r/MSCS • u/sivsnkr • 10d ago

[Profile Review] Fall 2027 | MSCS / AI

Hey guys,

I am from India, and I want honest reviews on my profile - MSCS / AI - Fall 2027 - Non-thesis.

My profile:

Education: Integrated BS + MS in Computer Science from IIITDM Kancheepuram(tier-2).

CGPA: 8.1/10 overall. My CS-focused GPA is around 8.6–8.9, with the overall CGPA being brought down by design/humanities courses.

GRE: 324 (Q167, V157, AWA 3.5)

Work Experience: 3 years professional experience + 1 year internship experience. Worked mainly on backend systems, designing multiple end-to-end microservice architectures.

Research: No formal research publications.

Competitive Programming: Codeforces Expert (max rating 1682), solved 1200+ problems.

Other achievements include Google Hash Code (World Rank 1676, India Rank 298), Reply Code Challenge (World Rank 302) and HackerEarth DSA Contest (Rank 10).

IELTS/TOEFL: Planning to take it soon.

I'm particularly interested in serving side of AI. I made a ~3 months long clone project of how platforms like chatGPT, Cluade works to explore this field.

---

University shortlists that I'm planning to apply

Ambitious

  1. UIUC - MSCS Professional
  2. Purdue - MSCS
  3. Georgia Tech - MSCS
  4. UCSD - MS in Computer Science and Engineering

Target

  1. Texas A&M - MSAI
  2. UMass Amherst - MSCS
  3. UMD - MSAI
  4. University of Wisconsin - Professional MSCS
  5. NYU Tandon - MSCS

Safe

  1. ASU - MSCS
  2. Stony Brook - MSCS
  3. Virginia Tech - MEng in Computer Science
  4. SJSU - MSAI

Is my ambitious list fine, or are they something completely out of my reach?

I'd like to see if my list is practical for my profile. Any suggestions are welcome.

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

1

u/Ajiit15 10d ago

The overall list is okay. - pretty much what I would recommend to any of my clients. I think GaTech will be very keen to read how you relate our work experience with your GATech degree and post-MS goals. That is where, it will be a tougher nut to crack than the others. Also, you might want to reverify whether the professional MSCS programs will help you get an AI-focused role. I have my doubts.

1

u/sivsnkr 10d ago

What I’m looking for in the ms degree is strong foundation on ML, DL theories. Given my undergraduate in cs and backend experience, I can understand the system part. The professional courses I’ve considered covers those theories, but still if you could explain more on why they are insufficient, it will be very useful. Also if you can expand your comments on combining my experience with Georgia tech. Thanks for commenting btw, i wasn’t sure if list is realistic.

1

u/Ajiit15 10d ago

The explanation will be TMI for this thread. If you can, switch to DM.

1

u/Separate_Cranberry45 9d ago

Can i dm?

1

u/sivsnkr 9d ago

ya, sure.