University Suggestions for GRE score

S

Srirama

Adept
I recently took up the GRE and got a score of 1360(750Q 610V)
I am currently pursuing the third year of my Computer Science Engineering,Chennai.
I don't want this to sound like one of those happy schools blog comments,but if you could share your experiences regarding MS Computer Science,discuss good universities.
then
that would be swell :)
 
Best would be to ask in a forum for higher education

Edulix

Create a profile and then raise this doubt you will get a much more informed suggestion...

As for University it depends on what you want...

1) Which kind of colleges do you wanna apply to... TOP 10 ? TOP 50 ? TOP 100?
2) How are your academics ? CGPA cause that would eliminate a few colleges
3) Have you done paper presentations, Project work
4) How are your extra curriculars - Sports/Debate/Tech Competitions/Social Work
5) Budget - Do you want scholarship or you can finance it fully
6) Do you wanna pursue a Phd
7) Country preferences ? US/Canada/South Eat Asia/Europe
8) Do you wanna pusue coursework graduate programme or research oriented

MS CS is the most applied to programme of all so the competition is pretty tough....

You have to select University in these order

Ambitious
Moderate
Safe

Every college application would cost you around 8-9k so decide accordingly
 
ronnie_gogs said:
Best would be to ask in a forum for higher education

Edulix

Create a profile and then raise this doubt you will get a much more informed suggestion...

As for University it depends on what you want...

1) Which kind of colleges do you wanna apply to... TOP 10 ? TOP 50 ? TOP 100?

2) How are your academics ? CGPA cause that would eliminate a few colleges

3) Have you done paper presentations, Project work

4) How are your extra curriculars - Sports/Debate/Tech Competitions/Social Work

5) Budget - Do you want scholarship or you can finance it fully

6) Do you wanna pursue a Phd

7) Country preferences ? US/Canada/South Eat Asia/Europe

8) Do you wanna pusue coursework graduate programme or research oriented

MS CS is the most applied to programme of all so the competition is pretty tough....

You have to select University in these order

Ambitious

Moderate

Safe

Every college application would cost you around 8-9k so decide accordingly
Click to expand...

Really Appreciate your reply.

1)I'm looking for a university within top 20.

2)My CGPA as of now is 8.86/10(i still have an entire year to go though)

3)Project work as of now->2(one finished,one will be taking up soon,also will have do another compulsory one)

You can check it out at

Here,login test password test

4)Tech competitions,have won one for web designing with 1st place of 1000rupees

5)Scholarship preferred

6)No

7)US

8)I'm open to both.

I'll also create a profile in Edulix,thanks for that. :)
 
For top 20, you need a 1500+ GRE with 800 in maths. You need to be in the top 1% to Top 0.1% in terms of GPA in your university. Then you need to have above average extra curriculars both academic and non-academic. Preferably you need to be in a top college in India. You need exemplary LORs and a really nice SOP. Your essays must be mind blowing. You need to have at least 1-3 research papers published under an international brand, in your name. You must be the President/Head of a club or two, a respected one at that. Your board percentages should preferably be 90%+, or bare minimum 80%+ each time. Throughout schooling and college, your extra curriculars and grades need to be like above.

And after all this, you might get scholarship but you may not. But you will probably get admission provided everything and more is right and your graduation college is above average to very very good.

And I am not talking of the minimum requirement, but something which most Indians would need to get nearly sure shot admission in Top 20, and then try for aid. If you are lucky, you may be able to skip some parts, but chances are you would end up with a lower college.

Besides all this, you need to be ready to invest anything from 60L - 1cr for 2 years, all inclusive, and with a really good lifestyle. You can save about 10L or so with a very average lifestyle.
 
rite said:
For top 20, you need a 1500+ GRE with 800 in maths. You need to be in the top 1% to Top 0.1% in terms of GPA in your university. Then you need to have above average extra curriculars both academic and non-academic. Preferably you need to be in a top college in India. You need exemplary LORs and a really nice SOP. Your essays must be mind blowing. You need to have at least 1-3 research papers published under an international brand, in your name. You must be the President/Head of a club or two, a respected one at that. Your board percentages should preferably be 90%+, or bare minimum 80%+ each time. Throughout schooling and college, your extra curriculars and grades need to be like above.

And after all this, you might get scholarship but you may not. But you will probably get admission provided everything and more is right and your graduation college is above average to very very good.

And I am not talking of the minimum requirement, but something which most Indians would need to get nearly sure shot admission in Top 20, and then try for aid. If you are lucky, you may be able to skip some parts, but chances are you would end up with a lower college.

Besides all this, you need to be ready to invest anything from 60L - 1cr for 2 years, all inclusive, and with a really good lifestyle. You can save about 10L or so with a very average lifestyle.
Click to expand...

:'(

I am really starting to question myself.

Maybe,I'm aiming too high :(
 
Srirama said:
:'(

I am really starting to question myself.

Maybe,I'm aiming too high :(
Click to expand...
Maybe you should just ignore him. Most of his responses are baseless claims. Do not get disappointed. Ronnie possibly has laid out most of the particulars.

I know of folks who did not spend '60L - 1Cr for 2 years, all inclusive' and yet managed to live in the US with a decent lifestyle. They did their B.Tech in CS, managed a ~1400 score in the GRE, got good scholarships when pursuing their MS and now have completed their course. They are working in the US.

Heck, where is stalker when you need him!
 
Top 20 basically means top 5-7 Ivys and few other colleges like Duke or NYU or UP or UoC etc.

These colleges have the kind of requirements I am telling you.

If you want colleges like University of Florida or Washington University, you will probably get them even with your score or maybe a bit more. But if you really want the top 20 and that too with scholarship, you need to do what I said. Else these guys will just console you when you get UF and say that it is an excellent college when it barely makes it to the Top 100 at best for MS.

Top 20 is no joke, it basically means slightly less than getting into Stanford or Harvard, just a little less than that. Those who miss that mark due 1-2 errors make it to the top 20.

Top 50 is more realistic and far easier

And when I say 60L - 1 cr, it depends on the college.

40-50L is your tuition fees at the bare minimum for most Top 20 private colleges. Some colleges, especially which are Govt colleges are cheaper, but you can't bank on the fact that they have to take you. They don't have to, especially when you are talking of the Top 20.

And some colleges like NYU have a fees of like 60-70L or so.

Apart from this, you will need 5-10L a year to cover your lodging, food, living etc. If not 5L, you may need 4L, but you will only live like a very poor person by saving a few lacs here.

If you don't get scholarship, you need to be prepared for a minimum of 50-60L and depending on the college it can be 80-90L as well.

Of course with aid, you may just need to pay your living expenses at most, which too you may be able to take a research assistantship for. But again, don't bank on it but chances are it can happen if you are so good.
 
Since you plan to go to US few things you should keep in mind... Select University based on location for job prospects after you complete your graduation... You cant keep flying for job interviews to California if you keep stay in Missouri...

Best states for IT IMO - California/ NY/ Texas

Universities you might consider

UTD - University of Texas Dallas - Safe (TX)
USC - University of Southern California - Mod/Safe (I would say safe based on ur profile) (CL)
UB - University at Buffalo - Safe (NY)
Purdue - Ambi
NYU - Mod
Washigton U - Ambi
Michigan - Ambi
Texas A&M - Ambi

Other options (Canada) Much better chances to get fully funded MS
McGill - Ambi
Queens - Mod

Keep in mind that rankings and all are fine but really what matters is how much will your degree be worth after you passout... If you pass out from any the universities I mentioned above you have good job prospects ... Maybe not upto rite's standards but you have to plan with what you have... Dont make it here about like the IIT race in India with students dropping years to get into the colleges... Cause you can still reach the same standards later... The trick here is to do it quick and fast...

The above Universities and their chances are my view points for now... Do take 2nd opinions and even 3rd and 4th before making a choice...

Also try to research the field you wanna get into say for example Speech recognition -Find the professors good in the field and Universities doing research in that area... Contact them before hand and get an opinion about your profile , interest and maybe even chances..
 
The first thing you need to do is take rite's comments with a pound of salt.

Secondly, you'll need to figure out what exactly you want to do in your master's.

Do you want a research focused degree?
Do you want a degree that will land you a job in the IT industry?

The GRE is probably one of the least important portions of your application. It is used just to trim down the applications that a university receives, and as long as you satisfy minimum requirements, no one is bothered about it.

Having gone through the whole jingbang, I can say that LoRs generally don't carry much (if any weight), unless you are at a fantastic undergrad institution and have worked/studied under faculty that are known in academic circles internationally. Extra curriculars aren't all that important either, but they wont hurt.

Unless you have managed to publish in journals/conferences of repute (ie, not your usual college technical fest kind of thing, but a proper internationally acclaimed conference/journal), you can as well ignore that aspect of the application as well.

All this will mean that your application and the result will boil down to the essays you write as well as your academic scores. Stellar scores with a strong essay should see you getting into very decent schools.

Don't be fooled by rankings. The university I go to generally ranks in the 40-50 range of various lists for CS. OTOH, my department is the best when it comes to my field of interest. Narrowing down your interests will help a lot. Do not be cowed down by rite's ridiculous top 20 lists and gyaan.

Also, just as ronnie suggested, please do sign up on Edulix. It is a fantastic resource, if for nothing more than to look up experiences and results of previous applicants.

Finally, while I can understand that most people have financial limitations, try to not be very rigid about scholarships. A lot of folks get into universities without assistance and go on to get it in later semesters. This means, you'll have to be prepared to fend for yourself, if by chance, you don't land some form of assistantship.
 
Thanks a lot stalker,Gannu and ronnie for your suggestions(highly valued).

I'm thinking of doing a few more projects,don't think i'm upto the mark for an international paper presentation :p

Will update thread. :)
 
Thread Update:

So my CGPA has decreased to 8.77 now,owing to a nightmarish semester :p

Also got a mail from USC to visit their seminar due to ets search service :)
 
Get in some private school from the Ivy league if you can afford. Based on your GRE and GPA , I think CMU , Duke, (and may be stanford) are in your reach. Private universities are usually easier to get in because they look for people who can fund their expensive tuition fees . State systems are harder in this aspect

Btw, you can get in USC with a 1100 as well.

Having a top-rank university (< 50) can really make an impact on your jobs opportunities, and when I say job opportunities I dont mean your standard Microsoft , Amazon, Yahoo , Apple type companies. You can get interviewed by these companies even if you are from less prestigious universities. If you are interested in working for really smart startups in the valley like Palantir, Cloudera , Facebook (relatively), Quora then go for a good school.

P.S I am doing MS in CS and at a second-tier university.
 
USC admits last year were horrible and left like you were in a lottery...

Too many rejects.. Follow the USC thread in edulix in Results 2011 to get a better idea... People used to consider it moderate to safe before... Not anymore...
 
ronnie_gogs said:
USC admits last year were horrible and left like you were in a lottery...

Too many rejects.. Follow the USC thread in edulix in Results 2011 to get a better idea... People used to consider it moderate to safe before... Not anymore...
Click to expand...

Really?,I was starting to consider it.

@cyrux

CMU,Stanford are kinda too much to expect ain't it?
 
Is there a website where I can learn more about this process and all about GRE and the exams I have to give or prepare and all for going abroad with respect to POST Grad Studies?
 
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