<p>I currently attend University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and have GPA of 3.4 (technical is right around 3.3).</p>
<p>I have one mediocre(?) research experience, and I will have an internship experience this summer.</p>
<p>Do I have a chance of masters program at top 20 CS schools (Stanford, CMU, MIT, UPenn, UIUC, Michigan, UT Austin, etc)? I plan to attend school for one more year (hopefully have more research experience), and plan to take GRE this summer (I get around 1400 on practice exams).</p>
<p>Also, what can I do to improve my chances?</p>
<p>I also heard that graduate schools are a lot tougher to get in due to recent economic recession, is this true?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say a 3.4 GPA is mediocre. Your chances probably depend more on what you do with your last year - make your internship count and get a great recommendation from it. I think you’ve got a shot.</p>
<p>Keep in mind the MS programs are less competitive than the PhDs, but you’ll probably be paying for it.</p>
<p>Money isn’t really a problem at the moment, as long as I get admitted to any school I apply to.</p>
<p>I plan to do senior thesis during my final year, which I hope I get a lot of research experience from (and hopefully, good recommendation from a well-known professor).</p>
<p>I was in a very similar situation with a very similar undergrad GPA. I’m an engineer. I got into a PhD program at one of those schools you listed. The key for me was loads a relavant and cool work experience that was really applicable to the research being done in the PhD program. It took a few years, and it wasn’t trivial to get this experience in industry. It can be done though.</p>
<p>Yes, acceptances into graduate programs is tougher this year. My guess/estimate would be that many of these grad programs are accepting 20% to 30% fewer this year.</p>
<p>Also, a 3.4 ain’t bad from Illinios. Try to get good letters of reference. That will make a big difference.</p>
<p>Yes, Masters programs are significantly easier to get into than PhD programs. It is likely you’ll find some top school more than happy to take your money. Sometimes after you’ve been there for a year or semester you can get a Teaching Assistantship or Research Assistantship to fund you. Also, it is pretty common for a Masters studetn to be accepted into a PhD program once they start working with a professor and get along with him/her. You will have a much better edge for acceptance if you state on the application that you are willing to pay for you Masters degree also.</p>
<p>Usually, you’ll need three letters. Ideally, they would be professors that you’ve done research with in school…they don’t have to be this…especially if you’ve worked in industry for a while.</p>
<p>it also depends on school and major. For CS and EE, I don’t think the OP would have a shot at MIT, Stanford, or CMU. His best bet might be to stay in UIUC. I had friends from UC Berkeley with a lot higher GPAs (3.7-3.8) and research even get rejected for a MS this year. If he were say civil engineering, material science, or industrial engineering, I’d change my stance, as MS admissions for these other engineering majors are less competitive than EE or CS.</p>
<p>Definitely good shot at Cornell’s MEng, and pretty sure you’d be good at UT, and Duke. Penn’s CS is more selective than the others, despite its quality.</p>