<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I am looking for some advice.</p>
<p>I just finished my 3rd year of college in UCSB in Computer Engineering. Initially, I had not planned to attempt to go to Grad School, but a couple courses and some self-exploration have instilled within me a very deep interest in <strong>Crypto, Security, and Computer Architecture</strong>.</p>
<p>Because of this, I am interested in getting a MS in CS.
I got into my school's 5 year BS/MS program, and am seriously considering it, but I would also like to give consideration to some other schools and perhaps a change in scenery.</p>
<p>What're my chances of getting into a top-tier CS program such as MIT, stanford, CMU, ga/tech?</p>
<p>My overall gpa is 3.3, but in the past year in my upper divs I've gotten 3.9/3.9/3.75 (they're a lot more interesting than the basic physics, math, chem classes I took 1st/2nd year) if that'll help my case at all.
I have 157/169/4.0 on the general GRE.
I worked at a medium-sized company doing testing freshman summer. Worked in a professor's research lab sophomore summer (didn't accomplish much but learned a lot). And this summer I'm a dev intern at a large top10 company.</p>
<p>I was hoping to find out if I have a chance despite my low gpa and I was hoping to find out if anybody has any experience and can tell me how the programs at those schools are.</p>
<p>Sorry I’m not answering your question, I had a question for you actually. Was that freshman summer internship a software testing position? In general do freshmen get summer interships? I thought that would be very hard.</p>
<p>If the benefits of going to grad school for you outweigh the cost, then go for it.
I am kind of in your shoes too, but I will be taking the GRE this September, and i’ve not even tried to prepare, im not also sure how to…do you have any recommendations?
I am a CS-SE major and if I don’t get admission to the grad school I want or fellowships, I don’t mind going into the industry and working towards a MS later on. A while back, I took a look a many profiles of grad students in the schools you mentioned, and for MIT they had GPA’s above 3.7…for stanford, ga tech etc around 3.5. Those are just wild guesses. </p>
<p>It all depends on what school you are trying to get into but you are a little average and they will most definitely give you alot of consideration if you have a good statement of purpose, recommendations, and show passion in what you’re going for.</p>
<p>From what you say it is probably better to get some work experience first and then decide what kind of Masters degree is best for you. Professional Masters programs at selective schools like to see students with work experience.</p>
<p>If, however, what you are saying is that you are interested in a more academic graduate degree, then you should be looking at a Ph.D. program, not a masters. In that case, your GRE scores and research experience will be critical in getting into a selective program. The good news is that there are lots of good CS programs out there and their Ph.D. graduates get jobs, so even if you don’t get into teh most selective, you can probably find a strong research advisor to supervise your thesis work.</p>