<p>Hello,
I am currently a Senior at a “mediocre” university if that. I am in the Computer Science major, with an interest in doing my Masters/PhD in Robotics/AI.
To get started this is a little bit about the University. I go to what is called University of Washington but Tacoma campus. It is smaller but appears to have the same curriculum as the main UW campus. However it lacks the emphasis of the name or education level. How much will this hurt me?
I will graduate when I am 20 taking an extra quarter that will have me graduate with 1 internship, and 2 research seminars done. I will have a 3.50 with Deans list 5 of the 7 times, with a 3.76 average of the last 5 quarters (my first two quarters I averaged 2.66).
I have not received anything less then a 3.3 for any of the advanced computer science classes except for discrete math where I got a 2.5 and 2.8.
I am interested in going to University of Maryland, University of Washington and Texas A&M. However these are all top notch Universities and require amazing people.
My GRE scores are (Math:770, Reading:600, Writing: unknown) </p>
<p>I will graduate at the end of winter (December) and will apply at the same time for next year. I am going to retake my GREs to better them and try and get a job at least for that 9 month period that I cannot go to school.
My main question is, what kind of job can I get to show that I want to continue my education (research) if I only have a BS degree. As well what would be a good location for this, I am very willing to move if needed. Or any suggestions for what I can do to better my chances. I understand it may be, wait a few years but if I wait a few years what is the best approach I can do to have the best chances of a graduate school I want. </p>
<p>Hopefully someone… anyone can help me.
Thanks
Craig Truzzi</p>
<p>A 3.5 gpa is acceptable everywhere, if not necessarily competitive. Don’t worry about the first 2 quarters - your last few, setting your major gpa, are much more important.</p>
<p>You do not need to specify your campus - if your diploma and transcript do not, then you are considered to be from “the” school. </p>
<p>Your GRE’s are okay, the only real improvement worthwhile is getting that 800 Math, but a 770 is good at 98% of programs.</p>
<p>The internship may or may not be useful for grad school - it depends on whether or not it was research-based. Likewise, your research seminars are valuable only in how they showcased your research potential. Highlight any publications you had, and be sure to draw your advisors in for letters of recommendation. Good LOR’s should say “this guy did research under me and was great!”</p>
<p>I would see if there is any way to stay with your current university - either postpone graduation while you pick up a minor, or else look for a short-term research gig with a professor. It is very hard to find a job that will take you for just 9 months, and it is very unlikely that such a job would help you for grad school.</p>
<p>If all else fails, find a job with tuition assistance and do a part-time masters while working. Typically this would be at a major corporation. Do well there and you can apply for a Phd in a few years. It will not matter at that time whether or not your masters field matches the PhD.</p>
<p>Thank you for the quick response.
My transcripts at the top say University of Washington at the top, however for the quarters it says the campus I am on. As well my diploma will say what campus I was on. Does that make any difference? I worry about this since we are a small subsection of the school and do not get anything from the program to the actual degree name but the books and classes offered are almost the same, but there’s no way I can show that on an application. </p>
<p>I am already postponing graduating 1 quarter to do a few extra things but what is offered is not much.
In terms of my research seminars how can I showcase my research abilities? Is it just the ability to get my research published or if I send a unpublished research paper with my applications will it still help?
My university offers a master program in the CSS degree however it is nothing close to what i want for a masters or PhD. I have not heard of doing a research project with a professor here other then what is considered Independent Reading and Guided Research.
Is there any chance I would be able to go to a different University and do a research project w/ a professor there or is that even less likely then getting into MIT with a 2.0?
If I where to stay at a job longer then 9 months, perhaps a few years. How would I get a research based job with only a undergraduate degree?
Thank you so much for the help.</p>
<p>I had internships too but it didn’t help much</p>
<p>My good suggestion for you will be: if you really want to go grad school, make good use that 9 months for research experience. That is if you can afford not making money for that time period.</p>
<p>Find a professor who is doing Robotics/AI, tell him/her you are interested in grad school and would like to get involved in some research projects. Most likely you will be assigned to work with some PhD students. If you are lucky and fortune, you could get a paper published with your name on it, and that is almost a golden ticket to a good graduate school program, afterall—grad school is about doing research. Most undergrads don’t have paper, if you can get one it’s huge advantage. Also working with that professor can get you sweet LOR since it’s in your field of interest, he may just personally recommend you to his colleague in the field and you are set.</p>
<p>Hmm so internships do not help as much as I had expected that is good to know.
Thank you for the wonderful input. I must query into this idea of Research Experience, I can most likely afford the 9 months of unpaid except that I would need to start paying my undergrad college loans. But I would need to find a professor outside of my University to actually have any luck at finding a professor interested in AI/Robotics at research level. How would you suggest I go about doing that?
One thing I have read or made assumptions from what is written above is that my undergraduate “research” work is really not helpful unless it is oriented specifically towards my graduate interests. Is this true or does the undergraduate research (all of which is not part of the required curriculum or decided for me) show the starts of research experience or just something I am doing so I can try and understand the actual process?</p>