I am looking at going back to school (MS in CS) after ~4 years of working. I am not too sure where to invest my time/efforts in terms of building my candidacy. I definitely appreciate any insights or suggestions for programs, course of action, etc.
For some context, I graduated from Columbia University with a 3.2 GPA in CS. It’s a decent GPA for employment, but mediocre at best for higher education.
My career has been a bit kinder:
- 1 year consulting at Accenture
- 2 years software at Google
- 1 year program management at Google
I have tons of professional recommendations, but didn’t keep in touch with any professors for an academic recommendation.
My GRE is passable:
- Q: 167
- V: 160
- W: 4.0
At this point, I feel like my GPA will preclude me from many programs with GPA floors (e.g. Stanford, Columbia).
So some inquiries:
- Should I gamify the GRE and retake for higher scores?
- How much does a low GPA hurt my chances for the top CS programs?
- Any recommendations for CS programs? (I am looking at Columbia, NYU, Harvard, CMU, and Stanford. It is a combination of geographical convenience, and brand awareness/comfort. Definitely open to suggestions.)
- For those who worked a few years before going back to school, were you able to use your job experience + general career & academic maturity to build a stronger application? If so, how?
Much appreciated.