean by ABET accredition, but my point before was that I dont need to get into to say CMU, if I can get into a place like Syracuse and get funding ill be fine with that too.

I am looking to do reasearch in AI or Networking. I tried to contact specific professors working in these areas, but only one responded back (from City U of HK) and said that he cant make a decision as the admission decisions are centralised.

So basically, my 'quest' is now to find universities which have admit students into phd with a 3.0-3.2 gpa, but where I dont have to pay to do phd.

[queller]

I am sorry I cannot provide you a list of schools as I honestly do not know enough about either AI or Networking to come up with one. Most the schools I know of are in the U.S News top fifty, and in my own search neither subject has come up.

The reason I mentioned ABET, a good determination of not fake, is I think you may be looking off the typical list of schools.

- Good Luck.

____

ABET (http://www.abet.org/) is an accrediting organization for engineering schools. So most engineering schools that are worth going to are accredited, and honestly I personally would be wary of any engineering program that was not accredited, especially in the US. C.S departments sometimes in different departments than engineering so I wouldn't worry if the C.S department is not ABET accredited if the schools engineering department is. Also if you check for accreditation check for the undergrad program as it is mostly an undergrad based accreditation - based on my limited understanding.

[Jane Shankar Prasad Goody]

Can you give me a few names still? How would you rate IIT?

[queller]

They are ABET accredited, so that is a good sign towards not fake. Though they are outside my research interest, and my narrowly motivated searches, so beyond that I can't rank them.