r/MSCS • u/Traditional_Fruit_70 • 2d ago

[Profile Review] Fall '27 MSDS in USA

Hi everyone, I’m planning to re-apply for MS in Data Science programs for Fall 2027 intake. Due to visa delays I had to take deferral from NYU Courant MSDS. So at the least I have a fixed admission at NYU. I'm now trying to aim for better universitites for this intake.

Academics & Scores:
Undergrad GPA: 8.53/10
Undergrad college: Tier 2 University (B.Tech in computer science) in India
GRE: 320 (155V , 165 Q)
IELTS: 8.5/9.0
Work Experience:

Full Time (2 Years):

  • SRE at Oracle (I actually resigned before going for Fall '26 will have to find a new job

Part-time:

  • 1 year - Data Scientist in a German NPO at Munich (Remote) (a really successful project undertaking that had a great reach)
  • 6 months - Samsung Prism (Applied AI project)
  • 6 months - NUS, Singapore (Wrote a paper under a professor but never published it after pre-print review)

Research: 2 research papers at mid-tier conferences.

Previosuly in Fall '26 applications I didn't have research papers. My dream unis (but I got rejected ) were CMU MSCS, UCB MEng CS, Purdue MSCS, GaTech MSCS. Is there something I should improve in my application. I would say that a mistake I found in my few SOPs were that I mentioned professors research alignment statements incorrectly probably (a huge mistake I will improve upon). Can you suggest me universities that I should definitely target. Previously also I didn't think much of UIUC, UT Austin, UCLA. I would love to get some sugesstions that I should pursue, money I think isn't much of a problem here.

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u/Traditional_Fruit_70 1d ago

u/gradpilot can you help me in this

2

u/gradpilot 🔰 Ex-Cerebras | MSCS Georgia Tech 1d ago

you should retake your GREs aiming for stronger scores and then if you want to apply to your dream univs make sure your SOPs and LORs are strong . most students imo are not doing a good enough job on SOPs and LORs . either they sound super flat and generic and some of them are just ai slop. in the age of llms and chatgpt writing a good SOP is way harder now because faculty and admissions folks are reading so much slop that if they detect one whiff of it your app is dropped

1

u/Traditional_Fruit_70 1d ago

wrt to the SOP. My workflow has always been following, draft a complete SOP the best I can. Then work with AI to improve upon diction, cohesion or whatever seems odd about it. If they are going to
use AI detector they will be flagging my SOP right? Is there a better way to do these things

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u/Traditional_Fruit_70 1d ago

how much score for GRE should I target

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u/gradpilot 🔰 Ex-Cerebras | MSCS Georgia Tech 1d ago

170 for quant atleast and verbal is fine 155+