UT Austin CS PhD admissions - My chances

[jaya2008]

Hi all,

I really appreciate if you can comment on my chances of getting into UT Austin CS PhD program. I like both CS, and Engineering programs at UT Austin. In addition I want to know my chances for the Stanford, MIT, and Cal Berkeley CS PhD programs.

Graduate: Computer Science, MS (Thesis)

GPA: 3.9

School: Texas State

Undergraduate (Dual degree, from my home country): B.Sc. CS (with honors), GPA : 3.70, and IT (external degree)

Research:

2 Journal papers (in progress), 3 IEEE conference papers, 1 refereed unpublished paper. (total 6 research publications, 2 technical reports, 3 Thesis publications). Probably, 1 more conference paper at the end of this year.(1/2 journal paper first author, 2/3 conference papers first author)

Summer Research student internship at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Two research grants from Sigma Xi grant in aid of research (for two previous research proposals)

CS department research excellence award, academic excellence award, number of other graduate college scholarships.

Reviewer for several international conferences

Several Talks at college level and at Berkeley Lab

Active Extra curriculum (Student Government, CS Society)

GRE (this is my weak point): planning to retake soon, (sure of Q>750, verbal ??? may be around 400-500), In 2006 got only Q-750 and V-250

Recommendations: 2 professors from the college (my advisor and a research collaborator from another department) and 1 scientist (summer internship advisor) from Berkeley Lab.

(This will be my biggest strength, sure of getting top letters)

My wish list,

1. UT Austin (ambitious)

2. MIT, Stanford, Cal Berkeley (Dream)

3. Texas A&M (in case not UT Austin)

4. U of Houston (safe)

5. UT Dallas (safe)

6. UTSA (safe)

Thanks in advance,

Jay

[belowthree]

I would hazard a guess that you have decent chances at every school on your list (and really every school not on your list) if your rec letters are three-fourths as good as you think they will be.

Your safe schools seem safe. Your reach schools seem feasible and UT Austin seems likely. (I say likely because I'm assuming the UT Austin profs are more likely to know your LoR writers.)

I take it you like Texas?

Also, which conferences were these? The IEEE put their name on everything so saying "IEEE conference" tells us very little. I'm going to assume tier I or tier II conferences here, but if you've spent a lot of time publishing in tier III conferences that could present a small roadbump. Were you first author on these or the obligatory ugrad mention?

Oh... but do make sure your professors address your verbal scores if you aren't going to retake. (And... even if you do really... what the hell happened?) Those will be a problem if they don't hear anything about them. Some profs may just go ahead and call you up and interview you if they aren't sure.

[jaya2008]

My advisor just started his career (I guess just 3years back!!). He is well known in his field (HCI), but not sure how well UT Austin people know about him. The other professor is from Physical Therapy and this probably a problem (We have a collaborative project on HCI). The other recommender from Berkeley Lab definitely a well known. All three are pretty much impressed on my research ability, especially my advisor is doing all he can to put me into UT Austin PhD program.

I

[belowthree]

Well... I'm not familiar with your subfield but those conferences looks like they might be a bit disappointing. Probably won't count against you, but I wouldn't factor in your publications now. Your list still looks reasonable, just I don't think the adcom is likely to weight those papers too heavily.

It'll come down to the reputation of your LoR writers and what they have to say.

I may also be underestimating these conferences. I just briefly scanned the PC list, so my analysis is extremely shallow and I have no knowledge whatsoever about the standards for HCI and which conferences there are good.

[jaya2008]

Here

[dijkstra.jr]

As a currently enrolled PhD student at UT studying computer science I feel able to answer your questions, but first let me ask you a couple. What is it that you are interested in studying? If you're interested in HCI as your previous research indicted then I would suggest steering clear of UT. We do not have anyone for you to work with who is doing good work in HCI, and as anyone working on a PhD with half a brain will tell you, the most important aspect of pursuing a PhD is with whom you are working not where you are going. Do you have specific areas of research you're interested in beyond the usual systems/AI/theory triumvirate? If so, I can tell you a bit about who we have here working on problems in those areas and whether or not they are competent researchers/advisers. If you don't have a short list of people you would consider working with when you are applying to a school, don't even bother applying. A PhD program is not the place to figure that out. You will just end up wasting time and money (through years of missed wages) floundering in a program without any direction. I have several friends who are currently at UT because it was the highest ranked school they were accepted to and who didn't fully consider what kind of research they would enjoy working on, and they are consequently very unhappy. That being said, if you find someone to work with with similar interests and a compatible working style, UT isn't a bad place to get a PhD (if you're sure that's what you really want).

As for your questions about your chances, let me say this. In the most recent incoming class we accepted many boneheads with much worse applications than yours on paper. We have routinely accepted students with no publications. These are often students coming directly from undergrad. I know for a fact that some committee members rate GRE scores as a weighty part of the admission decision making process, but they do not really care about verbal scores unless they are atrociously bad. Quantitative and CS GRE scores are pretty much the only scores they really pay attention to. Another thing to consider is that the program here doesn't really favor those with incoming MS degrees. We do not have quals, only course requirements. If we had quals you could probably immediately test out of those, but unfortunately you will be required to take quite a few courses to satisfy the course requirements. I came in with an MS from elsewhere and found that I was only able to get course requirements waived for 3 of the 8 total required courses to advance to candidacy (and getting a waiver isn't a given). This is the max that dept allows you to get waived. The course requirements are pretty complicated so I will not go into the specifics, but suffice it to say having an MS will not make your PhD get done much faster at UT.

Also, I cannot stress my first point enough. If you do not have a list of serious adviser candidates in mind before applying here, beware. Additionally, if you get accepted be sure to talk to them and ask them pointed questions about their advising style, funding situation, openness to working on problems other than their own pet projects, and average graduation time for previous students. The point in time when you're having these discussions will be only time in the adviser/advisee relationship when you have an iota of power. I would suggest being frank about what you expect to get out of working with them. Honesty now will save you tons of pain down the road. The program (as most are) is structured such that you'll be totally reliant on your adviser for financial support, direction, and guidance towards graduation. The channels outside of your adviser for seeking such things are really just for show. The attitude by faculty members is really one of "that's not my problem" when it comes to the overall well-being and quality of the PhD program and its students (other than their own and for some faculty members, even for their own). If you have a good working relationship with your adviser, none of this will come up, but if you decide you want to change advisers after a year or two expect to be here for a very long time...

[katie_shemp]

Good GRE score is important for international students who do not have much research background.

Your profile is extremely strong. Research papers published in Journal is surely a big plus and on top of that recos from big shots.

That being said, MIT,Stanford and UCB are always game of chance but with your profile, I strongly think you should go ahead and take a chance.

For a closer inspection, you may wanna explore the admission prediction tool at this site-- www.missiongre.com --- Admission Prediction Tool

[jaya2008]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Dijkastra, Yes I agreed with you that most important thing is the student-advisor relationship. I definitely in a process of getting some collaboration research with a professor at UT Austin. My current advisor is planning to attend several meetings with UT professors to discuss possible research collaboration, and he is gonna sell me as the best student from his lab for any collaboration. This going to be definitely a huge plus ,if I can start a research before the application deadlines.

As katie pointed out, I know my strength is in the LOR, GPA, and Research. I'm getting ready for my GRE, hopefully end of Oct. This time I