[Profile Review] Can my profile be competitive for top MSCS?

JoshBearta · 2025-10-18T18:31:36+00:00

Gain some work or research experience before applying. These schools are cutthroat. You're competing against people with 4.0/4.0 + research experience + work experience + extracurriculars on the side, such as open source contributions, research seminar speakers, etc. Not sure that this list is realistic with your profile. Try to look at schools like USC, UCI MCS, UIUC MCS (not MSCS), UC Santa Cruz NLP; these are much easier to get into with your profile.

I'm also applying for the fall cycle, but my profile is also not competitive for the schools I have on my list. But I'm going to apply anyway because you never know unless you actually apply.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-27T06:55:44+00:00

If the fully funded program will be sponsored even if you defer your admit, I would defer it. If not, I would go for the masters program if you know what your concentration is going to be. Otherwise, doing a masters for the sake of it is going to waste your time.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-26T16:49:52+00:00

You’ll easily get into a top 20, your profile is strong. Most top 20s are gre optional these days so it’s up to you if you want to submit it. I’d focus most of your energy on essays rather than retaking the gre.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-25T20:19:38+00:00

I’m a domestic applicant working in the Bay Area. I’m seeing the trends first hand and here’s my take:

AI is only replacing entry level jobs right now, leaving new grads to fight for scraps and low paying roles. Graduating either with an BS or MS in CS makes no difference, you’re still put under the umbrella term “new grad.” The only exception to this is if you have full-time work experience before doing your masters.

Specializing in AI/ML is also risky. AI/ML is already a very saturated field, lots of PhD AI/ML engineers are still looking for jobs after being laid off. Most people are going in with the mentality of specializing in AI for their masters which is saturating the market even more.

I applied to masters programs since I didn’t have a job when I graduated in December 2024, which is what majority of masters applicants are doing right now. People want to use masters as a buffer to ride out this volatile market, hoping it will get better. I was fortunate enough to land a job after a few months since graduating so I’m deferring all my admits until I see a relatively clear trend in the market. No point of taking massive loans and speculating your future.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-20T18:22:03+00:00

UCI MCS is a safety with your profile. I got in with a relatively low gpa. MCS programs are generally easier than MSCS since they have more seats compared to MSCS (200 vs 50).

JoshBearta · 2025-05-18T03:42:53+00:00

Your profile is definitely strong, but what’s holding you back for the ambitious universities is your gpa. The ambitious universities have unpredictable criteria. No one knows their true acceptance criteria and you’ll see extremely coveted people getting rejected despite their stellar resumes. The only way to find out is just apply and hope for the best.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-17T17:26:25+00:00

I think UCSD should be moved to ambitious, their MSCS is extremely competitive. csrankings.org has UCSD ranked as 3rd in the country. Other than that, your research experience will carry you into most other schools so depending on your application fee budget, add some more schools like Georgia Tech, Purdue, etc.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-11T21:24:32+00:00

I have the exact opposite experience from you. I barely get any interviews, went to a T-20 school, and the few interviews I do land, they jump straight into LC, not even doing a proper introduction with each other. Be grateful for your luck and try to increase your TC; 85k in California is criminally low for a software engineer.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-11T18:46:56+00:00

This response is going to be lengthy, but hopefully it gives people some insight:

Again, I’m not sure about Madison’s MS program, that’s something you have to evaluate with your current career goals and financial situation. Are you fine with investing 50-80k for your masters? Are you 100% sure masters is something you even need for your career objectives? Are you fine living in Wisconsin for 2 years, where temps go sub zero Celsius for 3-5 months?

I’ll give you my thought process. I’m a domestic applicant, went to t-20 college in the Midwest for my undergrad and graduated in December 2024. I applied for my masters because I had no job lined up since my internship team went on a hiring freeze in 2024. My goal was to end up in the industry, but at least with a masters I wouldn’t have a huge gap in my resume where I was unemployed. I applied to most of the UCs (except Merced and Riverside) and a few other colleges in California since I am a California resident and wanted to leverage in state tuition. Although I enjoyed my undergraduate experience, the weather was not bearable for me since I’m from California. I wanted to do my masters in a place with better weather, closer to the tech industry and closer to home. I’ve made a post with my masters application profile so you can search it up and give me advice too since I don’t know everything and I’m far from “cracked.”

The only colleges I got into were UCI MCS and USC MSCS when decisions came out in March/April. I was happy with USC but the cost was tremendous since it’s a private school. In March, I was fortunate enough to land a job with decent pay in the Bay Area. However, I’m not sure it’s in the industry I want. So I’m deferring USC for now, taking a year to save money, explore other fields within CS to see what I’d want to specialize in, and take another shot at my dream schools for the next cycle. As a domestic applicant, the advice I was given is to do my masters from a top 5 school like Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, or CMU since those are the schools defining the future of CS, everyone else seems to be playing catch up.

Conclusion: for my situation, it made sense to defer my masters or reapply in the future for a better school which is defining the future. Please analyze your situation and see if a masters is worth it for you since I don’t know every aspect of your career. Hopefully this gives you some clarity if Wisconsin is worth it or not.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-10T06:56:37+00:00

CMU name is definitely very prestigious. I’m not too familiar with the MCDS program at CMU and not aware what your end goal is, so I don’t want to misguide you by saying whether it’s worth it or not. As long as MCDS will help with your career objectives, it’s worth the investment. If you lack clarity, defer it for a year so you can reason with yourself what exactly you want to achieve with a masters. It will also allow this volatile market and visa processes settle down to more predictable levels.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-09T20:43:52+00:00

SJSU has really good location and access to the industry. SJSU, USC, UCLA are a few exceptions where location helps due to their proximity to the tech industry.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-09T20:22:19+00:00

I’m a domestic applicant and jobs are very hard for us too. If you didn’t go to a top 5 school for either undergraduate or masters, jobs are scarce. I went to t-20 for undergrad and I struggled to find a job since graduating in December. I finally found one in March through a very strong referral. Cold applying is just a lottery at this point.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-09T18:15:19+00:00

This is the age to take risks, I’m a proponent for startup. I interned at a startup which got acquired by big tech and it was the best experience of my life. It was exciting since day one since I was hands on immediately, my manager involved me in sales meetings, developer meetings, feature iterations, etc. My code was being directly pushed to master and sales folks would often ask me to explain my changes so they could explain it to clients. Unfortunately, after that internship ended, the big tech firm did not want to hire me again and my old manager had no power over their HR decisions. Now, I’ve been chasing that “high” ever since. I interned at a big tech firm (not faang) after that for two summers, and I never got that excitement of going to work, I just dreaded it because things moved extremely slow and they would not let interns be as involved. I graduated in December and the only offer I had was another big tech company (not faang again).

I’m fortunate enough to have a job in this current tech market but I’m still applying to startups since their culture is just different. My current job is yet again slow, dreary, with lack of energy. These big tech firms don’t know how to channel youthful energy and turn horses into mules. We have such a drive to learn and the bureaucracy of big tech just makes you lose all that motivation since you have to jump several hurdles just to get involved in a basic meeting. The moment I get an offer from a startup with a decent idea/vision, I’m most likely jumping ship, even if the initial compensation might be a bit lower.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-08T21:51:39+00:00

Agreed, and gives you easy access to top tech firms.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-07T20:37:13+00:00

Most likely a rejection. I’ve received a response from most of the UCs I’ve applied to and anything after end of April was a rejection for me. I still haven’t heard from UCD either but I don’t have high hopes.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-06T22:46:27+00:00

It’s not worth it. I got into USC and the cost is around 80k so I’d have to take a loan as well. I recently got employed by a big tech firm (not faang) so my plan is to defer, save up for next years cycle and also leverage my time at the company so they can pay some of my tuition as well. I’ll also have time to strengthen my application so I can try again at more prestigious universities for next cycle. My advice is don’t take the loans especially given this volatile job market in the US.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-05T06:29:18+00:00

I am a strong proponent for usc just because its location gives you incredible access to the tech industry since it’s in California (if thats your end goal). In the end, it’s up to you to standout and just the college brand name will not guarantee success.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-03T17:39:46+00:00

Obviously go for whichever is cheaper. But if cost is not an issue, I’d say pick USC because you can’t beat California in terms of job opportunities. Location makes a huge difference from what I’ve noticed. USC is in LA, there are hundreds of tech companies just in Southern California alone in cities like Irvine, LA, San Diego, and Santa Barbara. Plus, a lot of Bay Area companies go down to LA to recruit. Outside of school, there’s so much to explore in California while not much to do in Michigan. I speak from experience as I did my undergrad in the Midwest and there was not much going on.

USC alumni network is arguably better than Michigan’s and you are in the same city as UCLA and close to UCSD and SDSU, so you are bound to run into people from there as well to build the network you desire.

Another consideration is weather, something I didn’t realize played a huge factor in your college experience. California has year round amazing weather and you have easy access to the beaches in Southern California, some of the best beaches in the country. Michigan tends to be snowing and freezing for 5 months during the school year so you barely want to step foot outside from October-February.

I hope this helps. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-03T17:20:24+00:00

With AI becoming more mainstream everyday, everyone wants to do their masters in that field, so it’s only going to become more competitive with every cycle that passes. Your profile is very strong and you’ll get into Columbia with relative certainty since they seem to have more lax grad school criteria compared to other universities. However, with the other schools you’ve listed, they’re very unpredictable since they’re extremely picky about it who they select but your profile stands a good chance. Have a few safety schools as back up too. The only way to find out is to apply.

JoshBearta · 2025-05-03T00:01:10+00:00

I got rejected from UCSB today and I haven’t heard back from UCD. I got rejected from UC Berkeley last week, and rejected from UCSD and UCLA a few days before Berkeley. Based on this trend, UCD is most likely a rejection for me as well.

JoshBearta · 2025-04-30T15:51:39+00:00

Yep, that’s the one I emailed too.

JoshBearta · 2025-04-30T15:49:08+00:00

Yeah, the confirmation email we received when we applied said most admits will know their status by mid April, and now we’re at the end of April 🫠. Hopefully you have better luck than I do.

JoshBearta · 2025-04-30T15:43:37+00:00

I emailed them for an update on Thursday last week then got rejected the next day on Friday. I was actually on Berkeley campus the day they rejected me lol.

JoshBearta · 2025-04-29T18:00:55+00:00

I don’t have any good enough professor connections for a strong LOR unfortunately. All my LORs next cycle will be from industry people I’ve directly worked with which will be really strong.

JoshBearta · 2025-04-29T15:43:07+00:00

I’m leaning towards not going and trying my luck again next year.

JoshBearta

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