CS PhD:Chances of admit in top universities

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi all,
I am applying for PhD admissions, Fall 2010 and would greatly appreciate if you could kindly evaluate my chances of getting an admit in any of the following universities:
1) MIT EECS/Media Lab
2) Berkeley
3) CMU
4) Cornell
5) UIUC
6) Stanford
7) University of Washington</p>

<p>My profile:
1) GRE General: 1370 (780Q+590V), AW:4
2) TOEFL: 108(R:30, L:30, S:24, W:24)
3) GRE CS: 820 (86%)
4) Grad GPA: 6.5/8.0 (M.E., IISc, India)
5) Undergrad GPA: 71% (B.E., NSIT/DCE, University of Delhi, one of top colleges in India)</p>

<p>Scholastic honors:
1) All India Rank 3 - GATE CS (for admission to graduate schools in India)
2) One of the 6 students selected to the prestigious Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), India (as a research scholar).
3) World Semifinalist (top finisher from India) Microsoft Imagine Cup (Algorithms)
4) Earned maximum number of course credits in the entire batch of Computer Science,
IISc, 2007-09. I completed 50 credits (13 courses) against the stipulated requirement of
40 credits (generally, 10 courses)
5) Selected for "The 2010 Winter School on Machine Learning and Computer Vision" being organized by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and Microsoft Research (MSR) in Jan. 2010.
6) Selected as the Employee of the Year at Vedasoft Solutions Pvt. Ltd., 2006-07 (A start-up, worked there for an year as a research and design engineer because it suited my area of interest).
7) All India Ranks: 234 in CEE-2002 (NSIT/DCE, University of Delhi), 169 in CET-2002
(CET, Chandigarh), 358 in CEET-2002 (NIT, Kurukshetra), and 1748 in AIEEE-2002
(for undergraduate admissions in engineering colleges across India).</p>

<p>2 Publications in International Conference, Journal:
1) IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (IEEE's flagship conference in automation)
2) A journal paper in IJDMMM (not very well known)</p>

<p>Other 4-5 papers under review/ in process.</p>

<p>Other Info:
1) Currently working as a researcher at Indian School of Business (top 15 B-School in the world)
2) Reco (All Profs.): 1 from HOD of my department, other 2 IEEE Fellows (I expect at least 2 of these recos to be particularly strong).
3) Job offer/recommendation from: Cisco/Google</p>

<p>Areas of Interest: Game Theory, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Computer Vision. </p>

<p>I know my GPA and GRE Scores are hopeless to say the least, but the places I come from (IISc/University of Delhi) are really top-class institutes (where ppl generally don't get good grades) and I hope the admissions committee would bear that in mind. </p>

<p>Thanks a lot.</p>

2

<p>Any evaluations please, seniors?</p>

3

<p>In my view, you have an excellent chance at getting in (more than excellent). The 780 Q in GRE and GPA (btw, there does not seem to be grade inflation in IISc and I think universities know that) can be overlooked because:

  1. You are from IISc and these Universities DO know about IISc.
  2. You have (many) research papers (published in IEEE no less)!
  3. You won algorithm contests.</p>

<p>Don’t worry. Apply and see what happens. There is no point in being anguished over anything. You should be proud of yourself (I have a child close to your age, hope I can say that)! Good luck!!</p>

<p>I think international GPAs are evaluated in the context of the institution you came from. </p>

<p>In any case, you have some safeties as well as reaches (which are reaches for everyone, btw, not just you).</p>

4

<p>Thanks a lot, Sir! I feel much more relaxed now. Actually, I have decided to apply to only these places (I don’t know somehow I am reluctant to try some safety schools, call it IISc effect or whatever; my guide was more than willing to give me a PhD from IISc in about 6-8 months if I continued and I don’t see much point in going to less competitive places abroad). I guess it’s just a matter of destiny; I probably did whatever I could and I should leave it at that now. Thank you so much indeed.</p>

5

<p>No, I meant you do have some safeties in your list (UIUC, U of Washington). These should be safeties for you, I think. UIUC and U of Washington are very good schools but you should be able to get in, no problems - at least from what I know about it…I could be wrong as well.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

6

<p>I don’t think I’d call any of those schools safeties. That’s 7 of the top 8 CS graduate programs.</p>

7

<p>@achat:
Those schools are definitely not safeties. I’m in CS myself, and in some areas UIUC and UW can be considered the top choice, above the likes of Stanford, MIT and Berkeley.</p>

8

<p>Thanks a lot explorer-c, boolean, and achat Sir.
@explorer-c,@boolean
I know these are some of the toughest schools to get into, and as you rightly pointed out it’s extremely difficult to get into any of these places. I just wanted to know if I stand any chance at all or am I being way too ambitious? Thanks…</p>

9

<p>try UT Austin as well. It is supposed to have an excellent CS program.</p>