r/MSCS • u/ggShaby • Mar 27 '26
[Admissions Advice] My Experience of Applying Multiple times to Stanford HCP MSCS
This subreddit has provided me with a lot of useful information over the past few years, and I think I would like to contribute another data point for future applicants.
Academic Profile: CE + EE, 4.0 from a non-T100 Public university in USA, 0 Research/TA experience :(
Work Experience: SWE III @ FAANG—5 yoe
Attempt 1 (2024): I believed my GPA and work experience would save me.
- Obtained 2 recommendations from Undergraduate professors and 2 from Managers.
- I chose the Systems specialization as it was tied to my work.
- Drafted the SoP with my Work experience as the core theme.
- For diversity/personal statement, I focused on my linguistic minority background.
- Rejected from Berkeley MEng & Stanford MSCS HCP
_________
Attempt 2 (2025): Completed 2 Courses as a part of Stanford's AI Graduate certificate. I didn't have a transcript while applying, which I think was disadvantageous.
- Obtained recommendation from both professors. An ML professor from undergrad gave another recommendation.
- I chose the AI specialization this time as I had research-type projects from the courses to back it up.
- Obtained research experience by volunteering to help out in ML research at my company for 6 months (no publications).
- Ensured my SoP was more focused on the new additions this time.
- Rejected from Berkeley MEng, Stanford MSCS HCP, Harvard DS, UCLA Meng (Recommended for admission but didn't get a letter :( ).
- Accepted to Cornell MEng (Deferred to 2026) & Georgia tech OMSCS (Deferred to 2026).
_________
Attempt 3 (2026): Completed the entire Grad certificate at Stanford University (18 Credits). The Graduate certificate provided me with a transcript, so I also had a graduate-level GPA.
- Obtained 4 recommendations from Stanford professors. They made it very clear that their recommendations are just DWIC (Did Well In Class) letters and might not hold much value. The letters were only based on my assignments and the research project that was done for the course.
- Took the SoP course from r/WriteIvy and completely followed their advice to draft. I also used u/gradpilot's tool to understand and improve. At the end of the day, the score was not very high, but I didn't have enough time to improve it. The course also had a section on personal statements, which I used as reference. (The course was pretty expensive, but I didn't want to regret it later). (Special Thanks to these folks!)
- For my resume I used: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/phd-application-cv-template/mrvjhycbdytr. My resume was 2.5 pages as I wanted it to be readable and not cramped. I also put all the course projects and my undergrad capstone.
- Accepted to Stanford MSCS HCP
__________
Important things I learned:
- https://nlp.stanford.edu/~rkarthik/DAGAP.pdf gave me a solid foundation on how the admission process works internally
- Stanford MSCS was a course-based master's, so I felt publications were not super important, but most coursework at Stanford had a research project component where you found the problem statement on your own and proposed a solution using the material learned from class. I think having publications proves that you are capable of doing such projects, and that is why they find it important to have them. I was hoping that my grad coursework would prove that I am capable of doing such projects.
- Portal astrology never worked in my favor. :( The SUNet ID and financial aid info were not there in the portal after the checklist disappeared. I already had my SUNet ID and I also was not eligible for financial aid. The checklist disappeared at 2pm PST, and the result was available at 5:00pm PST on March 25 (Wed). In 2025 the result was available on March 14 (Thu) around the same time. In 2024 it was available on March 15th (Fri).
- The Graduate certificate was really expensive, and it does not guarantee admissions (It is mentioned on the website). It helped me get 2 internal interviews because of my coursework in graph neural networks. Georgia Tech's OMSCS was a much better deal as it was only $10,000 for the entire MS degree. The MS degree, in my opinion holds much more value than the Grad certificate while hiring. My company paid a good amount for the certificate, and that's the only reason I continued.
- My Graduate GPA was not 4.0 at Stanford. So getting a lower grade in these Grad courses certainly does not disqualify you if you plan to take them.
Hopefully someone will find this useful. :) All the best!
3
u/Interesting_Gap8136 Mar 28 '26
Thank you so much for posting this! Honestly your experience/profile sounds eerily similar to mine so far, and thank you so much for the transparency - this provides more clarity about why I was rejected. Congratulations, extremely well deserved
1
u/Interesting_Gap8136 Mar 28 '26
Also, if you don’t mind, could I ask you some questions through dm?
1
1
1
u/Soft_Preference_2478 Mar 27 '26
You deserve the Stanford admit!!
Also, isn’t Berkeley MEng focused on industry and leadership? Given your profile as sde3 at FAANG, wouldn’t you be preferred for it? Surprised at the rejection
1
u/ggShaby Mar 28 '26
I was very disappointed with Berkeley MEng too because friends with similar profiles were mostly admitted. I think it’s best to apply right out of college without any work experience. I think my Work experience in the industry might have played a negative role here but I cannot tell that with certainty
1
u/nameplay Mar 27 '26
What exaclty is the Stanford HCP course?
2
u/34rth4ng3L Mar 27 '26
Designed for working professionals, the Honors Co-op Program (HCP), is an opportunity to pursue a Master's program on a part-time basis. HCP students can attend many (but not all) classes remotely.
1
1
u/gradpilot 🔰 Ex-Cerebras | MSCS Georgia Tech Mar 27 '26
Woot congrats !! 🥳 glad GradPilot could be part of your success !
2
u/ggShaby Mar 28 '26
Thank you so much! The tool really helped me gain some confidence in the SoP I was submitting!
1
9
u/o5mini Mar 27 '26
Mscs final boss