Chance me for Stanford MSCS

[Monal_Mahajan1]

I’ll be applying next year(2022) for a part-time MSCS, I’ll be graduating in Spring of 2022. Here are my stats:

Undergrad College = Purdue University (Bachelors in Computer Science) (Purdue has extreme grade deflation, top 3% of students have GPA of 3.95 or higher, 4 year graduation rate is about 50% iirc)

GPA = 4.0GRE = 327 (Q = 168, V = 159) Will be retaking to make it 335+ over the next year.

Extra curricular = TA positions, I taught a for-credit course to a group of 40 students (a student-run course), Active in some clubs (no leadership positions). Will be joining Microsoft full time after graduating.

Research = Researching with 2 professors, published a paper under one.

Ethnicity = International Indian.

LOR = I interned at Microsoft the past summer and will be coming back to the same team, manager LOR will be very positive. 2 more LOR from professors, will be above average.

Some more extra stuff = Will be graduating in 3 years instead of 4. Had 2 internships at reputable companies. Took a very heavy CS-focused course-load, degree required 12 CS courses to graduate, I will have taken 20 CS courses by the time I graduate

In order to increase my chances, what would you recommend me to do? I’ve emailed professors from Stanford in order to do research with them and am hoping this will help. I’ll be joining Microsoft in the Mountain View, CA campus (chose this as I would like to be near the Stanford campus), so maybe this could help me in meeting with professors? I’m also hoping to start a club next semester for leadership experience as I have none so far.

Note: Will only be applying to Stanford, it’s been a childhood dream.

[DadTwoGirls]

I think that it is worth an application. Admissions to Stanford is hard to predict and it is a reach for nearly everyone.

When I did my master’s at Stanford (decades ago) a lot of the students in the same program, probably a majority, had some work or research experience. Personally I suspect that my work experience and the associated references played a major role in my being accepted. From this I would imply that if you do not get accepted, then you do not need to give up. You could work for a year or two and then reapply.

Some however did not have work experience. A good friend (a student in the same program) had for example just graduated from Michigan. The fact that you have some internship experience at Microsoft in the Bay Area should help you.

Also in my experience the other students in the master’s program at Stanford came from a very wide range of universities. Graduating from Purdue should be helpful since it is quite a good university and is very good for CS.

I think that you are doing super well. Just keep doing what you are doing, and understand that you have a great backup plan if you do not get accepted to Stanford on your first try.

Good luck with this!