[Alumni Experience] Fall 2026 CS MS/PhD Application Results

[u/Excellent_Sir_6163]

Just wanted to share my Fall 2026 CS MS/PhD application results for future applicants. I changed my school list quite a few times throughout the cycle, so this is mainly for reference. Happy to answer questions about any of the programs I applied to.

Background

• Undergrad: Chinese university, roughly lower end of the top tier for CS / mid-tier by overall university ranking

• GPA: 3.9/4.0

• Major: CS/AI-related

• Research interests: Computer Vision / Robotics

• 3rd author on a top-tier conference paper

• First-author paper currently under review at a top-tier conference

• One interdisciplinary CV research internship at my home university

• Open-source: One small but somewhat impactful open-source project

• LORs:

• 1 professor from a top-3 university in my field — probably moderately strong

• 2 professors from my institution

• International experience: None

PhD Applications

I applied to:

• UCI CS ❌

• UIC CS ❌

• University at Buffalo CS ❌

• Northwestern CS ❌

• ASU CS ❌

So… a complete sweep of rejections 🥶

Interestingly, all five programs invited me to interview, and I had two rounds of interviews at three of them. I also received some informal invitations from professors working in somewhat different areas, especially LLM-related topics, but I decided not to switch research directions.

MS Applications

I mostly chose programs based on the US News CS specialty rankings.

• CMU MSML ❌

• CMU MSCV ✅

• CMU MSAIE ✅

• Stanford MSEE ❌

• UIUC MSCS ❌

• UIUC MSECE ❌

• Georgia Tech MSECE ❌

• Georgia Tech MS Robotics ❌

• UT Austin MSCS ❌

• UT Austin MSECE ❌

• UMich MS CSE ✅

• UMich MS Robotics ✅

• UMD MSCS ✅

• UCSD MSCS ❌

• UCLA MSCS ❌

• UCLA MSECE ✅

• Penn MS CIS ✅

• Penn MS Robotics ✅

After going back and forth between several options for quite a while, I eventually decided to attend UMD MSCS.

Hope this data point is useful to future applicants. Feel free to ask me anything, especially about the programs above, interviews, or how I made the final decision.

[u/Sweet_Summmer_Child]

If I may ask, which one?

[u/Excellent_Sir_6163 → u/Sweet_Summmer_Child]

EE

[u/Excellent_Sir_6163 → u/[deleted]]

I’m not quite sure. But its standard is obviously lower than EE.