totally unfair

[roozbexm]

Originally Posted by veroniquaz

roozbexm:

I also think the low GRE verbal was the main deficiency of your application. The message to me as an adcom would have been that you seem to be a very smart person given your Q and A score and excellent profile, but probably not comitted enough to go to grad school as you did not make that small effort of memorizing a few words and scoring well on V. You also said your undergrad GPA was a bit low. What exactly did you mean by that?

3.49 out of 4 (converted to 4 scale)

[kaluram]

Originally Posted by roozbexm

3.49 out of 4 (converted to 4 scale)

I think that was another reason for the rejection. The top 10 schools in general cut off students under 3.75.

[Rob116]

At the end, some of these students end up having their advisors write their theses/dissertations cause they just can't write about research in English in a way that people can understand.

Sure they do...

[agcr1]

How are you converting your GPA? I have a lot of confussion in that subject. For example, my undergraduate average is 9.06/10 and the passing grade is 6.75. What would my GPA be? I also was the best of my class.
It is my understanding that a D equals to "barely passing" which in sacale 0 to 4 would be a 1, right? Then it would be incorrect to calculate my GPA BY 9.06*4/10. By doing so I would be saying that a zero equals to failing a class, when failing a class, where I sutudied, was anything below 6.75.

My conclusion: there is no reasonable way to convert between grading systems.

[europeean]

Well yes, converting grades is a rather useless business, I agree... the best is, if your university can rank you in your class... well, mine could not, so there was no way to signal that my GPA was pretty good...

Anyway another problem is that your university rank matters a lot. I got the impression in my field (econ) there are about three ways to get into the Top programs as a Non-US (best is to combine them )

1) be at the top of one of the five or ten best Master programs: LSE, UPF, Oxford, Toulouse...

2) have an article in one of the really good journals (not so easy )

3) study in the US at Top10 university and get good recommendations - Nobel prize winners are most practical

if you are not fulfilling any of these requirements don't be too disappointed - better fulfill more than one

good luck

[Cavenaghi]

Originally Posted by roozbexm

The admission decisions are totally unfair. I have 5 papers including 2 papers in the best conference in my field of research and I know I have good recommendation letters and my Masters GPA is above 3.9. but I have rejected from all of the US universities I applied. Just because my undergrad GPA and verbal score was a little bit low (My GRE Q:800 A: 790 V: 320).
The admission list of one of the universities is semi-public. When I compared the admitted student in my field with myself....
They didn't have even one paper. They were from unknown colleges.

My rejection list: USC, Gatech, UMN, Washington,...

The competetion for CS graduate program is really high. You should relize almost every university in the world has a CS program now. The only reason I can explain for your rejections, is that, the professors who are in your research area do not need new phd students or do not have funding for you. That's way you didn't get an offer. I am in the same situation like you. And I know for Chicago, I didn't get the offer because the professor told me that he has 5 phd students working with him now, and does not need new students

[Ivo]

Roozbemx, I can't really undestand why you have received all the rejections. You profile seems to be very good despite the low Verbal score - actually i don't think the schools in your field care about it too much and I wouldn't care either.

Saying that the admin. process is unfair might be a "fair" judgement of the matter. Actually we've all known from the start that this isn't just about one's abilities.
That said, you might be underestimating some of your competitors and this could even insult CS people here on the forum. From the little I know CS seems to be one of the most competitive majors of all: so many qualified applicants applying each year. Only God knows how many of those who have succeded have had a better profil/research match than yours. I mean you've applied to great schools.
Still I can understand your frustration and it's difficult to figure out with so little information about you what was the exact cause of this. If I was you, I would inquire with the universities you applied to. I know that if you are persistent, they will tell you what the problem was. Also, make sure that your SoP is well written. A blunder in that writing could spoil everything.

these are my two cents.

[abburiaditya]

I have an undergrad GPSA of 3.7, and a masters GPSA of 3.6, 3 good rec's, GRE quant 780, anal 780 and verbal 480, Uconn and RPi have given me rejetcs and they never even bothered to inform me, i had to keep calling them and suddenly one day they tell me on the phone.

i still havent recieved official rejects though.... am still waiting to hear from SUNY Albany and UTK

by the way these are all for phd program in material science and engineering.... am pretty sure i wont be getting any admits, will probably stay back here and continue research till december and then head back to india..