Ph.D. in CS at Columbia

Graduate School
1

<p>I'm a student at a 20+ ranked Liberal Arts college with majors in Computer Science and Mathematics. I'm applying for a Ph.D. in CS at Columbia and am curious about my chances.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.8 (Higher in CS)
GRE Scores: 610V (88%), 770Q (87%), 5.0W (81%) (Haven't taken the CS Subject Test yet)
-Worked as a TA for all four years of undergrad and am now the head Teaching Assistant for Computer Science (got an accompanying award), managing a staff of TAs.
-Did summer research this year for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), focusing on Information Assurance. One publication is in the works but it will not be finished before graduation.
-Worked at a game development studio developing software and managing a programming team last summer.
-Letters of recommendation will be good: One from the head of the CS department, one from my CS advisor, one from the person I worked for in the AFRL, one possibly from my Math advisor or another Math professor.
-Meeting with a professor from Columbia soon to discuss research.</p>

<p>Columbia is my top choice, but here are the other schools I'm applying to for a Ph.D. (with ranks):</p>

<p>Princeton University (6)
University of California--Los Angeles (13)
University of Maryland--College Park (13)
University of Massachusetts--Amherst (20)
University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill (20)
University of Pennsylvania (20)
University of Southern California (20)
Drexel University (?) - Safety</p>

<p>I'm concerned about the CS Subject GRE since I'm not coming from a tech school, and I know being "well-rounded" won't help me too much for a Ph.D. program. Still, any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated!</p>

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<p>Hi, you have a similar profile to my daughter. Your grades are higher, her V and W are higher. She did not take the subject test. Her degree was in Mathematics and Computer Science. She also TA’d 2 years and has pretty good research, looks like more than you (one project lasted over 1-1/2 years), one publication in the works. I am curious what area you are interested in studying? She is 1st year in CS Theory at UW Madison. Her application was pretty specific in that.</p>

<p>I don’t think anyone can really chance you for grad school. You sound solid. Of course, many qualified people do not get in. I understand that last year was particularly difficult, and schools like UW-Madison had record levels of applicants. I wouldn’t get my heart set on one school. The funding situation has also been difficult and she knows of many accepted without funding, although some work it out later. </p>

<p>She applied to the first 3 on your list and was accepted to 2 of those. Pretty sure she applied and not accepted to Columbia. I think UMass was on the list but I don’t recall she actually applied in the end. Otherwise there is no overlap. She was mostly targeting specific professors doing work in the areas of interest with a few super reaches in the mix. She didn’t get accepted to her safety.</p>

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<p>ten characters</p>

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<p>My guess is that scores and grades won’t matter as much as the list of CS courses you’ve taken – how rigorous they were and how you did in them – plus the nature of your research paper, and of course the LORs from CS professors.</p>