I had taken a test on 12th August and received an abnormally low score in writing. I have a month to prepare again for TOEFL. Any suggestion. I am targeting 5 for writing now. How to prepare?
have a computer engineering background with 3 years of experience working in the embedded and storage domain. So I think ECE is a more suitable branch for me. But I am afraid if there are mandatory electronics-related courses in the branch, like VLSI design or digital verification, which I am not interested in at all and want to explore only OS and firmware-level things
Hi everyone,
I am preparing my application for the upcoming Spring session at UIUC and am trying to decide between the Computer Science (CS) and Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) departments.
To give a bit of background, my bachelor's is in Computer Engineering, followed by professional experience working at Espressif Systems (ESP32) doing firmware development, and later transitioning into the file systems and storage domain. My goal is to continue down the systems track, but I am trying to figure out which department offers the best fit.
My main concern with the ECE department is whether it mandates specific hardware-heavy coursework (such as physical design, chip design, or hardware verification) that might not align with my software/systems background. If ECE allows the flexibility to focus purely on systems software without forcing those specific hardware constraints, I feel the ECE Computer Engineering track might actually be a great fit for my profile.
I tried looking through the official degree requirements for both programs, but found the sheer amount of information a bit overwhelming.
Could anyone help clarify the curriculum flexibility and help me decide which path makes more sense given my background?
Thanks for your help!
Hi everyone,
I am preparing my application for the upcoming Spring session at UIUC for MS courses and am trying to decide between the MS in Computer Science (CS) and MS Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) departments.
To give a bit of background, my bachelor's is in Computer Engineering, followed by professional experience working at Espressif Systems (ESP32) doing firmware development, and later transitioning into the file systems and storage domain. My goal is to continue down the systems track, but I am trying to figure out which department offers the best fit.
My main concern with the ECE department is whether it mandates specific hardware-heavy coursework (such as physical design, chip design, or hardware verification) that might not align with my software/systems background. If ECE allows the flexibility to focus purely on systems software without forcing those specific hardware constraints, I feel the ECE Computer Engineering track might actually be a great fit for my profile.
I tried looking through the official degree requirements for both programs, but found the sheer amount of information a bit overwhelming.
Could anyone help clarify the curriculum flexibility and help me decide which path makes more sense given my background?
Thanks for your help!
Hi everyone,
I am preparing to apply for an MS in Computer Engineering / Computer Science for the upcoming Spring 2027 semester at Texas A&M University, but I am facing a frustrating roadblock regarding my TOEFL scores and am looking for some guidance.
Here is my current situation:
It feels like I am caught in a catch-22 with these scores, and I am struggling to see a clear way forward.
Has anyone faced a similar issue with section cutoffs versus overall score expectations at Texas A&M? How strict are departments usually regarding section-specific minimums when the overall score is strong, and what would you recommend I do in this situation?
Hi everyone,
I am preparing my application for the upcoming Spring session at UIUC and am trying to decide between the Computer Science (CS) and Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) departments.
To give a bit of background, my bachelor's is in Computer Engineering, followed by professional experience working at Espressif Systems (ESP32) doing firmware development, and later transitioning into the file systems and storage domain. My goal is to continue down the systems track, but I am trying to figure out which department offers the best fit.
My main concern with the ECE department is whether it mandates specific hardware-heavy coursework (such as physical design, chip design, or hardware verification) that might not align with my software/systems background. If ECE allows the flexibility to focus purely on systems software without forcing those specific hardware constraints, I feel the ECE Computer Engineering track might actually be a great fit for my profile.
I tried looking through the official degree requirements for both programs, but found the sheer amount of information a bit overwhelming.
Could anyone help clarify the curriculum flexibility and help me decide which path makes more sense given my background?
Thanks for your help!
Hi recently took a TOEFL IBT and received the following scores:
I am confused if this score is considered by US universities. I was targeting thr CMU for the upcoming spring 2027, but seeing this low score is disappointing.
I had 9/10 correct for the word-arranging task. While I completed both tasks, I didn't have time to check for spelling mistakes (although I remembered that there was no spell check. But as my typing is a bit slow, I probably wrote fewer words(greater than the minimum). In mock tests, I received 4.5 for writing.
Should I submit the writing scores for review? There are only 15 days left for applications; would it be a good decision to take?
As per official TOEFL score mapping
5.0 in reading is 24-26
5.5 in listening is 26-27
3.5 in writing is 15-16
5.0 in speaking is 25-26
Even if we consider the upper bound of all scores, it doesn't make 100. How did they give me 100 as the total score, which ideally should be around 95?
>I checked that there is old toefl cut-off mentioned there on website(https://www.ece.cmu.edu/admissions/graduate-faq.html), but I couldn't find any information with NEW toefl IBT. I haven't given old toefl and already scheduled the newone. I have also emailed them but there is no response. What to do, please help ?
>I checked that there is old toefl cut-off mentioned there on website(https://www.ece.cmu.edu/admissions/graduate-faq.html), but I couldn't find any information with NEW toefl IBT. I haven't given old toefl and already scheduled the newone. I have also emailed them but there is no response. What to do, please help ?
