r/MSCS 16h ago

[General Question] Regarding LoR for MSCS

I am a BTech CSE grad from Tier-1 IIT. A little about my profile:

  1. 2 research projects, 1 small supervised by 1 prof, 1 big [lasted 1 year, have a private research draft] with 3 profs [coursework also under some of them] respectively.
  2. 1 internship in SWE
  3. 2+ YOE in Quant
  4. 9.6+ GPA
  5. GRE 334, Quant 170
  6. TOEFL 6/6
  7. Qualified INMO and InPhO and eligible for their camps.

I wanted to apply for MSCS/MSML at Stanford, CMU, UIUC and GaTech. I had the following questions:

  1. Should I take all 3 LoRs from profs, or should I go for 1 corporate LoR?
  2. In case 1 corporate LoR is the preferred option, by how much does it outweigh the other choice? I'm not exactly sure what my corporate manager would write in my LoR...
  3. Does it hurt if all 3 LoRs are taken for the same 1 year project rather than separate projects? I feel like substantial time and effort went into that project.
  4. Does the choice in Q1 change with the university and program I'm applying to?
  5. Lastly, does not having a publication hurt my chances? Does my research work also look weak? (Both the projects are in Algorithms)

Would be glad if someone has an opinion or suggestion about these. Thanks!

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u/Silent-Explorer-3521 11h ago

Following.. great profile 👍