[Application Timeline] Here's my 2026 Masters cycle run, 9/10 Rejected
Just saw a post of someone doing the same, thought I'd pitch in to share oversight, might help anyone in case.
My profile isn't the greatest ngl, but it is what it is ;-;
P.s: The profile was at the time of application
I got rejected by:
Purdue University
UC San Diego
UCLA
UIUC
Carnegie Mellon University
Duke University
Columbia University
University of Washington
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Got accepted in NYU Courant for their CS program
- Indian citizen
- Tier 1/2 Uni, debatable honestly
- GPA: 3.4
- GRE: 314
- IELTS: 8.5
Research:
- At the time of application I had the following 2 papers:
- An NLP/ML paper which got published in a decent conference, not the best of my works but wtev
- A hybrid Quantum and ML research paper which was industry collaborated, spent like an year to get the research done for the paper. This was a solid one published in a decent conference as well.
- I have 2 more papers lined up which is a follow up for my quantum paper, I'll be applying both of them to NeurIPS, AAAI or IJCAI next year.
LOR:
- ML research professor from my university
- Quantum/ML professor as well
- Technical Manager at the company I work at
Experience:
- 1 Industry collaborated research Intern
- SWE Internship at a Forbes 200 company
- Got converted in the same company as a SWE, had a work ex of 2 yrs
My SOPs were good honestly, at that time it was my best work, but as with everything, I did realize I could've done better :/
The cycle this year was quite selective but honestly there were wayy better profiles, Im glad I could land NYU Courant, currently ranked in the T20 CS Programs, not too bummed about it.
Unfortunately I did decide to not to go to NYU, the program wasnt what i expected it to be. Ill be re-trying next year tho 😃 Good luck to the rest of ya'll anyways, amor fati ❤️