Including Your Startup in Your Grad Applications

Graduate School
1

I am going for a Masters in CS. In my startup, I am the head programmer, and official title as CTO (a bloated title, but a title nonetheless). I worked a lot in making web applications using some of the latest open-source technologies. I have devoted a lot of time to my startup while being an undergrad student as essentially became half-student, half-full-time-programmer.

Do they care about this? I am definitely going to include it in my personal statement. But should this make my application shine, where else can I talk about my startup besides the essays in the application? Help is much appreciated, as I could find no information on this dilemma. Thank you!

2

Yes, most programs will care about this. Put it on your resume, and talk about it in your statement.

3

It depends on the startup. Obviously, being a CTO at a VC funded startup, would be very impressive. If the startup is just a few free lance programmers during routine Web design, you still might include it, but ultimately, you’re trying to prove to them you have the potential to do research.

4

Yes, that is certainly something to include. Put it on your resume/CV and employment history.