I want to know what my chances to going for either EE or CS grad school for Masters Degree ( CS preferred ).
My stats:
GPA: 3.0 ->Classes Taken: 70% EECS, 15% MA, 5% Chem, 10% Electives. Not bringing GPA up, it will stay this way.
School: Cooper Union
Major: Electrical Engineering
Degree: B. Eng.
Rec’s: Nothing special from school, but outstanding from work experiences.
GRE: 150V, 170Q
SAT: 2100+, 800M, SATII Math: 800
Coding Skills: I have about 10k+ lines of good code on github.
Experience:
Software Engineering Internship, 4 months, Web Dev, Small Tech Company NYC
Software Engineering Internship, 8 months, Web Dev, Well Known Local Tech Company NYC
Software Engineering Internship, 3 months, Application Dev, One of the Top 3 Big Banks in NYC ( GS, MS, CS)
Software Engineer Full Time, 10 months, Big Data, Well Known Tech Company in SV, not top 100, but work remote NYC
Computer Science Mentor, for a Top Respected Company in USA, 2 + years.
Will Probably will for top 4 full time or Big Bank once I finish undergrad, have made it to and past final round for matching.
Will graduate in 2017, want grad school in 2017 too, or 2018.
Schools Applying to:
Masters----
CMU - CS
Columbia - CS/EE
Cornell - CS/EE
Stanford - CS
MIT - CS/EE
CalTech - CS/EE
UCLA - CS/EE
UCB - CS/EE
GTech - CS/EE
NYU - CS/EE
City Tech - CS/EE
City Coll - CS/EE
USC - CS/EE
Not Cooper
@eespaceshuttle your GPA and GRE verbal are very borderline for many of those schools. For example, I’m fairly certain UCLA requires a minimum UG GPA of 3.0/4, and 3.5 or higher is recommended.
Also, I don’t think MIT has a terminal Master’s program in EECS, only the Ph.D. and Doctor of Science.
The problem is that test scores and GPA are quantifiable, while real world programming experience is not. Note that GPA and GRE scores are not everything, ad. com. also look at research experience and recommendation letters. When it comes to recommendation letters, the ones from professors carry more weight than those from people in the industry.
Many schools use GPA and GRE scores in the screening process. A friend of mine many times volunteered to serve in grad ad. com. at one of the schools in the list above, once told me that they had so many candidates, and thus wouldn’t even look at any one with GPA < 3.5, unless under “very special” situation (e.g. per specific recommendation from a professor in the department).
@Pentaprism All are important, but, as Pentaprism said, the GRE and GPA are likely more to screen out “unqualified” applicants (since when does knowing obscure vocabulary and solving simple HS math problems correlate to research ability in EECS…but that’s a different story).
I’m not saying you aren’t qualified, but with a low GPA and GRE, it will likely be harder to get in. A 3.0 is pretty borderline IMO, but anything less (e.g. 2.9) will probably weed you out of a lot of graduate programs, unfortunately.
They’ll also take your course rigor, internships and experiences, recommendation letters, and other factors into account. But I presume you’re a current junior, so you still have time to bring your GPA up a bit (and maybe retake the GRE).
Work performance is not necessarily quantifiable but having work experience is a positive for a professional Masters degree in software engineering. However, the kind of work experience that you should have is full time, after graduation employment. If you wait a bit to apply for a graduate program until you have 2-3 years of work experience, you may have a better chance at a graduate program. Not necessarily at the very highly selective schools on your list but there are plenty of solid programs around for a professional degree and your employer might even pay for it.