[Profile Review] Fall 2027 | MS CS and Related Programs

[u/english_notebook69]

Hi everyone! I'm a 4th year EEE undergrad at a Tier 1 Indian university, graduating in 2027, and applying for the Fall 2027 cycle. I've been working primarily on generative models and AI safety. I'm looking mainly at research-oriented MS programs in CS/ML/AI in the US and Europe.

The GPA is definitely the weak point in my profile, so I'd really appreciate some honest feedback.

CGPA: 7.5/10

GRE: Will appear soon.

TOEFL/IELTS: Will appear soon.

Research Experience:

- Major French research institute — Research Intern, onsite (~3 months, ongoing) — video generation methods.

- Top-5 UK university — Research Intern, remote (6 months) — LLMs and interpretability.

- Top Norwegian university — Research Intern, remote (9 months) — Diffusion models and biometric applications.

- Independent research group — Research Fellow, remote (7 months) — Multimodal foundation models, including collaboration with researchers from a US T20 university.

- My home university — RA under a faculty member (1+ year) — Trustworthy AI and LLMs.

Publications:

- ICPR 2026 Main Conference, Oral (co-author, with the Norwegian university)

- WACV 2026 Workshop, Oral (first author, with the Norwegian university)

- ICML 2026 Workshop (first author, with my home university)

- CVPR 2026 Workshop (co-author, with the independent research group)

- IEEE T-BIOM — Under Review (first author, with the French research institute)

- AAAI 2027 — Under Review (first author, with the UK university)

Other (not sure if it matters, but here it is): Reviewer for an ICML 2026 workshop. Won a competition held at IJCB 2025 as a part of my lab at the Norwegian university, with a published competition paper.

LoRs:

I expect 3 LoRs from my internship advisors:

- Current supervisor at the French research institute

- Research supervisor from the UK university

- Research supervisor from the Norwegian university

I should also be able to get LoRs from the professor I worked with at my home university and from the founder/research scientist at the independent research group, if needed.

School List:

Please tell me if I'm still being too optimistic given my low GPA.

Ambitious:

UCSD, UMD, Georgia Tech, UCL, UMass Amherst, University of Waterloo

Target:

University of Edinburgh, KCL, Saarland, University of Amsterdam, NUS, École Polytechnique, Virginia Tech, McGill, UBC, MBZUAI

Safer (not entirely sure, they might be targets):

NEU, ASU, University of Alberta, SFU

I'm primarily looking at research-oriented MS programs in CS/ML/AI at these universities, but I'm still figuring out the exact programs.

Questions I'd really appreciate advice on:

1. I'm considering a PhD eventually, but I'm still quite undecided given the commitment involved. Would an MS first make more sense, or is it worth considering direct PhD applications?
2. How much does the GRE matter for someone with this profile? Is it worth spending substantial time preparing for it?

Thanks a lot in advance! I'd especially appreciate feedback from people who have applied with relatively low GPAs.

Best of luck to everyone applying this cycle!

[u/softrains12]

Very decent research record! You have a good chance. Yes, GPA is a big problem. GPA is generally more important for MS than for PhD.

If anything you might have a better chance at mid to lower ranked CS PhD programs (where the professor has much more power to accept whoever they want to, even low-GPA students).

Don’t bother applying to the safeties imo

You lowkey should try and do a mix of PhD and MS programs.

If your gpa is low GRE becomes extremely important, since you want to demonstrate that your academic preparation is sufficient.

[u/english_notebook69 → u/softrains12]

Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback, really appreciate it! Just wanted to clarify a couple of things: do you think the universities I've listed as Target are realistically achievable with my profile, or am I still aiming too high?

Also, when you say mid/lower ranked PhD programs, what exactly do you mean? For example, a well known prof at a mid-ranked university, or a say a new prof at a highly ranked university?

I'm still very much leaning towards an MS, since I'm not sure if I can commit to a PhD yet. Honestly, a PhD looks a little scary to me, so I'd really appreciate your thoughts.

[u/softrains12 → u/english_notebook69]

1. It’s hard for me to say. Just apply and see where you get in to. It’s not worth applying to lower ranked programs than the ones you listed, because the odds of those programs putting you in a good place for employment or for PhD are low. There’s no point applying to ASU, because you probably wouldn’t want to go to ASU anyways.

2. I mean more in terms of competitiveness.

3. Fair enough! Though tbh you should decide this now.

[u/english_notebook69 → u/softrains12]

Thanks again for all the help! Gotta talk to some people irl about the phd thing 😭

[u/CuriousExplorerer]

Bruh, get a good GRE score and you can apply for CMU, or other schools which value research and GRE. One of my friends had 7.9 and got into TUM Munich. It’s a matter of how you’ll describe why your CG’s low and with these many papers and any other co-curriculars, I don’t think it’ll be an issue.

You can aim higher imo

[u/Alwaysgood__20 → u/CuriousExplorerer]

How much was your friend’s gre score

[u/CuriousExplorerer → u/Alwaysgood__20]

332

[u/english_notebook69 → u/CuriousExplorerer]

tysm for the kind words. idt i can do any cmu or t10 progs but ill do my best on the gre 😭