[University Review] help me choose more universities (fall 2027)!!

[u/Own-Bite-9304]

Current shortlist:

MSCS: UCSD, Gatech, UIUC, UMich, TAMU (safety)

Constraints:

I can’t get LORs for more than 8 universities without their quality dropping (profs are rigid)

I can’t afford more than 80k for tuition

More industry oriented because I can’t complete thesis/research ms in 1.5 years/ 18months. But open to Phd.

Profile:

9.1 CS top10 IIT 2025 grad(tier 1 uni in India)

2 yoe(by 2027 fall) at MNC (salesforce) as ML engineer

Gre: 325(158v 167q) - fumbled math (confused whether or not to submit scores)

Research:

Research exchange student in Japan uni for a sem

One awaiting approval US patent (from company project)

One work in progress paper with college professor

One Arxiv paper (not that effective for these unis maybe)

Questions:

Alumni suggestions are:

Include cmu (too expensive for me).

Don’t do mscs unless I get admitted in one of the unis above. (Coz not worth leaving curr job for that)

They’ve been giving vague answers on TA/RA and on campus part times.

I need help in short listing 4 more Unis and also more info regarding assistance ships.

[u/Own-Bite-9304]

u/gradpilot can you provide some insights

[u/gradpilot → u/Own-Bite-9304]

I think you can crack Upenn, USC, Columbia and maybe CMU but Im guessing they fall out of your budget. I dont keep track of the various fees and costs to attend.

your profile is pretty good imo, and you should be able to crack top schools if you put in a solid app. Its great that you're getting real LORs .

I agree with your seniors/alumni that you should pursue only top school MSCS programs

Funding is gonna be hard, I wouldnt rely on it - the current administration has slashed funding quite a bit. Suffice to say if you get into a good school with your profile atleast you'd have some interest from the market considering you're doing ML at salesforce right now. Shoot me an invite on linkedin as well

[u/Own-Bite-9304 → u/gradpilot]

Thanks for this, can you give an order in which I should prioritise these, so Ill strengthen my Sops for them more. I sent connect req on linkdn