Fall 2014 Applicants

[DeleteMePlease]

Thanks for the help!

 

The Quant part seems pretty easy on the first sight. I realized too late that it isn't that simple. I mostly studied with the official GRE book from ETS. Guess this one book wasn't enough (only two paper based practice test, the powerprep stuff didn't work on my linux machine...).

 

Still it sucks that I have to spend more time studying for the GRE instead of working on my research projects. I would wonder if with such a score I would even make the cutoff at schools better schools...

[Arcanen]

The GRE is a game, and you just have to learn how to play it. As others have said, head over to the GRE forum and read up (it's extremely trainable). You need to take it again because your current score would get you thrown out by any half-decent program before the rest of your application was read. You should be aiming to have >90th percentile in quant, which should be quite easy for any serious STEM applicant who prepares properly for the GRE (because many sitting the GRE don't need high quant scores or otherwise don't prepare properly e.g. you).

 

That said, you're doing the right thing by focusing on your research projects. There's plenty of time to study for and take the GRE properly before the 2014 application season closes, but you can't always count on having research projects in your area to contribute to. The GRE is just a hurdle, it's the research projects and the recommendations that result that'll get you into decent programs. You should be able to manage a couple of hours a day for a couple of months on GRE study in addition to your research work.

Edited June 29, 2013 by Arcanen

[compiler_guy]

Thanks for the help!

 

The Quant part seems pretty easy on the first sight. I realized too late that it isn't that simple. I mostly studied with the official GRE book from ETS. Guess this one book wasn't enough (only two paper based practice test, the powerprep stuff didn't work on my linux machine...).

 

Still it sucks that I have to spend more time studying for the GRE instead of working on my research projects. I would wonder if with such a score I would even make the cutoff at schools better schools...

Usually, you may want to aim at a quant score of at least 163+ (the higher the better) and verbal of at least 153+ for CS graduate programs. Also, you might browse to the websites of programs you are considering to check if you could make the cutoff.

Edited June 29, 2013 by compiler_guy

[intervenient]

Can anyone give me some advice on to where to apply to? I posted this in another topic, but no one replied

 

 

 

School:

Top 50 nation, Top 40 CS

 

Major:

Computer Science B.A., emphasis in Computational Geography.

 

GPA:

Probably around ~3.4 by time I send applications in

 

Research:

2 units of independent research in Geography under a respected and well-known researcher in the field of computational cartography. I haven't started, but the goal is to use OpenCV and apply it to spatial analysis.

 

Teaching:

At the time of applying, I'll have two quarters of being an undergraduate "moderator" for the intro to programming class. Basically I provide students in the class after hours help with labs and homework.

 

Projects:

- A full featured todo list. A personal pet project of mine

- Contributing with a professor and group on a library used to automatically generate quizzes for the discrete mathematics course. Goal is to apply these methodologies to the intro programming course.

 

Interests and Goals:

Really, I just want to know more about CS and see if I'd be into research. I feel like my BA was a good primer, but I'd really like to dig a little deeper. I guess my interests so far would be novel interfaces as well as CS education

 

Letters of Recommendation:

I guess I won't know until I know, but I'd image they'd be a little better than average. I did well in all of the instructor's courses, and currently am in contact with them regarding projects, research, and the moderator duties I have.

 

 

 

I'm only applying for a Masters, and ones that seem to have a focus on application, or at least a good mix of practical and theoretical. Thus far I really like CSU Cal Poly, Tufts and USC's programs the best, as they seem to meet my requirements.

 

[coronax707]

Hi Guys,

 

Just posting my brief profile in order to get some advice from you:

 

General:

 

% (NOGPA system followed)    83%  (Bachelor's in Computer Science & Engineering )

GRE: 164Q/154V/3.5 AWA

TOEFL: Next month.

Asian Country.

 

Research Interests:

Computer Vision

Image Processing

 

Research Experience:

4 year research exp. working as a scientist in a leading Govt. Space research organization on Satellite image processing/ Computer Vision/ Photgrammetry projects.

- 2 Earth sensing projects.

- 2 Projects for vision systems/Image processing on other bodies (Moon and Mars)

- 1 project on 3D mapping of objects with photogrammetry.

 

Publications:

2 (IEEE) International conference papers on computer vision/Image Processing (1 having Best paper award)

1 National Paper (Best paper award)

 

LORs: Good (2 from employers, 1 from academia)

 

I want to get admission into one of the top universities' computer vision/Image processing labs for a MS/Ph.D. program.

 

My selection currently lies with:

 

1) CMU

2) UCB

3) UTexas

4) UIUC

5) UPenn

6) UIUC

7) GaTech

 

 

Request you to assist/assess my chances.

Thanks in advance!

Edited August 23, 2013 by coronax707

[elia.shahbazi]

I am new in Grad Cafe and Just posting my profile in order to get some advice from you:

 

Applying for PhD Programs for Fall 2014

 

here is my profile :

 

Msc in Software Engineering (East Carolina University)

GPA 4.0 / 4.0

GRE 141 V / 158 Q / 3 W

 

Msc in Pure Mathematics

GPA 3.5/4

 

Bsc Applied Mathematics and Computer Science

 

10 Years work and industrial experience (including 4 years Managing my Software Company)

 

Research : 

my research mainly was on Cloud Computing security frameworks , Cyber-security and Cryptography and Also a little bit on 3D reconstruction and Visualization 

 

3 research Paper , 1 accepted for a International Journal (IJACSA , Impact Factor 1.312) , 1 paper (submitted - under review) 1 paper pre-submission 

 

Other:

 

4 LoRCM : 1 from my adviser in Software Eng Msc, 2 from my professors, 1 from my Bsc Adviser. 

 

Awards : 1 outstanding graduate student , 1 outstanding graduate assistance 

 

Area(s) of Interests:

software Engineering 

Cloud Computing

Security

Cryptography

Anything between Math and CS

 

 

Schools Considering ( Will Update):

 

Duke

UTA

CUNY

USC

UNCS

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

 

I have no estimation about acceptance rates and .... and I am a little worry about this . I just want to ask ,help me to know , if I have a chance in this list ?! 

[compiler_guy]

 

I am new in Grad Cafe and Just posting my profile in order to get some advice from you:

 

Applying for PhD Programs for Fall 2014

 

here is my profile :

 

Msc in Software Engineering (East Carolina University)

GPA 4.0 / 4.0

GRE 141 V / 158 Q / 3 W

 

Msc in Pure Mathematics

GPA 3.5/4

 

Bsc Applied Mathematics and Computer Science

 

10 Years work and industrial experience (including 4 years Managing my Software Company)

 

Research : 

my research mainly was on Cloud Computing security frameworks , Cyber-security and Cryptography and Also a little bit on 3D reconstruction and Visualization 

 

3 research Paper , 1 accepted for a International Journal (IJACSA , Impact Factor 1.312) , 1 paper (submitted - under review) 1 paper pre-submission 

 

Other:

 

4 LoRCM : 1 from my adviser in Software Eng Msc, 2 from my professors, 1 from my Bsc Adviser. 

 

Awards : 1 outstanding graduate student , 1 outstanding graduate assistance 

 

Area(s) of Interests:

software Engineering 

Cloud Computing

Security

Cryptography

Anything between Math and CS

 

 

Schools Considering ( Will Update):

 

Duke

UTA

CUNY

USC

UNCS

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

 

I have no estimation about acceptance rates and .... and I am a little worry about this . I just want to ask ,help me to know , if I have a chance in this list ?! 

 

Improve GRE ASAP. Should be at least Q > 162 and V > 149

[DeleteMePlease]

Checking back into this thread after some time.  I will retake the GRE in 2 weeks. Did a powerprep sampletest some days ago and scored V157/Q160, even though I felt like I could have done much better on the Quant part I am still happy: this would have been an improvement of 8 points

Assuming that I will have similar (hopefully Quant will be better, got higher scores on previous practice tests: but maybe I'll loose some points to anxiety) scores in the real test. What kind of schools should/can I apply to?

Also, nobody talks about the AW score. Does it matter at all for CS?

I contacted a professor from Cornell some weeks ago and he looked at my CV and said "I highly encourage you to apply". However, he doesn't know my GRE scores nor my GPA (which is around 3.7 converted).

Can I assume that work/research experience is much more important that GRE? I do have both research experience and also work experience.
 
My plan is to apply to the following schools  (likeliness of acceptance in my opinion in ascending order):

Cornell, UIUC

UPenn, Georgia Tech

UMass, UNC

 

I know Cornell and UIUC will most likely reject me but do you think that I have a chance with any of these schools?

Edited September 26, 2013 by GermanStudent

[compiler_guy]

Checking back into this thread after some time.  I will retake the GRE in 2 weeks. Did a powerprep sampletest some days ago and scored V157/Q160, even though I felt like I could have done much better on the Quant part I am still happy: this would have been an improvement of 8 points

Assuming that I will have similar (hopefully Quant will be better, got higher scores on previous practice tests: but maybe I'll loose some points to anxiety) scores in the real test. What kind of schools should/can I apply to?

Also, nobody talks about the AW score. Does it matter at all for CS?

I contacted a professor from Cornell some weeks ago and he looked at my CV and said "I highly encourage you to apply". However, he doesn't know my GRE scores nor my GPA (which is around 3.7 converted).

Can I assume that work/research experience is much more important that GRE? I do have both research experience and also work experience.

 

My plan is to apply to the following schools  (likeliness of acceptance in my opinion in ascending order):

Cornell, UIUC

UPenn, Georgia Tech

UMass, UNC

 

I know Cornell and UIUC will most likely reject me but do you think that I have a chance with any of these schools?

GRE is mostly to meet the cut-off (so if you score below the cut-off, the committee would not even look at your application).

 

If you want to maximize your chances, you might want to apply to at least 5 more universities, since the chance of getting admitted is relatively low (programs admit between 3% to 10% of applicants).

Edited September 27, 2013 by compiler_guy

[DeleteMePlease]

Okay thanks. I am still looking for more schools that meet my research interested but it is not that easy...

[markjin1990]

Applying for PhD programs. Interested in mobile computing. I feel that lack of research experience is a major shortcoming of my application. Not sure what are the schools of my level. Is 10-20 CS program, like UCSD, too high or just appropriate for me? Any suggestion is very welcome.

 

General Profile: 

International Asian Male

Top state university with top 20 CS program

Major(s): Computer Science (BS), Mathematics (BS) finished in 3 yrs

GPA: 3.9+/4.0

GRE: 155V / 170Q / 3.0W

 

Two-month Undergrad Research so far, no publication

Several competition projects

1 Summer Internship in top company

1 year part-time software engineer in local company

Edited October 6, 2013 by markjin1990

[compiler_guy]

 

Applying for PhD programs. Interested in mobile computing. I feel that lack of research experience is a major shortcoming of my application. Not sure what are the schools of my level. Is 10-20 CS program, like UCSD, too high or just appropriate for me? Any suggestion is very welcome.

 

General Profile: 

International Asian Male

Top state university with top 20 CS program

Major(s): Computer Science (BS), Mathematics (BS) finished in 3 yrs

GPA: 3.9+/4.0

GRE: 155V / 170Q / 3.0W

 

Two-month Undergrad Research so far, no publication

Several competition projects

1 Summer Internship in top company

1 year part-time software engineer in local company

 

Depends on quality and authors of the letters of recommendation

[hvasilev]

Rejected from Waterloo for Winte term. 

Applying for Fall 2014 !

[DeleteMePlease]

So I retook the GRE on Wednesday and got 156 verbal and 161 quant. Still not perfect but a huge improvement. Thanks to everybody who suggested me to retake the test.

 

I also decided to put UC Boulder, GaTech and University of Maryland on my list. Now I "just" have to talk to my professors for the LoRs and finish my Statement of Purpose.

 

Good luck to all other applicants.

Edited October 11, 2013 by GermanStudent

[markjin1990]

Depends on quality and authors of the letters of recommendation

 

Yeah, I will definitely talk to my professors in a few weeks. I guess I could get two strong LoRs other than "GWIC". Thanks for your comment. 

[compiler_guy]

So I retook the GRE on Wednesday and got 156 verbal and 161 quant. Still not perfect but a huge improvement. Thanks to everybody who suggested me to retake the test.

 

I also decided to put UC Boulder, GaTech and University of Maryland on my list. Now I "just" have to talk to my professors for the LoRs and finish my Statement of Purpose.

 

Good luck to all other applicants.

Good luck to you too!

I might want to apply to as many universities that could fit your interests, even universities that are not the top 25. Also it is always a good idea to contact POI in those universities to check if their current research is related to something you want to do (because sometimes professors don't update their website's that often, and their research might change according to funding and stuff).

[sahasra]

Hey I am applying to Masters in computer science for Fall 2014 . What are my chances of getting into the following universities ?

 

1) University of Calofornia,  santa cruz

2) University of California, Riverside

3) University of Texas,Dallas
4) Rochester institute of technology

 

My Profile:

============
Gre:305
Acads:7.2 cgpa
Toefl: yet to take
Interested degree: MS in cs

[compiler_guy]

Hey I am applying to Masters in computer science for Fall 2014 . What are my chances of getting into the following universities ?

 

1) University of Calofornia,  santa cruz

2) University of California, Riverside

3) University of Texas,Dallas

4) Rochester institute of technology

 

My Profile:

============

Gre:305

Acads:7.2 cgpa

Toefl: yet to take

Interested degree: MS in cs

What is the quantitative, vocab and writing part of gre? either way it depends on your letters of recommendation.

Edited October 26, 2013 by compiler_guy

[qualthian]

Hey guys, just wanna leave my info and list here.

 

International undergrad computer science student

GPA: 3.59

Toefl: 112

GRE: 145V / 170Q / 4.5 AW

 

Research experience: 2 different projects. 2 months on a different topic, 2 months (and ongoing) on my interest

 

My List:

Stanford

UC Berkeley

Cornell

UPenn

University of Utah

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 

I don't expect to be admitted to any of these, but we shall see. I have burned about $1100 including tests for applications.

 

Good luck to all applicants. It is a tiresome process and hope we all get in somewhere in the end.

Edited December 3, 2013 by qualthian

[compiler_guy]

Hey guys, just wanna leave my info and list here.

 

International undergrad computer science student

GPA: 3.59

Toefl: 112

GRE: 145V / 170Q / 4.5 AW

 

Research experience: 2 different projects. 2 months on a different topic, 2 months (and ongoing) on my interest

 

My List:

Stanford

UC Berkeley

Cornell

UPenn

University of Utah

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 

I don't expect to be admitted to any of these, but we shall see. I have burned about $1100 including tests for applications.

 

Good luck to all applicants. It is a tiresome process and hope we all get in somewhere in the end.

You might want to consider to apply to more universities (11-14). Just base on chance alone there is a 5-10% chance of getting to an average top-30 university, and this chance drops to around 3% for 3-4 of the universities on your list.

Edited December 3, 2013 by compiler_guy

[qualthian]

You might want to consider to apply to more universities (11-14). Just base on chance alone there is a 5-10% chance of getting to an average top-30 university, and this chance drops to around 3% for 3-4 of the universities on your list.

 

Thank you fo your suggestion. The problem is, the field I am interested in is only active among these + few other universities (that dont require masters). So, I sadly dont have many choices.

[null_value]

Applying for MS or PhD Programs for Fall 2014

 

GPA 3.85/4.0 (Major GPA 3.89/4.0)

GRE 160 VR/152 QR/5.0 AW

 

BS Business Information Systems (Linfield College)

 

Related Experience:

11 years of professional experience (including current position as Assistant Director of Admissions, working as a DBA for our CRM using SQL server).

 

Research:

I am planning on conducting research in programming language and compiler design for parallel computing optimization.

 

Other:

3 Letters of Recommendation: 1 from the Computer Science Department Head where I got my degree, 2 from professors. 

 

Awards: 

Magna Cum Laude, Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society

 

Area(s) of Interests:

Software Systems

Parallel Computing

Programming Languages

 

Schools Applied:

University of Illinois (MS)

University of Michigan (PhD)

University of Colorado (PhD)

Oregon State University (MS/PhD)

Portland State University (MS/PhD)

University of Oregon (MS/PhD)

 

I know that the QR score is bad. Unfortunately I will not have enough time to retake for at least half of the applications I have submitted. In most cases though I at least meet the prescribed minimum. I understand that my profile probably is not strong enough for U-Mich or Illinois, but I gave it a stab anyway. Hopefully nothing takes me completely out of the running in the rest of the schools though!

 

I have reached out to a number of the professors in the research areas I am most interested in, and have had some positive responses, so hopefully I am on the right track!

[D8F1F488]

M.Sc in CS / ML / AI / Robotics

 

International

 

88 / 100 ( ~3.52 GPA )

 

143V 166Q 3.5AW

 

111 TOEFL

 

3 academic LoRs.

 

Any chances at top 100 ?

Edited December 6, 2013 by D8F1F488

[perequai]

Applying for Professional MS Programs for Fall 2014

-GPA 3.62/4.0

-GRE 161 VR/168 Quant/3.5 AW

-toefl ibt : 114/120

-BS computer science in the first rank university in my country especially computer science

-international student(southeast asia)

-already had a full funding(tuition, living allowance, etc) scholarship from my country's government

-not interested in research

 

Related Experience:

has just graduated this year

 

Area(s) of Interests:

Computer Graphics (3D) 

Artificial Intelligence

 

Schools list (as of now):

stanford 

cmu

oxford (taught programme)

princeton

cornell (m.eng)

berkeley (m.eng)

university of california san diego

 

I am hesitating in deciding where to apply. I am trying to minimize my application to just 4 or 5 university. I want to study in the US more than in UK. could you suggest a better list?

[qualthian]

M.Sc in CS / ML / AI / Robotics

 

International

 

88 / 100 ( ~3.52 GPA )

 

143V 166Q 3.5AW

 

111 TOEFL

 

3 academic LoRs.

 

Any chances at top 100 ?

 

Since you have a masters degree, I believe you are expected to have publication(s). Do you have any?