GRE CS and which one?

[adopt]

Currently, I'm in my home country, next Spring 2009, I will become first year PhD student at one university rank 70 in the US and I intend to transfer to higher university in the Fall 2009 (maybe around to 20-30). My major is Computer science. Funding is everything, without funding, I can't attend the program.

 

Here are my profile:

GPA: a litle bit lower (but admission committee seem doesn't know much about the GPA system in my country).

GRE general is: 1260 (500 + 760 + 3.5)

TOEFL PBT: 603

Research experiences: several but no paper. I will try to get one paper from now to Dec.

LORs: unknown profs from unknown country :(.

English is my disadvantage, I can't take the GRE general again because I surely I can't get the Verbal as I have at that time. Efforts I have to pay to prepare for this test will more than what I have to pay to get about 80% on the CS subject test.

 

On these next months, there are two incoming exams: October and November. I intend to take the GRE CS first on Oct, then I will take another subject test on Nov. Currently, I still don't know whether I should take the math, physics or biology.

Gre sub Biology maybe the best, because I intend to apply to CS-Bio-related programs such as Computational Biology, Bioinformatics or Health Informatics programs. But I don't have the biology background, and this will results low score. I wonder about 50-60% is acceptable with people in non-biology background like me? In this situation, is it reality to get to good CS-Bio programs?

Gre sub Physics: I don't have much information about the CS programs values the GRE sub Physics much; I also don't know there are any research directions which is in the border of the them (CS and Physics), research opportunities also jobs opportunities after graduated. If I have to take this take, maybe I will get about 80%.

Gre sub Math: I think I will face no obstacle to get > 90% if I take GRE Math test, but this test seem doesn't add much values to my profile if I intend to apply to CS-Bio-related programs?

 

In the situation which I have to take the GRE CS and GRE math, if I get > 90% on both of these tests, which university I should apply to (my research interest is Natural/Speech Language Processing; Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition). I don't mind switch to another research directions if they related to current ones.

 

Another doubt I have at this time is that, people say that if I take the test on Nov, the probability I have the better %ile is higher because a lot of Indian and Chinese people will the test on this day, therefore increase the %ile of people which have lower score than me (if I perform well). They suggest me to take the test I'm confident in first (math) and then, on the all-people-take-the-test day I will take the test I'm not so confident (CS). But in this situation, until 8/12 I may know my test result, the time to send score report to the school is enough? Whether I should take the CS test first on Oct or on Nov after another subject test?

Sorry for asking a lot of question. i have a lot of doubts and concerns at this time. Thank you very much for all of your suggestions. I also want to thank CalmLogic and MDK for your prompt reply in a lot of threads in this box.

adopt

[CalmLogic]

Gre sub Biology maybe the best, because I intend to apply to CS-Bio-related programs such as Computational Biology, Bioinformatics or Health Informatics programs. But I don't have the biology background, and this will results low score. I wonder about 50-60% is acceptable with people in non-biology background like me? In this situation, is it reality to get to good CS-Bio programs?

If you could get at least a 50th percentile, I would assume that would be helpful for a bioinformatics program. As to whether a 50 percentile in Biology would be better than an 80 percentile in CS (since you already a solid CS background), I don't know. I do think the Math GRE Subject Test will be less valued than the GRECS exam. In any case, I would suggest asking the graduate advisors or admission specialists at the CS/bioinformatics departments you are interested in applying to.

 

Of course, as you suggest, another option is to work on getting papers published at a journal/conference (with or without taking a Subject Test). After all, PhD admissions are all about research potential, and the best way to demonstrate that is by getting published. And any paper that has anything to do with machine learning, data mining, or even NLP is going to be relevant for bioinformatics.

 

Regarding October vs. November, I do strongly recommend that you take the exam in November rather than October. You will have sufficient time to report the score, even for December 15th application deadlines:

 

http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gre-computer-science/78897-post-agre.html

 

I don't remember any CS department having an application deadline before December 15th, and even the departments with December 15th deadlines don't make their decisions until January at the earliest. No department makes decisions right before Christmas and New Years Day :) So the reality is that it wouldn't matter even if your scores arrived a little late. (In fact, until last year, the Subject Tests were offered in December and November rather than October and November.)

 

(BTW, some test centers only offer the exam in October. So, if you haven't already, check the 2008-2009 test center bulletin at ETS since each test center is different regarding test dates.)