Please evaluate my profile

[brianhead]

I apply for Ph.D. in TAMU.
Yes, I have to depend on the financial aid to finish my advanced education. I really do not want to give my parents a heavy burdon to carry.

[CalmLogic]

How many schools do you plan to apply for in total?

As you may have already seen, Dartmouth apparently accepted only 10 of 200 students in 2006:

thegradcafe.com — 2006–2007 Grad School Admission Results

On the plus side, Dartmouth gave an MS applicant a 50 percent tuition waiver for the first year, and a 100 percent tuition waiver for the second year, which may be why you applied to them.

I would think you would certainly get into SUNY Buffalo for an MS degree, but I have no idea about PhD admissions or their financial aid situation.

Certainly, for most applicants, the best bet for getting funding is to apply for a PhD program. The primary problem with your PhD profile seems to be your lack of research experience. Of course, your great GRE CS score will help out a lot, but did you work on any significant projects or papers for classes, even if they were not original research but implementations or analyses of existing knowledge? In other words, it seems your SOP and LORs would be more impressive by mentioning projects, as you probably already know.

[CalmLogic]

BTW, I'm sure you have seen this already since it's from Dartmouth, but it may be a good reminder when applying for other schools:

What's important to someone evaluating your application

• Most important are the letters of recommendation! The best letters are those that will be enthusiastic, be obvious that the person knows you well, and are from someone the reader can trust (e.g., someone with a reputation in academics, or the department chair, etc.). Choose people who know you well, and who can write a detailed letter. Also try to choose a senior prof who has some reputation in the field, or who can otherwise establish their reputation to the letter reader. For most letters, you have a choice of whether to waive your right to see the letter. You should always waive this right. Yes, it may bother you greatly to waive any right, but think about it this way. If you do not waive this right, then your letter writers will not be able to write about you in confidence. Your letter readers will know this, and the letters about you will be discounted. In essence, the one subjective source of information on you has become worthless. So make sure you waive your right to see your letters.
• If you can, include something that makes you special, like a paper you wrote or the description of a programming project or the like. These "appendices" are perfectly fine and will often really make a big difference. Do not send a printout of code. But you might consider sending a disk with a cool program you wrote, if you really have something to show for it. (Or put it on the web and send them your URL!) Most people won't bother to try it, but if you make it easy for them to try it (label the disk clearly on what configuration they need and how to run it), you might try it!
• Test scores and grades are somewhat important; bad scores and grades are enough to keep you out, but great scores and grades are not enough to get you in.
• The essay is moderately important; in particular, it had better not be bad. The best essays somehow set you apart. Write your essay carefully, and rewrite it again and again. Tell them what research areas you are interested in, and why. Make it clear that you have a passion for research and would gladly charge through a machine-gun nest for the privilege of doing research. Tune the essay for each place you apply; tell them why you want to go there. Get the essay read over by someone else; make sure it is written really well. Sell yourself! Tell them what makes you unique.If you have written a research paper, or a major computer project, send them the paper (or documentation, if reasonable), perhaps after cleaning it up by making it even better.

Dartmouth Computer Science: Advice for Prospective Graduate Students

[MDK]

The University of Arizona seems to have a very good group for multimedia retrieval:
Intelligent Systems Cluster
I think that you have been exposed to some work by Kobus Barnard , a famous researcher in the field of computer vision and CBIR,
Kobus Barnard 's Home Page

I have already contacted Mr. Barnard and he was a very kind prof, however I didn't apply there because they asked me to provide the diploma degree before getting official admission which I won't get it until early August