<p>I am a junior with GPA of 3.56 from Berkeley. It's not top-notch, yet it's not bad either. What do you of my chances of a Computer Science Masters at a top school? (ie. Stanford, MIT, Berkeley) How bout at the top 20's? (UCLA, UCSD, Harvard, Columbia)</p>
<p>So far, I don't have any good letters of recommendations. I believe my personal statement will be good though.</p>
<p>I am doing research right now, but just beginning. Does it generally look better to do an internship or research in the summer? Personally, research might be more interesting, but money would be nice to pay for tuition.</p>
<p>I mite be able to raise it to a 3.6 this semester (the last semester that counts), but im not sure.</p>
<p>What are your advices? and thoughts? Any of you guys have friends with similar GPA as me?</p>
<p>a GPA of 3.56 is more than enough for masters program (and even ph.d. programs). </p>
<p>Definitely try and build ties with your professors, may it be through research or classes, for LOR's plays a critical factor in the admission process. </p>
<p>also, definitely do summer research instead of an internship. Research experiences are usually looked upon more favorably than internship/co-op experiences.</p>
<p>You definitely need research and recs. If you're a junior just starting research this summer, it might be tough to get into the top 5, but if you can cultivate good recs from well known professors, you can definitely make it into one for a master's if not a Ph.D.</p>
<p>I have a similar GPA and recently got into most of the top 5-15 schools for MS and/or PHD for Mech E. Still waiting to hear from the three you mentioned. The thing that probably pulled me through was 2 years of research with a couple of coauthorships. My recs were probably good but not stellar. You have enough time to do the reverse of that if you start talking to professors a lot.</p>
<p>It's an admission committee - most schools list the chair of graduate admissions on their faculty page. GRE, you want at least 500 on verbal and at least 750 on quant. The top schools usually have quant averages of 770-780, but no one's going to question anything higher than a 750, because the test is mostly a worthless measurement.</p>
Almost always yes (the notable exceptions are professional schools). </p>
<p>You have brought up one of key differences between undergraduate and graduate school admission. The designated professors in a department review and recommend their candidates to the school (administration) who grants the admission. Even those professors not directly involved in the admission could yield considerable influence, often enough to make or break one's candidacy.</p>
<p>Truth be told, I think a great personal statement won't get you in but a bad one will give them a solid reason to turn you down.</p>
<p>Could you guys help evaluate my profile? I'm looking to get into a top-5 CS PhD program:</p>
<ul>
<li>Bachelors and masters from the top Canadian engineering school </li>
<li>GRE: 550V, 780Q</li>
<li>GPA: 85% undergrad, 93% masters</li>
<li>Research: 2 conference papers, 2 workshop papers, 1 short journal paper</li>
</ul>
<p>Also, besides top 5/10 CS schools, I was wondering what my chances are at ivy schools like Columbia/Brown/UPenn.</p>
<p>Top Canadian engineering school? If by that you mean University of Toronto, I'd say you are in excellent shape; that is an insane GPA coming from U of T. The papers are a good sign, but honestly the GRE is a bit on the low side, particularly the quant.</p>
<p>To get into the top schools for a masters you better have research or internships along with good recs. A 3.5 GPA at Berkeley is respectable but borderline for the top. To compensate, get to know your Professors NOW and make sure you get good recs. I recently found out how much connections matter as I essentially got into a top grad school based on a phone call from my advisor.</p>