2 first-author pubs 2 y exp as DS 4 hackathons winner

T30 CS, 1.5 years FT exp at elite startup, 2 research, 1 AWS intern, ran competitive programming club, 2 TA. 3 strong LoR (1 academic, 2 work), SOP should've been very good.

Interviewed with professor

No email I just logged into portal and checked

No funding!

9.2/10 , IIT P , 1 paper , 2 year exp MNC

Thank Jesus! Nigerian undergrad. Best graduating student in my department. No GRE. No research papers. No publications. 3 internships, none big tech but 2 reputable international names. Brilliant SOP. 3 great recommendation letters (I didn’t see them, but they must have been????), all 3 academic. Thank you Jesus!

Had interviews with professors in February, no GRE, and was offered a graduate assistantship that covers tuition + stipend + healthcare.

No mention of funding in the admission acceptance later.

T100 CS, 2 years in satellite research lab, 6 months cloud research yet to publish, 1 software QA internship, 1 defense swe internship, 1 upcoming swe consulting internship