How important is CS GRE?

[newms]

I'm asking because I didn't take the GRE CS and I'm seriously wondering if that was a mistake. I'm an international student and the next opportunity I'd have to do it would be in Feb 2010 and I'm applying for Fall 2010. I did the GRE general with 700 V, 790 Quant, 4.0 AWA. My UG was at a school that probably isn't well known internationally and didn't use the GPA at the time (I graduated 7 years ago), but I did get the highest possible grade I could get (A). I did have some research experience as an UG and I should get good LOR including one really good one from the lecturer I had my research experience with. I'm confident that my SOP will be good and I'm applying to Princeton, UPenn, U of Toronto, Illinois and SUNY-SB. In the 7 years I left school I taught high school for 4 years and have been working in campus IT for the other 3. Any thoughts?

[weninger]

The CS GRE is not important at all. In my opinion, the only use for the CS GRE is if you are coming from an unknown country with an unknown computer science department or your undergraduate degree is in an unrelated field.

Basically, if you have a CS degree from an accredited university, don't that the CS GRE.

Your general GRE is plenty high, but UIUC (where I am a PhD student) doesn't look at the GRE at all. So, it may not matter.

In general, my experience is that the GRE does not help you get in to any institution, all it can do is provide an excuse for someone to keep you out.

[phatakaniket]

The CS GRE is not important at all. In my opinion, the only use for the CS GRE is if you are coming from an unknown country with an unknown computer science department or your undergraduate degree is in an unrelated field.

Basically, if you have a CS degree from an accredited university, don't that the CS GRE.

Your general GRE is plenty high, but UIUC (where I am a PhD student) doesn't look at the GRE at all. So, it may not matter.

In general, my experience is that the GRE does not help you get in to any institution, all it can do is provide an excuse for someone to keep you out.

I wish to introduce myself as a final year undergraduate student of computer engineering at Vivekanand Education Society’s Institute of Technology (VESIT), Mumbai.

I am interested in pursuing my higher studies in the US at your prestigious university. I have appeared for GRE and my score is 1260 (Q=780, A=4.0, V= 480). I have scored 111/120 in TOEFL while my CGPA stands at 3.98 / 4.0.

I have applied for a master's degree program in your institution and am interested in joining your research group.

Some details of Undergraduate curriculum that I have pursued at VESIT:

I have studied Data Structures and Analysis of Algorithms and have stood No.1 within my department. I have pursued courses in Database Management Systems, Advanced Databases, and Image Processing. I am planning to study Data Warehousing and Mining in my final semester (Jan to Jun 2010). Presently I am working on a research project called “Aligning raw image to real time coordinate system”, which involves image processing, data mining and pattern matching for GIS (Geographic information systems) applications. My research paper on above project has been formally accepted at "The 2010 International Conference on Data Storage and Data Engineering (DSDE 2010), Bangalore, India, February 9 – 10, 2010" and will be published in the conference proceeding by IEEE Computer Society CPS, and will be listed in IEEE Xplore and CSDL, and be indexed by INSPEC, Thomson ISI Proceeding, and Ei Compendex. I have to present my work at DSDE 2010. I am currently also working on a research topic “Motion Detection Techniques in images” in my seventh semester (July to Dec 2009) of engineering.

Details on Internship undertaken:

I have completed my internship at Bayer Business Services from 15th June, 2009 to 15th July, 2009. This internship was over and above the requirement of our curriculum in engineering. It was my interest and self initiative that i decided to pursue this project to learn & experience the computer software industry.

External Projects undertaken:

A Module under OSCAR project (Java based Project) at IIT Bombay was completed in Oct 2009. The module was accepted and received an honorarium of Rs 1000/-.

How do u rate my chances for an admit to UIUC as u must have seen profiles of many international students admitted?

[weninger]

Hello newms, You seem to have a great record. The one thing that stands out to me especially is your ICDE paper. That is an excellent db conference. Your scores seems high but I am not familiar with your institution. The DAIS group (that I belong to at Illinois) is pretty competitive, and pretty full at the moment. I'd say you have a decent shot assuming you've a well written application submitted on time.

Good luck!

[newms]

Hello weninger. Thanks for your replies. I think your comment about the great record was directed at phatakaniket - and good luck to him. I have a question about UIUC and I wonder if you can assist me with it - I applied to the MS program and my interests are in machine learning and web mining. Do you know if MS students usually get funding?

[kyung]

Hello weninger. Thanks for your replies. I think your comment about the great record was directed at phatakaniket - and good luck to him. I have a question about UIUC and I wonder if you can assist me with it - I applied to the MS program and my interests are in machine learning and web mining. Do you know if MS students usually get funding?

http://idleprocess.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/why-go-to-graduate-school-and-how-to-get-into-the-program-of-your-dreams/

This post might be helpful. And I heard that UIUC supports some of their MS student. Good luck to you!

[weninger]

Hello weninger. Thanks for your replies. I think your comment about the great record was directed at phatakaniket - and good luck to him. I have a question about UIUC and I wonder if you can assist me with it - I applied to the MS program and my interests are in machine learning and web mining. Do you know if MS students usually get funding?

Regarding UIUC, they make no distinction between the MS program and the PhD program (like other top schools). And you will get full funding. The only question is whether you will work as a TA, RA or fellow. I, fortunately, received outside money and am not funded by the university, but my unofficial perception is that everyone is funded here.

The hard part is getting in. Good luck.

[newms]

Thanks for your replies.

[arunkumar]

Weninger your replies will be useful to all.. Thanks for it..

[DJLamar]

I wondered about this too. My research advisor said it wasn't important, and told me not to bother reporting the results unless I got a very high score. I took it before I was told it didn't matter, and got 76th percentile since I hadn't yet finished my theory coursework and since my curriculum was sorely lacking in systems courses (I had one at a pretty basic level, basically nothing about operating systems or networking at all).

I didn't report my subject score to most of the places I applied. However, for some reason when I was looking at FAQs etc. I became convinced that Princeton were especially insistent that applicants submit a subject score, so I went ahead and sent it to them.

So if I get accepted everywhere but Princeton or rejected everywhere but Princeton (both highly unlikely, or at least the former is definitely unlikely and the latter is hopefully unlikely), maybe we'll have a better idea about the difference it makes