DeleteMePlease Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Hi, I just want to start a thread for all Fall 2014 CS applicants. How far are you with your applications? I will take my GRE at the end of June and am currently selecting the schools I want to apply to. My dream programme is Ph.D at Cornell with a focus on systems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hvasilev Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 I most probably will be applying for the Fall 2014 term too. I'm applying for MMath / MSc CS programs. I've currently applied only at the University of Waterloo for the Winter term 2014 ( some Canadians have Winter terms with deadline June the previous year ). International student GRE: 144 V / 166Q / 3.5 AW TOEFL: 111 GPA: 3.6 GPA Developer exprience: 2-3 years Waterloo, Toronto, McMaster UBC Research Interests: Software Engineering / Machine learning or something in the middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaul Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Hi, I'm planning for Fall 2014. Initially with MSc/MMath and maybe eventually PhD. International Student GRE - 167Q/ 159V/ 4.5AWA IELTS - 8 CGPA - 8.67/10 Developer Experience - 4.5 years Applying to:- Toronto, UBC, Waterloo, McGill, NTU (Singapore) Interest - Data Mining/ Machine Learning Hi hvasilev, Looks like we'll be applying to very similar Universities . Had a question for you - Are you planning to approach any of the professors directly? Since I am not entirely sure what specialization to go for, I was wondering if it's a good idea to contact them as potential advisor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hvasilev Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 hi papaul! First of all - cool application ! ( better than mine in every possible way ) Regarding your question - I haven't contacted a professor directly and now when I look back - it might have been a mistake. Only the results from the Winter term admissions will tell for sure. Out of the universities that you've chosen to apply for, do you consider Waterloo to be a safe school ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaul Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Scores are merely a part of the application. I'm sure you have stellar SOP and LOR And best of luck for you Winter term admission! As for Waterloo being safe - Actually I had posted my profile previously in this forum to gauge my chances. The responses were more or less positive but albeit with a word of caution - Since these are the top schools in Canada it's better to have backup. Waterloo is probably not "Safe" but I'll just try my luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hvasilev Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Do you guys believe that the Verbal Reasoning matters at all for CS admissions ? My fears these days are that my application won't actually make some non-sense V cut-off, cuz i have like 144V and 3.5 AW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSA Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Do you guys believe that the Verbal Reasoning matters at all for CS admissions ? My fears these days are that my application won't actually make some non-sense V cut-off, cuz i have like 144V and 3.5 AW My understanding from looking at various websites is that the verbal is less important than quantitative for CS (which is sad for me, because verbal is one of my big strengths). Some admissions pages do mention a minimum cutoff, though. I'm also applying for the fall 2014 semester. I want to really get involved in research, but I don't have real research experience, so I'm still unsure of whether I should be applying for MS or PhD programs, or some sort of weird mix of the two across my choices? GRE: 167 V / 163 Q / 5.5 W GPA: 3.66 2 years experience in industry I'm really wanting to get involved with graphics/visualization/simulation work. My choices so far... Georgia Tech UNC UMich UIUC Wisconsin - Madison Purdue Middle-of-the-road? University of Utah (went here for undergrad) Michigan State? Ohio State NYU Safety (yay in-state tuition...): University of Kansas Kansas State University Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnufoo Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Ok, I'll play: My major interest is in Computer Graphics as of now. In particular, I am interested in Virtual Reality. I will mostly be applying for Master's programs as I feel my lack of research experience and non-exceptional gpa would prevent me from attending a school I would be happy with for a PhD. So I am hoping to use a research masters to springboard myself into a great PhD program. Domestic Student Double Major in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics GRE: To be taken in July. Practice 164Q/160V GPA: 3.425 CSGPA: 3.514 Upper Division CSGPA: 3.7 Work Experience: -Currently at a firmware company as a developer intern. Roughly 1 year. -Teach lower division math workshops for my current university. Research Experience: None yet, but will be completing some during the fall which should strengthen my experience, at least in terms of the LOR it will get me. It is too bad that it is not in my area of interest, it is in Physics. List of schools, as of today haha: UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Barbara UC Irvine University of Southern California Rensselear Polytechnic University UC Davis University of Utah Brown University Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icydubloon Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 I shall also bite: Applying to MS programs for computer science (academic/thesis based). Interested in computational biology, data mining, and machine learning. If I don't get admitted, I'll just go straight to industry. Domestic Asian Male Top State School (Berkeley, Washington, Illinois, Texas, etc.) BS, Computer Science and BS, Bioengineering GPA: 3.8 / 4.0 GRE (practice): 170Q, 163V Work Experience: 2 internships at software companies (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, etc.) 1 internship at a healthcare/biomedical company (Stryker, McKesson, etc.) On-campus TA/grader for a few classes. Research Experience: 1.5 years with a CS lab 0.5 years with a BME lab 1 publication in distributed computing 1 submitted publication in biology Others: Two letters from advisors who supervised my research. One letter from a professor of a class I did well in (tried to avoid this...) Pretty standard SOP. Schools: Mainly top schools (that offer an MS). Carnegie Mellon Stanford Berkeley Illinois Texas Michigan Brown Princeton Penn Johns Hopkins As far as applications go -- I will be taking the actual GRE once or twice before the deadlines. I'm working on my SOP now so I can have it reviewed during the fall semester. And I'm saving up for the application fees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnufoo Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 As far as applications go -- I will be taking the actual GRE once or twice before the deadlines. I'm working on my SOP now so I can have it reviewed during the fall semester. And I'm saving up for the application fees. The application fees are killer, that is why I am trying to narrow down my list as much as possible. You may be able to do this by seeing which of those schools has current research in your interests and cut out the ones who don't Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeleteMePlease Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 Do you guys believe that the Verbal Reasoning matters at all for CS admissions ? My fears these days are that my application won't actually make some non-sense V cut-off, cuz i have like 144V and 3.5 AW I have the same worries here. I don't think my English is that bad. I scored pretty high on the IELTS. I read that Cornell has recommends at verbal >500 (153 scaled). Do you guys think it makes sense to delay my GRE and study some more vocabulary? I would like to focus on my research, but I am scared that my application will not even be considered because of a low verbal score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hvasilev Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) Exactly my point. The Verbal reasoning section makes no sense at all, especially for an international student @ CS. 166Q - total of 5 hours preparation ( made 3 practice tests - all 170Q ) 144V - 2 months of preparation. ( Princeton HIT Parade , Anki flash-cards ) As it turns out - my brain is incapable of storing obviously useless information. Am I still worried that i might get rejected for such non-sense like the V or AW ? - Yes .... I most certainly am. Edited June 19, 2013 by hvasilev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnufoo Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Exactly my point. The Verbal reasoning section makes no sense at all, especially for an international student @ CS. 166Q - total of 5 hours preparation ( made 3 practice tests - all 170Q ) 144V - 2 months of preparation. ( Princeton HIT Parade , Anki flash-cards ) As it turns out - my brain is incapable of storing obviously useless information. Am I still worried that i might get rejected for such non-sense like the V or AW ? - Yes .... I most certainly am. Since you are an international student, I don't think most will hold it against you. The verbal section is honestly ridiculous. I believe myself to be decently well read, and I still find most of the choices downright obscure for obscurity's sake, so don't be too hard on yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naija chux Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Hello, I'm also planning fall of 2014. I'm considering only one school, UBC because of their funding for international students and the research work of their Data mining group. Would be writing TOEFL next month No GRE because UBC doesn't require it CGPA of second class upper (i guess that's a 3.3 - 3.6 on the US scale) 2 years of work experience as software developer No research paper nor research work Interested in Data mining and Social Network Analysis Please I would appreciate suggestions of Universities that have good funding for International Students and not to expensive school fees just like UBC. Thanks!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hvasilev Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 (edited) Nearly all top Canadian universities offer good funding for international students, provided that you've actually been accepted with a non-thesis option there. Don't target schools which don't require GRE, unless you're from a top university with which the admission committee is familiar. The GRE is used ( to some extend ) to show how relevant your GPA is compared to their standarts. The GRE requirement is working for you, not against you. Edited June 22, 2013 by hvasilev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naija chux Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Nearly all top Canadian universities offer good funding for international students, provided that you've actually been accepted with a non-thesis option there. Don't target schools which don't require GRE, unless you're from a top university with which the admission committee is familiar. The GRE is used ( to some extend ) to show how relevant your GPA is compared to their standarts. The GRE requirement is working for you, not against you. Thanks a lot for that. The reason why I have not yet registered for GRE is that UBC doesn't need it but if I say a university whose school fees is arounf $10,000 per year, has funding for international students and needs GRE, heck, I would write the exam immediately (I have been practicing for months). I checked Toronto's fees and it was something like $27,000 for a year. That's pretty expensive for only tuition. Would rather apply to a School in the US if I could pay that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeleteMePlease Posted June 24, 2013 Author Share Posted June 24, 2013 (edited) So here is my profile. Converted GPA 3.6-3.7. Though, its really difficult to convert it directly. I will take the GRE next friday. Hoping that I will end up somewhere around 60% verbal and 80%+ in quant. Have been working on a research project for nearly a year now. If I am luck I will have a (unpublished?) paper by the time I apply. Haven't taken the TOEFL yet. Had 8.0 two years ago in the IELTS, which is around 110 in the TOEFL scale. I expect to have at least 100 when I retake the TOEFL. Besides school I have been working in two different companies for over a year. Do you think that will excuse my bad grades a little? I think one would also give me a strong letter of recommendation. One research internship in the US this summer. Two or three strong recommendations. Hopefully, one from the the American professor. Several projects I have been working. Mostly opensource stuff. Additionally, I am student representative in my school. Not sure if such stuff helps my application? I also wonder if political activism is something you would put on an application? Would be happy to hear some comments on my application. I am interested in networking. Do you think I have a chance at schools like Cornell, UMass or UofT? There is a research project at MIT that would perfectly fit my interests and background, but I think my profile is not strong enough to apply... I also decided to only apply to good programs. I will stay in Germany if I won't get admitted. Edited June 24, 2013 by GermanStudent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naija chux Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 One research internship in the US this summer. Two or three strong recommendations. Hopefully, one from the the American professor. Several projects I have been working. Mostly opensource stuff. Is it highly important that the LORs come from a professor in America because all my LORs are from Nigeria (the head of Department, another professor in the Dept. and my present boss where I work). Hope that would carry some weight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeleteMePlease Posted June 25, 2013 Author Share Posted June 25, 2013 I think the most important factor is wheter the person recommending you is known by the people who read you application. So if they person recommending you is known in the field you want to go, then I wouldn't worry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
complexbongo Posted June 27, 2013 Share Posted June 27, 2013 (edited) Applying for PhD programs. General Profile: Domestic White Male Major(s): Computer Science (BS), Mechanical Engineering (BME) Minor(s): Mathematics GPA: 3.4/4.0 (Cumulative), 3.7/4.0 (CS) GRE: 155V / 168Q / 4.5W Research Experience: 2+ Years Undergrad Research 1 Conference Publication in CS ( Best Paper Award ) 1 Journal Publication Other: 5 Graduate Courses Taken (and more scheduled) Area(s) of Interests: Artificial Intelligence Robotics Software Engineering Machine Learning Schools Considering (Large List! No Particular Order. Will Update): Stanford UC Berkeley North Carolina Duke Cal Tech Penn Washington Johns Hopkins Northeastern Boston U UC San Diego UCLA UC Santa Barbara MIT USC George Washington Maryland Yale Harvard Columbia NYU I have a lot of top schools, and some fallbacks. Location is a huge factor for me, thus why most of my schools are bundled on the West Coast or Northeast. I'm looking to narrow this down to ~10 schools (which is still a lot!). Edited June 27, 2013 by complexbongo complexbongo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hvasilev Posted June 27, 2013 Share Posted June 27, 2013 I'm curios what your SoP will be looking like with those research interest. Do you intend to state all your research interests in a single SoP or are you going to focus on only one research interest for a specific school ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
complexbongo Posted June 27, 2013 Share Posted June 27, 2013 hvasilev, My SoP will talk about my research experiences, as well as the areas I wish to pursue, with a mention of possible projects and professors I may be interested in working with. I plan to tie them all together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeleteMePlease Posted June 29, 2013 Author Share Posted June 29, 2013 So, I took my GRE yesterday. I had less time to study for it than I expected (it the middle of the semester here and exams are approaching), and ended up with Q:157 V:151. I definitely will retake the GRE, but what would happen if I did not improve my score? Will this totally screw my application? I decided to cross of top 10 schools from my list but are top20 or top30 schools even possible with such a score? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hvasilev Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 Well, in comparison I'm aiming for top30 schools for a Master's Degree and I'm not feeling optimistic at all. But then again ... optimism is just a a lack of information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compiler_guy Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 So, I took my GRE yesterday. I had less time to study for it than I expected (it the middle of the semester here and exams are approaching), and ended up with Q:157 V:151. I definitely will retake the GRE, but what would happen if I did not improve my score? Will this totally screw my application? I decided to cross of top 10 schools from my list but are top20 or top30 schools even possible with such a score? Most people improve their score by a couple of points if they take the GRE the 2nd time. But taking this statistic for granted will not help you if you don't study harder. There are also GRE preparation books and classes available. There is a forum right here that deals with all these GRE issues - browse over there to get some good advice on how to prepare yourself better: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/68-gregmatetc/ Definitely focus on improving your Q score. V score is somewhat less important for CS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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