I am applying for Masters in Computer Science. I am interested in the areas of Large-scale Machine Learning, Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence in general. I will be pursuing Masters with thesis.
GRE score - 328 (Quant: 167, Verbal: 161, AWA: 4.0)
TOEFL score - 108
Undergrad major - Electronics and Communication Engineering
College - NIT, Jalandhar, GPA - 8.62/10 (Top 5% of the class)
No Research Papers
Work Experience - 3+ years
2 years experience in Samsung in Android Programming, working on development of Personal Voice Assistant, just like Siri.
1 year experience in Symantec on the project of Data Mining.
LOR-
1) Assistant Professor from college - B.tech project Supervisor
2) Samsung Manager (Phd) - (Strong LOR) - [He will mention about my strong foundations in the Computer Science in his LOR.]
3) Symantec Director - [Even he will mention about my strong CS fundamentals. I explicitly asked two managers to mention this.]
4) Assocaite Professor - Just taught courses in which I scored well
Since some universities ask for academic LORs, I am not sure whether to take a letter from #4. I don't think he can mention anything substantial besides mentioning I did well in his courses. On the other hand, both of the letters from my professional experince can talk about many positive things about me.
I am confused on whether to distribute as 2Prof + 1 Manager or 2 Manager + 1 Prof? Please help
Personal projects done on Machine Learning learning from various MOOCs on the same topic-
-House Price Prediction
-Sentiment Analysis on Product Reviews
-Finding Similar Wikipedia Articles
-Gesture Recognition (Image Processing) (B.Tech Project)
Why switching from ECE to CSE?
In my SOP, I define my Bachelor's thesis project as the turning point. While working on this project, I realised that I actually like coding and writing algorithms.
Is this reason convincing enough?
My Universities List-
UT Austin - (Ambi)
UCSD - (Ambi)
UW Madison - (Ambi)
ASU - (Mod)
TAMU - (Ambi/Mod)
UMass Amherst - Don't know (The expense here are prohibitive, though. Not sure of applying here)
Georgia Tech - (Ambi)
UMinnesota Twin Cities - (Don't know)
Ohio State University - (Mod)
My major concern is not able to distinguish what universities will be ambitious or moderate for me, because of my major change.
Please rate my universities list. And suggest more Moderate or safe ones.
Unisearch was not very helpful for me, considering my branch change.
Even though I have relevant work experience for 3 years, seeing similar profiles on Edulix, getting rejects from many top CS universities is disheartening.
Applying to Electrical and Computer Engineering instead of CS?
Also, some guys have suggested me to apply to Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) courses in the universities, like UT Austin has a separate Software Engineering track in its ECE branch. Though I have some qualms regarding this, considering Computer Engineering is more close to the hardware, and I might end up doing courses in the hardware part, which I am not interested in doing.
Do you think this is a good option? or I will be jeopardising my likes just for the sake of getting in a good university? Is it worth it?
I seek help from the experts in this group. I am super confused.
GRE score - 328 (Quant: 167, Verbal: 161, AWA: 4.0)
TOEFL score - 108
Undergrad major - Electronics and Communication Engineering
College - NIT, Jalandhar, GPA - 8.62/10 (Top 5% of the class)
No Research Papers
Work Experience - 3+ years
2 years experience in Samsung in Android Programming, working on development of Personal Voice Assistant, just like Siri.
1 year experience in Symantec on the project of Data Mining.
LOR-
1) Assistant Professor from college - B.tech project Supervisor
2) Samsung Manager (Phd) - (Strong LOR) - [He will mention about my strong foundations in the Computer Science in his LOR.]
3) Symantec Director - [Even he will mention about my strong CS fundamentals. I explicitly asked two managers to mention this.]
4) Assocaite Professor - Just taught courses in which I scored well
Since some universities ask for academic LORs, I am not sure whether to take a letter from #4. I don't think he can mention anything substantial besides mentioning I did well in his courses. On the other hand, both of the letters from my professional experince can talk about many positive things about me.
I am confused on whether to distribute as 2Prof + 1 Manager or 2 Manager + 1 Prof? Please help
Personal projects done on Machine Learning learning from various MOOCs on the same topic-
-House Price Prediction
-Sentiment Analysis on Product Reviews
-Finding Similar Wikipedia Articles
-Gesture Recognition (Image Processing) (B.Tech Project)
Why switching from ECE to CSE?
In my SOP, I define my Bachelor's thesis project as the turning point. While working on this project, I realised that I actually like coding and writing algorithms.
Is this reason convincing enough?
My Universities List-
UT Austin - (Ambi)
UCSD - (Ambi)
UW Madison - (Ambi)
ASU - (Mod)
TAMU - (Ambi/Mod)
UMass Amherst - Don't know (The expense here are prohibitive, though. Not sure of applying here)
Georgia Tech - (Ambi)
UMinnesota Twin Cities - (Don't know)
Ohio State University - (Mod)
My major concern is not able to distinguish what universities will be ambitious or moderate for me, because of my major change.
Please rate my universities list. And suggest more Moderate or safe ones.
Unisearch was not very helpful for me, considering my branch change.
Even though I have relevant work experience for 3 years, seeing similar profiles on Edulix, getting rejects from many top CS universities is disheartening.
Applying to Electrical and Computer Engineering instead of CS?
Also, some guys have suggested me to apply to Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) courses in the universities, like UT Austin has a separate Software Engineering track in its ECE branch. Though I have some qualms regarding this, considering Computer Engineering is more close to the hardware, and I might end up doing courses in the hardware part, which I am not interested in doing.
Do you think this is a good option? or I will be jeopardising my likes just for the sake of getting in a good university? Is it worth it?
I seek help from the experts in this group. I am super confused.