Hi everyone,
I’m an undergraduate student double majoring in CS/Computational Physics at UCSD, finishing up my degree after this coming fall semester. I’m hoping to pursue a PhD in CS starting in the 2018-2019 school year (I will take a year off). Really, I’m in the planning stages at this point.
My main worry is my GPA, which sits around 3.27. I don’t have a lot of courses left to take so I can’t pull it up much from that. I do have a bunch of research experience (2 summers at a private research firm, 1 summer on campus, 1 summer at a national lab), experience working as a TA for CS classes (about a year), and from these good letters of recommendation. I haven’t yet taken or studied for the GRE.
Basically I want to hear from you what you think I could focus on to improve my application over the next year+, and how I should set my expectations. Can I expect a good shot at top 10 or top 50 schools? Should I apply to PhD programs or apply to Masters programs with the hope of continuing to a PhD? Ideally, I would love to go to a school in Boston or California (Caltech, Berkeley, UCLA) but I understand that may not be possible.
Your thoughts? Thanks in advance!
First, for a PhD program, location should be a secondary concern. It’s kind of less of a big deal in CS or physics particularly if you want to go into industry, but the best place to study what you want to study may be in a different location - Atlanta, Urbana-Champaign, Houston. Make sure that when you make your list you’re looking at advisors and departments first.
Now. You say you have a bunch of research experience. Is all your research experience over summers only? If that’s the case, that’s actually not ‘a bunch.’ Most PhD programs like to see students who were involved in research during the academic year; it shows long-term engagement in a project and allows you to display the maturation of your research skills over a course of time. It also makes for a better letter - your reference writer can talk about your growth as he supervised you over the course of a year or two rather than a quick 3-month summer project. I’d say that’s the first area in which you can focus if you do not have academic year research experience; look for a post-baccalaureate program or a job that allows you to work in research in this area on some kind of extended project.
Getting an MS first might be a great first step - it’ll let you get more research experience and allow you to prove that you can achieve on the graduate level. Some MS programs in physics and comp sci are funded, too.
My advice? Pick a handful of pie in the sky PhDs - the very top ones that you would absolutely love to go to. Think about 5-6. Apply to those, and then also pick a good range of master’s programs (also about 5-7) which may offer some funding. If you get into one of your top choice PhD programs, great! If not, plan to go to an MS program for two years and try again.
Hi juillet, thanks for the reply and the solid advice! To clarify a few things you touched on:
You’re right about advisors and departments being a top priority in school selection, but another very important need for me is getting in somewhere that my girlfriend does as well, and the places I listed are places she’d love to be. She studies Biology, so I think if we both applied based on academics the overlap might be not as large. Regardless, you’re right.
I did do research during the academic year - my entire Junior year (and the following summer). I lumped this in with “1 summer on campus”, though in retrospect that didn’t really make sense. Also, it’s quite possible the national lab I’m now working at has an opportunity in a post-bacc program, so I’ll be sure to look into that. I may also look for a job that is sufficiently research-focused.
Your advice for what to apply to makes a lot of sense and I’ll aim for that. Thanks again!
Oh - that makes more sense. Lots of doctoral students try to stay together with their significant others to avoid long distance relationships - that’s totally valid.
Good luck!