Comp. Sci. MS/PHD in Stanford or Berkeley

[AlbaLed]

Hi

I was wandering whether anyone out there has any idea about the
chances of getting into these schools. I am an international student,
already in U.S, and I have a prety low verbal GRE score, about
25%-ile. Can gpa, recommendation letters and research in undergrad
make up for this. I have a BS in comp. sci., minor Math, from Montclair State University

Overall GPA 3.8
Major/Minor GPA 4.0

Involved in research projects with three professors, one publication pubmedcentral (computational biology),another one is in reviewing process, soon to be published.

Any thoughts would help??????????
AlbaLed

[wood]

Hey AlbaLed. It is indeed very hard to get into Stanford and Berkeley. Both universities are really looking for top students. I know very good students who got rejected from them for CS PhD. However, I know one guy who had V-350, Q-800, CS-890 (99%) and got into Berkeley, but not Stanford.

Research experience is key of course. But all these three people whom I'm refering too had over 3 years of research experience as well and awards, papers, etc, etc....

Well, keep in mind that admissions for MS is much less competitive.

Good luck! What are the other universities which you are planning to apply?

Wood

[AlbaLed]

Thanks for your reply wood.

These schools are my top choices, I am applying at ucsf, and sfsu (international student, have to keep my status rolling), I don't have too much choice I just moved in San Francisco, not about to move again. I've heard that getting into the phd is not easy because most of the people that are in these schools already (doing masters) know the professors and have done research with them and they are the ones who get in and get ta-s ra-s. I was thinking of going for a master leading to a PHD. About the person you're refering of having 3 years research, is that as an undergrad, or working at a company? What do you mean admission for ms is much less competitive??
Do you think I am worrying too much about my verbal section of the ggre? I am taking the cs GRE in nov-8 aiming above 90%-ile, don't know though, doing my best. What do you think admission commitee wights more, I've seen lot's of people saying that the SOP is a key part of the application, a good one can make up, and a bad one can skrew you up. So I am taking my time to put it together among studying for the CS GRE

I was involved in research with 3 professors from comp.sci and mol. bio., got a bioinformatics paper published, another one (boolean minimization)in the review process, and I am currently working with one of the professors to finish what I started before I left MSU. I want to focus on algorithms applicable to computational biology, both Stanford and Berkeley started a separate concentration for bio. computing.
What schools and programs r you shooting for?

AlbaLed

[wood]

These schools are my top choices, I am applying at ucsf, and sfsu (international student, have to keep my status rolling), I don't have too much choice I just moved in San Francisco, not about to move again.

Yeah... Choices are limited. Look at UC Davis too. Might also be a good choice for you.

I've heard that getting into the phd is not easy because most of the people that are in these schools already (doing masters) know the professors and have done research with them and they are the ones who get in and get ta-s ra-s. I was thinking of going for a master

That's true... they usually take preference. But not all of them go to the PhD program in the same university. Some goes to the industry, others go to other univerisities, etc.

leading to a PHD. About the person you're refering of having 3 years research, is that as an undergrad, or working at a company? What do

As an undergrad and Master student.

you mean admission for ms is much less competitive??

Much less competitive than a PhD. Most top schools (Stanford and Berkeley for example) have completely different admission processes for MS and PhD.

Do you think I am worrying too much about my verbal section of the ggre? I am taking the cs GRE in nov-8 aiming above 90%-ile, don't know though, doing my best. What do you think admission commitee wights more, I've seen lot's of people saying that the SOP is a key part of the application, a good one can make up, and a bad one can skrew you up. So I am taking my time to put it together among studying for the CS GRE

Hey dude. Forget your GRE V score! Seriously! That's all I can say. The more we worry about the past, the worse we do in the present and future. You can surely make up with a good SOP and an awesome CS score. That's what most of my friends did (very bad V by the way and good CS).

I was involved in research with 3 professors from comp.sci and mol. bio., got a bioinformatics paper published, another one (boolean minimization)in the review process, and I am currently working with one of the professors to finish what I started before I left MSU. I want to focus on

Great. You should make sure you get good letters of recos from them. I also published something in boolean minimization/encoding back in 1997. I used a graph coloring algorithm to perform encoding of symbols that came from the ouput of my advisor's boolean minimization tool.

algorithms applicable to computational biology, both Stanford and Berkeley started a separate concentration for bio. computing.
What schools and programs r you shooting for?

I'm planning for Theory of Computation (graph theory, complexity, etc). I like these kind of stuff, even though I'm not so good at it! I'm applying to 12 (!) universities. I live in NJ, so I'm applying to 6 locals here (Princeton, Rutgers, Columbia, NYU, UPenn, Brown). I'm also applying to others just in case, such as UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, Colorado, Arizona State, Carnegie Mellon...). I'm already regretting not applying to more safe schools... but anyway. Let's see if I get lucky!

Wood

[AlbaLed]

Wood

Did you ever sum up the application fees, I hope it is not exponential . I talked to Dr. C. Papadimitriu a couple of days ago, if you don't know him, he's from Berkeley, published a whole lot of books in the theory area, and he told me that the theory admissions is hard because they only take a few people but a lot of people apply for it. I like the theory stuff, I don't consider my self to be a genius but I have a strong math background so it makes it easier, that's why I want to study the design/analysis of algorithms applicable to comp. bio. Prof C. P. said once you're into a school you can dig into any area applicable to comp. bio. Don't tell admission you;re not great in theory, you've top professors reading your SOP. A couple of days ago I missed a talk from Prof. Knuth (I hope you know him) at Stanford, another theory guy.

where did you do your undergrads. NJIT/fairly D./Rutgers/MSU/Seaton or any other univ in NJ, I only know of north jersey univs.

Best of luck in u'r applications and CS GRE. Keep posting in CS GRE

AlbaLed

[AlbaLed]

Wood drop me a link of you're publication in boolean minimization if you don't mind. In our research based in Karnaugh map we created an algorithm for minimizing boolean functions with up to 4 variables. The algorithms is simple and fast, we implemented it for handhelds, palm and pocket pc, it yields optimal results in under 50ms on average. thought you might be interested

AlbaLed

[wood]

Did you ever sum up the application fees, I hope it is not exponential . I talked to Dr. C. Papadimitriu a couple of days ago, if you don't

I'm in the middle of doing this. Yep. I'm spending a lot of money. No doubt about it.

know him, he's from Berkeley, published a whole lot of books in the theory area, and he told me that the theory admissions is hard because they only take a few people but a lot of people apply for it. I like the

Yeah, I knew that. I'm not expecting that much from Berkeley. Just a wild shot. Let's see.

How did you know him? Did you contact him by e-mail?

theory stuff, I don't consider my self to be a genius but I have a strong math background so it makes it easier, that's why I want to study the design/analysis of algorithms applicable to comp. bio. Prof C. P. said once you're into a school you can dig into any area applicable to comp.

That's true.

bio. Don't tell admission you;re not great in theory, you've top professors reading your SOP. A couple of days ago I missed a talk from

True. I won't tell that for sure!! For them, I'm the greatest actually!

Prof. Knuth (I hope you know him) at Stanford, another theory guy.

Of course we all know him. But I didn't apply to Stanford because I didn't see a clear match of what I want to do with what professors are currently doing. Knuth is a good choice for me, but I doubt that he's taking PhD students or giving the right attention one might want. As well, I was already applying to 4 top schools and didn't want to waste another one.

where did you do your undergrads. NJIT/fairly D./Rutgers/MSU/Seaton or any other univ in NJ, I only know of north jersey univs.

I'm from Brazil and I did my undergrad there. I came to US through an AIESEC (www.aiesec.org) intership and got hired after that. Since then, I wanted to do a PhD but never had the opportunity (or courage) to leave my work and start pursuing it. Now it's the time! I know it!

Best of luck in u'r applications and CS GRE. Keep posting in CS GRE

Sure... Best of luck for yours too!

Wood

[wood]

Wood drop me a link of you're publication in boolean minimization if you don't mind. In our research based in Karnaugh map we created an algorithm for minimizing boolean functions with up to 4 variables. The algorithms is simple and fast, we implemented it for handhelds, palm and pocket pc, it yields optimal results in under 50ms on average. thought you might be interested

Sure I'll give you the PDF... Once GRE CS is over, I'll finish my homepage and put all the links there. So far, things are in CDs, hidden places on my hard disk, etc. I haven't got a chance to select all them and put into a comprehensive homepage so that admission committees can access it. Once I do, I'll let you know.

Your research is interesting. A friend of mine did pretty much the same thing (not sure) as his undergrad end-of-term work. He's working at IBM San Jose now if I'm not mistaken. I'll put that link too on my homepage since I helped him develop the program.

Wood