What do I need to do to get into Berkeley's CS Master's Program?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

I was planning on going to Berkeley for my undergrad, but I got turned down. I ended up at U of M, but I feel like it is equivalently ranked to Berkeley in terms of prestige. Personally, I just prefer Berkeley not because of the rankings (again, it is negligible the difference between my current school and Cal), but because of the location. I just love the people and environment there better (planning on visiting UC Berkeley campus next summer to make some connections to advisors and faculty).

I am currently in undergrad, but I want to prepare as much as I can to increase my chances of getting into Cal’s CS Master’s program. After talking to one of the graduate advisors on the phone, I was told that the GRE is not exactly the main focus and shouldn’t be (just score high enough for it to be slightly above average). I was told that there is a 1 year Master’s program and a traditional 2 year Master’s program. Is the one year masters program worth it or should I just go for the traditional 2 year program?

Also, is there anything else that I need to do? Will coming from a tier 1 university in my undergrad give me an edge over other applicants? Do I need to get a certain GPA or just keep it over 3.0? What kind of letters of recs should I get and should I spend my summers interning or doing research? Compared to the competition its undergrad gets, will graduate school be less competitive considering that 90% of undergrad students at Cal just want to get out in the workforce?

Thanks.

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Have you looked here: https://eecs.berkeley.edu/academics/graduate

3

Maybe. But there are many applications also coming from tier 1 universities.

I don’t think you need to get a certain GPA. But 3.0 will not get you in. There are many applicants with 3.5+ GPA.

IMHO, LoRs from professors seem to carry more weigh than those from people in the industry. After all, the people reviewing your application are professors. It’s a small world, they seem to know each other.

I’d say that it is more competitive, not less. It may be true that “90% of undergrad students at Cal just want to get out in the workforce,” but there are much less applicants being admitted. Applications come from all over the world, not just from Cal. I’ve heard that the percentage of admittance was single digit.

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I know, but what if I spend x amount of years outside academics? Will Cal still be critical of GPA or will they then care more about my industrial experience? Like I said I really want to get into Cal and will do anything to get in its grad program.

Plus, I met several grad students here at U of M and they told me that getting into Cal’s grad program is easy. How do you explain that?