PHD - Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, etc.

[ajc]

I would like to find out information regarding Stanford, Berkeley, MIT. Basically top CS schools.

My undergraduate studies were B.Eng (Software). Completed in Australia, The University of New South Wales, which is the top engineering school in Australia (at least).

I did fairly well, ranking 1st in the class, thus earning first class honours and the university medal in software engineering. I have a bunch of awards (6 or so), came first in 10 subjects, have a publication from my thesis work. At the moment I am working on more papers but they won't be done for some time.

So... I'm trying to find out chances to get into a USA CS PHD program and costs associated with international phd study.

Anyone got any insights.

I have been reading these boards for a bit now, a lot of discussion is centered around gpa and gre scores. With gpa australia uses a 7 system, whilst america uses 4 and gre, I will need to take it this coming october.

Cheers.

[montage9]

Do plan on taking Subject GRE in Computer Science for Berkeley and MIT. From the research I have done, all of the accepted candidates for PhD had good Subject GRE score (>=90 percentile).

Good luck!

[belowthree]

Do plan on taking Subject GRE in Computer Science for Berkeley and MIT. From the research I have done, all of the accepted candidates for PhD had good Subject GRE score (>=90 percentile).

1) It doesn't follow that because they accepted good people who happened to have high subject GRE scores, those people were helped by their GRE scores. One would hope that anyone accepted to Berkeley or MIT's graduate computer science program would do well on the CS subject GRE, so the second sentence lends no support to the first one.

2) MIT, one of the schools you cited where taking the subject GRE would be important, does not require, ask for or use GRE scores in the admissions process.

[montage9]

1) It doesn't follow that because they accepted good people who happened to have high subject GRE scores, those people were helped by their GRE scores. One would hope that anyone accepted to Berkeley or MIT's graduate computer science program would do well on the CS subject GRE, so the second sentence lends no support to the first one.

2) MIT, one of the schools you cited where taking the subject GRE would be important, does not require, ask for or use GRE scores in the admissions process.

But these two schools definitely seem to be giving additional weightage to those that have taken GRE Subject test as part of their application process. The # of rejects have been quite high (statistically) for those who have not taken GRE subject test. But of course your point about having high percentile scores for those that got admits could just have been because they are good at it (non relational)

[belowthree]

But these two schools definitely seem to be giving additional weightage to those that have taken GRE Subject test as part of their application process. The # of rejects have been quite high (statistically) for those who have not taken GRE subject test. But of course your point about having high percentile scores for those that got admits could just have been because they are good at it (non relational)

Again, given that one of these schools does not accept GRE scores or offer a place for you to put them on your application I think it's safe to assume that your assumption that these schools weigh these elements heavily is incorrect. That you continue to assert it in the face of these facts is nuts.

Exactly how do you suppose they weigh something that isn't in their application and they don't know?

[montage9]

Again, given that one of these schools does not accept GRE scores or offer a place for you to put them on your application I think it's safe to assume that your assumption that these schools weigh these elements heavily is incorrect. That you continue to assert it in the face of these facts is nuts.

Exactly how do you suppose they weigh something that isn't in their application and they don't know?

http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Gradadm/Re ... ta.htm#gre

"Computer Science applicants are advised to take the GRE Subject test in Computer Science, Math, or Physics, although it is not required. The subject tests are offered only 3 times a year."

[belowthree]

I did not assert that Berkeley doesn't look at the GREs. They do. I did assert, quite explicitly, that MIT doesn't, since they don't.

You swore up and down that you were sure both schools weighted this portion of the application heavily. Given that one of the schools doesn't even *have* that portion of the application, can you not see how your assertions as to its heavy weight are utterly absurd?

And really? You link me to the FAQ for an application I already filled out last year for facts that I never disputed? Are you even reading my posts before fluttering on to misinform the next person about your mistaken ideas on how GREs are weighted in graduate applications?

[montage9]

I did not assert that Berkeley doesn't look at the GREs. They do. I did assert, quite explicitly, that MIT doesn't, since they don't.

You swore up and down that you were sure both schools weighted this portion of the application heavily. Given that one of the schools doesn't even *have* that portion of the application, can you not see how your assertions as to its heavy weight are utterly absurd?

And really? You link me to the FAQ for an application I already filled out last year for facts that I never disputed? Are you even reading my posts before fluttering on to misinform the next person about your mistaken ideas on how GREs are weighted in graduate applications?

Sorry, I re-read your posts again and you did mention MIT but I misunderstood as berkeley. Anyway, I do hope you are correct about MIT too, as I do plan to apply. No my objective was not to misinform, if it were, then I would said Stanford too requires subject GRE instead of berkeley or MIT. Notwithstanding, I do know of people who did get into bother berkeley and MIT and all of them did take subject GRE, which like you said could be just incidental

[alicealice]

Students who are admitted to MIT CS typically apply to other CS programs also, many of which either recommend or require that students take the GRE subject test in CS or a related field. So it may indeed be true that MIT CS admits have high subject test scores even if MIT itself does not use the scores in their admission process.

That said, I have never come across a statement on a PhD admissions page explicitly stating how much weight is given to the GRE subject test. We may speculate all we want about test scores, but don't lose sight of what admissions committees at top programs are looking for: outstanding research potential.

[belowthree]

So it may indeed be true that MIT CS admits have high subject test scores even if MIT itself does not use the scores in their admission process.

Of course it might. It might also be true that the vast majority of them are white males. But that doesn't mean we can assume they weight that during the application process.

Does that analogy help clear things up for us all?

That said, I agree completely with your conclusion, that outstanding research potential is what matters most. Therefore the OP shouldn't bother with a useless test (the subject GRE) and should devote his time towards developing outstanding research potential. The standard GRE is obviously going to be important to take for the rest of the schools which do require it, but the main thrust of the OP's effort should probably be towards researching which professors at his home institution have the international reputation required to write meaningful letters that can testify to his research potential to an audience of US-based academics.

[Mumbet]

That said, I have never come across a statement on a PhD admissions page explicitly stating how much weight is given to the GRE subject test. We may speculate all we want about test scores, but don't lose sight of what admissions committees at top programs are looking for: outstanding research potential.

From what I've heard, University of Texas at Austin places an unusually huge importance on the CS GRE compared to other schools.

[datamineguy]

I would like to find out information regarding Stanford, Berkeley, MIT. Basically top CS schools.

My undergraduate studies were B.Eng (Software). Completed in Australia, The University of New South Wales, which is the top engineering school in Australia (at least).

I did fairly well, ranking 1st in the class, thus earning first class honours and the university medal in software engineering. I have a bunch of awards (6 or so), came first in 10 subjects, have a publication from my thesis work. At the moment I am working on more papers but they won't be done for some time.

So... I'm trying to find out chances to get into a USA CS PHD program and costs associated with international phd study.

Anyone got any insights.

I have been reading these boards for a bit now, a lot of discussion is centered around gpa and gre scores. With gpa australia uses a 7 system, whilst america uses 4 and gre, I will need to take it this coming october.

Cheers.

compared to other schools, larger portion of mit comp sci phds are actually FROM mit undergrad. i think that could mean recommendation has high weight for MIT. i also applied to mit comp sci, but i dont really expect to get in... i know 4 comp sci phds there personally and they all have awesome backgrounds...