I’m looking to apply for computer science master’s programs with an unusual background, and wondering if I’m even in the right ballpark regarding “reach” and “safety” schools.
I have a BA in CS from Boston University, 3.4 GPA, Latin honors… but it’s from 2008. Since then I haven’t done anything professionally or academically related to CS because I’ve been serving on active duty in the military (I had an ROTC scholarship) in an unrelated field. It will be difficult to get a letter of recommendation from a professor at this point. I can easily get LORs from senior military officers, but they can’t really speak to my CS and/or academic abilities.
In my favor, my GRE score is pretty good (160 Q, 170 V, 4.5 W) for what that’s worth. More importantly (I suspect) I will be a “full pay” student. And I assume that I’m mostly competing with international students and career-changers from a different academic background, so maybe being a US citizen/veteran with an actual CS undergraduate degree helps.
So using the US New list as an imperfect guide, what is realistic? Stanford (#1)? USC (#20)? BU again (#48)? Places further down the list or un-ranked?