TexasGuy

a degree will make things a lot easier to get a CS related job IMO.. i am starting at gatechs omscs program this fall coming from a non-cs background.for preparation, everything you need is online. but preparation for gatech omscs it completely depends on what area you want to specialize in. so do some research on the specialization areas and figure out what kinds of courses you want to take

Gatech OMSCS

you have done more than enough already with OOP1 & 2, data structures, computer organization and all those other 'core' cs courses you listed. Of course taking as many of the core courses as possible is great but if you have to struggle to queeze all those courses in, it's not necessary. i would HIGHLY suggest Georgia Tech OMSCS program. It is a master of computer science program that is done online but it is NOT an 'online' degree. meaning it is exactly the same degree as the on campus version. You literally have access to all the resources as on campus students. It is mainly meant for people working full time and is highly flexible. This is a new program and the cost is unbeatable. and obviously you have the prestige of gatech to go along with it. Type in OMSCS in google to find out more about the program. They accept studens from very diverse backgrounds. I think you can definitely get in. also it doesnt require the GRE. the on campus programs are more selective but i still think your credentials are enough to make it in. If anything coming from an unconventional background could work in your favor and make you stand out among all the CS undegrad folks. along with a strong statement of purpose and 160+ gre quant. Apply to some state schools and some really selective top 10 schools as well. good luck. i don't think there's anything to worry about really. unless you write a terrible SOP or flunk the GRE

Texas A&M hands down...i was accepted into texas A&M and UFlorida for chemical engineering. I was able to get RA funding my second year. If you do good work and have a good relationship with your research advisor you should be able to get one....and even if you dont, if you plan ahead you should be able to get a TA ship. In terms of funding you wont have problems at A&M...

yes i agree that admissions are holistic..... so coming from a very highly ranked school but having a GPA in the low 3's isnt a bad thing...but coming from a lesser known school with that GPA will make it difficult to get into top ranked programs....so in that sense its hard to say which is the most 'important' part of the application.....its about balancing out the weaker parts of your application with really strong LORs and a really great SOP. this is why i suggested writing your own LOR because honestly, noone knows your strengths better than yourself.a professor may think very highly of you but may throw together some generic SOP on account of just not being in the mood or having too many other things to do....unless you are one of the best students he has ever worked with or something like that and you are really close with the person. The LOR and SOP (and getting relevant researchwork experience) are the only things you can control at this point. Getting a publication would really really help as well. fter all thats all professors really care about- can you produce publisahble work? I think my previous post comes across like i think GRE's are really important and i didnt mean it that way. They're not important as long as you're around the average for admitted students. Actually your GRE scores are excellent- thats a 320/340. The average quant score for MIT engineering/science programs is usually around 164'ish and so im sure there a lot of people just below that score. Really, I think anything 160+ is considered great for top schools. So there is absolutely no reason to retake it.

yeah i would say GPA. and its sad because that is not a bad GPA. but when most people have 3.8+ GPA's it makes it easy for grad schools to just filter out the applicants with GPA's closer to 3.0. Same with GRE. 161 Q is great but when a lot of people applying to top programs in science have 164+,... Its just a human thing. If i was looking at a whole bunch of applications i would probably employ the same lazy ass approach to weed out a lot of applicants. this especially goes for top 20- top 30 programs. Just make sure you look at admission statistics for previous years and see where you stand. Honestly, write the letters of recommendations by yourself and send them to your recommenders. A lot of the time professors just dont feel like putting in all the effort to write a great recommendation letter so its best to do it yourself, make it as great as possible and tell them to edit and make changes if they want to. THey'll be really happy because it will save them so much time and they might even be willing add and tweak the letters to make it even better because it wont take them much time to do it. And then the last thing is the SOP. Make sure others read your SOP.

congrats jimlus..i hope you get it Yes Manifestin...me too. Got the same email

ortho...i've read a couple of papers published by professors I want to work with. I will email them and suggest ways the research can be extended..and tie it into the type of research that I do Honestly, I'm not sure what approach to take in this email. If anyone can offer some advice please do.

3.98????

im going to start emailing profs on Monday. Thats something that people advise against but at this point I have to

NO NO NOOOO!!!!!! im gonna fucking losing it if i get rejected everywhere!

i can see how schools would just skip over an SOP. They probably just skim through to figure out what you research interests are.

rejected at Princeton... 4 more to go

sjb, congrats on your early acceptances. That's amazing...all the schools really like you

great stats gus. I hope you get in somewhere. I see you're also shooting for insanely competitive schools. I hope school (which starts next week) will distract me from this stressful process.