GRE : 1230 (V 480/Q 750); 6+ yrs Work exp; Do I need to retake?

[deepkv]

Hi,

Am a software engineer from india. I had taken my GRE last week and scored 1230, awaiting AWA score. I want to pursue my Masters in CS from a reputed US school. Below is a brief of my profile

Background
UG - 2003 passout - BEngg in CSE from not-so-famous college under Madras university. Secured 77% with no backlogs and they call it 1st class with distinction.

Work Exp - I currently have 6+ years work experience in Software development. Couple of performance awards. Well, its not exactly the research based exp that would count for an MS, but never-the-less its experience right.

Misc - 1 not-so-useful paper, 1 Networking based project, Class representative for 3 consecutive years, lots of extra-curricular activities, nothing special to talk about apart from this.

LORs - Have good name in office, so 2 managers agreed to recommend. good one from college lecturer who happened to know me for 3years at UG school. Contemplating gettin an additional letter of reference from college somehow.

I want to specialize in Networks and get into a job post MS. The specialization part am not sure though because its been sometime since I completed my education and am not sure where exactly my interests lie within CS. My question is, is my GRE score good enough to have a decent shot at universities below or should I have another shot at GRE and aim higher?

1. Cornell MEngg - my dream program + I can come back to work faster
2. Univ of Southern California - heard they are generous in admits
3. UC Irvine - like the California based schools bcos i loved LA when i was there
4. NC State Univ - heard some good things about this school
5. Arizona State Univ - visited the univ and simply loved the infrastructure
6. SUNY at buffalo - my cousin (SUNY Buffalo alumni) says this is safe for my score
7. Texas A&M Univ - lower for CS rank, hence believe i can get an admit

Also, can I really leverage my non-research experience added with a better GRE score aim for schools like GA Tech and Columbia?

Waiting for your valuable suggestions. And please excuse the long post and provide your

Thanks

PS - My TOEFL is scheduled in the 2nd week of Dec, so can't take GRE until end of the Dec or early Jan.

[oldprogrammer]

Your GRE quant score is really borderline, especially if you don't have three solid academic LORs. Typically I wouldn't suggest that there's much to gain by improving the quant score by 10 to 30 points (beyond 750) for PhD admission, but it could help for MS admission.

If your goals are not really oriented toward doing a PhD (and research), then research experience is not going to be as important. However, you probably still need to try to get more academic LORs.

Keep in mind that the MEngg programs are not as rigorous as MS programs, and most recruiters (I imagine) would know the difference.

Don't assume that lower ranking implies less selectivity 100% of the time. I assure you that Texas A&M doesn't reduce their selectivity based on their US News CS ranking. They consider themselves (rightfully so) to be one of the best engineering schools in the country and are therefore more selective than you might think. I don't mean to imply they're on the same level as MIT or Berkeley, but they are by no means a safety school.

[deepkv]

Thank you so much for the response.

Originally Posted by oldprogrammer

Your GRE quant score is really borderline, especially if you don't have three solid academic LORs. Typically I wouldn't suggest that there's much to gain by improving the quant score by 10 to 30 points (beyond 750) for PhD admission, but it could help for MS admission.

If your goals are not really oriented toward doing a PhD (and research), then research experience is not going to be as important. However, you probably still need to try to get more academic LORs.

From the above, can i believe that atleast 2 LORs from college would compensate for the borderline quantitative score. I did have a good name amongst the college staff, just that its difficult to locate each as they seemed to have moved out of my college. I will try my level best to get some contacts. Thanks for the heads-up.

Originally Posted by oldprogrammer

Keep in mind that the MEngg programs are not as rigorous as MS programs, and most recruiters (I imagine) would know the difference.

Oldprogrammer, I will get back to work after my masters. My only concern is, do schools (especially top 20) really accept such candidates who are not interested in research into their Masters program? I could find only Cornell MEngg program but the other programs were more like Masters in Engineering Management and targeted at students much early in their career. Any other MEngg programs you have in mind?

Originally Posted by oldprogrammer

Don't assume that lower ranking implies less selectivity 100% of the time. I assure you that Texas A&M doesn't reduce their selectivity based on their US News CS ranking. They consider themselves (rightfully so) to be one of the best engineering schools in the country and are therefore more selective than you might think. I don't mean to imply they're on the same level as MIT or Berkeley, but they are by no means a safety school.

Thanks for reiterating the mis-correlation between rankings and selectivity. Yes, I do understand that TAMU is highly selective too. After saving quite a bit for my studies in all these years, I need to get into some really good school to prove a point to myself. Cost is secondary. Its brand name cum course value which am looking at. GA Tech, Cornell, TAMU and few other top schools should be definitely scalable with a better GRE score (I mean 1350+ atleast) I believe.

Having a deeper look at the deadlines for fall 2010, I feel taking another shot at GRE is the best thing for me right now. I got nothing to lose right.

Will update this post as and when things happen at my end. Incase any of you feel that I can really get an admit into a top 20 school with this score (with 2 LORs from college and 1 from work), feel free to update this thread. You suggestions are most welcome.

Thanks

[oldprogrammer]

If you're really aiming for a top MS program, I would think the GRE will be weighed more heavily than it would for PhD admissions. And your LORs need to be substantially stronger than "Did Well in Class".

Yes, if a school openly admits students directly for a MSCS it's usually meant to be terminal, and not focused on research. That means you will likely be unfunded (but that's not a stated problem for you). Of course, most Top 20 schools won't admit for just a MS so you'll need to check school by school.

CMU has a software development MEngg, and so does UT-Austin (though it might actually be a MS through the CE department and separate from the MSCS). But again, they are not considered as rigorous as their MSCS counterparts.

[Ancalagon The Black]

On a sidenote, oldprogrammer, now that you mention LORs and the DWIC principle, how many applicants do you think on an average manage to garner strong, non DWIC LORs from respected faculty when they apply to say the top 20 CS PhD schools?

[oldprogrammer]

Originally Posted by Ancalagon The Black

On a sidenote, oldprogrammer, now that you mention LORs and the DWIC principle, how many applicants do you think on an average manage to garner strong, non DWIC LORs from respected faculty when they apply to say the top 20 CS PhD schools?

I know what you're getting at, and it's something I've wondered as well: just how good is the competition. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say 1 or 2 strong letters for top 20, and 3 or 4 for top 10. The 4th is for all the stellar applicants able to secure graduate fellowships. I think one super strong letter of reference from the right professor is probably enough if he knows the right people you need to him to know.

I would guess that top of the class students with an eye on graduate school should plan to get one letter from an undergraduate thesis/project advisor, and at least one more from working in a lab or as a TA.

A third letter could be from taking a course for honors credit, or in some other way going far beyond the given requirements on a semester project. That creates an opportunity for discussion with the professor and allows you to show him what you can do. Perhaps ask up front what an interesting direction would be for someone looking to dig deeper.

That's my thinking anyway.