Q. What's a good GRE score?
The weightage of the GRE score in the overall admission process might differ from university to university. Based on my own experience from being an admissions committee member at Stanford, GRE usually ends up being a filter, such that applicants above a certain cut off are moved forward for further consideration, those getting much lower than the cut off are rejected straightaway and edge cases are at times allowed to be saved if there's something remarkable in rest of the application. In the quantitative section, scores greater than 750 (the closer to 800 the better!) are preferred. In AWA, getting more than 3.5 (or 4 to be on the safer side) should be enough. Admission committees can forgive performance (especially for international students) in the verbal section, but it would still be better to get at least 500.
Again, some universities might be more lenient than the cutoffs I just mentioned, and some might be stricter. With enough practice and preparation, I strongly believe that a score of 1400/1600 (with 800/800 in quant and 600/800 in verbal) and 5.0/6.0 in AWA can definitely be achieved by most students. That should be a safe score to get you past the GRE filter of almost all the top universities.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Reputation of the undergraduate college
Q. How much does the name of the undergraduate college matter?
All top schools do give some weightage to how good the undergraduate college is. When evaluating Indian applications, all top schools have definitely heard of the IITs, but have seldom heard of anything else (even the next-best colleges like NITs, BITS Pilani, Anna Unniversity, etc.). In fact, some times IIITs (Indian/International Institute of Information Technology) get confused with IITs and the IIIT applicants might thus have it lucky thanks to their easily mistakable name. But awareness is on the rise and a lot of the US schools now do recognize IIITs (as being distinct from IITs), BITS Pilani and a few other colleges in addition to the IITs. The importance of the "IIT" brand varies. In some top schools, it may be an absolute necessity to the extent that non-IIT applications are pretty much not evaluated at all. In others, it just adds a bit more of weight and trust to the application. Thus, cases which are on the borderline (say due to borderline GPA or GRE or other factors) and might have been rejected for a non-IITian, might just get accepted because of the "IIT" tag.
Stanford is one of the schools which does give importance to the IIT brand name, but not so much as to overlook other aspects of the application. It thus has an Indian student population such that the number of non-IITians pretty much equals the number of IITians. In summary, if you are at an IIT, stop worrying! If you are not, don't kill yourself about it - there might be a very small number of universities (and this list is becoming smaller every year) that might reject you on account of not being an IITian, but most schools will definitely do a fair evaluation of your application even otherwise. Provided your overall profile stands out, you should still be able be able to into most of the top graduate schools.
All top schools do give some weightage to how good the undergraduate college is. When evaluating Indian applications, all top schools have definitely heard of the IITs, but have seldom heard of anything else (even the next-best colleges like NITs, BITS Pilani, Anna Unniversity, etc.). In fact, some times IIITs (Indian/International Institute of Information Technology) get confused with IITs and the IIIT applicants might thus have it lucky thanks to their easily mistakable name. But awareness is on the rise and a lot of the US schools now do recognize IIITs (as being distinct from IITs), BITS Pilani and a few other colleges in addition to the IITs. The importance of the "IIT" brand varies. In some top schools, it may be an absolute necessity to the extent that non-IIT applications are pretty much not evaluated at all. In others, it just adds a bit more of weight and trust to the application. Thus, cases which are on the borderline (say due to borderline GPA or GRE or other factors) and might have been rejected for a non-IITian, might just get accepted because of the "IIT" tag.
Stanford is one of the schools which does give importance to the IIT brand name, but not so much as to overlook other aspects of the application. It thus has an Indian student population such that the number of non-IITians pretty much equals the number of IITians. In summary, if you are at an IIT, stop worrying! If you are not, don't kill yourself about it - there might be a very small number of universities (and this list is becoming smaller every year) that might reject you on account of not being an IITian, but most schools will definitely do a fair evaluation of your application even otherwise. Provided your overall profile stands out, you should still be able be able to into most of the top graduate schools.
MS or PhD?
Q. Should I apply for an MS or a PhD?
This is a very common doubt that a lot of aspirants have. In some cases, the student himself/herself does not have a clue about what he/she wants, in which case they are mostly interested in how this decision (of applying for an MS or a PhD) affects their acceptance chances and funding opportunities. In other cases, the student is quite sure that he/she wants to do a PhD, but is not sure whether directly applying for a PhD right after BTech/BE is the right choice, or if he/she should apply for an MS first and later apply for PhD.
As far as chances of admission at a top school is concerned, a PhD admission is considerably more tougher to secure than an MS admission. The PhD application pool is simply lot more competitive and the admissions committee too has much higher standards of admissions for a PhD admit. If you do not have a very high research orientation and are looking forward to just get an opportunity to study at a top school and/or have the name of that school get attached to your resume, then applying for MS is a much safer bet. Thankfully, a lot of the applications these days have an option that says "consider me for MS if I am rejected from the PhD program". You should definitely select this option and for universities that don't give this option, you would be better off only applying to their MS program.
Of course, things are different if you want research/academia to be your career and are sure about doing a PhD. In that case, it makes more sense to apply for a PhD directly. Such applicants should also keep in mind the things said above about the difficulty of gettign a PhD admit at a top school. However, when PhD is your goal, then the rank of the university doesn't matter as much as the particular professor/research lab you would be working with. Even in universities that might not feature in the top 10 or 20 in most rankings, there might be specific research groups or professors who are highly reputed in their field and do quality research work. As long as you get an opportunity to work with and be advised by such a professor, you should be fine. However if you really really want to do a PhD from a very top school, then you'd be better off doing an MS first and then applying again (your chances should improve once you have done an MS from a reputed university).
With regards to funding, PhD admissions almost certainly coming with funding in most of the top schools. but MS admissions don't. PhD admits get some sort of scholarship or fellowship with their admit which is good for couple of years (or at least one year), and even after that expires, it's easy for them to get research and teaching assistantships. MS students on the other hand have to solely rely on getting RAships and TAships to fund their studies. The ease of getting assistantships differs from university to university. It might be a good idea to contact a couple of graduate students already studying there (it should be fairly easy to get email addresses of students from the university website) about the funding situation there.
This is a very common doubt that a lot of aspirants have. In some cases, the student himself/herself does not have a clue about what he/she wants, in which case they are mostly interested in how this decision (of applying for an MS or a PhD) affects their acceptance chances and funding opportunities. In other cases, the student is quite sure that he/she wants to do a PhD, but is not sure whether directly applying for a PhD right after BTech/BE is the right choice, or if he/she should apply for an MS first and later apply for PhD.
As far as chances of admission at a top school is concerned, a PhD admission is considerably more tougher to secure than an MS admission. The PhD application pool is simply lot more competitive and the admissions committee too has much higher standards of admissions for a PhD admit. If you do not have a very high research orientation and are looking forward to just get an opportunity to study at a top school and/or have the name of that school get attached to your resume, then applying for MS is a much safer bet. Thankfully, a lot of the applications these days have an option that says "consider me for MS if I am rejected from the PhD program". You should definitely select this option and for universities that don't give this option, you would be better off only applying to their MS program.
Of course, things are different if you want research/academia to be your career and are sure about doing a PhD. In that case, it makes more sense to apply for a PhD directly. Such applicants should also keep in mind the things said above about the difficulty of gettign a PhD admit at a top school. However, when PhD is your goal, then the rank of the university doesn't matter as much as the particular professor/research lab you would be working with. Even in universities that might not feature in the top 10 or 20 in most rankings, there might be specific research groups or professors who are highly reputed in their field and do quality research work. As long as you get an opportunity to work with and be advised by such a professor, you should be fine. However if you really really want to do a PhD from a very top school, then you'd be better off doing an MS first and then applying again (your chances should improve once you have done an MS from a reputed university).
With regards to funding, PhD admissions almost certainly coming with funding in most of the top schools. but MS admissions don't. PhD admits get some sort of scholarship or fellowship with their admit which is good for couple of years (or at least one year), and even after that expires, it's easy for them to get research and teaching assistantships. MS students on the other hand have to solely rely on getting RAships and TAships to fund their studies. The ease of getting assistantships differs from university to university. It might be a good idea to contact a couple of graduate students already studying there (it should be fairly easy to get email addresses of students from the university website) about the funding situation there.
Factors influencing the admissions process
Q. What do the US universities look for in an applicant?
This post lists the different components that make up the MS application. That should give you a brief idea of the different aspects that will be evaluated while an application is under review. The admissions committee does not get a chance to interview or interact with the applicants in any way, it thus has to use UG grades as a proxy for measuring the applicant's knowledge in his/her field of study. The GRE score is another source of input about the applicant's analytical and quantitative skills. Additionally, they look at the projects, internships or work experience (these would be highlighted in the SOP, LORs and resume) to get a better idea of the applicant's background. The SOP and the LOR also help the committee to know the person better and make an informed decision taking into account a lot of things which would not have been otherwise deducible just from the transcripts or the scores.
I might have been a bit vague here and not gone into much depth talking about the different aspects. That's why I encourage you to read my paper "Demystifying the American Graduate Admissions process" which answers this same question in a lot more detail.
OR
Q. What are the different aspects that will be evaluated when you apply for a graduate program in the US?This post lists the different components that make up the MS application. That should give you a brief idea of the different aspects that will be evaluated while an application is under review. The admissions committee does not get a chance to interview or interact with the applicants in any way, it thus has to use UG grades as a proxy for measuring the applicant's knowledge in his/her field of study. The GRE score is another source of input about the applicant's analytical and quantitative skills. Additionally, they look at the projects, internships or work experience (these would be highlighted in the SOP, LORs and resume) to get a better idea of the applicant's background. The SOP and the LOR also help the committee to know the person better and make an informed decision taking into account a lot of things which would not have been otherwise deducible just from the transcripts or the scores.
I might have been a bit vague here and not gone into much depth talking about the different aspects. That's why I encourage you to read my paper "Demystifying the American Graduate Admissions process" which answers this same question in a lot more detail.
Components of a graduate school application
Q. What are the different components of an MS application?
The different components of an MS application are the scores from ETS - GRE and TOEFL, grades (detailed transcripts) from your UG institution, recommendation letters, statement of purpose and optionally, a resume. You need to have these ready before you can apply. You would then create an application on the institute's admissions website, fill in the required details, upload the relevant materials and follow it up by sending rest of the application materials in hardcopy through snail mail. GRE and TOEFL scores are directly communicated to the universities by ETS. For recommendation letters, you usually give the contact details of your recommenders in the online application and the institute then reaches out to them individually. Official transcripts from your college (in sealed envelopes) need to be sent in hard copy to the university. Your SOP and resume would be uploaded while completing the online form.
This is how it usually works. But of course, be sure to read the instructions of your particular university carefully before blindly following the steps mentioned here.
The different components of an MS application are the scores from ETS - GRE and TOEFL, grades (detailed transcripts) from your UG institution, recommendation letters, statement of purpose and optionally, a resume. You need to have these ready before you can apply. You would then create an application on the institute's admissions website, fill in the required details, upload the relevant materials and follow it up by sending rest of the application materials in hardcopy through snail mail. GRE and TOEFL scores are directly communicated to the universities by ETS. For recommendation letters, you usually give the contact details of your recommenders in the online application and the institute then reaches out to them individually. Official transcripts from your college (in sealed envelopes) need to be sent in hard copy to the university. Your SOP and resume would be uploaded while completing the online form.
This is how it usually works. But of course, be sure to read the instructions of your particular university carefully before blindly following the steps mentioned here.
Things to do / keep in mind during undergrad
Q. I have just finished my schooling and have got admission in college X (or I am currently doing my bachelors at college X). I want pursue an MS in Computer Science (or some other branch) right after finishing my bachelors. Give me a general outline of the things I should keep in mind during my undergraduate (UG) studies.
First of all, timeline-wise, you would be applying in the beginning of your fourth year (7th semester). It is important to get requirements like GRE and TOEFL out of the way by around this time. E.g., if you are beginning your UG studies in 2010, you are looking to start a Masters program in the Fall (autumn) of 2014. For that, you need to get your applications in by Dec 2013/Jan 2014. Also, your admission decision will be made based on your profile at the time of application - that would reflect your UG performance in the first three years. The first 3 years are hence crucial.
If you are certain about doing higher studies in a technical field (i.e. MS as opposed to MBA), then the biggest thing that you should concentrate on is undergraduate academics and projects. Every field has some core subjects (e.g. for Computer Science it would be courses like Algorithms, Operating Systems, etc.), and you should try your best to excel in them. Additionally, you should always strive for projects (even if it is a simple class project) which have something novel or researchy about them rather than copying/reimplementing a project that someone has already done before. Consider each project as an opportunity to add something exciting to your profile. Of course, the amount of time you get while doing class projects is restricted, so you might not be able to achieve this all the time, but it's still a good idea to be on the look out for such opportunities. However, definitely try to enforce this in your pre-final year mini project (if your college has such a thing) and your final year projects, where you can devote a lot more time.
Try to build a good rapport with your professors and lecturers (by exceling in their classes, engaging in discussions, doing projects under their supervision) since you will need recommendations from at least three of them while applying. In the summers after your second and third years, be on the search for internships or summer projects. They could be in academia (institutions like the IITs, NTU or NUS Singapore), research labs (Microsoft Research, ISRO, BARC, DRDO, etc.) or the industry (Microsoft, Google, etc.). It would be good to have at least one of your internships in the first two categories. Projects outside outside usual college academics such as these show that you have are enthusiastic about your field of study and have strived to do much more than your normal curriculum during the course of your UG studies. Also, internships are a good opportunity to get a recommendation from a prestigious institution like IIT or Microsoft Research, which can be very useful in case your own college is not among the really famous ones.
Prepare well for GRE in your third year - though there's an option of giving it multiple times, try to finish it off in just one shot and give your best attempt at it. Depending on your current comfort level with the English language, you may need to start working on your English vocabulary much earlier than just the third year, for others, the preparation might just be a couple of months' time commitment. Also, in your third year, start researching different universities in the US that you would like to apply to. Evaluate your choices based on both (i) how good the university is, especially for the areas of research you are interested in and (ii) how realistic a chance you have of getting into that university, given your profile. Use the help of peers, seniors and online forums for helping you make your choices and finally apply well in time before the application deadline.
If you are certain about doing higher studies in a technical field (i.e. MS as opposed to MBA), then the biggest thing that you should concentrate on is undergraduate academics and projects. Every field has some core subjects (e.g. for Computer Science it would be courses like Algorithms, Operating Systems, etc.), and you should try your best to excel in them. Additionally, you should always strive for projects (even if it is a simple class project) which have something novel or researchy about them rather than copying/reimplementing a project that someone has already done before. Consider each project as an opportunity to add something exciting to your profile. Of course, the amount of time you get while doing class projects is restricted, so you might not be able to achieve this all the time, but it's still a good idea to be on the look out for such opportunities. However, definitely try to enforce this in your pre-final year mini project (if your college has such a thing) and your final year projects, where you can devote a lot more time.
Try to build a good rapport with your professors and lecturers (by exceling in their classes, engaging in discussions, doing projects under their supervision) since you will need recommendations from at least three of them while applying. In the summers after your second and third years, be on the search for internships or summer projects. They could be in academia (institutions like the IITs, NTU or NUS Singapore), research labs (Microsoft Research, ISRO, BARC, DRDO, etc.) or the industry (Microsoft, Google, etc.). It would be good to have at least one of your internships in the first two categories. Projects outside outside usual college academics such as these show that you have are enthusiastic about your field of study and have strived to do much more than your normal curriculum during the course of your UG studies. Also, internships are a good opportunity to get a recommendation from a prestigious institution like IIT or Microsoft Research, which can be very useful in case your own college is not among the really famous ones.
Prepare well for GRE in your third year - though there's an option of giving it multiple times, try to finish it off in just one shot and give your best attempt at it. Depending on your current comfort level with the English language, you may need to start working on your English vocabulary much earlier than just the third year, for others, the preparation might just be a couple of months' time commitment. Also, in your third year, start researching different universities in the US that you would like to apply to. Evaluate your choices based on both (i) how good the university is, especially for the areas of research you are interested in and (ii) how realistic a chance you have of getting into that university, given your profile. Use the help of peers, seniors and online forums for helping you make your choices and finally apply well in time before the application deadline.
And it's as easy as that... :).
Friday, August 20, 2010
Experiences as an admissions committee member
Q. Can you share your experiences as an admissions committee member at Stanford?
Sure! This document is a compilation of my personal experience as an application reviewer (for MS in CS) at the Stanford computer science department. It talks in detail about the various factors that affect the admissions process and also highlights common pitfalls that applicants make while applying to US graduate schools.
Sure! This document is a compilation of my personal experience as an application reviewer (for MS in CS) at the Stanford computer science department. It talks in detail about the various factors that affect the admissions process and also highlights common pitfalls that applicants make while applying to US graduate schools.
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