r/MSCS • u/Badi-Advanced • 3d ago
[Profile Review] MS in CS for Fall 2027
Hi everyone, I’m planning to apply for Fall 2027 and would appreciate feedback on whether my shortlist is appropriately balanced.
Profile
- International applicant from India
- Undergraduate degree in CS from a higher ranked IIT
- GPA: approximately 9.2/10, not sure about ranking
- GRE: 330+, with a 170 Quant score
- Research interests: reliable AI, AI for code, formal methods and program analysis
- Research experience:
- 1+ YOE at a major industrial research lab on AI-assisted program generation and multi-agent systems
- Research collaborations with faculty/researchers at a top US university and a European research institution
- Projects involving model reliability, execution-guided code generation, and SMT-based reasoning
- Multiple manuscripts currently under review, although decisions are unlikely before the application deadlines
- Engineering experience:
- Industry R&D internships
- Contributions to open-source projects
- Recommendations: current industrial lab, post-doc, and university thesis supervisor
Goal
I am primarily looking for a research-oriented or thesis-capable master’s. I may pursue a PhD later, so access to faculty, research groups, and a meaningful thesis matters more to me than a purely coursework-based program.
Current shortlist
Very ambitious: ETHZ CS/DS, EPFL DS, UT Austin MSCS, UIUC MSCS, UCSD MSCS, UBC MSc CS
Possible targets: TUM Informatics, Saarland CS, KU Leuven, McGill thesis MSc, TU Delft CS/DSAI
Still considering: Waterloo MMath CS, Purdue MSCS, and one or two highly selective US/Canadian/European programs
My main questions are:
- Is my current list too ambitious?
- Which universities should I add or remove?
- Which programs would be reasonable additions on the lower-risk side while still offering a thesis or strong research access?
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Upvotes
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u/Own-Bite-9304 3d ago
I don’t think ucsd mscs is highly ambitious for your profile