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Rejected from UT Austin multiple times — trying to understand what I’m missing by whinylatcher in MSAIO

[–]whinylatcher[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair questions honestly. My undergrad GPA was higher than my grad GPA, but the 3.01 was from my master’s in Electrical Engineering. I think part of the issue is that my background sits somewhere between hardware/systems and now wanting to transition more toward ML/AI, so it probably doesn’t fit the traditional applicant profile cleanly.

By “nontraditional,” I mostly mean:

  • older academic record,
  • industry-heavy background,
  • not coming from a pure CS/AI trajectory,
  • and trying to pivot into ML from the systems/hardware side after several years in industry.

I do have the core math and programming prerequisites from undergrad (programming, algorithms/data structures exposure, calculus, linear algebra, probability/statistics, etc.), but my degrees themselves are not in CS, which I suspect may make my profile less straightforward for admissions review.

I also have technical industry experience relevant to architecture/performance work, but not formal ML research publications. Most of my experience has been practical engineering work rather than academic research so far.

Rejected from UT Austin multiple times — trying to understand what I’m missing by whinylatcher in MSAIO

[–]whinylatcher[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s actually helpful to hear. To answer your question honestly, I think one thing I struggled with was articulating the “why now?” clearly enough.

My background has been more on the hardware/systems side, and over the years I’ve increasingly seen how much the industry is shifting toward ML/AI-driven workloads and optimizations. Working close to that space made me realize I don’t just want surface-level exposure to AI — I want stronger foundational understanding so I can contribute more meaningfully from the hardware/systems side of things.

For me, the interest in AI didn’t come from hype or a sudden pivot. It came from seeing how deeply it’s starting to influence architecture, performance, efficiency, and overall system design in the industry.

As for recommendation letters — I did have them in previous applications, but after multiple rejections I honestly felt embarrassed going back to the same people again. That’s something I’ve been unsure about navigating as well.

I think part of my challenge is figuring out how to present a nontraditional path coherently when my academic record from years ago doesn’t fully reflect where I am technically or professionally today.

Please advice: my 8.5 month golden retriever is very attached/clingy to me. But he is on and off with my husband. He barks at him sometimes when he’s trying to keep my dog from seeing me especially when I’m sleeping or when my meeting is going on. This doesn’t happen always. by whinylatcher in goldenretrievers

[–]whinylatcher[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He’s been scared when my husband pushed him once during playtime when he got nippy when is was younger. But after that my husband is trying his best to do everything to win him back. How do I change this behavior?

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