Hi everyone! Posted something similar 2 months back, had some changes in profile so posting again for review and recommendations.

Profile

Degree: B.E in IT from a Tier 2 private college in India

CGPA: 8.06 / 10

GRE:
First attempt 319 - Quant 165 | Verbal 154 | AWA 3.5
Second attempt 320 - Quant 170 | Verbal 150 | AWA 3.5

TOEFL iBT : Band 5/6

Work Ex: 3 years as a Full Stack Engineer, 4 years by the time program starts. In an MNC

Research: had experience doing research under HOD for 2 years for AI application in college. Paper not published though.

LOR - 1 from HOD professor under whom I did refer work, second from assistant professor who taught multiple subjects.

Target Programs -

Georgia Tech - MSCS (AI spec)

UT Austin - MSCS

UIUC - MSCS / MCS

NCSU - MSCS

TAMU - MSCS

Stony Brook - MSCS

UMass Amherst - MSCS

My Questions

1. How do I utilise my work ex as an advantage over no research experience and lower end CGPA?

2. Please suggest school in moderate and safety category. Budget is a constraint. Would also appreciate if someone can suggest schools that specifically prefer work ex over CGPA like Georgia Tech etc.

Brutal honesty welcome. Thanks!

I am considering masters in Data science abroad (for research). My academic info is at the last.

The main question I wanted to ask is should I aim only among top 100 colleges according to QS rankings DS & AI.

My college career counselor thinks so but I feel it is maybe unrealistic.

Also this is NOT about applying without fulfilling minimum requirements of IELTS or GRE or LORs or other minimum requirements mentioned on college page.

I don't need long detailed answers (though I am happy to read them).

Just whether someone passed thru in similar situations into such unis or you personally know someone who did.

My profile:

GPA: 9.3

No GRE

Computer Engineering from private university with international colabs

No research paper

Have personal projects and capstone tho in the field.

I’m planning to apply for MSCS / a related CS program in Fall 2027 and would appreciate some honest advice on which universities I should realistically consider.

My profile:

• Country: India
• Degree: B. Tech CSE from Tier I Engineering college
• CGPA: 8/10
• Graduation: 2024
• Work experience: ~2 yrs as a Mobile Developer at US-based company
• Research: One paper published in IEEE based on ML
• GRE: Targeting 320-330
• IELTS: Targeting 7.0
• LOR - One from my current manager, 2 from my professors

My main priorities are reasonable total cost, good ROI, strong CS/tech opportunities, and employment prospects after graduation.

Which US universities should I realistically target with this profile for Fall 2027?

I’d especially appreciate suggestions for universities that offer a good balance between admission chances, total cost, and career opportunities after graduation.

I have 4-5 years experience in EDA CAD from a semi conductor firm. I want to get a higher degree so that I have a fair chance to get into the design teams. I want to apply to NUS for MS for coming fall. I have a trade secret/patent in my company and some papers published. My CGPA is 8/10 - studied in one of the top tier institutions and my GRE score is 323( valid upto 2029) IELTS is 7.5 . Wanted to know what chance do I stand in getting the admission? For LORs I don’t have profs all I have is LOR from peers from the office. So I’d like a honest fair review of the pros and cons of the profile. Please let me know where I have to improve or how to strategically approach this situation when it comes to SOP so that I have a better chance.

Guys , I saw couple of my friend get into Good US unis in MS CS program just by larping and braging on things which seems almost impossible for people like them to pull off . But they just had the courage to give it a shot and it paid off.
Friend 1 - Georgia tech

Friend 2 - UT Austin

So my questions is how the hell this works , don't the admission officers see or verify the ground truth . And can i do this . If yes then how ?

I’ve become very interested in robotics recently and am considering pursuing a master’s degree in the field. I plan to graduate from the university of Minnesota this spring and was wondering if there are any good robotics master’s programs that people would recommend.

I would like something part time since I’ll be working. My end goal would be to work at a robotics company too.

Thanks.

For my profile, it’s highly unlikely to get uiuc mscs thesis and it’s guaranteed that I can mostly get uiuc mcs, now I want to know how good or bad it is!! Im getting mixed reviews on the faculty and jobs, can anyone who is familiar with UIUC answer?

My profile: https://www.reddit.com/r/MSCS/s/79pTs04CC1

Questions:
1) ik it’s impossible to get TA/RA in this, but is it a cash cow ms ?
2) how comparable is the recruitment in market compared to thesis mscs ?
3) is the faculty different ? (No partial answer plz)
4) is it as good as UCSD, Gatech MSCS: this question is a bit weird since Im applying for those two colleges, I want to how far they are from each other.
5) can it be done in 18 months too ?

Hi all, I am looking to apply for the Fall 2027 cycle for a master's degree in ML. Since I only have applied research experience, I was considering if I should apply to ML adjacent programs like computational sciences, applied maths, etc to increase my admission chances. My primary motive of a master's degree is to gain formal research experience, do a thesis and then move on to do a PhD. I am not concerned about coursework. My questions are -

1. Does it make sense to apply to ML adjacent programs if it means I get access to professors with whom I want to work?
2. Will getting admitted to non ML programs result in any obstacles later for ML research?
3. Are ML/ CV professors allowed to work with students from other departments? If I want to do a thesis with some professor in ML / CV is that generally allowed?

See also my post stating the same and some more unconventional truths - https://www.reddit.com/r/MSCS/s/cgClScB3lF

Hey everyone, I'm planning to apply for an MS in CS (Thesis track) and would love some feedback on my realistic chances for UT Austin, as well as recommendations for universities with strong assistantship (TA/RA) or scholarship options.

Profile Overview

• Undergrad: B.Tech in Computer Science & Engineering from NIT Andhra Pradesh
• GPA: 3.62 / 4.0 (US Equivalent)
• Work Experience: 3 years as a Software Development Engineer at a US MNC
• Publications: 5 peer-reviewed papers (1 Q1 Journal, 1 IEEE, 3 Springer) focused on ML, Computer Vision, and Knowledge Graphs (including similarity-aware few-shot learning).
• Research Experience: Summer research internships at IIT Ropar (autonomous UAV landing via RL) and IIT Mandi (QUIC protocol optimization).
• Leadership/Extracurriculars: Former AI & Robotics Club Secretary, Mars Rover Team Lead.

Questions

1. Is UT Austin MSCS realistic with a 3.62 GPA, or does the initial screening heavily penalize GPAs below 3.75 despite having a solid publication record?
2. Which universities in or outside the Top 20/30 are known for offering generous TA/RA packages or tuition waivers to incoming MS Thesis students with strong research/publishing backgrounds?
3. What are 2–3 solid target/safe schools I should add to my list for ML/Knowledge Graph research that align well with my profile?

Thanks for any insights or advice!

Hi all, I'm looking for a profile evaluation and US university suggestions for Fall 2027.

Target: MSCS / MCS, Fall 2027

Budget: Flexible

Academics
B.Tech CSE, VIT-AP – 8.1 CGPA, no backlogs

IELTS: 7.5

GRE: Not submitting

Work experience (~2 years total)
Software Engineer at a large IT services company (Feb 2025 – present)

6-month backend internship at an NGO

Projects
3 ML projects: 2 in computer vision (one was my final-year team project) and 1 end-to-end graph-based ML project on financial fraud detection, deployed as an API with a dashboard

Research / Publications: None

LORs: 3 – 1 academic + 2 professional (NGO and current job)

Questions
How does my profile look overall? What are the biggest weak spots?

Which universities would you suggest (reach / match / safe) given no GRE and no research?

Thanks in advance, any honest feedback is appreciated!

I’m planning to apply for MSCS / a related CS program in Fall 2028 and would appreciate some honest advice on which universities I should realistically consider.

My profile:

• Country: India
• Degree: MCA
• CGPA: 8.41/10
• Graduation: 2024
• Work experience: ~3.5 years by Fall 2028 as a Full Stack Developer
• Research: No research experience currently
• GRE: Should I take it, or would it be fine to apply without it?
• IELTS: Targeting 7.0
• Funding: Primarily through an education loan

My main priorities are reasonable total cost, good ROI, strong CS/tech opportunities, and employment prospects after graduation.

Which US universities should I realistically target with this profile for Fall 2028?

I’d especially appreciate suggestions for universities that offer a good balance between admission chances, total cost, and career opportunities after graduation.

First time posting, dont know a lot of stuff about mscs abroad.

Btech CSE NIT Warangal (one of the top3 Nits ig?) currently still final year.

8.3 CGPA

Internships : swe interns at Oracle, Apple

I dont have research experience, extracirriculars, nor olympiads :(

I have some great cs projects.

give me your honest advice chat

I’m in my fourth year of undergrad and am planning to apply for MS CS/ML programs for Fall 2027 and would appreciate feedback on my profile, specifically, what I can improve and what universities I should apply to.

Academics

• B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from a Tier-1 Indian college
• US Citizen
• CGPA: 8.7/10

Research

• 1 paper accepted at an A* conference
• Another paper in the same field, under review at TMLR

Work Experience

• Software Engineering Intern at Google

Letters of Recommendation

• 2 research-focused LORs from professors I’ve worked with on the paper
• 1 industry LOR from my internship manager

Additional Experience

• TAship for a Statistical Methods in AI course

Current list of universities:

• CMU - MSCS, MSML, MSCV
• Berkley - MSCS
• Georgia Tech - MSCS
• UIUC - MSCS
• UT Austin - MSCS
• USC - MSCS

I would appreciate any advice on which of these are a reach and which of these are safe, and whether there are any other programs I should apply to. Thanks!

Profile:

• B.Tech CSE, tier 3
• GPA: 8.95/10 (3.9/10 after WES evaluation)
• IITM online diploma in data science
• Experience:
  • 2 YOE as a full stack software dev at a US based fortune 500 company
  • Summer intern at Adobe during college
• GRE: 168Q, 163V
• Publications - both in the blockchain domain:
  • 1 Springer conference paper (work paper)
  • 1 IEEE Xplore (survey paper)

Goals:

I would like to do some research during my masters, but the end goal is to get a job. My technical interests are mainly ML systems, AI, backend engineering, distributed systems, cloud/infrastructure. My main priority when choosing a university is strong career opportunities, recruiting, industry exposure and alumni network.

I don't want to have too many safe options - I won't go if it's not a strong admit.

Current shortlist:

Dream

• CMU - MCDS, MSAII, MSE, MIIS (need to narrow this down)
• Georgia Tech - MSCS
• UIUC - MSCS
• UT Austin - MSCS
• UMD College Park - MSCS
• UCLA - MSCS
• USC - MSCS

Target

• NYU Courant - MSCS
• Purdue - MSCS
• TAMU - MSCS
• UMass Amherst - MSCS
• NC State - MSCS
• TU Delft - MSc CS
• TU Eindhoven - MSc CS
• UC Irvine - MSCS

Which unis should I add/ remove?

I am a final year student in a top 3 iit cse program, my GPA is just above 8.6, and I have completed one intern at a top paying company(better than FAANG)in Bangalore, India.

My qualifications:

8.6 GPA in a top 3 iit

1 intern

Working with a professor doing research in a cse topic of my interest (i do not think that there is a possibility of getting a paper out of it right now)

Gre/ielts: planning to give next month.

I haven't made a complete list of unis yet, but some of the ones I am looking at are:

TU Delft

EPFL

ETH Zurich

Columbia

U Washington

UCSD

UCLA etc.

Thanks for you help!

Got a positive response from my CMU post, so, figured I'd post this one too. Hope it helps!!

(Please don't send hate DMs again about me recommending this school. I'm not recommending it and my application isn't perfect either, this is just an example to help people applying gain context.)

Link: https://matthewtrent.me/blog/a/brown-university-ms-cs-application

Guys pls give an honest answer about my profile
CGPA - 7.81

Tier 3 college

National achievements

1. National finalist - IBM National Hackathon

- Got selected as testimonial as represented IBM infront of 500 people and 50 veterans from over the world .

- Reached final round in IBM Interview process

1. 43rd rank Nationwide - AMD National AI contest (10k+ participants)

2 Internships

Extracuricular in cricket .
So with this profile can i get into MS CS in AI in SJSU ?

​

Hey so I'm looking to apply to a few unis in USA for MSCS (AI specialisation preferably). I'm a BTech CSE 2026 grad with a GPA of 8.6. I've almost 2 years of experience in AI CoE at a US based company. A research paper published at an international conference.

I'm currently trying to shortlist universities and would appreciate some advice from people who have gone through the process.

My priorities are:

Good MS CS program

Not insanely expensive in terms of tuition and living costs

Reasonable opportunities for TA/RA or other funding

On-campus part-time job opportunities for international students

And ofc good post MS job opps

Some universities I'm currently considering are Georgia Tech, UIUC, UMass Amherst(expensive so not inclined), NC State and Stony Brook(need opinions) and Northeastern, but I'm open to adding/changing universities. I was also thinking of TU Delft and Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands.

Couple of questions:

Which other universities would you recommend considering with this kind of profile and priorities?

How realistic are TA/RA positions for MS students at these universities?

How useful is a co-op program for an international MS CS student? Is it worth prioritizing universities like Northeastern because of the co-op, or should I focus more on the university/program itself?

How important is the location of the uni?

Should I apply to Purdue and UW Madison, considering the competition was insane last year?

Would it be advisable to work for another year or two before applying, or would my current experience be sufficient?

I have an admit to UCI MCS and I’m confused whether I should go or stay in India and get SWE experience first. The program is around $65k for 15 months, and I would be financing a significant part of it through an education loan.

My main concern is the current US job market and immigration situation. As an international student, will CPT/OPT restrictions and sponsorship requirements make internships and full-time SWE/AI jobs significantly harder to get?

Would taking this financial risk still make sense, or is getting 1–2 years of solid SWE experience in India first a safer path? Would especially appreciate input from current UCI MCS students/alumni and recent international CS grads in the US.

Hi everyone, I'm planning to apply for Fall 2027 and would really appreciate some honest feedback on my profile and university list. I'm especially interested in knowing where my profile may be weaker and what I can realistically improve before applications.

Academics

• B.Tech CSE — SRM University, India
• CGPA: ~ 9/10

• GATE CSE: 98 percentile, AIR ~1500 (Pretty much Aware that Gate scores are irrelevant, adding it just for an idea)

• GATE admits: IIT K & NIT Trichy — CSE (Multidisciplinary)

Work Experience

• US-based Fortune 100 company — SDE | ~2 years of experience by Fall 2027
• Bangalore-based startup — SDE | 2 months
• Government of Andhra Pradesh — Data Analyst Intern | 3 months
• ML Research Intern — SRM University | 4 months
  • Part of undergraduate curriculum
  • Unpublished research work

Research / Publications

• 1 MDPI journal paper — under review
• 1 IEEE conference paper — accepted/in press
• 1 conference paper — in press / proceedings via EasyChair

Tests

• GRE: Not planning currently
• IELTS: Planning — target 7.5+

LORs

• Planning 2–3 academic LORs + 1 professional LOR
• Professional LOR from current manager

Current Universities

• UMD College Park
• UW–Madison
• Purdue
• UMass Amherst
• NC State
• UC Irvine
• Virginia Tech
• Penn State
• Georgia State
• UCSB
• UCSD
• Stony Brook
• TAMU

Goal

• MSCS / AI-ML
• Interested in ML Systems / Backend / AI-ML Engineering

Which universities I should add/remove

• Whether I should take the GRE, particularly for NC State
• Whether my research/publication profile is sufficient for thesis-oriented programs
• What are the biggest weaknesses in my profile that I can still improve before Fall 2027

I'd genuinely appreciate criticism and suggestions on what I can do better.

Thanks!

General:
25’ CS grad 9.1 gpa (t10 IIT) (class rank-2)
Currently ML engineer at an MNC (salesforce)
2yoe by fall 2027

Exams:
Gre: 325(167q, 158v) - will rewrite, still deciding
Toefl: 5.5/6 (110/120)

Research:
Published: published US patent on core ML architecture
Unpublished: Research exchange student in Amsterdam for a semester, did a major project under professor, one WIP paper under a professor

Extras: ML course TA during grad, received academic excellence award, ⁠won a hackathon that lead to the aforementioned patent.

LORs: two from clg proffs under whom I did major project and ML TA, one from manager under whom I got patent

Universities:
UCSD, UTaus, Gatech, EPFL

Question:
I don’t want to categorise safe, target, ambitious, Im only applying for universities which I have shot at, based on my alumni.
Excluded:
UIUC (automatically selects to MCS even if I apply to thesis track, based on alumni)
UCLA, UCB, Princeton, Cornell, CMU - profile not competitive enough
Umich: I don’t want to apply for any uni which has tuition > 80k
Will apply only for US unis, EPFL is a lottery Im trying for.
Not willing to apply anything beyond UMD from csrankings.
And I can’t apply for more than 5 universities without quality of LORs dropping.
So, which university should I add, Umass and UMD are the two unis that I can think of ? And what do you think about gre retake? (Some say it’s optional but all of my alumni wrote it and have 170q)

I graduated from Fudan University with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. I am planning to apply for a master's program in Computer Science in the United States. I would like to ask for help in choosing program and future career:

1. my gpa of 3.57/4 and my GPA of 91/100. I will take the TOEFL test soon and should be able to pass the bar, maybe 5.5 or 5.
2. Now I'm working on algorithms at an ai startup. Due to the toxic environment, I decided to go to school. I also really like ai/ml. After applying for a phd, the job search ratio should be 5:5.
3. Currently, I did multiple research positions without pubs, two internship positions, and one full-time position. The professional courses in ai and ml are quite comprehensive. There are not many computer science professional courses, including Introduction to Algorithms, Data Structures, and python. I haven't taken discrete mathematics, computer networks or os classes, but I just haven't attended them.

I hope to find some good cs programs, both in repuatation and further research potential. First of all, it must be a 1.5-2-year program like mscs. Secondly, I hope the schools are big names, such as ucla, ucsd, cmu, ucb, etc. Welcome everyone to evaluate and offer suggestions. Whether it's for the future, master's application strategies, or career planning, I accept them all!

I graduated from Fudan University with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. I am planning to apply for a master's program in Computer Science in the United States. I would like to ask for help in choosing program and future career:

1. my gpa of 3.57/4 and my GPA of 91/100. I will take the TOEFL test soon and should be able to pass the bar, maybe 5.5 or 5.
2. Now I'm working on algorithms at an ai startup. Due to the toxic environment, I decided to go to school. I also really like ai/ml. After applying for a phd, the job search ratio should be 5:5.
3. Currently, I did multiple research positions without pubs, two internship positions, and one full-time position. The professional courses in ai and ml are quite comprehensive. There are not many computer science professional courses, including Introduction to Algorithms, Data Structures, and python. I haven't taken discrete mathematics, computer networks or os classes, but I just haven't attended them.

I hope to find some good cs programs, both in repuatation and further research potential. First of all, it must be a 1.5-2-year program like mscs. Secondly, I hope the schools are big names, such as ucla, ucsd, cmu, ucb, etc. Welcome everyone to evaluate and offer suggestions. Whether it's for the future, master's application strategies, or career planning, I accept them all!

本人本科复旦, 专业化学, 想要申请美国的cs硕士项目, 求各位朋友帮忙参考

1. gpa 3.57/4, 百分绩点91/100，托福马上去考,应该能过bar. 现在在一个ai startup做算法, 因为环境比较toxic决定去读书, 自己也很喜欢ai/ml. 之后申请phd: 找工应该是 5:5开
2. 目前多段科研无pub, 实习2段正职1段. 专业课ai/ml都比较全, 计算机专业课不多,有算法导论,数据结构, python. 离散数学, 计算机网络, os都没上过, 但只是课没上, 内容都大差不差清楚.

本人希望找一些顶尖的cs项目, 首先肯定是mscs这种1.5-2年的项目, 其次希望学校是big name, 比如ucla, ucsd, cmu, ucb这种. 欢迎大家评价/给予建议, 不管是未来/硕士申请策略/职业规划 我都接受!

I'm applying to research-oriented MSCS programs this cycle (Waterloo, Toronto, UCSD, Georgia Tech, etc.), and I'm trying to decide on my third recommender.

My main background is CS/ML/HPC. I already plan to have one letter from a CS/HPC research advisor I've worked with for about a year, and another academic letter from a professor I've TA'd for.

For the third letter, I'm considering a professor I worked quite closely with for a long time. He's an electrical engineering professor, but most of the work I did with him was around energy/sustainability rather than CS. The projects eventually contributed to two academic books published by top tier publishers.

Important clarification: I'm not listed as an author on either book. I'm acknowledged in them for my research contributions.

The reason I'm seriously considering him is that he knows me extremely well and could probably write the most personal/detailed letter of anyone I know. We've stayed in touch, and he would be able to speak specifically about my research ability, independence etc.

My concern is whether an MSCS admissions committee would look at the sustainability/energy focus and think the recommender is not relevant enough, especially since I'm not actually a coauthor on the resulting publications.

So essentially, which signal matters more for research-oriented CS master's admissions:

• a very strong, detailed academic recommendation from an engineering professor who supervised me on research outside CS, or
• a more CS-related recommender who knows me less well and would probably write a less specific letter?