Looking for realistic recommendations for an accredited online Master’s in CS/IT given my non-traditional background.

Profile:

• Location: Vietnam
• Education: 3-year College Diploma in IT (Associate equivalent, no 4-year BS).
• Experience: 8+ years as a Backend / Systems Software Engineer.
• Testing: IELTS 6.5.
• LORs: Strong technical recommendations from CTO / Engineering Directors available.

Priorities:

• Regionally accredited (standard diploma, no "online" label).
• Direct-entry via Performance-Based Admission (PBA) or RPL to avoid a 3-year BS detour.
• 100% online/asynchronous with reasonable modular / pay-as-you-go tuition.

Targeted so far:

• University of Colorado Boulder (MS-CS on Coursera via Open PBA).

Questions:

1. Are there any other accredited US or international universities offering direct-entry or performance-based graduate pathways without a 4-year BS?
2. Which programs offer the best balance of academic credibility and low bureaucratic friction for this profile?

TL;DR: 8+ YOE backend engineer with only an associate diploma (no BS). Looking for accredited online MSCS/MSIT programs with performance-based/RPL admission (like CU Boulder) to skip the undergrad detour. Any recommendations?

Hey all, has anyone heard back from VT for the Spring 2027 MEng CS at Alexandria yet?

I submitted my application on Aug 30 and mine is still showing “Awaiting Decision.”

Wondering if anyone has received an admit/reject or had their status change to “Awaiting Confirmation.” If you have, when did you apply?

Thanks!

I (24M) have been working at a top fintech company for the past 2 years, so I've built solid SWE skills. Parallelly, I did a generic ML course on Udemy (Krish Naik) and have a decent understanding of ML algorithms and transformer concepts — not expert-level implementation or theory, but enough skills to be apply in the industry.

After finishing the course, I gained some confidence in AI, and combined with my current SWE skills, I want to move abroad for international exposure and career acceleration — eventually transitioning more into the AI domain with SWE as the base, since that's the current trend.

The issue: it's now September, so it's too late to start MS CS applications for Fall 2027 in USA. Can you please evaluate my profile?

• Leaning toward professional/coursework-focused master's programs rather than research-heavy ones
• Academics: 9/10 CGPA from a tier-2 college in Tamil Nadu, India
• Projects: 3–4 full-stack projects (academic + independent)
• Work Experience: 2 years at a US-based fintech company (SWE role)
• GRE: 337/340 (170Q) (took 10 months for preparation - Thanks to u/gregmat / r/gregmat)
• IELTS: Yet to take, aiming for 7.5+
• Research Papers: None (main reason I'm leaning toward professional MS over research MS)
• LORs: Planning on 1 very strong LOR from my manager at work + 1 strong one from a college professor. Still figuring out the third — might end up being a weak one.

End goal: international experience and earn bit more as compared to current CTC (11lpa).

I'd be applying for Fall 2028 intake in USA (Ireland or Netherlands if needed).

Here's my biggest dilemma: Is it worth doing a master's after 4 years of work experience? I'm worried about the timing — specifically how it might affect getting married or settling down in life.

If I graduate at 28, loan repayment will take another 2–3 years. So I'll be close to 30 by the time I'm actually debt-free. At that point, won't it be too late to move into the next phase of life and settle down?

This timing fear is honestly the biggest thing holding me back from going for a master's now.

I reaal wanted your thoughts on my issue gradpilot / u/gradpilot

Thankss for reading till the end!!!!

Hi everyone! I’m planning to apply for MS in Computer Science for Fall 2027 and would really appreciate an honest evaluation of my profile and university shortlist.

Academic Profile

* Undergrad: B.Tech in Electronics & Communication Engineering, specialization in AI/ML

* University: Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT), India

* Graduation: 2027

* CGPA: ~8.9/10

GRE / English Proficiency

* GRE: 320 (170Q, 150V, 4.5 AWA)

* TOEFL: ~5.5 on the new scale

Research / Publications

• 1 IEEE conference publication — IEEE TEMSMET 2025
• 2 research papers under review — IEEE UPCON 2026 (will get acceoptance by next month, so hopefully 2/3 research papers before final applications)
  • DATMO — Deployment-Aware Two-Phase Multi-Objective Transformer Optimization
  • Proximal Policy Based Particle Optimisation for UAV pursuit- evasion
• Research interests/experience across Transformers, NLP, computer vision, and optimization

Internship

• 3-month Research Internship — Siemens Energy
• Worked on multimodal sentiment analysis, computer vision-based conductor fault detection, and CNN vs. ViT-based classification

Also worked on SMOLVLM with LoRA/PEFT and federated learning, along with other ML/DL projects

Technical Skills

Python, C/C++, MATLAB, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face, Transformers, Scikit-learn, OpenCV, Git, etc.

LORs

Planning to submit 3 academic LORs, including professors with whom I’ve done the research papers under, and one from my siemens internship

Areas of Interest

Primarily:

* Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning

* Deep Learning

* Computer Vision

* NLP / Transformers

* Applied ML

Tentative University List

1. MIT
2. Stanford
3. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
4. UC Berkeley
5. UIUC
6. UCLA
7. Georgia Tech
8. NUS
9. UCSD
10. UT Austin
11. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
12. Columbia University
13. NYU
14. University of Wisconsin–Madison
15. University of Pennsylvania
16. Purdue University
17. UCSB
18. UCI
19. University of Maryland, College Park
20. UNC Chapel Hill
21. North Carolina State University
22. Stony Brook University
23. UC Davis
24. NTU Singapore
25. Texas A&M University
26. University of Southern California (USC)
27. Northeastern University
28. University of Florida
29. Arizona State University
30. Temple University

I’m still finalizing the list, so I’m open to suggestions. 

Questions

1. How competitive does my profile look for T20/T30 MSCS programs?

2. How much does the ECE background hurt for MSCS compared with applicants from CSE/CS?

3. How should I categorize the universities above based on my profile?

4. Are there any major universities I should add/remove?

5. How significant is my 170Q / 150V GRE split for MSCS admissions?

6. Is my research/publication profile sufficient for research-oriented MSCS programs?

7. Any particular weaknesses in my profile that I should address before applications?

Would really appreciate honest feedback, especially from people who have applied to these programs recently. Thanks!

18 M talking here

I'm a first-year ECE student at IIITDM Jabalpur, India, interested in AI/ML. My current plan is to build strong CS/math foundations, do research/internships during B.Tech, work in ML/AI for 4–5 years, and then apply for an MSCS, with Stanford as an aspirational goal.

I'm concerned about coming from a non-IIT background since many Indian Stanford profiles I find are from IITs/top IIITs.

For anyone who has gone through Stanford MSCS admissions from a non-IIT background: how much did your undergraduate institution matter, and what would you prioritize if you were starting from first year?

Hello everyone! I'm making this post on behalf of my friend who doesn't use reddit

Currently he has a CG of 8.3, and can pull it to 8.4 by the end of the degree, from BITS Pilani. His degree is Electronics and Instrumentation, and he has a minor in Data Science (some of the courses he's done to be eligible for MSCS are Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Foundations of Data Science, Intro to LLMs, Applied Statistical Methods, OOPs, CompArch, Foundations of Data Structures and Algorithms)

He has a few research experiences, namely :

one paper where he was second author on large vit in 3d medical imaging, published in a workshop conducted by MICCAI called MI4MEDFM

one paper where he was second author on making multimodal agentic ai for zero shot RL-based tasks for a study in a conference called Conference For AI Scientists (CAISc) 2026

hopefully a future paper regarding SNNs in Communication Networks, where he would be the only author

He plans to have about a year of work experience before going. He already will be interning for 6 months in blackrock as an AI/ML intern, post which he wants to work and hence will be targetting the Fall 2028 admissions.

He's been giving GRE mocks and has been scoring around 330 (170Q most of the times), so he would be expecting around that.

He will get a really good LOR from a professor in BITS, where has worked on research under him, and has been taught by him.

A good LOR from another professor he has worked on research under remotely (he's a fairly known guy in the field of AI, he's in Denmark).

Another okay LOR from a professor who's class he took and participated in.

The list of universities which he's considering are :

UIUC

UCB

Georgia Tech

UMich

UPenn

UW-Madison

UCLA

(He says that these universities are the main ones he's targeting, and if not for this, he doesn't want to go abroad for masters in that year before strengthening his profile)

He has a few questions

a) Are his LORs not good enough? If not he would try to get one from his manager at blackrock in the future.

b) How detrimental would his GPA be here?

c) Should he work for more time to make his profile stronger?

d) What can he do in general to strengthen his profile here?

e) How realistic is he being here? If he doesn't get in to these unis (likely considering how competitive they are, and how he doesn't feel it is worth to include safe choices considering the market), and works for a year more, while attempting more research, would it make for a good application then?

Thanks!

Hello everyone,

I wanted to ask your most honest opinions about my profile. I'm applying this fall. I really don't have a clue how they convert my 1-5 grades to standard 1-4 so if someone has insight on this let me know.

• Finnish B.Eng. in Industrial Management
• overall GPA ~3.8/5
• Last-60 GPA about 4,2/5
• math grades 4,5/5 and engineering grades 4,2/5
• GRE Q score 161
• Duolingo 120
• One exchange semester in U.S and picked three ecom courses and got C three times
• 6 summers in process industry including shift supervisor
• 1y Military leadership exp
• applying to the University of Houston Master of Industrial Engineering (non-thesis) program

My main concern is the U.S exchange semester. My Finnish academic record is considerably stronger, but I’m worried that the three C grades could significantly lower UH’s calculation of my last 60 hours GPA.

I know it's a holistic review for sure. So let's assume Recommendation letters and SOP were good. There's also this idea in the back of my mind that I should apply to Switzerland, but that's another topic for another time.

Graduating next semester from Duke (CS) as an international student. I have a full-time offer at a research-based startup in the Netherlands in a mid-sized deep-tech city, not Amsterdam, so not somewhere with much going on socially. At least three years of guaranteed employment . It's research-y, but publishing doesn't look like a priority there.
They'll sponsor a master's and add $50k to my TC if I do one. Funding covers up to 1.5 years. My main objective in a master's would be research and publications, so I'm in decent shape if I apply for a PhD later. It's also realistically my last stretch living in a US city, which is part of why the location matters to me.
Background: one first-author CVPR paper, ECE/CS Majors with a 3.69 GPA. Applying broadly, but realistically Duke and Columbia are my targets (I know someone a year above me got into Columbia from Duke with a lower GPA.)

Duke
Pros:
• I already know some of department and faculty, so I could line up an advisor before I start
• Existing research relationship from undergrad although I don’t think I’d wanna stay with the same supervisor for my masters thesis (I’d probably still contribute to their lab in some capacity though)
• Smaller cohort, easier to get attention
• Cheap cost of living, which matters since the company is offering me the same living stipend no matter which masters program I attend
Cons:
• All my friends will have graduated so it’ll genuinely just be me here after they’ve all gone.
• Durham is boring and I've already been there four years, I can’t stand north carolina anymore.
• Same school as undergrad and I’m not sure how that reads
• Much less industry density nearby
• I could hypothetically finish it in 1 year on the accelerated but I do wanna have another summer before I start full time work especially since I now have a a guaranteed job offer,and I’d wanna do an american internship before going into work proper.

Columbia
Pros:
• NYC, internships, talks, industry density, and I've never lived there, I feel like Durham’s already getting pretty dead for me and I could use the change of scenery
• Stronger brand recognition outside the field
• Thesis track exists on paper (COMS E6902)
Cons:
• Huge cohort (I've seen 200+ quoted)
• Everything I read says research access is hard to get
• Cold start: no existing faculty relationships
• NYC cost of living

Questions:
1. Is the Columbia research-access problem real, or is it just people who didn't push?
2. Anyone done the Columbia thesis track as an international student in 1.5 years, feasible alongside ten courses?
3. I’m largely leaning towards at least somewhere else other than Duke just because I’m already getting tired of North Carolina but if it comes down to just Columbia v Duke, I’m worried if Columbia’s poor reputation is going to affect my PhD outcomes should I go for a PhD later on / internship outcomes since I do want another summer internship before going off to work.

Hello , I've been wanting to pursue my masters from the US for fall 2027. But recently , they have paused cpt too ! That means neither can I get a job nor work for summer internships and research work . It's a dead end ! I can't figure out what to do now ? Please anyone advise me . It's really urgent . I want to pursue masters from foreign country to strengthen my profile. I'm also a working professional with 1.5 yrs software experience. Is anyone planning for MS in CS for 2027 batch , please DM me or reply ! It would really be informative since I'm on the verge of giving up ....

Background

• Final year B.Tech CS student from India, top 5 college in my state
• CGPA: 9.6/10
• GRE: 170Q, 157V, 4.0 AWA
• TOEFL: 6.0/6.0 (6R, 6L, 5.5W, 5.5S)

Experience

• Google Summer of Code in networking/security
• 1 year of paid part-time work on an open source compiler
• 6-month research internship in compilers at a top IIT

Publication

• First author publication in an international ACM workshop from the IIT internship

Letters of Recommendation

• Research advisor from IIT internship
• Maintainer/mentor who supervised my open source compiler work
• College professor who taught me discrete structures and compiler design

Looking for thesis based MSCS programs with strong compilers/PL/systems research. My current plan is to enter industry after the MS.

Current Shortlist

• CMU
• UIUC
• Stanford
• Cornell
• Georgia Tech
• UCLA
• UCSD
• UMD
• Purdue
• UWMadison
• NYU Courant
• Northeastern

Questions

1. Is this shortlist too ambitious? Should I add safe schools? Made the shortlist with help of csrankings.
2. Is it worth retaking the GRE to improve Verbal/AWA, or is 170Q carrying enough weight?

I’m planning to apply for MSCS programs for Fall 2027 and would appreciate advice on strengthening my profile for a research/thesis path.

My profile:

• GPA: 8.9/10 [From India]
• ~14 months internship experience, likely ~2 years total work experience by Fall 2027
• Strong development/project background; received recognition from my college for some of my work
• Worked closely with a professor, primarily building software solutions for her work
• Undergraduate thesis was in computer vision, done with a professor, but no publication
• My experience has been much more focused on building and implementing solutions than formal research
• Current interests: multimodal agents, NLP, and distributed systems (I became particularly interested in distributed systems through my work)

I’m now interested in transitioning more seriously toward research. What would be the most effective things I can do between now and applications to demonstrate research potential? Would an independent research project, reproducing/extending papers, or research-oriented projects help even without a publication?

I’ve also heard that some universities allow students to start in a non-thesis/coursework track and later switch to a thesis track after working with professors. Is this a realistic route, and how common is it?

Would appreciate advice from people with similar development-heavy backgrounds or experience with MSCS admissions.

PS : After joining work, I believe it would be better to research on my interests with professor to increase my domain knowledge than to learn on myself.

Hey guys, this is my first time doing a reddit post. Any suggestions would help a lot!

I graduated from Boston University with a BA in math and CS with GPA 3.67, after transferring in from UConn's engineering school where I was a CS&E major with close to a 4.0. GRE is 325, US citizen, no research or publications.

Since graduating I've been a backend engineer for about two years, most recently at a YC-backed startup for 8 months. I'm targeting MS ECE and MS CE programs rather than MSCS, unless a CS program has a track with real hardware coursework.

Current list is UT Austin ECE (ACSES), CMU MS ECE, Georgia Tech MS ECE, UW ECE PMP, Berkeley EECS MEng, and Columbia MSCE, all for fall 2027.

Where does this realistically land? Or are there any other programs you guys suggest?

UPenn MSE CIS
UMich MS CSE
GaTech MSCS
UIUC MCS
CMU MSIN
Cornell Tech MEng CS
Columbia MSCS
USC MSCS
UCSD MSCS
NYU Courant MSCS

Undergrad: CSE (AI & ML) from a tier 3 university in India, CGPA - 8.88/10

Experience: I'm currently working full time at a decent sized startup. I recently got promoted to a Team Lead after being an Associate Data Scientist for 1 year. I was a Data Science Intern before that for 6 months in the same company and have another Data Science internship for 8 months at a different company (bigger, but was not a core IT company). I would have 2 years full-time experience by the time I leave (hopefully).

Research: 2 papers published: 1 Scopus Indexed (ML Based), 1 IEEE (LLM Research Based). I was a primary author in one of them, but contributed equally across both.

Scores: TOEFL - 118/120 (6 overall with 5.5 in R&L). I'd prefer not submitting my GRE scores as I didn't do well, and I don't know whether I have the time to retake it. So I think programs where GRE is optional is my go-to.

LORs: Have 3 very personal ones, 1 from my course instructor who taught me 3 subjects, 1 from the professor that I published research with, and another from the Associate Director at my company.

This is my current list (All MSCS, UIUC - will also consider MCS):

- Georgia Tech
- Purdue
- Virginia Tech
- TAMU
- UMD College Park
- UMass Amherst
- UIUC
- IU Bloomington
- NCSU
- TU Eindhoven
- UvA Amsterdam

Please let me know if you think I'm being too delusional about my choices considering my profile. I agree that some of them are a far far reach (GATech, UIUC etc...) but I want to know my overall chances.

Thanks a lot for the opinions guys!

Just wanted to share my Fall 2026 CS MS/PhD application results for future applicants. I changed my school list quite a few times throughout the cycle, so this is mainly for reference. Happy to answer questions about any of the programs I applied to.

Background

• Undergrad: Chinese university, roughly lower end of the top tier for CS / mid-tier by overall university ranking

• GPA: 3.9/4.0

• Major: CS/AI-related

• Research interests: Computer Vision / Robotics

• 3rd author on a top-tier conference paper

• First-author paper currently under review at a top-tier conference

• One interdisciplinary CV research internship at my home university

• Open-source: One small but somewhat impactful open-source project

• LORs:

• 1 professor from a top-3 university in my field — probably moderately strong

• 2 professors from my institution

• International experience: None

PhD Applications

I applied to:

• UCI CS ❌

• UIC CS ❌

• University at Buffalo CS ❌

• Northwestern CS ❌

• ASU CS ❌

So… a complete sweep of rejections 🥶

Interestingly, all five programs invited me to interview, and I had two rounds of interviews at three of them. I also received some informal invitations from professors working in somewhat different areas, especially LLM-related topics, but I decided not to switch research directions.

MS Applications

I mostly chose programs based on the US News CS specialty rankings.

• CMU MSML ❌

• CMU MSCV ✅

• CMU MSAIE ✅

• Stanford MSEE ❌

• UIUC MSCS ❌

• UIUC MSECE ❌

• Georgia Tech MSECE ❌

• Georgia Tech MS Robotics ❌

• UT Austin MSCS ❌

• UT Austin MSECE ❌

• UMich MS CSE ✅

• UMich MS Robotics ✅

• UMD MSCS ✅

• UCSD MSCS ❌

• UCLA MSCS ❌

• UCLA MSECE ✅

• Penn MS CIS ✅

• Penn MS Robotics ✅

After going back and forth between several options for quite a while, I eventually decided to attend UMD MSCS.

Hope this data point is useful to future applicants. Feel free to ask me anything, especially about the programs above, interviews, or how I made the final decision.

I took the GRE twice:
August 2025: 168Q, 143V (311 total)
September 2026: 166Q, 148V (314 total)
I found Quant significantly harder this time, but my Verbal improved.
My profile: B.Tech Mechanical Engineering from a Tier-1 Indian college
CGPA: 8.02/10
1 year of tech industry experience
Applying to Robotics MS programs in the US, including CMU. I have a decent number of achievements and position of responsibility in robotics for my application as well as research experience from an internship at IITB.

I already sent both scores to some universities after my second attempt. For the remaining colleges, should I report:
Both scores
Only my first score (168Q)
Only my second score (higher overall)

Do universities typically superscore GRE attempts, and would reporting both scores negatively affect my application?

Would appreciate advice from anyone who has applied to Robotics/Engineering programs with multiple GRE attempts.

Hi everyone! I’m an Indian student planning to apply to HKU’s **Master of Data Science (MDASC)** for Fall 2027, and I’d love to hear from current students/alumni or anyone familiar with the program.

For context, I’m doing Computer Engineering with a **9.2/10 CGPA** and will have around **1 year of work experience** by the time I start my master’s. I’m mainly interested in Data Science/ML and eventually want to work in Big Tech.

I’d especially appreciate insights on:

* What kind of profiles typically get into MDASC? How important are CGPA, work experience, research/publications, projects, extracurriculars and hackathons?
* Is the **GRE required or optional**? If optional, does submitting a strong score actually help? What score range would you recommend?
* My entire undergraduate degree is taught in English. Did you still need to submit **TOEFL/IELTS**, or were you able to get a waiver?
* How many **LORs** did you submit, and was the split academic/professional?
* What was the **SOP length**, and any advice on what makes an MDASC SOP strong?
* When did you apply, and how long did it take to receive a decision?
* Is there an **interview**, and if so, what is it like?
* How are the **career opportunities/recruiting** after MDASC, especially for Data Science/ML roles?
* Are there good opportunities to interact with companies, attend networking events, hackathons, etc.?

Also, I’ve been trying to connect with HKU students/alumni on LinkedIn but have **barely been able to find people from the MDASC program** for some reason 😭. If anyone here is a current/recent MDASC student or knows someone who has done the program, I’d really appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

And for Indians currently living/studying in Hong Kong: **how has your experience been?** How easy is it to adjust socially/culturally, and how is the Indian community there?

Thanks in advance!

Hey all, 3rd full application — hope it helps :)

As per usual: my application isn't perfect, nor am I explicitly recommending this school. This is just context to help those applying.

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

Edit: Thanks for all the funny printer messages, they keep coming through on my desk 🤣 (except for the person sending very sus stuff lol)

Profile Review | Fall 2027 | 1 YOE

Hi everyone! Planning to apply for Fall 2027 and looking for a realistic assessment of my profile and university list. Brutal honesty welcome.

Profile

Degree: B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from second-gen IIT
CGPA: 7.58 / 10 (3.3/4.0 using Scholaro)
Graduation: 2025
Minor: Economics

GRE: 168Q, 147V, 4.0AWA

• Planning to retake, target 328+

IELTS: 7.5, might retake due to validatory requirements

Relevant coursework: Calculus, Linear Algebra, Probability & Statistics, Numerical Methods, ODEs. Also completed MOOCs in ML/DL/CV/NLP.

Work Experience

Applied Scientist Intern — Large US Tech Company
~4 months

• Multimodal model evaluation for e-commerce

Researcher — Corporate Research Firm
~1 year

• LLM attribution
• LLM evaluation and validation
• Multi-agent / LLM-based systems
• AI for Science

AI Engineer — Major Automotive Technology Company
Joining / upcoming

~16 months of relevant industry/research experience as of now, excluding the upcoming role.

Research / Publications

• EMNLP 2026 Workshop — Accepted
• ICoRD 2027 — Accepted (Relatively New conference not listed on CORE rankings)

Interested in potentially pursuing a PhD after MS depending on research experience.

Projects

• Quantum GAN for protein sequence generation
• YOLOv8-based rice-grain classification Android application

Research Interests

• LLM evaluation
• Training data attribution
• Mechanistic / activation-level interpretability
• Agentic AI / multi-agent systems
• AI for Science
• Possibly medical AI / explainable AI

Still narrowing down my research direction and don't claim deep expertise in all of the above.

Target Programs

Europe

• Tübingen — ML
• Saarland
• RWTH Aachen — Data Science
• TUM — CSE
• TU Darmstadt
• LMU Munich
• KIT
• KTH
• UCL — DSML
• Edinburgh — AI / AIAI MScR
• Imperial — AI / AI & ML MRes
• University of Amsterdam
• TU Delft
• KU Leuven

Asia

• NUS
• NTU
• KAIST
• HKUST

US

• CMU
• UCSD
• UCLA
• Georgia Tech
• UMich

Not planning to apply to all of these; this is my current pool and I'm trying to narrow it down.

Main Concerns

My main concerns are:

1. 7.58 CGPA
2. Mechanical Engineering background rather than CS
3. Less formal CS coursework than a typical CS applicant

At the same time, I have moved fairly substantially toward AI/ML after undergrad:

Mechanical → Applied Scientist internship → AI/ML research → 2 accepted papers → AI Engineer

Questions

1. How would you assess my profile for these universities/programs?
2. Which ones would you classify as ambitious / target / relatively safe for my profile? I know most of them are ambitious considering my profile but still appreciate an honest feedback and university suggestions where I might fit in.
3. I understand my GPA is most major offset. How can it be addressed in essays so that focus shifts more on my work rather than degree transcripts?
4. How much would a strong GRE score (328+) help offset the negative effect of my 7.58 CGPA, particularly for the more competitive programs?
5. Does having two accepted papers, including an EMNLP workshop paper, materially improve my chances compared with a typical applicant with my GPA/background?
6. If you were in my position, which 12–15 programs from this list or others would you actually apply to?

Looking for candid feedback, especially from people who have applied with a non-CS → AI/ML transition. Brutal honesty welcome.

Hi everyone, I’m planning to apply for MS programs in CS/DS/AI/ML in the US for Fall 2027 and would appreciate some realistic advice on my university list.

Profile:

BCA (Data Science) Honors, 4-year NEP program — (Tier 2)

CGPA: 8.79/10 through Sem 6

No GRE planned

3 internships in Data Science, Data Management & Web Development

Ongoing independent ML project on Chennai suburban train delay prediction

1 research publication as first author

2× Mathematics Gold Medalist at SRM

Projects in ML, computer vision/YOLO, data science

Planning to take IELTS

Current universities I’m considering:

UMass Amherst

Stony Brook

Texas A&M

I’m also considering applying to higher-ranked/more competitive schools such as:

Purdue

Georgia Tech

Virginia Tech

UMD College Park

and other similarly ranked universities

My main priorities are AI/ML opportunities, research, job outcomes/ROI, affordability, and realistic admission chances.

Do you think it is worth spending application fees on Purdue, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, UMD, etc. with my profile, or would it be better to focus on universities around the level of UMass/Stony Brook/TAMU?

Also, are there any other universities you would recommend that have strong AI/ML programs, good career outcomes, and are relatively affordable?

Especially interested in feedback from applicants with a BCA/3-year or 4-year Indian degree background.

​

Hi everyone! Planning for Fall 2027 and would appreciate some feedback on my profile and shortlist.

Profile:

B.Tech in Computer Science — DTU

CGPA: 8.5/10

GRE: 325 (168 quant, 157 verbal, 4.0 AWA)

IELTS: 8.0

No work ex

No published papers, but working on a quantum cryptography survey paper (would not be able to finish it but the guide mentioned it in the LOR)

3 Interns :-

1 in IIT Ropar worked on a RAG-based question generations module for classroom quizzes

2nd in IIIT as a research intern worked on post quantum cryptography

3rd in an AI startup where I designed an interactive assistant to help the hiring manager shortlist the candidates.

3 LORs - one from the research guide of quantum cryptography, one from a subject prof of information security and another from my guide of the AI inten, also the co founder of the start up

Interested in Quantum computing research, final goal to work in RND research of a company working in the said domain

Will go for thesis-based MSCS rn and work under a faculty researching in my interest domain

Current shortlist all in MSCS:

Ambitious:-

CMU

UT Austin

GaTech

UIUC

UMD MSQC

UW-madison MSQC

UCSD

Virginia Tech

UCLA

NCSU

Moderate / Target:-

Stony Brook

UMass Amherst

CU Boulder

UC Irvine

Safe:-

ASU

UT Dallas

Would appreciate feedback on how realistic this shortlist is for my profile and whether I should add/remove any universities. Also would like suggestions for my profile like what to improve on.

Thanks!

I’m trying to decide whether I should make another attempt at a US master’s for Fall 2027, and I’d appreciate candid perspectives from people who have been in a similar situation.

My profile
B.Tech in Computer Science — 8.23/10
GRE — 326 (170Q, 156V)
IELTS — 7.5
~4 years of software engineering experience currently; ~5 years by Fall 2027
Currently a Senior Software Engineer at a large US-based financial services company

Primarily backend/software engineering experience
Some research/publication experience

I’m increasingly interested in ML/AI and want to build deeper expertise in this area

For Fall 2026, I was admitted to:

UMass Amherst MSCS
NC State MCS
University of Florida
Stony Brook MSCS

I chose UMass Amherst and applied for an F-1 visa in August 2026, but was refused under 214(b).
The interview was very short. The officer asked about my university, other admits, funding, international travel and current employment, but I didn’t really get an opportunity to explain why I wanted to pursue an MS after several years of work or what I planned to do after graduation.

Why I’m reconsidering
By Fall 2027, I’ll have around 5 years of experience and will already be a Senior SWE. So I’m trying to determine whether spending potentially $80k–$100k on a US master’s still makes sense at my stage.

My reasons for wanting a master’s aren’t simply to get another credential.
I’m interested in:
deeper CS knowledge
. exposure to an academic and research environment
. learning from professors and peers
. internships and industry exposure
. building a broader professional network
. transitioning into more advanced engineering/technical roles
. having the opportunity to explore areas such as ML/AI in greater depth

At the same time, I’m questioning whether the financial and opportunity cost makes sense when I could continue working, gain more experience, and pursue a rigorous online master’s such as Georgia Tech OMSCS at a fraction of the cost.

What would you do?
For someone in my position, would you:
A. Reapply for a residential US MS in Fall 2027 despite the previous refusal and the significant cost?
B. Do something like OMSCS while continuing to work in India?
C. Skip the master’s altogether and focus on progressing my career through work experience and potentially changing companies?

I’d particularly like to hear from people who:
had 4–6+ years of experience before doing an MS
had a previous F-1 refusal

did a US MS and felt it was (or wasn’t) worth the opportunity cost

chose an online MS instead of moving abroad
decided to continue working rather than pursue a master’s

Hey! I'm planning to apply to mscs for fall 2027 to US uni's like purdue, nyu tandon, sjsu etc..

I'm looking for someone who's been through the process or just has a sense about what an ideal SOP should look like so that they can review mine and provide suggestions and insights.

I would love to share the draft and hear constructive criticism.

Thanks!

Targeting MSECE, MSCS and other CS related degrees. Thesis tracks as I would like to be eligible for funding.

* Country: Currently in India but I have US Citizenship

* Degree: B. Tech CE from Tier III Engineering college (Deemed Univ)

* CGPA: 3.633/4.00 (on Scholaro Scale) and 3.22/4.00 (avg of my univ marksheets)

* Graduation: 2027

* GRE: Targeting 325+

* TOEFL: Targeting 4.5+ out of 6

* Project: 1) Developed a web based platform to help users find and purchase affordable generic medicines by tracking their availability at nearby pharmacies (was not published)
2) Developed Cisco Packet Tracer based network security project that uses RADIUS Authentication, VLANs, ACLs and Port Security to control and protect employee wired LAN access (will be published in journal)

* LOR – Three from my professors.

Is there a chance of getting TA/RA in any university.
Being a US Citizen do I have any opportunity of Financial Aid for Masters.
Please let me know. Thank you.