LostInLA

I haven't heard from them yet. but I have already accepted a cd phd offer elsewhere.

I got accepted to both. Penn State offered less funding ~16k Duke offered ~18k In terms of overall? CS Program, Living Cost? which is better?

Can anyone give me the cost of living in University Park, PA (Penn State) compared to Durham, NC (Duke)? Basically Penn state offered me around 16k while Duke offered me 18k.

Rejected: CMU Stanford Columbia UCSD Waiting: Penn PennState UIUC USC Florida Accepted: Duke

GRE: 770 Q, 510 V, 4.5 Research: 2 years working at a robotics research lab. no papers publish. undergrad gpa: 3.86 masters gpa: 4.0

I got into Duke CS PhD with full funding

why do you need sample LOR? You're not gonna write the LORs. It's your recommenders, who writes the LOR.

Is that for MS or Phd?

I'm not sure about being right fit for USC. It depends. If you are applying for phd then you will have a tough time getting in with that profile. BUT if you are applying for masters, then I think it should be easier to get in.

Ritesh: you are wrong. I know for a fact that LOR and SoP have more weight in graduate application. Most of the top schools don't even put that much weight to your GRE schools as long as it's not too low. You do have to worry about the CONTENT of the LOR. The content of the LOR matters. What the admission commitee are looking for in a LOR is if a professor can vouch/support/give evidence about your research ability/potential/skills. If a professor just says in the LOR that the person got an A in his class. That LOR is a junk. again false. 3 outstanding recommendation letters is always better than 5 decent reco. And no.. not all reco will say you are good, hardworking blahblah. If it only says that then that LOR is pretty bad. An outstanding LoR will usually say something about your research experience with the prof, etc..

But I only need 3 recommendation letters.

I already have 2 prof that I worked with willing to write recommendation letters for me. For the third one, is it better to ask a prof, whom I only have contact from a class that I got an A or from a post-doc that I worked with?

what specialty?

Ivo, Peiann: Thanks for the Reply. :D I'll go check out the schools you suggested. Also, what school is UMCP?

My Profile: undergrad and masters : Univ of Southern California undergrad gpa: 3.89/4.0 masters gpa: 4.0/4.0 GRE: 770q 510v 4.5aw Research Experience: almost 2 years working at a robotics lab. I have no papers published though. I have participated in robotics competitions too, specifically underwater robotics. Have also papers submitted as part of these competitions requirements and can be viewed on the competition's website. My LOR: I'm thinking of asking 2 Professors, which I have worked with. For the other recommendation letter, I'm thinking of asking the prof. of a class I took. Research area is either robotics or computer vision. Here are the schools I'm thinking of applying to: 1. CMU 2. Stanford 3. UIUC 4. USC 5. UPenn 6. Duke 7. UCSD 8. Columbia 9. Penn State 10. U of Florida What do you think of my chances to these schools? I know Stanford, CMU are a long shot.