Chances of being accepted

[danvbh]

Can anyone tell me if I have a good chance of getting accepted to one of the following schools for their Computer Science Masters program. My top choices are: Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, and Princeton.

I have a bachelors in Mathematics from University of Florida.

My GRE scores were 800 Q, and 730 V, and my undergraduate GPA was 3.43.

I have been out of school for several years now, so I am planning to ask my most recent employers to write recommendations for me, as opposed to my professors.

Can anyone tell me how youthink this will line up?

Thanks for your time!

[plisar]

It's hard to say without knowing more details about your GPA? Why is it so low? Is it weighted down by grades in math and science courses or is from classes in the humanities. If it is the former, you may have a hard time at a schools that highly ranked in the field. These programs usually yield about 600 applicants each, if not more, and the median GPA is usually around a 3.7, at least in my experience as a graduate coordinator at a similarly ranked EECS program.

[noojens]

Have you been working in a CS-related field?

[danvbh]

Thanks for the comments. I have been working for 3 years as a software engineer doing research and development. I think my work and research experience will be an asset to me when applying, but I know my GPA is definitely below average. I made the mistake of working full time to pay my way through school, rather than taking a loan. I worked really hard at both, but my grades definitely suffered to a degree.

I've taken 15 credits of CS classes in undergrad. I have a 3.5 average in my CS classes, and a 3.46 average in my major (Math).

Is there anything I can do to strengthen my case? I think I did fairly well on the GRE. Does that weigh as much of a factor to them?

Thanks!

[plisar]

This is something you're going to want to touch on briefly in statement of purpose and in your case, you're going to want a VERY strong statement as to 1) why you want the master's degree and 2) why the school you are choosing is the place that you need to get it. Working throughout your undergraduate degree full time is going to, of course, make it more difficult for you to keep your GPA up.

As for the GRE mattering. Absolutely, it's a fine score, however the verbal score is almost invariably ignored and the quantitative score is used as a cutoff. In most case anything >770 allows the application to continue to be read, while anything below sends serious red flags.

I don't mean to be mean here, and I do actually think you have a chance at these schools, I just think it's important that you know that the odds are poor, even for the best students.

[socialpsych]

I have been out of school for several years now, so I am planning to ask my most recent employers to write recommendations for me, as opposed to my professors.

Perhaps someone in your field can comment on whether this is a good idea. In my field (psychology), it would surely get you rejected, but in CS things may be different.

[belowthree]

It probably wouldn't get him rejected with any particular prejudice, it just wouldn't help him in the least and unless his employers were awesome somehow (not an awesome company mind you, but the industry person writing the actual letters would need to be known to the committee) then the letters will likely be next to worthless and won't help. (Caveat: I realized that I wrote this advice for a PhD applicant. This is more acceptable for an MS student, but still not ideal for top tier schools.)

It's not that they actively will reject you for doing something like this so much as letters of recommendation are generally what get people in and yours wouldn't help you much. So the reality is you face a much higher chance of rejection.

Lower tier schools (i.e. not the ones you listed) might give you more of a chance. Also if you've been doing R&D and have been working with good people who the committee will actually know by name, then that's acceptable. There are places in CS where good research is done in industry, if you happen to be in one of them that might be okay. However, a lot of CS industry research isn't well regarded. Probably the easiest way is to ask an academic what they think and gauge the reaction. If you've published during this research experience, then that's ideal for this background and is probably needed for the schools you listed...

You should apply to a broader range of schools.