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Confused about strategizing your way to study abroad? Here is your opportunity to clear your doubts.
We are organizing an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session with a Columbia University student.
The AMA session will be organized on Saturday, 13th February, at 06:00 PM IST.
Attend our AMA session and clear all your relevant doubts by asking questions to Rishabh Gupta- An IIT Alumnus who is going to pursue an MS in CS from Columbia University.
Guest Details:
Rishabh has done B.Tech in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He is currently working at Oracle as a Senior Member of the Technical Staff. Rishabh prepared for her abroad admissions with his job and secured admission to MS in CS from Columbia University. He is currently pursuing the course through online mode.
In the session, after the introduction of the guest, the floor will be opened to the attendees to ask questions.
Don’t miss the session if you have any query in your mind or want to hear other students asking questions from Rishabh and get insights from his personal experience of planning, preparing, and securing an admission to a college abroad.
Start Asking Your Questions Here!
Please post your questions here.
So which university is better from these 2?? And on what grounds ??
- San diego state university
- California State University Longbeach
Hello, Rishab. Firstly, congrats on a successful career. I would very much like for you to evaluate my profile and suggest me universities for MS in CS with excellent after grad job opportunities in Private or Public universities, both. Please suggest me universities that are safe, moderate and ambitious for me. My profile is as follows and I am considering to apply for Fall’22
GRE-318 ~ Quant(169) Verbal(149)
IELTS - 7
B.Tech in Comp. Science with CGPA of 7.24
My main motive is to get a job after or while studying in the university. Thanks
As far as Job opportunities are concerned , Should I consider ranking much or location??
I am basically interested in Data science or In AI… what do you think about the jobs for next few years in USA ??
Would there be much competition for getting these jobs while we complete our post graduation?
Basically, can you share some of the student community like Yocket ??
Hello… My profile is
CGPA 9.43
GRE 311 Quant 166 Verbal 145 AWA 3.5
IELTS 7.5
6 month intern as python developer
Some achievements as a leader and in management
So what pool of the universities should I choose ??
For masters in computer Science
How much will extra curricular activities like being featured in national newspapers in cricket and accolades increase the chances of getting into a University? Where do we let them know about these achievements?
I am actually in my final semester of my undergrad… so I have 5 months before flying to USA… so what do you think I should do in this period??
If taking some basic courses from Udemy or Coursera , which field of CS should I target for such a short period of time ??
I haven’t finalized the university yet… Because if I go for Deep learning, it would take much time… so for getting for a Full Stack Developer ( in Python) what should I target?? Which library or framework?? For Database ??
So Can we get email ID or any other mode of contact of Rishabh…because some of the questions aren’t covered here… so it would be really helpful if Rishabh doesnt have any problem .
Replying on behalf of the speaker -
@Nevil_Shah
I am not really sure about these universities because I had a very different pool of universities that I researched. You can probably find a better answer on the web. One thing that will be of help is LinkedIn. You can also search the kind of people who graduated from these universities and the companies that hired them. You can send them a message and ask them about the university. Most people are willing to help and tell you about what they did during their studies in a particular college.
You can also compare these universities using GyanDhan’s University Compare tool. It will compare universities on various grounds such as tuition fees, living expenses, funding, assistantships available, employability rate, recruiters, etc.
Replying on behalf of the speaker -
@Abhishek_Anumalla
Thanks, Abhishek. I would not directly suggest to you a particular college but give you pointers on how to check whether a school is safe or ambitious. There are a few aspects to it.
- GRE - Your GRE is decent. Anything around 320 is a good bet. The first thing you can do is check the average GRE score of admitted students of a particular college. Most colleges publish the average GRE score of the incoming class.
- CGPA - In terms of CGPA, because it is set, colleges tend to focus on other things as well, such as work experience. Some universities also look at the overall profile of the student and how they spent their time and what extra-curricular activities they participated in during their undergrad.
- Programs - You also need to look at the program you are applying for. Some programs have a very low acceptance rate. Depending on what you want to do, search for universities accordingly. MS in Computer Science, in general, is very competitive. There are very specialized masters as well that you can search for, like Masters in AI, Masters in Security, which is not a generic Masters in Computer Science. Their acceptance rate could be much higher. Even that will increase your chances. Because if at the end of the day, you want to do something in AI then there is no point in doing a generic master’s if you are sure you want to do that. Search for the acceptance rate of universities for help and get an idea.
Search on these terms and it will give a good answer.
NOTE - You can also use GyanDhan’s Admit Predictor Tool that will evaluate your profile and give you a list of universities categorized into Safe Schools, Moderate Schools, and Ambitious Schools. Moreover, it will suggest ways to improve your chances of admission. You can use the tool here.
Replying on behalf of the speaker -
@Nevil_Shah
If you are interested in these two fields then it is great. There are a lot of job opportunities in these two domains. They are more intertwined as well. Data Science has a conjunction of AI and there is an aspect of Statistics as well. But if you are worried about jobs in these particular fields, then rest easy as there are plenty of jobs in these domains. Just try to get an admit to a competitive program as students of these programs are generally thought to be more competent.
You don’t have to worry about job opportunities, just try and get an admit.
As for your academic credentials, again, I would not be able to suggest a pool of universities. But do check the average GRE scores accepted by universities. Because it is pretty early, you still have ample time to retake the GRE. I am suggesting this because you already have a good GPA (more than 9), which is a plus point. But if the GRE is not in your favor then you can give the exam again. Try to reach somewhere around 320.
Make sure when you are mentioning your work experience in your SOP, don’t include it just for the sake of including it. Tell them how it can help you in your Masters and how leadership qualities will help you in tech. Build a narrative that helps the admissions committee gauge your competence.
NOTE - You can use GyanDhan’s Admit Predictor Tool. It will give you a list of universities categorized into Safe Schools, Moderate Schools, and Ambitious Schools. It will also suggest ways to improve your profile. You can use it here.
Replying on behalf of the speaker -
@Abhishek_Anumalla
It depends on the admission process of the university. Some colleges have it on their portal with a section where students can mention their extra-curricular activities. If there is no such option then you could mention it in your SOP as well. But yeah, you will have to make a call about what all you want to add to your SOP. Because there is a two-page limit on SOPs and generally, lengthier SOPs do not help. If you think about it from your perspective, when you are reading an SOP of a prospective student, you would want to know the highlights by the end. If there is too much material there, it becomes difficult for the examiner to take a call. Coming on to whether it will help or not - If you look at Ivy League colleges like Columbia or Pennsylvania, they take in students with a more holistic profile. The admitted students have academic rigor and have participated in extra-curricular activities as well. You can find these reviews online - what colleges look for in a student. You can also find alumni and compare their profiles. Usually, the brand colleges are more competitive in both terms - academic and extra-curricular. But it depends on what you are targeting.
In the end, I would just say that write a good SOP - something that makes sense to you. If it doesn’t make sense to you then it won’t make sense to the examiner.
NOTE - You can get your SOP evaluated here free of cost.
Replying on behalf of the speaker -
@Nevil_Shah
It seems you have gotten an admit already. It boils down to what you want to do and what you want to study there. You have ample opportunity to make valuable additions. So you can focus on subjects accordingly.
But if you are not sure about what you want to study then most colleges give you an opportunity to modify your course by the end of the first semester. If you are unsure about what you want to do then this is a really good time to go through some advance courses. You should understand that it is an ongoing process. For myself, I’m not really sure of what I want to do, so I try to go 1 year at a time. But you can utilize this time to figure things out.
→ I think you are confused on a variety of aspects. Because Python programming is more towards Software Engineering and Deep Learning is research field. I would say don’t get into a lot of things. Because you have two years. Don’t worry about getting a job as soon as you land there as you have time for that. Rather than that focus on what you like. You could learn Python Programming during your job as well. If it is a hardcore research field you want to target then focus on that.
Before you take the courses, spend some time and figure out the universities as well. If after that you have time, you can take up online courses. Otherwise, you can figure it out during your MS as well. In MS you will find, there are very hands-on courses, courses that are heavy on programming - like cloud computing. I would suggest taking one thing at a time.