I am first-year CS/Math major at UCLA. I understand that getting into top PhD programs require high GPA and sufficient research experience.
What is chance to accept into doctoral programs at Columbia/MIT level school? (My main concern is whether the eastern coast schools are biased when accepting non-ivy students for graduate programs. This might be proven not the case though.)
What are some suggestions from current graduate students for me to do to prepare for application process?
When I was a graduate student at Stanford (in Operations Research, which is closely related to math and CS), the other students in the same program had gotten their bachelor’s degree at a very wide range of universities, nearly all of which were ranked about the same or slightly lower than UCLA. Quite a few but not all of the students in the same program had some relevant work experience after getting their bachelor’s before applying to graduate school. In my case I think that the work experience that I had plus the references associated with this was a big part of what got me accepted to Stanford.
GPA and research experience will be important. References will also be important. Whether or not you will need to get a master’s degree first will be difficult for me to predict.
I think that you are at a very good university that will give you great opportunities. You need to do your best to take advantage of those opportunities.
The east coast universities such as Columbia and MIT and Harvard are very well aware of the quality of west coast schools such as UCLA, UCB, and Stanford. I do not see any problem here. Also, it is normal to do your graduate work at a different university than your undergrad. This should not be a problem also.
Good luck with this and best wishes.
So here are the things to know about PhDs:
The rankings are different than the UG rankings, and they even vary by specialty within subject. One CC parent whose daughter went to Cambridge (UK) was appalled when she turned down a PhD offer from Cambridge in favor of a strong, but definitely lower tier than Cambridge university- but that university was where the actual top expert in her field was based, and that expert was to be her supervisor. Doing her research under him meant that every door in her field was open to her. So, if you have ‘prestige’ goggles on, be aware that what you see as prestigious may change as you grow in your field.
A PhD is a research degree, and your demonstrated ability to do research will matter a lot. PhD admissions is completely different than UG admissions. Your actual expertise and your LoRs will matter hugely- so focus on getting research positions! You should already have applications for this summer out- but if you don’t, get on it now. As a first year, your best bets are in-house, but you might as well start applying for REU’s and similar. I’m not exaggerating- I have sat on PhD application review panels where a student’s summer experience using a methodology we were interested in was what tipped the balance between a couple of closely matched candidates.
Don’t diss your uni! It’s top-10 in your field, and in academic circles (as opposed to friends, family & neighbors), people know- down to specific profs- who’s strong and who isn’t. And, as the example above indicates, PhD offers are closely linked to the fit between the student and the research that the department is doing. So, you could get to application stage and look at what the (say) Columbia people are working on and realize that what the NYU folks across town are doing is much more interesting to you.
tl; dr- stop worrying about whether east coast ‘elitism’ is going to scupper your grad school options, and focus on learning more about your field & whose work you find interesting!
They are not. You can go to Columbia or MIT with an undergrad from anywhere - definitely from UCLA.
Right now, focus on getting good grades and exploring what topics in computer science and math most fascinate you. Talk to your professors about opportunities to do research in one of their labs/research groups in the area you’re interested in. In the fall of your sophomore year, you’ll want to look for summer research internships, but most of them don’t take rising sophomores (mostly rising juniors and seniors).