<p>Hi
I am from India
I got really low marks in my school
class 10 - 59 %
class 12 - 69 %</p>
<p>then I did a 3 years bachelors degree in Commerce in a reputed college which unfortunately was experimenting with the worst marking scheme in the last 20 years.
Thus after studying really hard, i got a 49 percent (this can only happen in India, it is called Calcutta university)</p>
<p>I did a 2 semester (one year) diploma from NIIT in web computing (I do not know if it recognised in USA) i scored 83 % (SQL Server, UML, Java, C++, Windows and Linux admin).</p>
<p>after that I did a 3 year Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA) where I did really well and ranked first in my class of 59 students.
GPA 8.68/10.00
(the syllabus are was almost the same as a computer science engineering degree having all the same subjects like C, computer architecture, data structures, networking, databases, numerical analysis, operations research, software engineering, OOP with C++, Java, Linux sys admin, Unix and shell programming, Discrete Maths, information systems, computer graphics, ecommerce, and some other nonsensical subjects.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, the MCA degree is only given in India and I am not sure how University Authorities would look at it in the USA.</p>
<p>Note: We did NOT have Automata or Theory of computation as a subject, but parts of automata, computation and languages and grammars were included in our discrete math syllabus. Also Compiler Design was an elective, but we did not do it because our college authorities decided to choose another elective instead i.e. ecommerce for us (what a choice).</p>
<p>I have also published 2 papers (one coauthor and one first author) in IEEE international middle level conferences.</p>
<p>Worked in Hewlett Packard for 6 months as a Software Engineer.</p>
<p>So to sum it all up</p>
<p>class 10 - 59 %
class 12 - 69 %
NIIT one year diploma (may not be recognised in USA)
3 years Bachelor’s (Commerce) - 49 %
3 years Masters (MCA) - GPA 8.68/10.00 first in my college class of 59 students
2 IEEE conference papers</p>
<p>So here are my questions</p>
<ol>
<li>Will I be eligible for admission to a phd in Computer Science in universities in the USA</li>
<li>Do U.S. universities have cutoffs for school marks or bachelor’s college marks in phd admission (considering I have done a masters degree)</li>
<li>Will my 49 % in bachelor’s of commerce spoil my chances of admission, since it is in an unrelated field with no InfoTech subjects</li>
<li>Since the Masters Degree is in CS/IT subjects, but is only 3 years, will I be disqualified from the admission.</li>
<li>Considering all goes well with my GRE, what are my chances</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks in advance</p>
<p>Pankaj</p>