Have I targeted too high ?

[ashraful001]

I am a final year undergraduate student studying on electrical engineering. I have already applied to Georgia Tech, USC, Columbia, University of Washington, Northwestern for fall 2017 PhD. My fields of interests are signal processing and machine learning. I am thinking if I have aimed for too high. Is my chances of admission in those schools are too low ? Should I apply to some other universities ?

Undergrad Institution: best engineering university in my country, probably not familiar in US

Major(s):  electrical engineering
Overall GPA:  3.92 ( out of 4.00 upto 7th semester)
Position in Class: top 5%
Type of Student: International, male
GRE Scores (revised):
Q: 170
V:  156
W:  4.0
TOEFL Total: 108
Research Experience: I have done research under two professors, both of them gave me recommendation. One of those was on machine learning on location forensic, about to submit a journal paper as 3rd author. I think the professor has mentioned in the recommendation about the paper and my contribution in it. Another research is on biomedical signal processing as my undergraduate thesis. 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list(in all levels), university merit scholarship, champion in IEEE Signal Processing Cup Competition

Applied to Where: (all for PhD)

Georgia Tech (ECE)

USC (EE)

Columbia (EE)

University of Washington (EE)

Northwestern (CS)

Edited January 6, 2017 by ashraful001

[.letmeinplz//]

I think you'll be fine as long as you are a good fit for your programs you applied to. We don't know what is in your SOP or LoRs but if both are great, then your package is good enough to get into any of those schools. There is of course the possibility you don't if there are applicants that are a better fit but that is just luck of the application year (unless you aren't ever a good fit then you need to research more into the programs you apply to). Those are some pretty great programs so even good people are turned away each year.

As far as adding a few more schools, if it isn't too late I probably would add another 2-3 (and if your wallet allows it of course). But I would only do that if you are a good fit for the schools you add, otherwise it is a waste of time and money.

Edited January 6, 2017 by .letmeinplz//

[ashraful001]

2 hours ago, .letmeinplz// said:

I think you'll be fine as long as you are a good fit for your programs you applied to. We don't know what is in your SOP or LoRs but if both are great, then your package is good enough to get into any of those schools. There is of course the possibility you don't if there are applicants that are a better fit but that is just luck of the application year (unless you aren't ever a good fit then you need to research more into the programs you apply to). Those are some pretty great programs so even good people are turned away each year.

As far as adding a few more schools, if it isn't too late I probably would add another 2-3 (and if your wallet allows it of course). But I would only do that if you are a good fit for the schools you add, otherwise it is a waste of time and money.

Thank you for your response. I only applied to the programs that seem to be good fit for me. I think my main weakness in the application is lack of publication. As I am still on my last year of undergraduate study, I did not get enough time to publish anything, though I am working on it. I don't know how much admission committee would consider this. Whatever, I have been very tensed after submitting all of my applications and at least your response gave me some relief.