<p>Hi everyone!
I'm from South Asia. I feel lucky and privileged to be successfully selected for a full time scholarship to pursue Master's in the US. Now I'm required to give 3 university preferences (preferably 1 top tier, 1 mid tier and 1 in which the admission would be certain).
My undergrad GPA is 2.8/4.0. GRE scores are 158 in Verbal and 166 in Quantitative reasoning. TOEFL score is 94. My undergrad major is Electrical Engineering with a focus on Computer Architecture and VLSI. I've worked as a research associate in my senior year and more or less I posses some research experience.
Although I'm undecided of the preferences but as of now I'm thinking of MIT, UMich and USC.
I need astute suggestions regarding choosing appropriate preferences keeping in mind my GPA and test scores.
I would like to be in the vicinity of a big coastal city (NYC/Boston/LA etc) or perhaps near the Silicon Valley. I would also like to know about racism and friendliness in general of the afore mentioned relevant places in the US.
Your help will be greatly admired :)</p>
<p>What a wonderful opportunity for you. Congratulations. Do you have some particular accomplishment why the award was given that will enhance your application?</p>
<p>Can you give some background on your gpa? Here, 3.0 is usually the official minimum to be considered for grad school and is not necessarily sufficient. I’m not sure which universities will overlook that in light of other qualifications.</p>
<p>Are you only permitted to apply to these 3 universities? Or do they just want this selection for some reason and you can apply more widely?</p>
<p>MIT only accepts PhD applications for EECS. The minimum internet TOEFL is 100. GRE is not used, gpa is more heavily relied upon.</p>
<p>I think you have aimed far too high. All those programs will be a real stretch for you and as @BrownParent noted, MIT only accepts Ph.D. applications. You also have another challenge and that is that many programs have an application deadline that has passed already.</p>
<p>You need to do some research very quickly. Look for some universities near the places you have mentioned and make contact with their EECS departments to determine if they are accepting applications and whether you will be seriously considered for admission. The 3.0 GPA is usually a floor for admissions but you might find a program that is willing to bend a bit if you have strong research credentials. Honestly, I think you would have a hard time being admitted at my university, Illinois Tech, for EECS. They have so many applications that they can be selective in their requirements. For the Applied Physics program, we would be more flexible as we have fewer applicants.</p>
<p>Numbers wise, you are not competitive for any of the universities you listed, especially if you do not come from a renowned international university. These are likely the two biggest factors for an international applicant. I don’t think you’d have guaranteed admission anywhere unless a faculty member there directly tells you so.
From what I can tell, international engineering master’s students are typically unfunded by the school anyways, so I’m not sure if outside funding will actually help you in admissions. </p>
<p>Regarding your racism question, the UCs have a large Asian population (I think the percentage goes down with the prestige of the US) FWIW. I personally don’t think you’d be competitive at any of the top UCs, maybe at the bottom ones and some of the Cal states. I can think of 2 UCs on the top of my head that are in close proximity to silicon valley (UC-Santa Cruz and San Fran, I don’t think the latter offers EE). There are some not very selective LA, Boston, and NYC you may want to look at.</p>