Urgent, my prof goes for a week (UPDATE)

[ozgulker]

I have done my GRE today, and it is time to clarify things. I seek PhD in CS. My most important recommender is absent for the next week to attend a conference in Australia therefore I seek immediate help.

Here are my scores.
GPA: 3.66 / 4 from an unknown university (At least it is not in their foreign schools list in webapps) By the way, I am 1st among 14, or 2nd among 22 or 1st/2nd among 22+x, Dont ask why, I will get a rank certificate to sort things out

GRE: v:690, q:790, AWA awaited (not below than 4, and I dont think it will go above 5) (UPDATE 4.5)Also I have a dismal GRE which was 13 months ago (360, 800, 4) . Will it hurt my chances?

TOEFL : 273 / 5 . Yeah not that great, I have taken it a week after my dismal GRE. Dont plan to take it again to make ETS richer.

TSE : 40 / 60 (I will pretend this never happened, and I thank ETS to send my score a day before my GRE. They really know how to upset people)

GRE Subject CS: Waiting for score. Hope it is good. (UPDATE 740 : 54%)

About research exp:
I have done my engineering project on surveying various optimization algorithms (delivering all their aspects) and applying them to the Graph Coloring Problem. I presented a conference paper which includes an improved version of my algorithm on a National Congress (unfortunately it is in my native Language, Turkish).

I was a member of the Artificial Intelligence Research group in my university during my senior year. I also was an undergraduate assistant whose job was to help TAs and undergrads during lab hours of various courses.

Recos: I will get one excellent, one good reco, and I am not so sure about the third one. I dont think it will be bad, but probably "did well in class" type

By the way I am targeting AI and/or Theory with sub fields Machine Learning and optimization.

I have sent scores to following unis after my GRE
UCSD
UT Austin
Gatech
U Penn

I also think about Umich, Washington you in St.Louis, NCSU, and Rudgers State in New Brunswick.
Any suggestions will be welcome
Thanks.

[rafi_dery]

Ozgulker,
I think your TOEFL is very good, no need to retake it. all the universities demand 250+ or even 230+, so you are more than "fine". About the old GRE report - I guess they refer to the last one only. Dont think it will harm you in any manner.
Your TSE is a bit low - did you report it to any institute?
I'm not familiar with most of the universities you mentioned (except UCSD, Georgia TEch) so I can not comment.
Good-Luck!

[ozgulker]

Thanks refi for your suggestions.
I also think my TOEFL was ok, it was my father who was pushing me to take it again since I told him my score would definitely increase. I wont take it again.
About TSE, yeah that was disasterous. I had sent my scores to UMCP and you Wisc Madison before the test because it was mandatory to take TSE for them. I cross out both of them, I am a bit unhappy not being able to apply to UMCP, because there was a nice research there that suited me perfectly. I cant be interested in TSE demanding schools anymore.
I am also crossing out Gatech because I cant meet its deadline. Any suggestions for that spot?

[Vinay]

hey ozgulker,

dont worry abt TSE anymore.
try JHU CS, its reputation is good and lots of excellent research goin on thr. also in your area Machine Learning. you also will have good chance to enter Algo analysis area as you have one project on it.

refer to this link: http://www.cs.jhu.edu/research_areas.html

I m also applying thr for PHD. CS.

All the best friend :-))))))))

Vinay

[ozgulker]

Thanks Vinay, I checked the JHU website. Yeah I think I may apply there as well.
By the way, since you are also applying JHU, and also suggesting there to Randhawa and me, I really appreciate your friendship. Any other person in this situation will lead others to wrong places to secure his position.
Thanks again.

[dionysus]

Hi Ozgulker.

I think you have a pretty neat application, and your chances are good. Here are my comments:

1. Your GPA is good, and juxtaposed with your recommendations, will make the admissions committee believe that you were a sincere CS undergrad. -> so thats positive.

2. Your having taken the GRE twice will not hurt you at all. You took your last GRE 13 months ago, and may have taken it nonchalantly. All univs consider the most recent scores. Besides, 13 months is a really long time.

Your TOEFL and TSE will meet the cutoff and I think they're largely irrelevant to the apping process, so dont worry about them!

Subject GRE CS: If the score is good, it can underscore any blemish (none exist in your case!).

I just have one comment: please make sure that all your recommendations reach the graduate schools in time. If the univs you are apping to support online submission of recommendations, then push the most important prof to send his reco. from Australia itself. In my own case, I have asked for four recommendations, so that my recommendation system is more fault tolerant!

Profs are very lazy and you really will need to get after their asses to have your letters sent on time. Work on it! There's not much else left for you to do.

All the best dude! I think you have a pretty strong application. G'luck!

[Vinay]

u r welcome friend :-))))

real friends always tell the right things and believe me at this site ppl help each other a lot in a true manner and thts wht is gr8 abt this place.

Its very easy to get lost in deluge of information we get on many differnt sites but I have always been able to find info, frm tests to admissions under this very roof and I try to share whtever I get frm others and more.

and dinosys,

"Profs are very lazy and you really will need to get after their asses to have your letters sent on time."

well said, hope your profs not reading this. just kidding ;-)))))))))

Vinay

[ozgulker]

Thanks Dionysus for your reply
"Profs are very lazy and you really will need to get after their asses to have your letters sent on time. Work on it! There's not much else left for you to do."
Actually I am not worried about my recommender who is currently in Australia. He was very helpful to me during my undergrad, and I will get my reco from his very quickly (since he also wrote one a few months ago). Actually it was my laziness that delayed me so much. I have taken my GRE so late. And I havent completed much of my application package. Even SOP is not finalized yet. It may be time to question who is lazy indeed.

"real friends always tell the right things and believe me at this site ppl help each other a lot in a true manner and thts wht is gr8 abt this place. "
That is why I am also participating in this forum, the only sincere forum in test preparation. I dont even care the money it costs me (I am still using dial-up, so every second costs me ) and this forum deserves every penny I spent for it.

By the way, I am very surprised to see there is no application fee for JHU. Also I am shocked to see this.
"You are encouraged to solicit up to five letters."
I wonder who can come up with five letters.

[Vinay]

Hi ozgulker,

I also used to use dial up but loooooong telephone bills made me to opt for lan interent ;-)

i was also surprised with no app fee thing but its good tht we will save sum dollars coz this apping process cost a lot.

and I feel this is an indicator tht they have enuf funds however also noteworthy is thr fees ($42k) :-O

and moreover they r ready to accpet anythin in photocopy initially and no need to send finan support form with app packet.

I just love this university :-D))))
why cant other univs. be like this?

wht r you filling in amnt of financial assistance for tuition and living expenses. I mean everybody would want to fill complete amnt so whts the point of these fields. However I m thinking of not to fill total amnt. wht will you fill in those fields?

Vinay

[ozgulker]

"I also used to use dial up but loooooong telephone bills made me to opt for lan interent ;-)"
I miss my university where download rates were around 1 Megabyte/sec. Now I am crawling with a huge phone bill on my back. God, I really need to enter a university!!

why cant other univs. be like this?
Sure, damn Stanford wants 95$ from the internationals. I wonder what they are doing with that money.

wht r you filling in amnt of financial assistance for tuition and living expenses
I havent begun JHUs application, but probably I fill total amount. It is not possible for me finance Grad Studies without full aid.

Ozgur