Complete Guide to MS in CS Applications

GRE

Most students give GRE in the 6th semester (3rd year). Exam preparation for both (GRE & TOEFL) takes 3 months (considering you study for 2–3 hours daily)

GRE has been 'waived off' in some way, shape, or form in most US universities as of 2022. There are 4 common stances that universities take with respect to the exam:

• • Required — must submit GRE scores.
• • Recommended — They have given you an option, but I'd say treat these ones as 'required'.
• • Optional — They are giving you an actual option. Not submitting your GRE score won't hurt your application, but submitting a high score may increase your chances.
• • Not accepted — These universities won't consider your score even if you send it to them. So don't.

You can skip the GRE if most of the universities that you are interested in, take an 'optional' or 'not accepted' stance.

There are 7 sections in the GRE

TOEFL

TOEFL is an English language proficiency test. It is to ensure that you'll be able to cope with native English speakers once you reach the US. You can give TOEFL immediately after your GRE. I would suggest getting it out the way as soon as possible.

There are 2 types of exams, Toefl Essentials, and Toefl IBT. For MS you have to give the IBT version.

There is also a 3rd version, 'Toefl Home-Edition'. Even if it's accepted at your choice of universities, I'd say avoid it unless you don't have any other option. The reason is, that it doesn't have a speaking section (it's the most important section).

Even if you skip the speaking section now, universities will require you to take another language proficiency test for RA/TA roles. So just give the IBT version and those speaking scores will be applicable for RA/TA roles as well.

There are 4 sections in TOEFL (30 marks each):

• • Reading — is much easier than GRE.
• • Listening — you're good if you can understand an episode of Big Bang Theory without subtitles.
• • Speaking — most struggle here.
• • Writing — is much easier than GRE.

I found TOEFL to be easier as well as more lenient compared to the GRE. If you scored well in the verbal section(around 160) then you'll probably end up with a near-perfect score with a few days of practice. Most universities require a score of 100+, with a few exceptions where they expect 110+.

Apart from this, universities also have cutoffs with respect to the speaking section for TA roles (so while you can get into the uni., you may need a higher score to be eligible for a TA). The highest I have seen is ≥28 for a TA. On average, the cutoff is 24/30.

RA/TA — Research assistantship/Teaching assistantship.

Resume

Create your resume in Latex. It looks a lot more professional and you can fully customize it. Use overleaf, it's by far the best platform.

Your resume must cover the following key points:

• • Undergrad university (uni. name+degree+CGPA)
• • Work experience (Internships/FTE)
• • Research papers (if any)
• • Technical skills (languages, etc)
• • Projects & Extracurriculars

Limit your resume to a single page. As an exception, you could use a second page but you must really make sure that it's justified.

NOTE: You do not need to mention all of the internships/projects/extracurriculars that you've been a part of. Mention only those that are either relevant or recent.

You can refer to this PDF guide shared by Harvard for additional tips on how to construct your resume.

SOP — Statement of purpose

What's an SOP? — This is the space that the university gives you to convince them why you must be accepted. Your SOP must summarize your journey, (mostly undergrad journey), up until this moment, and how it has shaped you to be a perfect candidate for higher studies at their university.

Give yourself ample time to write your SOP. I'll describe how I wrote it, you should construct your own version. Realistically speaking there are many ways to write a good SOP.

NOTE: You'll have to write a different SOP for every university so it's bound to take time.

I kept my SOP to the point, without any throwbacks to my childhood where I discovered my penchant for CS, simply because that would have been untrue. I started off with my first year in undergrad chronologically up till my third year. I explained how I discovered the field I am in, projects, research, achievements, and lastly why I wanted to get a master's. This made up for 2/3rd of the SOP. The other 1/3rd part was university specific, as to why I chose that particular university. I discussed their curriculum, the professors, and the work they were doing. Occasionally if I was very familiar with a professor's work I'd delve into it deeper.

It's important to mention a professor or two, whose work you're interested in, in your SOP. The admissions committee may forward your profile to them for a second opinion, and if you've done your research well it will work in your favour.

Another tip would be, to look for places where you may sound high-handed or boastful. You may not want to do that but English being our 2nd/nth language these things can creep in involuntarily.

NOTE: The university usually specifies a limit, something like a max of 1000 words or 2 pages for the SOP. Also, always use a 12pt font size, you won't be fooling anyone if you reduce the font size to fit more into those 2 pages.

LORs

Most universities require at least 2 out of your 3 LORs to be from people in academia. You can ask for one of the letters from your current/past employer.

Choose people who can really vouch for your skills and are willing to write you a strong LOR. These must be people whom you have worked with, simply being in your professor's classes won't make up for a great LOR.

Usually, you just need to enter your recommender's email at the application portal. The recommender will then receive an email, with a link, where they'll have to submit the LOR. While doing this you can either waive/not waive your rights to see the LOR. Waiving your rights is probably the best way to do this.

The LORs need not be on letterhead. A simple plain pdf does the work. Since it's sent via your professor's email that in itself is proof of its authenticity.

Ask your professors/employer well in advance. You must give them time to draft the LOR(~2 months). They may have other commitments and you don't want any last-minute delays. Also, make sure to ask the person if they are willing to send LORs to all of the 'n' universities. The email your recommenders receive takes them to a portal where they are also asked a few questions in addition to submitting the LOR, so it can become quite time-consuming. If for instance, a recommender is only willing to send the LOR to ≤6 universities, in this case, you will have to find a 4th recommender.

PHS — Personal History Statement

Not all universities ask for this but this is another text document like your SOP. This one is more about your experiences in life, community work, etc.

Undergrad transcripts

Transcripts are different from your mark sheets, although the content more or less remains the same. Each undergrad university has a different process to request transcripts.

GRE/TOEFL scores

You may remember that after you gave your GRE/TOEFL, you gave the names of 4 universities to which you'd like to send the scores. For those universities, you can skip this step.

Financial Documents

It's best to confirm this with the particular university but in my experience, this is an optional section in the applications.

Deadlines

This is quite basic but look at the deadlines for submitting your applications well in advance. There may be different types of deadlines lines like early-admission deadline.

I20

This is probably the first thing that you need to get done. An i20 is the document that your university will give you once you have proven financial capability for pursuing a Masters in the US.

Education Loan (optional)

For those who will be taking an education loan, you'll need to get the sanction letter from the bank at least a few days before your VISA interview.

DS-160

This is the non-immigrant visa application form. It's one of the forms you'll need to fill out before your visa interview & slot booking.

Sevis fee

This is another form you need to fill in before your visa interview. This is a much smaller form, mainly for the purpose of paying a 350$ fee (28000 INR).

Visa slot booking

This is a tricky one. Since there are so many students trying to book visa slots, most of them fill up as soon as they appear on the website.

Visa Interview

For your biometrics, you'll only need the 5 documents mentioned above, but for the Visa interview, you'll have to carry financial proof documents as well.

Claim uni email id & others

At this point, you must have received an email from your university to set up your .edu email. Get that set up first so that you start getting emails for things you need to do before leaving.

Medical Requirements

Check for any emails you've received regarding medical requirements. There are often clauses like 'take these 2 doses 1 month apart'. So these things need to be planned in advance.

RA/TA applications (optional)

If you haven't already been assigned an RA/TA, depending on your university, you may be asked to fill out a form for these roles.

Submitting transcripts and other academic credentials

You'll have to submit your transcripts to the university once again. Unlike during your applications, this time in a sealed envelope, as proof of its authenticity.

Selecting courses (1st semester)

Some universities ask students to choose courses for the first semester after arriving at the university, while some ask students to choose before arrival.

Flight booking, luggage restrictions, and student discounts

After your Visa gets approved this is the first thing that you must do. The later you book your flight tickets, the higher the cost.

Housing

There are 2 options. You can choose university housing, which is usually more expensive, or you can go for off-campus housing. The term 'off-campus' can be misleading, off-campus doesn't mean these are outside the campus.

Forex card & USD cash

A forex card is useful for carrying money for the first few days when you reach the USA. After reaching you'll have to open a US Bank account and get a permanent debit/credit card.

Sim card

As I mentioned previously, you can get a sim card from Zolve. As of Aug 2022, they give you the first month free.

General shopping

There will be a lot of things you need to buy or arrange for. Fortunately, there are some very comprehensive lists created by students to help you out with this.

Dentists, ear doctors

It's best to get checked up at your local dentist and ear doctor before leaving. Medical is very expensive in the US.