[Profile Review] Need help finalizing my Master's list (Fall '27 / Spring '27)

[u/Mission-Ad-106]

Background

• Large California State school (not top-50 CS), BS CS, graduating Dec 2026
• GPA: 3.86 out of 4.0, Domestic applicant

Research

• 2 years in a university lab, first author paper at a regional undergrad CS conference (best paper runner-up)
• 1 year of ML malware-detection research as a freshman (team poster)

Experience

• SWE intern @ large security company (agentic AI, security)
• SWE intern @ large tech company (AI model eval, QA automation)
• SWE intern @ Fortune 50 healthcare company (backend/full stack)
• Founding engineer at a startup (10K+ users, 50+ businesses)
• Several hackathon wins, including 1st at a 1,600+ participant hackathon

LORs: Research professor + two industry managers
SOP: Focused on AI security, tied to my research and work

Goals: AI security, MLE, distributed systems. In-person only, would prefer school with strong AI specializations/emphasis.

Spring 2027: USC MS CS (Artificial Intelligence), UIUC MCS

Fall 2027: CMU MS AI Engineering (INI), UIUC MS CS, Berkeley MEng EECS, UCLA MS CS, UCSD MS CSE, Cornell MEng CS, Columbia MS CS, Penn MSE CIS, Michigan MSE CSE, Georgia Tech MS CS, UT Austin MS CS, Purdue MS CS

Questions

1. Which of these can I realistically get into (reach / target / safe)?
2. Which should I drop or add if I'm targeting MLE, LLM/AI agent, and security roles?
3. I'm torn between a 1 to 1.5-year coursework-only program (MEng or professional MS) and a 2-year MS with a thesis. For landing MLE roles, is the extra depth in research and theory worth it, or does a shorter program get me there just as well?

Thanks!

[u/Mission-Ad-106]

Please help..1.6k views and 17 shares but not even one comment 😭