Guidance for MS in Information Systems (MSIS) in USA with BCA background and no GRE.

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Hi! I’m planning to apply for MS in Information Systems (MSIS) in the USA for the January 2026 intake. My background is in BCA (Bachelor of Computer Applications) from an Indian university, with some work experience in sales and banking. I also have final year projects in PHP & MySQL. Due to financial constraints, I’m planning to take only the Duolingo English Test (DET), and not GRE.

Can someone from a similar background please share how their experience was with MSIS in the USA? Especially regarding:

University shortlisting with a BCA degree

Chances of getting admitted without GRE

How helpful is MSIS for career opportunities in the USA?

Is DET accepted widely and is it sufficient?

Any advice you would give to someone from BCA background planning for MSIS?"

Thank you in advance!"

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Hi Sudeep,
Welcome to our community.
I’m from a CS background but let me try to answer few of your questions here,
University shortlisting with a BCA degree - I would say with a BCA degree and the experience you mentioned it will be quite a difficult task to get into top universities here. I would want to work on your SOP and try to shortlist universities which comes in medium category. This way you wouldn’t waste your efforts.

Chances of getting admitted without GRE - I had applied for universities without providing the GRE Score, but still got admits based on TOEFL. DuoLingo is mostly accepted by many of the universities but not all. Make sure to check that during application. So you have good chances of getting admit based on your DuoLingo Score alone, make sure you perform well in it.

How helpful is MSIS for career opportunities in the USA? - I’m not so qualified to talk on this due to limited knowledge of MSIS, but if you really work on your skills it should open multiple opportunities for you.

Is DET accepted widely and is it sufficient? It’s accepted by a very large number of universities now, but not all.

Any advice you would give to someone from BCA background planning for MSIS? Make sure to really work on your SOP & recommendation Letters along with DuoLingo, this is the only option I could think of for you.

Thank you !!
Hope to see you soon in USA.

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