Chances for Computer Science Grad School

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi, I am interested in pursuing graduate school in computer science at a top university in the United States.</p>

<p>Undergraduate: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Major: Computer Science and Computer Engineering
GPA: 3.5
GRE: 169Q 158V
Race: Indian (India)
Gender: female</p>

<p>I want to know what my chances are with the credentials above for schools like Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, MIT, Berkley, Cornell, Urbana Champaign, etc.</p>

<p>I feel as though my GRE scores are pretty good along with my gpa, but I don't have any research. How important is research when applying to graduate school?</p>

<p>Please help a student out!</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>Research experience is important.
Plenty of people have your GRE/GPA or better when applying.</p>

<p>Your chances – I’d say you might get admitted to Cornell but that’s it. Make sure you have good letters of recommendation and a non-cliche SOP.</p>

3

<p>Are you applying for Masters or PhD? You will find it very hard to get into a PhD program without research experience. You might be able to get into a Masters, and you could apply for a PhD later when you have more experience. Your GPA is slightly low for top programs, but that is not an insurmountable issue.</p>

4

<p>Thank you for the replies!</p>

<p>I am interested in the masters program. The reason for my gpa is due to the fact that I majored in computer engineering along with computer science rather than just computer science (with classes easier than computer engineering).</p>

<p>What universities should I apply to?</p>

5

<p>Anyone else have any input?</p>

6

<p>MIT and Cornell don’t have MS CS programs…</p>

7

<p>That’s not true, MIT doesn’t but Cornell does.</p>

8

<p>Cornell has MEng, not MS. There is a pretty big difference between the two.</p>

9

<p>Maybe I’m ignorant as to the appropriate language here, or I missed something she said, but I thought she just said she was looking for a Masters program? Where did she specifically say MS instead of MEng?</p>

10

<p>I’ve looked at every school mentioned and several others, including UW-Madison itself, and to be honest, I don’t think your chances are great unless you have something big (e.g. strong research experience) other than your GPA and GRE to bring to the table. For this tier of CS graduate program, what I was seeing was that strong applicants typically had GPAs exceeding 3.7. One of the programs (I forget which) published a ~90% rejection rate with average applicant GPAs of ~3.6.</p>

<p>However, this is for research degrees. If you look at an MCS or MEng degree, you willprobably get in. IIRC, Urbana-Champaign and Stanford offer MCS degrees, and UW Seattle has the “Professional Master’s Programs.”</p>

<p>However, if your goal is to be a professional software developer rather than work in academia/research, my advice would be to defer graduate school until you have some professional experience. A master’s degree can and usually is worthwhile for career prospects, whether its professional-oriented or research-based, but it makes so much more sense after you’ve got experience.</p>

11

<p>I guess I feel a bit discouraged. What are the stats of the schools in which I am interested?</p>

<p>And which schools should I apply to if I am not qualified for the ones I listed?</p>

12

<p>I don’t think you should feel too discouraged. We all know the admit rate for those programs is small. You have a reasonable gpa from a good undergrad program, that won’t rule you out.</p>