Profile Evaluation - Advice needed (Second-time applicant)

[WishfulThinker]

Hi all. I applied last year to a couple of Canadian universities (for a MSc. program) and unfortunately I didn't get accepted in any of them (Waterloo and Alberta, my fault for only applying to these two).

 

I got an industry job now, but my dream is to get into graduate school and I want to study a Master's degree first. Here's my profile:

 

International Student

Major in Computer Engineering from Top 5 university in Mexico.

GPA: 9/10

GRE: Q: 158, V: 157, AW: 4.5  (Yes, I know the Quant score is low)

TOEFL IBT: 110/120

No research experience

My LORs were from professors who I took courses with (so I'm guessing they were good, but not great)

An award for scoring very high in a national CS exam. (less than 2% of the students received this award)

 

I really want to apply next year to some schools again, particularly Canadian and maybe a couple of US universities. My interests are Systems and Software Engineering but I know that my lack of research experience really hurts my application.

 

What would you recommend?

 

I'd probably apply to Alberta, Calgary, Ottawa and maybe a few more. I haven't done much research on US universities so I don't really know which ones would be "appropriate" for my profile...

Edited August 9, 2013 by WishfulThinker

[hvasilev]

The fact that you've been rejected with this application from those universities, pretty much minimizes my chances ( practically your application is better than mine in almost every possible way )

 

You should definitely try again. At least to me - it looks quite decent.

 

1) Are you considered to be from a different field if you have a CE background and you apply for a MMath @ CS program ?

2) When did you receive a response from Waterloo ? How long after you submitted your application.

 

Research ... shouldn't matter that much, because it's not an accelerated program ... ( at least that's my logic ).

 

Honestly I have no idea why you were rejected.

[WishfulThinker]

The fact that you've been rejected with this application from those universities, pretty much minimizes my chances ( practically your application is better than mine in almost every possible way )

 

You should definitely try again. At least to me - it looks quite decent.

 

1) Are you considered to be from a different field if you have a CE background and you apply for a MMath @ CS program ?

2) When did you receive a response from Waterloo ? How long after you submitted your application.

 

Research ... shouldn't matter that much, because it's not an accelerated program ... ( at least that's my logic ).

 

Honestly I have no idea why you were rejected.

I suspect the GRE Quantitative score had something to do with it. Maybe it's too low for their standards. 

 

I'd love to reapply this year, but my profile is basically the same and applications are not cheap at all.

 

1) I don't think so, I chose the Software option in my major so some of my classes were Software Engineering, Algorithms, Databases, Compilers, etc. It was basically Computer Science.

2) Early January, I applied on like October or November.

 

Edited August 9, 2013 by WishfulThinker

[hvasilev]

2) Early January, I applied on like October or November.

 

That's probably one of the things which you should have mentiontioned in the OP.

If memory serves me right, that's a Spring semester application, in which the spots are REALLY limited ?

[WishfulThinker]

That's probably one of the things which you should have mentiontioned in the OP.

If memory serves me right, that's a Spring semester application, in which the spots are REALLY limited ?

I applied for the Fall term. The deadline was on December.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Retake the GRE and try to get some research experience. Not much more you can do. 

[naija chux]

Your profile is very much above average.

I guess it's your SOP that you need to work on. Try getting some few tips on how to write a good SOP.