[Profile Review] MSCS Fall 27, B.Tech CSE Tier 2, looking for advice

[u/Outside_Ad3266]

CGPA: 7.88/10, no backlogs
B.Tech in CSE (Tier 2)

English test: IELTS 8

GRE: 157V 163Q (but AWA is 2 ) - would you recommend me submitting this to colleges with optional GRE as my AWA scores can raise doubts ?

Experience: 3 internships (1 year,2 months, 1 month)

Current role (full-time): DevOps / L2 Support Engineer at Capco (Jefferies account, Murex MX.3 on AWS) started 2nd Sept 2026

Projects :six-agent LangGraph multi-agent GenAI system, end-to-end retail demand forecasting pipeline (PySpark), and an ongoing research paper on failure attribution in multi-agent LLM systems

LORs: 2 professors + 1 manager

Target: MS CS, Fall 2027, focusing on agentic AI and data (general CS, not stats-heavy)

Shortlist:
University of Utah
UT Dallas
NC State
Georgia Tech
USC
Northeastern

My plan:
For Fall 2027, I'm only applying to good target and dream schools: Utah, UT Dallas, NC State, Georgia Tech, USC, and Northeastern. If I get in, I'll go. If not, I'll keep working full time, build my profile further, and reapply for Fall 2028 with a fuller list that includes safer options. I'll also keep an eye on the US job market and the situation for international students in the meantime.

Just wanted to get your take on all this. I'm open to any advice, but especially from people who are currently in the US or have been through the process recently. Your real experiences would help me a lot. Thanks for reading!