One summer intern. ICPC contestant (bad in D1 but top in D2). Undergrad in US Top 30. Double major in CS and Business. No traditional lab research experience. Have a couple of decent CS projects. Have good extracurricular. Tried to make my SOP interesting but have no idea if that worked. Average to decent LORs.

Applied to DD, rejected for both, DD and MSc.

B Tech in Production Engineering

Good LoRs. I was writing my motivation letter with my supervisor and, in my mind, made it almost perfect. Unfortunately, that is almost all. No big publications and no big internships. Also not ideal GPA (ruined my first semester). Not too surprised, but at least tried.

Applied to the direct Ph.D. program. After the submission of the application documents, the admission staff reached out for some clarification about the study gap in the CV. addressed those and resubmitted. Today I got a response in the website saying I did not fulfill the admission criteria. :)

NO_Funding !!! No tuition waiver !!

Received e-mail and phone call.

Fully funded offer

First said will support my application before I submitted application. Then after deadline, during interview on 17.01.2024 said no funding. Then rejected by email on 2nd March 2024.

Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering, One-year Master in Computer Science (Conversion degree). Four years of work experience as SWE. I have no research experience outside of my dissertation and no publications. No GRE (The admission office mentioned that GRE scores will not be considered nor reviewed for applications to the MSc in Computer Science)

Had 4 semesters of TAing experience, 3 semesters of research experience, and currently working as an AI/ML Engineer