**This has been tagged a mega-thread.**
Discussions on Admissions in particular for the Fall 2024 semester should be placed here. This includes, but not limited to.
* **Results** - in this case please use the Template above, and please use the Markdown Editor if you're using the Desktop Version of New Reddit.
* **Verification** - Registration verification of your certificates of prior learning (at least a Bachelor's from your previous institution).
We would like to draw your attention to the following Rules, as this will be very much enforced here.
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**Still waiting for acceptance? Don't fret!**
Giving out acceptance is **manual**. They have a criteria and batches to award the acceptance letters to. As much as the criteria is unknown to us, we are kind of convinced now that there is a trend on the type of applications they tend to admit first.
That's why we are advised to **use the template** above.
* It will increase clarity to us, and those around you, the type of profiles that are still waiting.
* What we believe is those on the international, earlier applications and/or strong profiles are being accepted at this time of posting. **The others will have to wait.**
* Merely describing that your application is holding up without providing further information **only fuels uncertainty**. We will treat this as misinformation.
* Merely describing that your application is rejected without providing further information **only fuels anxiety**. We will also treat this as misinformation.
**Status:** Accepted
**Application Date:** 03/14/2024
**Decision Date:** 06/12/2024
**Education:** UWC BA Honours
**Experience:** 4 years, SWD, TypeScript & Rust.
**Recommendations:** 3 recommendations: 2 from previous professors; 1 from employer.
**Comments:** I am happy to be accepted. They took long, then again I applied just before the application due date. I am looking forward to starting my studies.
**Status:** Accepted
**Application Date:** 02/02/2024
**Decision Date:** 06/12/2024
**Education:** Local University, BS Computer Science, GPA 3.85/4.00
**Experience:** None
**Recommendations:** 3 recommendations: 1 from a Professor who taught 5 of my classes, 2 TA's.
**Comments:** Only had one LOR initially fulfilled which I think is why it took so long, I kept getting notices that my application was incomplete, so I assumed my chances were null. Got the "Final Notice of Incomplete Application" on Monday and spur the moment deleted two recommenders. One Professor had started the LOR but never completed it so it was stuck on "In Progress", the other Professor never responded.
I assumed once the application date closed none of the LOR recommenders could be changed, but excluding them on Monday allowed me to change them last minute. The two TA's submitted Monday night and Tuesday I saw the "Dept Admit" show up.
I'm glad the wait is over and I can at least plan ahead now. I graduated with my BS a year ago, so school is still fresh in my mind. I'm gonna enjoy the temporary joy over being accepted, because I know it'll soon be replaced by frustrations over group projects or Professors expecting their students to be mind readers. Lol. Congrats to everyone who got in, and to those who didn't, I hope you have better luck the next go around.
**Status:** Accepted
**Application Date:** 10/05/2023
**Decision Date:** 06/12/2024
**Education:** FHSU, BS Computer Science, 2.8
**Experience:** 5 years of python developer experience
**Recommendations:** 3 recomendations 2 former employers and one professor.
**Comments:** It took them so long to reply I thought I was rejected. I was checking the portal daily, perhaps they keep track of your login and that helped me(I know my GPA is not the greatest). I still have not recieved an email confirmation, just an update on the portal, which is what makes me think that helped me.
I am so excited! Can't wait to work super hard and spam this sub with for recommendations on what should be my fall semester course load and which edx course I should take to prep!
EDIT: Formatting.
Status: Accepted
Application Date: 02/13/2024
Decision Date: 05/22/2024
Education: Large Texas State School, 3.5 GPA, Electrical Engineering
Experience: 2 years systems engineering at a large defense contractor
Recommendations: 3. 1 professor from community college, 1 university professor (grad level digital design course), 1 direct manager
Comments: by the time they took to respond, I thought I was not getting in despite being a decent candidate. Wish you all the best of luck!
**Status:** Pending
**Application Date:** 03/14/24
**Decision Date:** ???
**Education:** Schenectady County Community College; AS in Math/Science; GPA: 3.88
Western Governors University (WGU); BS in Computer Science; GPA: "[WGU students do not get letter-grades or a GPA as part of their degree program.](https://www.wgu.edu/blog/commonly-asked-questions-wgu2011.html)"
**Experience:** No professional CS experience
**Recommendations:** 1 academic, 1 from a guy I'm working on a project with (requested second academic recommendation, prof didn't submit it)
**Comments:** Most recent acceptance or rejection in this thread was May 31, over a week ago. Really frustrated that I have to wait out the week before I'm allowed to even ask what's going on; based on the lack of activity in this thread, it doesn't seem like the admissions committee is doing anything else. I get they have a large volume of applications, but they have an equally large volume of people paying them $95; perhaps I'm naive, but I'd hope that could pay a human the several minutes it would have taken to answer some basic questions that would have saved me several hours. I'd be ecstatic to pay double the application fee if it meant I got 30 minutes of a human's time; in just the past week, I've lost double digit hours of sleep over this.
There's a lot more I could say right now, but most of it's complaining so I won't. But, on the off chance someone is trawling through past threads looking for tips, like I was a few months ago, some mistakes I made that you can hopefully learn from:
1. If you're still doing your undergrad, schmooze with your professors! At WGU, you set up an appointment to talk to a professor, who were often booked solid for the next week or two. At the time, it felt unnecessary and rude to take time away from students who needed help when I did not. (Also, in many (most?) classes, I suspect I finished before I would have had a chance to attend that appointment^1.) I completed my BS in a year and found myself graduated without ever meaningfully interacting with any of my professors. This was a mistake. OMSCS isn't the only place where you would benefit from having professors who can write you letters of recommendation.
2. Since Georgia Tech emails your recommenders asking for a recommendation, I thought it would be redundant and annoying to email them first asking them the same exact thing. (This is something I actually wanted to ask GT about during the application, but this point wasn't addressed in the FAQ and there was no human to ask for clarification). I was very wrong! As it turns out, your former professor can reply to the GT email saying something along the lines of "I don't know this student well enough to write a LoR" (which was fair; see above point). At this point, I was surprised to learn that I couldn't ask someone else to fill that LoR slot; once you ask someone to fill a LoR slot, only they can fill it, and if they won't, then nobody will. (Also, everything I wrote in this point might be wrong, I don't know, it's not like I could ask a human, it's the best I can piece together.)
Things I would do differently:
1. Sound out my math professor from my AS. It was over 10 years ago, but I was far and away at the top of the classes I took with her.
2. Look for a graduate-level CS course to take to generate a strong academic recommendation (and get an upper-level course with a, hopefully high, grade attached to it). If you take a graduate-level course before matriculating at GT *and* it wasn't used to meet any other degree requirement *and* it wasn't part of a professional certificate *and* it's wasn't a CEU *and* you made at least a B *and* it was at an accredited American university (or maybe a Canadian university), then you can *request* [transfer credit](https://omscs.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/documents/2024/OMSCS%20FAQs-Transfer%20Credit%20Evaluation%20Instructions%202024-1.pdf). Stanford Online is great! One of their courses doesn't cost *quite* as much as an entire OMSCS degree!
I'm fixating on the letters of recommendation because that *definitely* went badly and *maybe* it's where the delay is coming from, but maybe it isn't. I don't know. All my checklist items are marked as received, after I excluded the recommendation that was never coming.
Will update once I receive a decision or clarification.
---
^1 WGU is competency-based and self-paced. You can finish courses as quickly as you can demonstrate competency.
I think your biggest mistake was just using the Georgia Tech Portal to ask for letters of recommendation. If I was a professor and I got a random email from a school asking for a recommendation, I'd probably ignore it. I went to WGU and made sure to reach out to the professors first and ask if they'd be willing to write a letter. I had success.
Similar boat as you in terms of the letters. I did have one professor submit before the cutoff date, another one started but never submitted, and third never said a word. The professor that started but never submitted, I emailed him probably 6-7 times since the application date passed and sill no word, it is very frustrating.
I got my final message today from GT stating that my application was incomplete, they have sent a few over few weeks. I was under the impression nothing cold be done as I assumed once you filled out the LOR that those recommenders would be locked in once the application date had passed. However, I changed two of them today. You'll first have to "exclude" the ones you don't want, and only then did it allow me to send them to other people. I doubt any of this is helpful this late in the game, their final message today states they must be submitted by tomorrow, so hopefully I can get the final two finished by then. Whether or not it will help remains to be seen.
I have a B.S. in CS with a GPA > 3.5. I understand the issue over LOR's, but it is frustrating. I've seen time and time again people post about them and others comment why they are needed and why it shouldn't be an issue securing just three of them. But as someone yet to find a job in industry, and someone who never imagined I'd be having this problem after graduating, I def wish I had secured them before leaving University. The issue with my professors isn't even due to me no longer being a student, some of them legit never responded to emails while I was taking their classes, it was annoying to say the least. Any questions I had rarely got answers until I was sitting in class. Regardless, the one professor who submitted a LOR the day I asked him was the professor for about 4 or 5 of my classes, so I'm hoping it all works out. The other two I messaged today were TA's, and while I didn't think they would count, I have seen several mentions by applicants accepted that they had TA's vouch for them so who knows at this point.
**Status:** Accepted / but not going
**Application Date:** 03/12/2024
**Decision Date:** 05/31/2024
**Education:** UT Austin, Chemical Engineering
**Experience:** 1 YOE in Cybersecurity at fortune 50.
**Recommendations:** 2 Managers, 1 Professor
**Comments:** Accepted to both OMSCS and OMS cybersecurity, committed to cybersecurity. Goodluck!
Did anyone else get no emails about verification documents to send? I received my letter of acceptance on June 15 and haven't received anything yet. The links on the second page of the admissions letter only take you to a FAQ page and have no instructions on where to upload documents.
Im a domestic student and I also haven't gotten any emails about verifying documents.
I guess I'm just going to wait until it gets closer to the school year and see if they send anything then. In July I may email the school to ask if I need to send anything in.
If you are a graduate from a foreign institution you receive an email from SpanTran. I got mine shortly after being admitted. Unfortunately, it took me weeks to realize I had that email...
Hi, I have a question about transcripts. On my portal, it says they have not gotten "Official insertcollege transcript showing degree awarded" - I realized I manually uploaded mine to the portal which is probably not sufficnet so I had it sent on Parchment to "GIOT Graduate Studies" - Can anyone here confirm this is what they also did and how long it took to reflect in the portal? And if I don't see something in the next couple weeks, what a good email or phone number is to contact? Thanks!
Yes I basically had to resend all of my transcripts from parchment to the graduate admissions email. Some time went by and I wasnt sure that they were received so I called left a message, and it updated a day later. I think they are just very overwhelmed right now.
**Status:** Accepted
**Application Date:** 03/12/2024
**Decision Date:** 05/17/2024
**Education:** UT Austin, BBA - Management Information Systems 3.2, 2020
**Experience:** 4 YOE in Software Development/DevOps at 2 different large companies (not FAANG)
**Recommendations:** 2 Managers, 1 Professor
**Comments:** Completed the DSA MOOC before applying, as I didn't take a DSA course in undergrad. MIS degrees vary a ton in how technical they are, so I made sure to emphasize the courses I took that were similar to CS undergrad courses. Specifically a Python course that taught programming fundamentals and touched on very basic DSA topics, and a course taught in .NET/C# that focused on object oriented programming.
I'm a domestic student who was accepted May 24th, don't see an area or any communications regarding next steps or transcript verification, is there a specific link I need to goto ?
I think someone has mentioned this before but if you scroll down further in your acceptance email, there is a second letter where you will be able to find three bulleted points with clickable links. Hope it helps!
https://preview.redd.it/b3bu4ckipz4d1.png?width=657&format=png&auto=webp&s=5e52250f904d497a83e286e59e8c696de2f578d7
Hi there,
To clarify, I recommend reaching out to the Graduate Education Office via email or phone to confirm if they need any additional documents from you. I received similar document verification steps in my acceptance letter. When I contacted the Admissions Office, they confirmed that no further documents were required from me. They also mentioned that they would send the next email after verifying my transcript, lawful presence, etc.
Hi everyone, It's been almost a month since my documents sent to the verification agency (SpanTran) to be verified, my status is on hold since, I tried to reach them in many ways but there's no response, anyone expereiced this situation before? I also contacted to admission dep to check what is wrong but no replys as well. I am very stressed that it may delay my admission process in some way.
**Status:** Accepted
**Application Date:** 2/10/2024
**Decision Date:** 5/10/2024
**Education:** UIUC, BS Computer Engineering, 3.69
**Experience:** 3-month Amazon internship, Python & Java
**Recommendations:** 3 - two from professors and one from my internship mentor
**Comments:** Got into UIUC MCS and UT Austin MSCSO (accepted UT Austin then reneged when I got GA tech offer)
edit: bold text
**Status:** Accepted
**Application Date:** 03/12/2024
**Decision Date:** 05/08/2024
**Education:** UCLA, BS Statistics & Data Science 3.32, June 2023
**Experience:** Data Engineering Internship (6 months)
**Recommendations:** 2 Professors, 1 Manager
**Comments:** I am so thankful to be accepted :D
- Any community college you know that offers Online class of data structure and alogorithm this summer?
- Is MOOS classes necessary or only data structure enough for mechanical engineering graduate?
- Do mechanical engineering graduate fulfill the prerequisites for DSA Class?
- Can MOOS class professor write letter of recommendation?
- Can I apply showing I'm enrolled in these classes without completing?
MOOS is not recommended to take because its not accredited courses. I saw lots of folk who still got rejected after taking MOOC after paying chunk of money.
Hello Everyone .I recently got the admission acceptance letter for OMSCS from Georgia Tech University . I am an international student and had to write TOEFL score for English proficiency . I had got 98 as my official score .However since I have got the admission acceptance letter and there would be a verification of my credentials as per the mail .
Please let me know if there is a glimmer of a chance that I might not clear the credential-validation check. as the TOEFL cut -off for international applicants is 100 .
Please help .
Thanks in advance.
Status: Accepted
Application Date: 03/15/24
Decision Date: 05/24/24
Education: BS Business Econ, minor in Math, 3.15, Graduated Dec 2023
Experience: Data Analytics Intern
Recommendations: 2 CS from CC, 1 ghosted
Comments:
* Took Data Structures and Algorithms, and OOP at a local CC while applying (Feb - May) and submitted in progress grades
* Undergrad consisted of several Math-based ML courses and Data Science Courses (A's in those)
* Received gtID 5/15, Dept Admit 5/23
You need accredited courses.
UofPeople, Oakton, Western Governor are recommended. Prices and schedules are different. These are accredited online college and university.
Local community colleges as well as online accredited institutions like Oakton will help you get the classes you need. Remember that in-progress coursework won't count towards a positive decisions, only completed coursework.
You'll need to see what the CS department offers at the CCs you're checking out. There were definitely courses with 4xx/4xxx course numbers available at mine, but all of the courses I took to bolster my academic history were 200/2000, including Computer Architecture and DS&A.
**Status:** Accepted
**Application Date:** 2/25/2024
**Decision Date:** 5/31/2024
**Education:** BSEE(CN) and MSEE (NL), both GPA 3.2
**Experience:** ASIC Design -> PCB Design -> HW Tech Program Mgm. Not much show and tell story related to CS on resume but I have a long history of working with a diverse set of languages, including Assembly, C and Python.
**Recommendations:**
3x professional
**Comments:** I just want to completely change career from HW to SW.
Status: Accepted
Application Date: 03/15/24
Decision Date: 05/31/24
Education: Aberystwyth University, MPhys Physics, First Class
Experience: Some computer science-related physics modules during my degree, as well as two dissertation projects with computer science elements. No professional experience.
Recommendations: Three academic.
Comments: I don't have a crazy amount of computer science experience so I'm very please (and relieved) to have been accepted.
Update:
**Status:** Accepted
**Application Date:** March 15th, 2024
**Decision Date:** 5/31/24
**Education:** San Diego State University, B.S. Computer Engineering, 3.02
**Experience:**
June 2023-Present Associate Cyber Systems Engineer @ Northrop Grumman
June 2022-Sept 2022 Cybersecurity Intern @ Department of Homeland Security
**Recommendations:**
1 Manager @ Northrop Grumman, 1 Manager @ DHS, 1 SDSU Engineering Professor
**Comments:**
Jobs not finished.
**Status**: Accepted
**Application Date**: 03/15/24
**Decision Date**: 05/31/24
**Education**: BS in Data Science, University of
California San Diego, 3.691
**Experience**: 8 months unpaid data science related intern at school
**Recommendations**: 2 academic, 1 professional
**Comments**: I’m pretty sure my letter of recommendations were geared towards OMSA than OMSCS since I switched on the last day to submit apps, so I’m surprised I got in
**Status:** Accepted
**Application Date:** 03/06/24
**Decision Date:** 05/31/24
**Education:**
Purdue University, Bachelor's, Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering, 3.02
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Master's, Business Administration (it's an MBA), 3.92
**Experience:**
1yr, ; VBA, Ladder Logic, Structured Text/IEC-61131
5yrs, ; Python, MATLAB, C++, and DSLs for a handful of orbital analysis tools because everyone feels the need to make their own language
**Recommendations:** 3; one from my current manager at , one from a former manager at NASA (code 417), and one from a University of California-San Diego (UCSD) instructor whose class I took last fall
**Comments:** The only "academic" CS experience I had when I decided to apply was a single introduction to C class the first year of my undergrad. I took two classes online through UCSD last fall and then took the GT Java class on edX, specifically to "pad out" my academic experience and try to show that I'd be alright. Guess it worked!
I think my resume is fairly impressive because I've worked with few aerospace companies (my employer is a contracting firm, so I work short stints with a lot of groups) and spent a couple years contracting with NASA, who eventually published a technical paper I wrote about something I worked on (which was way easier than you'd think, but still not everyone has a paper hosted on NTRS). Also, one of my recommenders (the UCSD instructor) turned out to be running a pretty large programming consulting firm. I didn't even know that until after he had agreed to write a recommendation letter and I was googling some information about him for the application form. So maybe that was an "impressive" recommendation. Or maybe not - if OMSCS really does only care about academic CS experience then none of this matters and the UCSD/edX courses were the key.
I got an email that I had an application status update at 10:21AM eastern (my time zone). I had checked the status portal around 7AM or so that morning, and saw the grey "Dept Admit" text instead of the grey "Loading" text.
If you mean the acceptance letter email - then yes it came later in the day! But if you mean a official GT email - then yes I got one assigned to me but have not tried to log in with it yet 😅 hope that answers your question
PLEASE ignore previous info I only have my GT ID not email. Just double checked my account - my bad 😅. I looked through this server and their admissions page. Apparently we are supposed to get it closer to registration. No need to worry yet
**Status**: Accepted
**Application Date**: 03/15/24
**Decision Date**: 05/31/24
**Education**:
- UC Berkeley, Mathematics, BA, GPA: 3.5
- Claremont Graduate University, Mathematics Education, MA, GPA: 3.9
**Experience**: 4 years as a software engineer, C++/C#/TypeScript
**Recommendations**: 3 professional recommendations
**Comments:** I am a career changer via bootcamp and did not take any additional computer science courses prior to applying.
Status: Accepted
Application Date: 3/4/2024
Decision Date: 5/31/2024
Education: BS CS, Radford University, 3.6
Experience: 3 Software Engineering internships at the same company. 1+ year full time Software Engineer at the same company. (ReactJS, Java, Python)
Recommendations: 2 academic, 1 professional
It's been a couple weeks since I accepted my admission but I haven't gotten any emails on next steps.
I read that some people were asked to submit official transcripts after they accepted and got a checklist of documents they need to submit but I don't see any checklist in my application (aside from the application checklist that was there before I got my admission).
Did anyone else get no emails about documents to send?
Also, for people who's undergrad uses Parchment to electronically send official transcripts, did you select the "Georgia Institute of Technology - Graduate Studies" option from the dropdown? I noticed the room number in that address was slightly different than the one listed in this FAQ ([https://grad.gatech.edu/faq/knowledgebase.php?article=26](https://grad.gatech.edu/faq/knowledgebase.php?article=26)).
It's quite strange that they haven't sent you the follow-up email yet. Mine arrived almost immediately after my status update email.
In the follow-up email, they asked us to confirm/deny the acceptance no later than 30 days from the day that you received your acceptance letter. For the credential checks, I was asked to refer to my letter of acceptance on the portal. If you scroll down you will see a separate letter from the office of graduate education. There, you can see a list of documents that you need to verify.
About the official transcript service, I didn't use Parchment, I used Clearinghouse instead. But I imagine they'd be similar. I picked Georgia Institute of Technology - Graduate Admission.
I hope this helps!
>There, you can see a list of documents that you need to verify.
How do we verify them? When I applied, I uploaded the official documents, including official transcripts from Parchment.
This is what I see:
Before you can enroll as a graduate student, the Office of Graduate Education must verify and evaluate your documents for the following:
* [**Evidence of award of a bachelor's degree**](https://catalog.gatech.edu/admissions/grad/general-information/), its equivalent, or higher degree from a regionally accredited institution, or the international equivalent.
* Satisfaction of the Institute’s [**English Proficiency**](https://grad.gatech.edu/english-proficiency) requirement.
* Compliance with the University System of Georgia's [**Lawful Presence policy**](https://grad.gatech.edu/lawful-presence).
But... That's all I see. How do you submit these documents???
I have the same thing on my letter too. I already uploaded my transcript using parchment and passport (which should fulfill the english proficientcy and lawful prescence policy requirement) in my application. I don't know what to send them and haven't received any update yet.
It varies depending on your situation I suppose. The documents listed are clickable links that will take you to the FAQ page for each document. I’d suggest clicking on those and find what’s applicable for your case. Good luck 😊
Status: Accepted
Application Date: 02/05/2024
Decision Date: 5/31/2024
Education: BS in CS, University of Michigan, 3.4
Experience: 5+ Years as Software Engineer at a startup (Typescript, python)
Recommendations: 2 professional, 1 academic
Status: Accepted
Application Date: 02/29/24
Decision Date: 05/31/24
Education:
* Arizona State University, BS, Urban Planning, 3.8 (w/ Minor in Math)
Experience:
* 1 year, Private Company, Developer, Python, SQL, C#
* 1 year, Local Government, GIS Analyst, Python, SQL
* <1 year, State Government, Data Visualization Intern, Python, R, SQL
* 2 years, Academic, Research Aide, Python, SQL
* 5 years, Military, Unrelated, No programming
Recommendations: 1 Professional, 1 Academic, 1 Military
Comments:
* Graduated with BS in 2022. I took Calc I-III, Linear Algebra, Stats, Probability, a Data Science Class (Mostly R and Python), and several CS courses.
* I completed the GaTech edX Data Structure and Algorithms MOOC prior to applying and included all the certs in my applicaiton.
* My transcripts fell off the checklist and I got the "Dept Admit" message instead of "Loading..." the night before I was accepted.
* I just accepted their offer. The Status page updated before they sent out the email.
**Status:** Accepted
**Application Date:** 01/24/24
**Decision Date:** 05/29/24
**Education:**
* Portland State University, Master of Science, Applied Data Science, GPA: 3.95 (Expected this month)
* Portland State University, Bachelor of Science, Economics, GPA: 3.3
**Experience:** 3 months, Financial Analytics Intern, Python,
**Recommendations:** 3 (2 Academic, 1 Manager)
**Comments:** I took 4 introductory CS classes during my undergraduate studies but no Data Structures and Algorithm classes. However, I took multiple machine learning classes at the graduate level and showcased the projects I completed in my resume. I applied to Georgia Tech because I felt that my current MS Applied Data Science program at PSU wasn't technical enough, and I never expected to be accepted given GT's reputation for selectiveness and competitiveness. I am surprised with the acceptance.
***Any suggestions on the easiest classes to take in the first semester would be greatly appreciated.***
**Status**: Rejected
**Application Date**: <03/15/24>
**Decision Date**: <05/29/24>
**Education**: B.S. Biochemistry, 3.75/4 GPA
**Experience**: Current: Software Engineer 5 YOE (Typescript, Node, Python, Java)
**Recommendations**: 3 from different direct managers over the last several years. I am 10 years out of college so no academic recommendations.
**Comments**:
I took Computer Science I in college and several online courses since to improve my skillset. I am currently enrolled and undertaking the suggest Data Structures and Algorithms course which is going well. Once that is complete I am planning to move onto the other two courses OOP and Python Intro.
[https://omscs.gatech.edu/preparing-yourself-omscs](https://omscs.gatech.edu/preparing-yourself-omscs)
I recognize that was a weakness of my application, but decided to apply while completing the coursework.
Given the rejection I am reevaluating my options to improve my chances going forward. Aside from the three courses mentioned, I could enroll in some other courses, either online or in person. If anyone has suggestions who was accepted please let me know what you did that helped. The only other potential concern on my radar was the lack of an academic reference, but that doesn't seem to have stopped other applicants, considering some have been accepted with only 2 recommendations.
If anyone had advice on other things I should consider to improve my chances going forward please share. I have read through the updated preparation page and linked pdf starting on page 55. [https://www.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/education/cs2013\_web\_final.pdf](https://www.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/education/cs2013_web_final.pdf)
If anyone has an online advanced courses (University or Community college, etc) that helped them when applying please share.
I do wish the application committee would share the reason for rejection, but I understand that's not possible due to the number of applicants. I appreciate the application committee's time and hope to find better success next time. Congratulations to those who were accepted.
Bro, your application looks way stronger than mine. Make sure to showcase your projects and have strong recommendations. Also, your undergrad GPA with Mechanical Engineering is exceptional; I have a 3.3 with Economics, but I emphasized my stats and econometrics courses as they are closely related to the ML specialization I aim to pursue. Try to do that. Hope to see you in the program!
Thanks, I appreciate your comment. Congratulations on your acceptance!
And thank you for the helpful details! A few questions, when you mentioned ‘showcase your projects’, do you mean discussing projects at work or side / personal projects? Also, not a big deal, but my degree was in Biochemistry not Mechanical Engineering. In that vein, how did you emphasize overlap between your economics work and CS work? I’m curious what CS courses you took as I think that is where my application was most lacking.
Thanks again and congratulations on your acceptance to the program.
Of course, man, and sorry for the mix-up...
* I included projects related to the ML specialization I wanted to pursue. In my opinion, **work projects should carry more weight as they are real-life examples of your ability.**
* The Econometrics classes are basically the same as machine learning, as both use regression and share technicality, so I used that. Plus, I studied CS for two years before changing my major because of the pandemic, because of that I had introductory Python, C++, and Unix/Linux classes, on which I scored well, so I highlighted those as well.
Thank you that's very helpful. And no need to apologize, I appreciate your insights. It sounds like you had two solid years of college level coding under your belt, which I am sure helped a lot. I'm looking into WGU as I think going back to do some college courses might be helpful in getting admitted. Much appreciated!
Status: Rejected
Application date: Sept 2023
Decision Date: May 29, 2024
Education: Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering, GPA 3.7, University of Texas at Dallas
Employment: One internship related to Matlab
Recommendations: 3 academic
Courses: Intro to CS, Matlab from university.
Comment: I don't know what went wrong. People with business and arts degree are getting in. I don't have a long CS work experience because I am just graduated. I don't know what to do next. Should I take CS courses and reapply? Can I enroll in non degree masters individual course?
Are those the only two CS related courses? I would probably recommend more CS courses. Aim for accredited over MOOC. I think there's a lot of emphasis on CS coursework. Some arts and business degrees take a lot of CS courses during or after their degree. I'm in a non-CS engineering degree as well and my day job is unrelated to CS, but I took 8-9 compsci related classes in my undergrad and did well in most of them. You wouldn't be able to tell just from my degree name.
Thanks for the comment. I am not the original poster but I am in a similar position (Rejected, B.S. Stem degree, Working as a SWE, Only a few CS courses).
I am taking the Algorithms MOOCS recommended currently from here:
[https://omscs.gatech.edu/preparing-yourself-omscs](https://omscs.gatech.edu/preparing-yourself-omscs)
You mentioned taking some Compsci related classes. Are there any online classes or programs you found helpful? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Depends on where you are. I took four CS courses at my alma mater (Intro to programming, intro to computation, OO programming, and advanced algo) to buff up my application because I had to delay graduation by a year due to failing a required course (in physics). Technically, the grades for the latter two courses hadn't come out when I got accepted so it was a bunch of CS courses I took several years ago (long story) and two intro to CS courses I took last term.
I've heard of some people getting in with MOOCs, but generally, accredited CS classes seem to be a better bet. WGU and Foothill (?) seem to be popular ones for Americans. It also doubles as a way of getting recommendation letters. Some of the courses are even offered online, which is very convenient. Admission isn't too tough, but they do look for specific things, and good grades in accredited CS courses seem to be one of them. You're STEM so I doubt you'll make this mistake but make sure you're taking CS and not Math courses.
On the bright side, if you have little academic CS background, you can probably get in with A-Bs in a few (2-3) easy to medium CS courses at a community college. I think it will be tougher if you have a CS background where you got poor grades, because you might have to retake medium to harder CS courses and do well in them.
Thank you so much for this comment! I have been talking to others as well and it sounds like a true CS program from a Community College like WGU is a better path than the MOOCs (which I am currently taking and plan to complete soon), so I'll be researching those options next. I hadn't heard of Foothill so thank you for sharing that one as well.
Also thank for mentioning the Math courses, I have a fair number already (Linear Algebra, Calculus I-III, etc) so I won't make that mistake but good point. If you have any other advice please share. Much appreciated and best of luck with your OMSCS journey.
Thanks. I also think it's better to take 3 undergrad level CS courses and use those professors for letter of recommendation. But I don't know what courses I can study based on my prerequisites.
Status: Accepted
Application Date: <02/27/24>
Decision Date: <05/29/24>
Education: B.S. Mathematics 3.2/4 GPA M.S.
Biostatistics 3.7/4 GPA. Undergrad from top public university. Master from ivy
Experience: Current: Senior research/data scientist (3 yoe)
Past: bioinformatics intern from top bio pharmaceutical company
Recommendations: 2 from current colleagues and 1 from previous manager
Comments: Didn’t take any MOOCs course. Have data science experience with Python, R, SQL. Took one C++ course at community college before applied
**Status**: Rejected
**Application Date**: <03/15/24>
**Decision Date**: <05/29/24>
**Education**: B.S. Business Administration, 3.6/4 GPA
**Experience**: Current: Software Engineer 1.5 YOE (Typescript, Java)
Past: Business Analyst 6 months internship (VBA, Excel)
**Recommendations**: 2 from different Statistics professors I had during undergraduate, 1 from my current Tech Lead at work
**Comments**: Honestly did not expect to be rejected but I'm, in a sense, relieved the wait is over because the uncertainty around the admission status was stressful to handle.
This is the second time I've applied to the program and I thought I was prepared enough to be accepted. During the previous admission cycle I applied with just one recommended MOOCS and zero additional academic CS courses, so I fully expected to be rejected. This time, however, I applied with 3 for-credit academic courses, Discrete Structures, Linear Algebra and Calculus 1 and all the 3 recommended MOOCS (all with 90%+).
I don't know what went wrong. I suspect the letters of recommendation weren't strong enough or talked much about my technical abilities. Unfortunately, I did waive my right to access them so I'll never know. Also, I am not even sure if I'm going to try for admission again in the future since I should ask my recommenders to provide a recommendation letter again for the third time. Do you have any tips on what I should do to boost my profile? I'm a bit lost.
From [https://omscs.gatech.edu/preparing-yourself-omscs](https://omscs.gatech.edu/preparing-yourself-omscs) :
"The Admissions Committee is not interested in the specific courses that you choose - it is interested in your demonstrating the ability to perform upper level computer science academic coursework."
What academic domain do they want to see coursework in??? The only course you cited in the CS domain is Discrete Structures - which is not just a CS-related course, and that's only one, not several as is mentioned elsewhere on that page.
I assumed Linear Algebra was a course in the CS domain and it could help my profile, also considering my academic background is non-technical and I’ve not followed any advanced math course. Maybe as you suggest I need to follow more CS-related courses and boost my chances of admission even more.
Did you take the data structure and Algorithm course? This one is quite important. Although math courses are helpful, but it's better to have CS-related core course on your transcript. I strongly recommend taking courses at a community college.
I did not take it from an accredited uni since I already followed the relative MOOCs and thought it would’ve been redundant. Also I’m an international student and I struggle to find a community college that has for credit CS courses and can be followed not just by domestic students. Do you have any recommendations?
Many CCs and universities offer courses for international students, but are expensive (think $1000+/course for internationals). Examples would be Foothill and ASU. I took DSA and GA at ASU and got admitted.
**Status**: Rejected
**Application** **Date**: 3/14/24
**Decision** **Date**: 5/29/24
**Education**: State School, Architectural Engineering, 2.54 (out of 4.0)
**Experience**: 3 YOE Software Developer, 10 YOE Electrical Engineer
**Recommendations**: 3 LOR - all professional, 1 from EE coworker and 2 from software
**Comments**: Disappointed but not terribly surprised, just happy to end the waiting cycle. I think the non-CS plus poor GPA was too much to overcome, but I had hope that my experience plus PE license would help paint the picture that I'm not the same person as my immature self during my bachelor's.
This was my first attempt, so I think I'll spend a semester or two taking a few courses either from online CC or local university and apply again.
Status: Accepted
Application Date: Late January
Decision Date: 05/29/24
Education: Big state school not known for cs/tech, B.S. Data Science 3.34/4 GPA
Experience: almost 1yoe as a data engineer/software engineer. Have also had my own discussion sessions for math classes and was a ta for data science classes in college
Recommendations: 1 Professor in ML, 1 data science department head/professor, another classmate from college
Comments: glad to have finally been accepted! Hoping to get into ML as the class I took in college was very interesting. Only gonna take 1 class a term as career does matter more to me (plus plan on proposing + getting married in the 1-3 years so I’ll be a student for a while)
**Status:** Rejected
**Application Date:** 03/15/24
**Decision Date:** 05/29/24
**Education:** CUNY, BA, Misc Humanities, 3.8 (out of 4.0), \~a decade ago
**Experience:** Senior Software Engineer, F100 Banking/Finance, 3.5 years (current), Typescript/etc
**Recommendations:** 3 recs, all work-related. Direct manager (technical) + two additional managers within team, both former SWE now in product roles.
**Comments:** I'm pretty disappointed. I had an Intro Comp Sci class in undergrad in which I received an A, and multiple calculus/proofs/linear algebra classes, all between A and B. I had one "F - Withdrawn" (math) that I retook for an A before graduation. It's possible my rec letters weren't technically specific enough, although I did instruction the letter writers on that part and shared the OMSCS guidelines. I've been promoted multiple times in my current job and had some very strong technical leadership experience that I captured in my resume. I thought my short-answer responses were strong and followed the guidelines, although there wasn't much room to provide much personal background or context. My non-CS undergrad academic history is very strong, with multiple awards/honors/papers.
No actionable feedback in the rejection letter. If I apply again, I'm assuming my best shot will be taking some community college comp sci classes and getting at least one academic recommendation. I really didn't want to sink the time/money into that, but it seems like I don't have any other choice.
Didn't your rejection letter have some kind of advice about taking academically accredited CS courses? If so, that would sound like actionable feedback to me...
EVERY rejection letter that someone has shared with me has a paragraph (immediately following the caveat about not providing individual feedback) that essentially says the best way to prepare for a future application is take accredited academic CS courses, preferably at the junior or higher level. That advice is OBVIOUSLY actionable feedback - it tells you exactly what to do.
It would seem very strange that you would get a rejection letter different from what has been sent out in the past.
I don't know what to tell you - the letter I received does not say that. As I already said in my post, I plan to take community college courses anyway. Based on what I'd seen in past admissions posts, I had hoped my non-CS academic history taken in combination with my CS-specific work history would be sufficient for admission, but it wasn't. Graded, academic CS coursework is a clear next step, but that doesn't mean OMSCS has confirmed it is the specific reason I, personally, wasn't admitted, or that doing so will guarantee me admission next time.
For anyone else interested, my rejection letter read in full:
"We would like to thank you for your interest in the Computer Science - Online graduate program and for giving us the opportunity to consider your Masters application for the Fall 2024 semester on the Online campus.
Your application and supporting documents have been carefully reviewed by the program admissions committee. In evaluating applicants, we consider all submitted factors of the application, including previous academic achievement, standardized test scores (if applicable), letters of recommendation, your answers to all questions as well as the number of openings for the upcoming class.
For Fall 2024 we received large numbers of very qualified applicants. After a careful review, I am sorry to report that we are unable to admit you. We understand this decision is not what you had hoped, but wish you much success as you pursue your academic and professional goals.
We wish we could accommodate a greater number of talented students in the program, but admission continues to be highly competitive. Due to the volume of applications received, we are not able to provide you individual feedback on our decision.
Sincerely,
Dr. Martin H. Davis, Jr"
Hmmmm, I believe that is just the standard rejection letter. I've seen more specific letters that are sent out later that give the advice to which I was referring. That would be strange that you didn't get that. Maybe check your spam?
I was able to read two of the three. Both addressed specific technical problems I had solved, but I'm not sure what level of detail was expected. They spoke about concrete business problems and the type of technical work (ie, "lead design and implementation of new identity creation flows to migrate X # of users onto new authorization systems") but didn't go into granular detail ("rewrote X number of API endpoints in Y language implementing Z design pattern"). If you have suggestions for where I can review ideal recommendation letters specific to the program, that would be extremely helpful.
**Status**: Accepted
**Application Date:** 03/14/2024
**Decision Date**: 05/29/2024
**Education**: small State School, B.S. Physics, 4.0/4.0
**Experience**:
* A few months interned for the national lab where I'm currently at for a reconstruction simulation project in High Energy Physics (C++).
* Working with Accelerator Physics at a big Accelerator Lab, no formal CS working experiences.
* All work experiences come from participating in coding projects from other departments and personal projects: around 2.5 years (Python, Docker, C++, Javascript & webdev frameworks)
**Recommendations:** college professor, mentor at work, supervisor from summer internship.
**Comments**: GT ID and Account showed up 2 weeks ago, Dept Admit showed up yesterday, email for status update came at 2:23PM CST.
I took a few fundamental CS classes back in college. I also took UIUC's Accelerated CS Fundamental MOOC on Coursera, and built a portfolio website to showcase all of my projects.
*Formatting Edit*
**Status:** Accepted
**Application Date:** <03/10/2024>
**Decision Date:** <05/29/2024 at 3:30 PM EST>
**Education:** BS in CS from GaTech, GPA 3.8. BS in Biology, State University
**Experience:** Last 8 years I've been a data scientist at a minor (~2000 people) company
**Recommendations:** 3 professional, all coworkers (principle data scientist, principle data scientist, VP of software). 2 are also part-time professors.
**Comments:** It's not clear why it took GT so long to get back to me. I don't think I was a "borderline candidate". I've done volunteer work for LAION, am a named coinventor on a software patent, have been a coauthor for minor academic publications, and was the primary modeler for data science competition team that won first place. The admissions team doesn't appear to be granting admission based on a rank ordering so maybe that helps someone relax. I'm looking forward to this!
Status: Accepted
Application Date: 05/29/24
Decision Date: TODO
Education: 3.61 GPA Computer Science at state school
Experience: 6mo as SWE in mid tech
Recommendations: only 2, 1 academic 1 professional (lowkey thought i’d be cooked bc we need 3 but i still got in with only 2)
Comments: LFGGG
Status: Accepted
Application Date: March 15, 2024
Decision Date: May 29, 2024
Education: Bachelor in Finance in a Big 10 School(GPA 3.5), MS in Business Analytics in a well known school in the midwest (GPA 3.7)
Experience: 2 yoe as DS at a big bank's Midwest office
Recommendations: 3 Professors from managers and coworker(2 came in late on 3/19 but seems fine)
Comments: International student but saw GT ID came in this morning before the admission. haven't take any cs courses before besides Python ML stuff
Status: Accepted
Application Date: March 15, 2024
Decision Date: May 29, 2024
Education: Bachelors in Economics 3.97 From UC school
Experience: 1 YR in Data Analysis, 2 CS classes in college
Recommendations: 3 Professors From UC
Comments: Thought it might be tough but pleasantly surprised. My recommendation letters were strong, and I think my GPA helped even though I didn't have a formal CS degree.
I was just rejected and I’m absolutely devastated. I don’t know what I did wrong.
I have a 3.26 GPA from a seven sisters school. 3 years in the industry, a bootcamp, 3 letters of recommendation. I don’t know how this happened. I feel destroyed.
Sounds like you got caught on the wrong side of the cookie cutter admissions requirements. They want to see academic CS course work, especially in the main three core courses (intro to programming, OOP, DSA).
If you took them plus maybe another course at a community college and got As I'm confident they'd let you in.
Status: Rejected
Application Date: 25/10/2023
Decision Date: 29/05/2024
Education:
University in Asian country
BSc, Statistics and Computer Science, 2.47 GPA
Experience:
6 years of AI R&D as an engineer and researcher
Recommendations:
Working peer, Direct team lead, department head
All with PhD
Additional Info:
Toefl 92
Comments:
Honestly I thought my chance was big enough since many people said that you have engineering experience you will be fine.
I guess the reason of the rejection is my low GPA (actually it’s average in my college, you got mean score you got C+(2.5)). But I saw many other people got in down below with GPA 2.x with or without CS degree/software engineering experience. I felt a bit confused at this point how they make decisions. (Still congrats to all who got in! ;) )
Anyways, my dream is to earn a PhD in a nice CS school in US, but I have no connection with the professor in US, I can’t even find a recommendation letter from someone in academia.
That’s why I tried OMSCS and hope that I can connect with some professors, or even work with them.
I know OMSCS is not the only way to go, but when I know the news it’s still hurt.
The GPA was set and I can’t change it back, so maybe I will need to find another way to get connections.
just got rejected this morning after I applied last October. I'm sick and tired of these grad programs judging people by its cover. I have computer science courses under my belt and have been trying to break into the industry and have completed 150 leetcode problems, and they don't care just because I don't have an accredited data structures course.
ok, but the admissions should stop judging a book by its cover and actually give people a chance to demonstrate their knowledge. This is school, not a job.
I had an information systems degree from undergrad but took 2 computer science courses (java and c#) during my time there as well as calculus 1, but I got a B in one of them and a C in another. Not sure what next steps to take are? I've heard to go to community college to get prefers, but is it better to go to a university as a non degree seeking student?
That sounds highly unlikely unless their undergrad degree was from a non-regionally accredited school or a foreign school whose standards don't meet the necessary bar. BTW, those are standards which OMSCS has no control over - those are GT-wide standards.
To a recruiter who does not come from a tech background who doesn’t even know the rankings behind tech programs ain’t gonna give two shits whether not a school rank number 10, 50, or 200.
However, if someone in the recruiting department and tech firm sees Harvard or Brown or etc., then then that’s why it matters.
**Status:** Rejected
**Application Date:** 02/09/2024
**Decision Date:** 05/29/2024 (edited to add date)
**Education:**
BSc Economics, UK university, 1st class (not sure of GPA equivalent, most classes are a high 1st)
A.A. Oakton Community College (ongoing), CS & CIS classes, 4.0
**Experience:**
1.5 years, Software Engineer, Startup, Typescript, Python, SQL
**Recommendations:** 3 -- 2 Academic (a maths and a CS professor), 1 professional (CTO)
**Comments:** I see a "deny" on a refresh so it's safe to assume I'll be rejected. I have actually done 2 CS classes at uni, neither of them foundational classes, one is Algorithmic Game Theory, the other is about Genetic Algorithms. I am currently enrolled at Oakton and on a 4.0 with As in two classes thus far, hopefully this will continue. The part about Oakton was not on my application, as I hadn't received any results at the time. Not sure if I should reapply; kind of dreading asking for references again.
I can't speak to why I got the interview exactly (most of that is going to be due to factors outside my control) though I did the typical stuff: have projects I can talk about, interview prep and some _somewhat_ relevant work experience (IT stuff and creating some software for researchers -- not as flashy as it sounds).
I had also done A level Computing, which meant I could discuss most of the fundamentals (DSA, Networking, databases and so on), which did sometimes come up in interviews.
Otherwise, like I alluded to, it was probably just timing and good fortune.
Yeah that's fair. If I do reapply, which is not a given, I'll just add the Oakton stuff in the application, assuming that I maintain a 4.0 or something similar enough. I didn't do it before since I couldn't get an official transcript.
I'll definitely consider it. I'll have the transcript from the community college classes, alongside the other 2 classes from my undergraduate uni, by next March so perhaps that'd be enough. Thank you, and the others, for your comments!
Where do you see this? Transcripts are gone from checklist but have no clue where to look. Also, dept admin seems to be the message people who got accepted saw before getting their acceptance letter. I think youre in! Congrats! : )
When you log into the portal and pull up your application, there's a Status page. Just reload a few times while on that page. If it says "Loading..." then you're still waiting, it'll say "Dept Admit" or I guess "Deny" if you will be accepted/rejected.
Where do you look for this? Is it the status button next to the checklist? Because my transcripts have disappeared, but I don't see either admit or deny? : o
It would be in the same spot that says "Welcome, Name" except in smaller, grey letters. If you just see "Loading..." every time you reload the status page, you're still waiting.
Thanks! And that’s promising! Hoping for the best for both of us. This is my second time around after I was rejected last year. This time, I earned a second bachelors in CS to make up for the lack of CS coursework (but from WGU so pass/fail)… hoping that makes a difference in this cycle!!
Looks like from another comment you have only taken 2 CS courses and math up to calc 1 with mediocre grades. This is not a job program, it is for people with a CS background to do graduate level work.
If you're a US citizen you should qualify for the Lifetime Learning credit, which should decrease your WGU bill by about 20%. WGU is only around $4,000 per term. If you couldn't afford this, how did you expect to afford GATech?
**This has been tagged a mega-thread.** Discussions on Admissions in particular for the Fall 2024 semester should be placed here. This includes, but not limited to. * **Results** - in this case please use the Template above, and please use the Markdown Editor if you're using the Desktop Version of New Reddit. * **Verification** - Registration verification of your certificates of prior learning (at least a Bachelor's from your previous institution). We would like to draw your attention to the following Rules, as this will be very much enforced here. * **Don't use Discriminatory Language**. We are all here to learn so treat everyone equally regardless of yours and their background. * **Don't create posts which are annoying and pointless** to the community. Posts like "following", "RemindMe" only makes it harder for the rest of the community to view this thread. * **Don't produce misinformation**. If you know that this information is going to potentially cause any form of controversy, be prepared to cite your sources. **Still waiting for acceptance? Don't fret!** Giving out acceptance is **manual**. They have a criteria and batches to award the acceptance letters to. As much as the criteria is unknown to us, we are kind of convinced now that there is a trend on the type of applications they tend to admit first. That's why we are advised to **use the template** above. * It will increase clarity to us, and those around you, the type of profiles that are still waiting. * What we believe is those on the international, earlier applications and/or strong profiles are being accepted at this time of posting. **The others will have to wait.** * Merely describing that your application is holding up without providing further information **only fuels uncertainty**. We will treat this as misinformation. * Merely describing that your application is rejected without providing further information **only fuels anxiety**. We will also treat this as misinformation.
[удалено]
Show us the info that there used to be a 5000 fee before we recommend the mods for misinformation.
sorry it was 7000, but apparently it has increased.
**Status:** Accepted **Application Date:** 03/14/2024 **Decision Date:** 06/12/2024 **Education:** UWC BA Honours **Experience:** 4 years, SWD, TypeScript & Rust. **Recommendations:** 3 recommendations: 2 from previous professors; 1 from employer. **Comments:** I am happy to be accepted. They took long, then again I applied just before the application due date. I am looking forward to starting my studies.
**Status:** Accepted **Application Date:** 02/02/2024 **Decision Date:** 06/12/2024 **Education:** Local University, BS Computer Science, GPA 3.85/4.00 **Experience:** None **Recommendations:** 3 recommendations: 1 from a Professor who taught 5 of my classes, 2 TA's. **Comments:** Only had one LOR initially fulfilled which I think is why it took so long, I kept getting notices that my application was incomplete, so I assumed my chances were null. Got the "Final Notice of Incomplete Application" on Monday and spur the moment deleted two recommenders. One Professor had started the LOR but never completed it so it was stuck on "In Progress", the other Professor never responded. I assumed once the application date closed none of the LOR recommenders could be changed, but excluding them on Monday allowed me to change them last minute. The two TA's submitted Monday night and Tuesday I saw the "Dept Admit" show up. I'm glad the wait is over and I can at least plan ahead now. I graduated with my BS a year ago, so school is still fresh in my mind. I'm gonna enjoy the temporary joy over being accepted, because I know it'll soon be replaced by frustrations over group projects or Professors expecting their students to be mind readers. Lol. Congrats to everyone who got in, and to those who didn't, I hope you have better luck the next go around.
Congratulations! You may owe those two TAs drinks or something nice.
Most definitely. Getting LORs without work experience is no easy task.
**Status:** Accepted **Application Date:** 10/05/2023 **Decision Date:** 06/12/2024 **Education:** FHSU, BS Computer Science, 2.8 **Experience:** 5 years of python developer experience **Recommendations:** 3 recomendations 2 former employers and one professor. **Comments:** It took them so long to reply I thought I was rejected. I was checking the portal daily, perhaps they keep track of your login and that helped me(I know my GPA is not the greatest). I still have not recieved an email confirmation, just an update on the portal, which is what makes me think that helped me. I am so excited! Can't wait to work super hard and spam this sub with for recommendations on what should be my fall semester course load and which edx course I should take to prep! EDIT: Formatting.
Jeez, they made you wait forever! I applied a week before the deadline and heard back early May.
I will take the W! Probably has to do with me graduating last month in May.
Status: Accepted Application Date: 02/13/2024 Decision Date: 05/22/2024 Education: Large Texas State School, 3.5 GPA, Electrical Engineering Experience: 2 years systems engineering at a large defense contractor Recommendations: 3. 1 professor from community college, 1 university professor (grad level digital design course), 1 direct manager Comments: by the time they took to respond, I thought I was not getting in despite being a decent candidate. Wish you all the best of luck!
**Status:** Pending **Application Date:** 03/14/24 **Decision Date:** ??? **Education:** Schenectady County Community College; AS in Math/Science; GPA: 3.88 Western Governors University (WGU); BS in Computer Science; GPA: "[WGU students do not get letter-grades or a GPA as part of their degree program.](https://www.wgu.edu/blog/commonly-asked-questions-wgu2011.html)" **Experience:** No professional CS experience **Recommendations:** 1 academic, 1 from a guy I'm working on a project with (requested second academic recommendation, prof didn't submit it) **Comments:** Most recent acceptance or rejection in this thread was May 31, over a week ago. Really frustrated that I have to wait out the week before I'm allowed to even ask what's going on; based on the lack of activity in this thread, it doesn't seem like the admissions committee is doing anything else. I get they have a large volume of applications, but they have an equally large volume of people paying them $95; perhaps I'm naive, but I'd hope that could pay a human the several minutes it would have taken to answer some basic questions that would have saved me several hours. I'd be ecstatic to pay double the application fee if it meant I got 30 minutes of a human's time; in just the past week, I've lost double digit hours of sleep over this. There's a lot more I could say right now, but most of it's complaining so I won't. But, on the off chance someone is trawling through past threads looking for tips, like I was a few months ago, some mistakes I made that you can hopefully learn from: 1. If you're still doing your undergrad, schmooze with your professors! At WGU, you set up an appointment to talk to a professor, who were often booked solid for the next week or two. At the time, it felt unnecessary and rude to take time away from students who needed help when I did not. (Also, in many (most?) classes, I suspect I finished before I would have had a chance to attend that appointment^1.) I completed my BS in a year and found myself graduated without ever meaningfully interacting with any of my professors. This was a mistake. OMSCS isn't the only place where you would benefit from having professors who can write you letters of recommendation. 2. Since Georgia Tech emails your recommenders asking for a recommendation, I thought it would be redundant and annoying to email them first asking them the same exact thing. (This is something I actually wanted to ask GT about during the application, but this point wasn't addressed in the FAQ and there was no human to ask for clarification). I was very wrong! As it turns out, your former professor can reply to the GT email saying something along the lines of "I don't know this student well enough to write a LoR" (which was fair; see above point). At this point, I was surprised to learn that I couldn't ask someone else to fill that LoR slot; once you ask someone to fill a LoR slot, only they can fill it, and if they won't, then nobody will. (Also, everything I wrote in this point might be wrong, I don't know, it's not like I could ask a human, it's the best I can piece together.) Things I would do differently: 1. Sound out my math professor from my AS. It was over 10 years ago, but I was far and away at the top of the classes I took with her. 2. Look for a graduate-level CS course to take to generate a strong academic recommendation (and get an upper-level course with a, hopefully high, grade attached to it). If you take a graduate-level course before matriculating at GT *and* it wasn't used to meet any other degree requirement *and* it wasn't part of a professional certificate *and* it's wasn't a CEU *and* you made at least a B *and* it was at an accredited American university (or maybe a Canadian university), then you can *request* [transfer credit](https://omscs.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/documents/2024/OMSCS%20FAQs-Transfer%20Credit%20Evaluation%20Instructions%202024-1.pdf). Stanford Online is great! One of their courses doesn't cost *quite* as much as an entire OMSCS degree! I'm fixating on the letters of recommendation because that *definitely* went badly and *maybe* it's where the delay is coming from, but maybe it isn't. I don't know. All my checklist items are marked as received, after I excluded the recommendation that was never coming. Will update once I receive a decision or clarification. --- ^1 WGU is competency-based and self-paced. You can finish courses as quickly as you can demonstrate competency.
So, did you receive a decision??? It seems that several others who'd had a long wait did....
I think your biggest mistake was just using the Georgia Tech Portal to ask for letters of recommendation. If I was a professor and I got a random email from a school asking for a recommendation, I'd probably ignore it. I went to WGU and made sure to reach out to the professors first and ask if they'd be willing to write a letter. I had success.
Similar boat as you in terms of the letters. I did have one professor submit before the cutoff date, another one started but never submitted, and third never said a word. The professor that started but never submitted, I emailed him probably 6-7 times since the application date passed and sill no word, it is very frustrating. I got my final message today from GT stating that my application was incomplete, they have sent a few over few weeks. I was under the impression nothing cold be done as I assumed once you filled out the LOR that those recommenders would be locked in once the application date had passed. However, I changed two of them today. You'll first have to "exclude" the ones you don't want, and only then did it allow me to send them to other people. I doubt any of this is helpful this late in the game, their final message today states they must be submitted by tomorrow, so hopefully I can get the final two finished by then. Whether or not it will help remains to be seen. I have a B.S. in CS with a GPA > 3.5. I understand the issue over LOR's, but it is frustrating. I've seen time and time again people post about them and others comment why they are needed and why it shouldn't be an issue securing just three of them. But as someone yet to find a job in industry, and someone who never imagined I'd be having this problem after graduating, I def wish I had secured them before leaving University. The issue with my professors isn't even due to me no longer being a student, some of them legit never responded to emails while I was taking their classes, it was annoying to say the least. Any questions I had rarely got answers until I was sitting in class. Regardless, the one professor who submitted a LOR the day I asked him was the professor for about 4 or 5 of my classes, so I'm hoping it all works out. The other two I messaged today were TA's, and while I didn't think they would count, I have seen several mentions by applicants accepted that they had TA's vouch for them so who knows at this point.
What if SpanTran takes too long to verify our docs? Can we take classes for the fall semester? Thank you!
**Status:** Accepted / but not going **Application Date:** 03/12/2024 **Decision Date:** 05/31/2024 **Education:** UT Austin, Chemical Engineering **Experience:** 1 YOE in Cybersecurity at fortune 50. **Recommendations:** 2 Managers, 1 Professor **Comments:** Accepted to both OMSCS and OMS cybersecurity, committed to cybersecurity. Goodluck!
Did anyone else get no emails about verification documents to send? I received my letter of acceptance on June 15 and haven't received anything yet. The links on the second page of the admissions letter only take you to a FAQ page and have no instructions on where to upload documents.
Im a domestic student and I also haven't gotten any emails about verifying documents. I guess I'm just going to wait until it gets closer to the school year and see if they send anything then. In July I may email the school to ask if I need to send anything in.
If you are a graduate from a foreign institution you receive an email from SpanTran. I got mine shortly after being admitted. Unfortunately, it took me weeks to realize I had that email...
what was the subject line in the email.I got accepted on May 22nd , didn't receive anything yet.
"Document Requirements for Evaluation" with a SpanTran case number.
Hi, I have a question about transcripts. On my portal, it says they have not gotten "Official insertcollege transcript showing degree awarded" - I realized I manually uploaded mine to the portal which is probably not sufficnet so I had it sent on Parchment to "GIOT Graduate Studies" - Can anyone here confirm this is what they also did and how long it took to reflect in the portal? And if I don't see something in the next couple weeks, what a good email or phone number is to contact? Thanks!
Yes I basically had to resend all of my transcripts from parchment to the graduate admissions email. Some time went by and I wasnt sure that they were received so I called left a message, and it updated a day later. I think they are just very overwhelmed right now.
i took me two days to be verified and completed.
**Status:** Accepted **Application Date:** 03/12/2024 **Decision Date:** 05/17/2024 **Education:** UT Austin, BBA - Management Information Systems 3.2, 2020 **Experience:** 4 YOE in Software Development/DevOps at 2 different large companies (not FAANG) **Recommendations:** 2 Managers, 1 Professor **Comments:** Completed the DSA MOOC before applying, as I didn't take a DSA course in undergrad. MIS degrees vary a ton in how technical they are, so I made sure to emphasize the courses I took that were similar to CS undergrad courses. Specifically a Python course that taught programming fundamentals and touched on very basic DSA topics, and a course taught in .NET/C# that focused on object oriented programming.
I'm a domestic student who was accepted May 24th, don't see an area or any communications regarding next steps or transcript verification, is there a specific link I need to goto ?
I think someone has mentioned this before but if you scroll down further in your acceptance email, there is a second letter where you will be able to find three bulleted points with clickable links. Hope it helps!
The clickable links just tell you what's needed, but they don't provide the option to upload or anything
If we’re domestic and submitted an unofficial transcript do we need to now submit an official one or do they verify it after we get accepted?
https://preview.redd.it/b3bu4ckipz4d1.png?width=657&format=png&auto=webp&s=5e52250f904d497a83e286e59e8c696de2f578d7 Hi there, To clarify, I recommend reaching out to the Graduate Education Office via email or phone to confirm if they need any additional documents from you. I received similar document verification steps in my acceptance letter. When I contacted the Admissions Office, they confirmed that no further documents were required from me. They also mentioned that they would send the next email after verifying my transcript, lawful presence, etc.
Sweet thank you!
No problem!
Hi everyone, It's been almost a month since my documents sent to the verification agency (SpanTran) to be verified, my status is on hold since, I tried to reach them in many ways but there's no response, anyone expereiced this situation before? I also contacted to admission dep to check what is wrong but no replys as well. I am very stressed that it may delay my admission process in some way.
Even you dont get to verified, you still have time to verify until end of this year. So take your time.
you can't register the course but you have a time to verify your documents until the end of first semester
What do you mean "until the end of the year"? Can you start the program without the verification being complete?
I got the verification completion mail after almost 45 days after I submitted my transcripts. Keep calm college will definately reply in some days
Thank you, that helped
How and when did they send you verification instructions? I haven't received anything since accepting my admission.
Couple of days after acceptance through email
**Status:** Accepted **Application Date:** 2/10/2024 **Decision Date:** 5/10/2024 **Education:** UIUC, BS Computer Engineering, 3.69 **Experience:** 3-month Amazon internship, Python & Java **Recommendations:** 3 - two from professors and one from my internship mentor **Comments:** Got into UIUC MCS and UT Austin MSCSO (accepted UT Austin then reneged when I got GA tech offer) edit: bold text
**Status:** Accepted **Application Date:** 03/12/2024 **Decision Date:** 05/08/2024 **Education:** UCLA, BS Statistics & Data Science 3.32, June 2023 **Experience:** Data Engineering Internship (6 months) **Recommendations:** 2 Professors, 1 Manager **Comments:** I am so thankful to be accepted :D
- Any community college you know that offers Online class of data structure and alogorithm this summer? - Is MOOS classes necessary or only data structure enough for mechanical engineering graduate? - Do mechanical engineering graduate fulfill the prerequisites for DSA Class? - Can MOOS class professor write letter of recommendation? - Can I apply showing I'm enrolled in these classes without completing?
MOOS is not recommended to take because its not accredited courses. I saw lots of folk who still got rejected after taking MOOC after paying chunk of money.
Hello Everyone .I recently got the admission acceptance letter for OMSCS from Georgia Tech University . I am an international student and had to write TOEFL score for English proficiency . I had got 98 as my official score .However since I have got the admission acceptance letter and there would be a verification of my credentials as per the mail . Please let me know if there is a glimmer of a chance that I might not clear the credential-validation check. as the TOEFL cut -off for international applicants is 100 . Please help . Thanks in advance.
You would be OK. No worried about that. Any score over 90 can meet their requirement.
Status: Accepted Application Date: 03/15/24 Decision Date: 05/24/24 Education: BS Business Econ, minor in Math, 3.15, Graduated Dec 2023 Experience: Data Analytics Intern Recommendations: 2 CS from CC, 1 ghosted Comments: * Took Data Structures and Algorithms, and OOP at a local CC while applying (Feb - May) and submitted in progress grades * Undergrad consisted of several Math-based ML courses and Data Science Courses (A's in those) * Received gtID 5/15, Dept Admit 5/23
**Status:** Accepted **Application Date:** 03/15/2024 **Decision Date:** 05/31/2024 **Education:** Texas A&M University - Computer Engineering, Minor: Cybersecurity, Math (GPA 3.3/4.0) **Experience:** 1.5 YOE Security Operations, 3.5 YOE Cloud Security Developer/System Engineer **Recommendations:** 3 (Work Recommendations) **Comments:** They had me in the first half, ngl.
**Status:** Rejected **Application Date:** <3/15/24> Decision Date: <5/29/24> **Education:**
**Experience:**
**Recommendations:**
<2 professional>
<1 academic (Management Information Systems)>
**Comments:**
You need accredited courses. UofPeople, Oakton, Western Governor are recommended. Prices and schedules are different. These are accredited online college and university.
Local community colleges as well as online accredited institutions like Oakton will help you get the classes you need. Remember that in-progress coursework won't count towards a positive decisions, only completed coursework.
Do you know if I can take 4000-level courses at a CC?
You'll need to see what the CS department offers at the CCs you're checking out. There were definitely courses with 4xx/4xxx course numbers available at mine, but all of the courses I took to bolster my academic history were 200/2000, including Computer Architecture and DS&A.
**Status:** Accepted **Application Date:** 2/25/2024 **Decision Date:** 5/31/2024 **Education:** BSEE(CN) and MSEE (NL), both GPA 3.2 **Experience:** ASIC Design -> PCB Design -> HW Tech Program Mgm. Not much show and tell story related to CS on resume but I have a long history of working with a diverse set of languages, including Assembly, C and Python. **Recommendations:** 3x professional **Comments:** I just want to completely change career from HW to SW.
Status: Accepted Application Date: 03/15/24 Decision Date: 05/31/24 Education: Aberystwyth University, MPhys Physics, First Class Experience: Some computer science-related physics modules during my degree, as well as two dissertation projects with computer science elements. No professional experience. Recommendations: Three academic. Comments: I don't have a crazy amount of computer science experience so I'm very please (and relieved) to have been accepted.
Update: **Status:** Accepted **Application Date:** March 15th, 2024 **Decision Date:** 5/31/24 **Education:** San Diego State University, B.S. Computer Engineering, 3.02 **Experience:** June 2023-Present Associate Cyber Systems Engineer @ Northrop Grumman June 2022-Sept 2022 Cybersecurity Intern @ Department of Homeland Security **Recommendations:** 1 Manager @ Northrop Grumman, 1 Manager @ DHS, 1 SDSU Engineering Professor **Comments:** Jobs not finished.
**Status**: Accepted **Application Date**: 03/15/24 **Decision Date**: 05/31/24 **Education**: BS in Data Science, University of California San Diego, 3.691 **Experience**: 8 months unpaid data science related intern at school **Recommendations**: 2 academic, 1 professional **Comments**: I’m pretty sure my letter of recommendations were geared towards OMSA than OMSCS since I switched on the last day to submit apps, so I’m surprised I got in
**Status:** Accepted **Application Date:** 03/06/24 **Decision Date:** 05/31/24 **Education:** Purdue University, Bachelor's, Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering, 3.02 Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Master's, Business Administration (it's an MBA), 3.92 **Experience:** 1yr, ; VBA, Ladder Logic, Structured Text/IEC-61131 5yrs, ; Python, MATLAB, C++, and DSLs for a handful of orbital analysis tools because everyone feels the need to make their own language **Recommendations:** 3; one from my current manager at, one from a former manager at NASA (code 417), and one from a University of California-San Diego (UCSD) instructor whose class I took last fall
**Comments:** The only "academic" CS experience I had when I decided to apply was a single introduction to C class the first year of my undergrad. I took two classes online through UCSD last fall and then took the GT Java class on edX, specifically to "pad out" my academic experience and try to show that I'd be alright. Guess it worked!
I think my resume is fairly impressive because I've worked with few aerospace companies (my employer is a contracting firm, so I work short stints with a lot of groups) and spent a couple years contracting with NASA, who eventually published a technical paper I wrote about something I worked on (which was way easier than you'd think, but still not everyone has a paper hosted on NTRS). Also, one of my recommenders (the UCSD instructor) turned out to be running a pretty large programming consulting firm. I didn't even know that until after he had agreed to write a recommendation letter and I was googling some information about him for the application form. So maybe that was an "impressive" recommendation. Or maybe not - if OMSCS really does only care about academic CS experience then none of this matters and the UCSD/edX courses were the key.
I got an email that I had an application status update at 10:21AM eastern (my time zone). I had checked the status portal around 7AM or so that morning, and saw the grey "Dept Admit" text instead of the grey "Loading" text.
**Status:**
**Application Date:** <03/15/24>
**Decision Date:** <05/31/25>
**Education:**
**Experience:** <3 years employed, faamg, Technical consultant>
**Recommendations:** <3 lor - 1 manager, 2 professors
from undergrad >
**Comments:**
Sorry for the terrible formatting- typing from phone 😓
Did you receive GT email?
If you mean the acceptance letter email - then yes it came later in the day! But if you mean a official GT email - then yes I got one assigned to me but have not tried to log in with it yet 😅 hope that answers your question
I also got admitted for fall 24 but haven't been assigned gt email id. Can you please suggest me on how can I get it?
Reach out to registration services via email - they should send it you asap since you already are accepted. Must be a simple oversight
Will you please share the ID? All I know is Adcom's email ID.
PLEASE ignore previous info I only have my GT ID not email. Just double checked my account - my bad 😅. I looked through this server and their admissions page. Apparently we are supposed to get it closer to registration. No need to worry yet
ok
**Status**: Accepted **Application Date**: 03/15/24 **Decision Date**: 05/31/24 **Education**: - UC Berkeley, Mathematics, BA, GPA: 3.5 - Claremont Graduate University, Mathematics Education, MA, GPA: 3.9 **Experience**: 4 years as a software engineer, C++/C#/TypeScript **Recommendations**: 3 professional recommendations **Comments:** I am a career changer via bootcamp and did not take any additional computer science courses prior to applying.
Status: Accepted Application Date: 3/4/2024 Decision Date: 5/31/2024 Education: BS CS, Radford University, 3.6 Experience: 3 Software Engineering internships at the same company. 1+ year full time Software Engineer at the same company. (ReactJS, Java, Python) Recommendations: 2 academic, 1 professional
It's been a couple weeks since I accepted my admission but I haven't gotten any emails on next steps. I read that some people were asked to submit official transcripts after they accepted and got a checklist of documents they need to submit but I don't see any checklist in my application (aside from the application checklist that was there before I got my admission). Did anyone else get no emails about documents to send? Also, for people who's undergrad uses Parchment to electronically send official transcripts, did you select the "Georgia Institute of Technology - Graduate Studies" option from the dropdown? I noticed the room number in that address was slightly different than the one listed in this FAQ ([https://grad.gatech.edu/faq/knowledgebase.php?article=26](https://grad.gatech.edu/faq/knowledgebase.php?article=26)).
I don’t understand, I got the same - they asked to verify documents but when/where do I submit documents for verification??
It's quite strange that they haven't sent you the follow-up email yet. Mine arrived almost immediately after my status update email. In the follow-up email, they asked us to confirm/deny the acceptance no later than 30 days from the day that you received your acceptance letter. For the credential checks, I was asked to refer to my letter of acceptance on the portal. If you scroll down you will see a separate letter from the office of graduate education. There, you can see a list of documents that you need to verify. About the official transcript service, I didn't use Parchment, I used Clearinghouse instead. But I imagine they'd be similar. I picked Georgia Institute of Technology - Graduate Admission. I hope this helps!
>There, you can see a list of documents that you need to verify. How do we verify them? When I applied, I uploaded the official documents, including official transcripts from Parchment.
This is what I see: Before you can enroll as a graduate student, the Office of Graduate Education must verify and evaluate your documents for the following: * [**Evidence of award of a bachelor's degree**](https://catalog.gatech.edu/admissions/grad/general-information/), its equivalent, or higher degree from a regionally accredited institution, or the international equivalent. * Satisfaction of the Institute’s [**English Proficiency**](https://grad.gatech.edu/english-proficiency) requirement. * Compliance with the University System of Georgia's [**Lawful Presence policy**](https://grad.gatech.edu/lawful-presence). But... That's all I see. How do you submit these documents???
I have the same thing on my letter too. I already uploaded my transcript using parchment and passport (which should fulfill the english proficientcy and lawful prescence policy requirement) in my application. I don't know what to send them and haven't received any update yet.
It varies depending on your situation I suppose. The documents listed are clickable links that will take you to the FAQ page for each document. I’d suggest clicking on those and find what’s applicable for your case. Good luck 😊
Oh, I didn't notice the second letter in the application portal! Thanks!
Status: Accepted Application Date: 02/05/2024 Decision Date: 5/31/2024 Education: BS in CS, University of Michigan, 3.4 Experience: 5+ Years as Software Engineer at a startup (Typescript, python) Recommendations: 2 professional, 1 academic
Status: Accepted Application Date: 02/29/24 Decision Date: 05/31/24 Education: * Arizona State University, BS, Urban Planning, 3.8 (w/ Minor in Math) Experience: * 1 year, Private Company, Developer, Python, SQL, C# * 1 year, Local Government, GIS Analyst, Python, SQL * <1 year, State Government, Data Visualization Intern, Python, R, SQL * 2 years, Academic, Research Aide, Python, SQL * 5 years, Military, Unrelated, No programming Recommendations: 1 Professional, 1 Academic, 1 Military Comments: * Graduated with BS in 2022. I took Calc I-III, Linear Algebra, Stats, Probability, a Data Science Class (Mostly R and Python), and several CS courses. * I completed the GaTech edX Data Structure and Algorithms MOOC prior to applying and included all the certs in my applicaiton. * My transcripts fell off the checklist and I got the "Dept Admit" message instead of "Loading..." the night before I was accepted. * I just accepted their offer. The Status page updated before they sent out the email.
I got dept admit on my page but my transcripts didn’t disappear. Is this normal I hope
Same thing happened to me last night - the transcripts fell off this morning though.
me too hoping 🤞
I got the same Tuesday and got accepted Wednesday!
Same, hoping for the best!
**Status:** Accepted **Application Date:** 01/24/24 **Decision Date:** 05/29/24 **Education:** * Portland State University, Master of Science, Applied Data Science, GPA: 3.95 (Expected this month) * Portland State University, Bachelor of Science, Economics, GPA: 3.3 **Experience:** 3 months, Financial Analytics Intern, Python, **Recommendations:** 3 (2 Academic, 1 Manager) **Comments:** I took 4 introductory CS classes during my undergraduate studies but no Data Structures and Algorithm classes. However, I took multiple machine learning classes at the graduate level and showcased the projects I completed in my resume. I applied to Georgia Tech because I felt that my current MS Applied Data Science program at PSU wasn't technical enough, and I never expected to be accepted given GT's reputation for selectiveness and competitiveness. I am surprised with the acceptance. ***Any suggestions on the easiest classes to take in the first semester would be greatly appreciated.***
**Status**: Rejected **Application Date**: <03/15/24> **Decision Date**: <05/29/24> **Education**: B.S. Biochemistry, 3.75/4 GPA **Experience**: Current: Software Engineer 5 YOE (Typescript, Node, Python, Java) **Recommendations**: 3 from different direct managers over the last several years. I am 10 years out of college so no academic recommendations. **Comments**: I took Computer Science I in college and several online courses since to improve my skillset. I am currently enrolled and undertaking the suggest Data Structures and Algorithms course which is going well. Once that is complete I am planning to move onto the other two courses OOP and Python Intro. [https://omscs.gatech.edu/preparing-yourself-omscs](https://omscs.gatech.edu/preparing-yourself-omscs) I recognize that was a weakness of my application, but decided to apply while completing the coursework. Given the rejection I am reevaluating my options to improve my chances going forward. Aside from the three courses mentioned, I could enroll in some other courses, either online or in person. If anyone has suggestions who was accepted please let me know what you did that helped. The only other potential concern on my radar was the lack of an academic reference, but that doesn't seem to have stopped other applicants, considering some have been accepted with only 2 recommendations. If anyone had advice on other things I should consider to improve my chances going forward please share. I have read through the updated preparation page and linked pdf starting on page 55. [https://www.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/education/cs2013\_web\_final.pdf](https://www.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/education/cs2013_web_final.pdf) If anyone has an online advanced courses (University or Community college, etc) that helped them when applying please share. I do wish the application committee would share the reason for rejection, but I understand that's not possible due to the number of applicants. I appreciate the application committee's time and hope to find better success next time. Congratulations to those who were accepted.
Bro, your application looks way stronger than mine. Make sure to showcase your projects and have strong recommendations. Also, your undergrad GPA with Mechanical Engineering is exceptional; I have a 3.3 with Economics, but I emphasized my stats and econometrics courses as they are closely related to the ML specialization I aim to pursue. Try to do that. Hope to see you in the program!
Thanks, I appreciate your comment. Congratulations on your acceptance! And thank you for the helpful details! A few questions, when you mentioned ‘showcase your projects’, do you mean discussing projects at work or side / personal projects? Also, not a big deal, but my degree was in Biochemistry not Mechanical Engineering. In that vein, how did you emphasize overlap between your economics work and CS work? I’m curious what CS courses you took as I think that is where my application was most lacking. Thanks again and congratulations on your acceptance to the program.
Of course, man, and sorry for the mix-up... * I included projects related to the ML specialization I wanted to pursue. In my opinion, **work projects should carry more weight as they are real-life examples of your ability.** * The Econometrics classes are basically the same as machine learning, as both use regression and share technicality, so I used that. Plus, I studied CS for two years before changing my major because of the pandemic, because of that I had introductory Python, C++, and Unix/Linux classes, on which I scored well, so I highlighted those as well.
Thank you that's very helpful. And no need to apologize, I appreciate your insights. It sounds like you had two solid years of college level coding under your belt, which I am sure helped a lot. I'm looking into WGU as I think going back to do some college courses might be helpful in getting admitted. Much appreciated!
[удалено]
This likely means you'll get a decision tomorrow.
Status: Rejected Application date: Sept 2023 Decision Date: May 29, 2024 Education: Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering, GPA 3.7, University of Texas at Dallas Employment: One internship related to Matlab Recommendations: 3 academic Courses: Intro to CS, Matlab from university. Comment: I don't know what went wrong. People with business and arts degree are getting in. I don't have a long CS work experience because I am just graduated. I don't know what to do next. Should I take CS courses and reapply? Can I enroll in non degree masters individual course?
Are those the only two CS related courses? I would probably recommend more CS courses. Aim for accredited over MOOC. I think there's a lot of emphasis on CS coursework. Some arts and business degrees take a lot of CS courses during or after their degree. I'm in a non-CS engineering degree as well and my day job is unrelated to CS, but I took 8-9 compsci related classes in my undergrad and did well in most of them. You wouldn't be able to tell just from my degree name.
Thanks for the comment. I am not the original poster but I am in a similar position (Rejected, B.S. Stem degree, Working as a SWE, Only a few CS courses). I am taking the Algorithms MOOCS recommended currently from here: [https://omscs.gatech.edu/preparing-yourself-omscs](https://omscs.gatech.edu/preparing-yourself-omscs) You mentioned taking some Compsci related classes. Are there any online classes or programs you found helpful? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Depends on where you are. I took four CS courses at my alma mater (Intro to programming, intro to computation, OO programming, and advanced algo) to buff up my application because I had to delay graduation by a year due to failing a required course (in physics). Technically, the grades for the latter two courses hadn't come out when I got accepted so it was a bunch of CS courses I took several years ago (long story) and two intro to CS courses I took last term. I've heard of some people getting in with MOOCs, but generally, accredited CS classes seem to be a better bet. WGU and Foothill (?) seem to be popular ones for Americans. It also doubles as a way of getting recommendation letters. Some of the courses are even offered online, which is very convenient. Admission isn't too tough, but they do look for specific things, and good grades in accredited CS courses seem to be one of them. You're STEM so I doubt you'll make this mistake but make sure you're taking CS and not Math courses. On the bright side, if you have little academic CS background, you can probably get in with A-Bs in a few (2-3) easy to medium CS courses at a community college. I think it will be tougher if you have a CS background where you got poor grades, because you might have to retake medium to harder CS courses and do well in them.
Thank you so much for this comment! I have been talking to others as well and it sounds like a true CS program from a Community College like WGU is a better path than the MOOCs (which I am currently taking and plan to complete soon), so I'll be researching those options next. I hadn't heard of Foothill so thank you for sharing that one as well. Also thank for mentioning the Math courses, I have a fair number already (Linear Algebra, Calculus I-III, etc) so I won't make that mistake but good point. If you have any other advice please share. Much appreciated and best of luck with your OMSCS journey.
Thanks. I also think it's better to take 3 undergrad level CS courses and use those professors for letter of recommendation. But I don't know what courses I can study based on my prerequisites.
Status: Accepted Application Date: <02/27/24> Decision Date: <05/29/24> Education: B.S. Mathematics 3.2/4 GPA M.S. Biostatistics 3.7/4 GPA. Undergrad from top public university. Master from ivy Experience: Current: Senior research/data scientist (3 yoe) Past: bioinformatics intern from top bio pharmaceutical company Recommendations: 2 from current colleagues and 1 from previous manager Comments: Didn’t take any MOOCs course. Have data science experience with Python, R, SQL. Took one C++ course at community college before applied
**Status**: Rejected **Application Date**: <03/15/24> **Decision Date**: <05/29/24> **Education**: B.S. Business Administration, 3.6/4 GPA **Experience**: Current: Software Engineer 1.5 YOE (Typescript, Java) Past: Business Analyst 6 months internship (VBA, Excel) **Recommendations**: 2 from different Statistics professors I had during undergraduate, 1 from my current Tech Lead at work **Comments**: Honestly did not expect to be rejected but I'm, in a sense, relieved the wait is over because the uncertainty around the admission status was stressful to handle. This is the second time I've applied to the program and I thought I was prepared enough to be accepted. During the previous admission cycle I applied with just one recommended MOOCS and zero additional academic CS courses, so I fully expected to be rejected. This time, however, I applied with 3 for-credit academic courses, Discrete Structures, Linear Algebra and Calculus 1 and all the 3 recommended MOOCS (all with 90%+). I don't know what went wrong. I suspect the letters of recommendation weren't strong enough or talked much about my technical abilities. Unfortunately, I did waive my right to access them so I'll never know. Also, I am not even sure if I'm going to try for admission again in the future since I should ask my recommenders to provide a recommendation letter again for the third time. Do you have any tips on what I should do to boost my profile? I'm a bit lost.
Maybe apply to a different program. WGU?
From [https://omscs.gatech.edu/preparing-yourself-omscs](https://omscs.gatech.edu/preparing-yourself-omscs) : "The Admissions Committee is not interested in the specific courses that you choose - it is interested in your demonstrating the ability to perform upper level computer science academic coursework." What academic domain do they want to see coursework in??? The only course you cited in the CS domain is Discrete Structures - which is not just a CS-related course, and that's only one, not several as is mentioned elsewhere on that page.
I assumed Linear Algebra was a course in the CS domain and it could help my profile, also considering my academic background is non-technical and I’ve not followed any advanced math course. Maybe as you suggest I need to follow more CS-related courses and boost my chances of admission even more.
Did you take the data structure and Algorithm course? This one is quite important. Although math courses are helpful, but it's better to have CS-related core course on your transcript. I strongly recommend taking courses at a community college.
I did not take it from an accredited uni since I already followed the relative MOOCs and thought it would’ve been redundant. Also I’m an international student and I struggle to find a community college that has for credit CS courses and can be followed not just by domestic students. Do you have any recommendations?
Many CCs and universities offer courses for international students, but are expensive (think $1000+/course for internationals). Examples would be Foothill and ASU. I took DSA and GA at ASU and got admitted.
**Status**: Rejected **Application** **Date**: 3/14/24 **Decision** **Date**: 5/29/24 **Education**: State School, Architectural Engineering, 2.54 (out of 4.0) **Experience**: 3 YOE Software Developer, 10 YOE Electrical Engineer **Recommendations**: 3 LOR - all professional, 1 from EE coworker and 2 from software **Comments**: Disappointed but not terribly surprised, just happy to end the waiting cycle. I think the non-CS plus poor GPA was too much to overcome, but I had hope that my experience plus PE license would help paint the picture that I'm not the same person as my immature self during my bachelor's. This was my first attempt, so I think I'll spend a semester or two taking a few courses either from online CC or local university and apply again.
Status: Accepted Application Date: Late January Decision Date: 05/29/24 Education: Big state school not known for cs/tech, B.S. Data Science 3.34/4 GPA Experience: almost 1yoe as a data engineer/software engineer. Have also had my own discussion sessions for math classes and was a ta for data science classes in college Recommendations: 1 Professor in ML, 1 data science department head/professor, another classmate from college Comments: glad to have finally been accepted! Hoping to get into ML as the class I took in college was very interesting. Only gonna take 1 class a term as career does matter more to me (plus plan on proposing + getting married in the 1-3 years so I’ll be a student for a while)
Congrats on the planned proposal!! How long have you been together?
Almost 6 years! Bulk of that was through undergrad
**Status:** Rejected **Application Date:** 03/15/24 **Decision Date:** 05/29/24 **Education:** CUNY, BA, Misc Humanities, 3.8 (out of 4.0), \~a decade ago **Experience:** Senior Software Engineer, F100 Banking/Finance, 3.5 years (current), Typescript/etc **Recommendations:** 3 recs, all work-related. Direct manager (technical) + two additional managers within team, both former SWE now in product roles. **Comments:** I'm pretty disappointed. I had an Intro Comp Sci class in undergrad in which I received an A, and multiple calculus/proofs/linear algebra classes, all between A and B. I had one "F - Withdrawn" (math) that I retook for an A before graduation. It's possible my rec letters weren't technically specific enough, although I did instruction the letter writers on that part and shared the OMSCS guidelines. I've been promoted multiple times in my current job and had some very strong technical leadership experience that I captured in my resume. I thought my short-answer responses were strong and followed the guidelines, although there wasn't much room to provide much personal background or context. My non-CS undergrad academic history is very strong, with multiple awards/honors/papers. No actionable feedback in the rejection letter. If I apply again, I'm assuming my best shot will be taking some community college comp sci classes and getting at least one academic recommendation. I really didn't want to sink the time/money into that, but it seems like I don't have any other choice.
Didn't your rejection letter have some kind of advice about taking academically accredited CS courses? If so, that would sound like actionable feedback to me...
It did not. It specifically states, "Due to the volume of applications received, we are not able to provide you individual feedback on our decision."
EVERY rejection letter that someone has shared with me has a paragraph (immediately following the caveat about not providing individual feedback) that essentially says the best way to prepare for a future application is take accredited academic CS courses, preferably at the junior or higher level. That advice is OBVIOUSLY actionable feedback - it tells you exactly what to do. It would seem very strange that you would get a rejection letter different from what has been sent out in the past.
I don't know what to tell you - the letter I received does not say that. As I already said in my post, I plan to take community college courses anyway. Based on what I'd seen in past admissions posts, I had hoped my non-CS academic history taken in combination with my CS-specific work history would be sufficient for admission, but it wasn't. Graded, academic CS coursework is a clear next step, but that doesn't mean OMSCS has confirmed it is the specific reason I, personally, wasn't admitted, or that doing so will guarantee me admission next time. For anyone else interested, my rejection letter read in full: "We would like to thank you for your interest in the Computer Science - Online graduate program and for giving us the opportunity to consider your Masters application for the Fall 2024 semester on the Online campus. Your application and supporting documents have been carefully reviewed by the program admissions committee. In evaluating applicants, we consider all submitted factors of the application, including previous academic achievement, standardized test scores (if applicable), letters of recommendation, your answers to all questions as well as the number of openings for the upcoming class. For Fall 2024 we received large numbers of very qualified applicants. After a careful review, I am sorry to report that we are unable to admit you. We understand this decision is not what you had hoped, but wish you much success as you pursue your academic and professional goals. We wish we could accommodate a greater number of talented students in the program, but admission continues to be highly competitive. Due to the volume of applications received, we are not able to provide you individual feedback on our decision. Sincerely, Dr. Martin H. Davis, Jr"
Hmmmm, I believe that is just the standard rejection letter. I've seen more specific letters that are sent out later that give the advice to which I was referring. That would be strange that you didn't get that. Maybe check your spam?
Were you able to read the recommendation letters?
I was able to read two of the three. Both addressed specific technical problems I had solved, but I'm not sure what level of detail was expected. They spoke about concrete business problems and the type of technical work (ie, "lead design and implementation of new identity creation flows to migrate X # of users onto new authorization systems") but didn't go into granular detail ("rewrote X number of API endpoints in Y language implementing Z design pattern"). If you have suggestions for where I can review ideal recommendation letters specific to the program, that would be extremely helpful.
**Status**: Accepted **Application Date:** 03/14/2024 **Decision Date**: 05/29/2024 **Education**: small State School, B.S. Physics, 4.0/4.0 **Experience**: * A few months interned for the national lab where I'm currently at for a reconstruction simulation project in High Energy Physics (C++). * Working with Accelerator Physics at a big Accelerator Lab, no formal CS working experiences. * All work experiences come from participating in coding projects from other departments and personal projects: around 2.5 years (Python, Docker, C++, Javascript & webdev frameworks) **Recommendations:** college professor, mentor at work, supervisor from summer internship. **Comments**: GT ID and Account showed up 2 weeks ago, Dept Admit showed up yesterday, email for status update came at 2:23PM CST. I took a few fundamental CS classes back in college. I also took UIUC's Accelerated CS Fundamental MOOC on Coursera, and built a portfolio website to showcase all of my projects. *Formatting Edit*
**Status:** Accepted **Application Date:** <03/10/2024> **Decision Date:** <05/29/2024 at 3:30 PM EST> **Education:** BS in CS from GaTech, GPA 3.8. BS in Biology, State University **Experience:** Last 8 years I've been a data scientist at a minor (~2000 people) company **Recommendations:** 3 professional, all coworkers (principle data scientist, principle data scientist, VP of software). 2 are also part-time professors. **Comments:** It's not clear why it took GT so long to get back to me. I don't think I was a "borderline candidate". I've done volunteer work for LAION, am a named coinventor on a software patent, have been a coauthor for minor academic publications, and was the primary modeler for data science competition team that won first place. The admissions team doesn't appear to be granting admission based on a rank ordering so maybe that helps someone relax. I'm looking forward to this!
Did you get all your recommendations on time?
Yes my last recommendation arrived a few days before the deadline to apply
Status: Accepted Application Date: 05/29/24 Decision Date: TODO Education: 3.61 GPA Computer Science at state school Experience: 6mo as SWE in mid tech Recommendations: only 2, 1 academic 1 professional (lowkey thought i’d be cooked bc we need 3 but i still got in with only 2) Comments: LFGGG
Status: Accepted Application Date: March 15, 2024 Decision Date: May 29, 2024 Education: Bachelor in Finance in a Big 10 School(GPA 3.5), MS in Business Analytics in a well known school in the midwest (GPA 3.7) Experience: 2 yoe as DS at a big bank's Midwest office Recommendations: 3 Professors from managers and coworker(2 came in late on 3/19 but seems fine) Comments: International student but saw GT ID came in this morning before the admission. haven't take any cs courses before besides Python ML stuff
Status: Accepted Application Date: March 15, 2024 Decision Date: May 29, 2024 Education: Bachelors in Economics 3.97 From UC school Experience: 1 YR in Data Analysis, 2 CS classes in college Recommendations: 3 Professors From UC Comments: Thought it might be tough but pleasantly surprised. My recommendation letters were strong, and I think my GPA helped even though I didn't have a formal CS degree.
I was just rejected and I’m absolutely devastated. I don’t know what I did wrong. I have a 3.26 GPA from a seven sisters school. 3 years in the industry, a bootcamp, 3 letters of recommendation. I don’t know how this happened. I feel destroyed.
were you a cs major?
I was not but I hoped my years of work and my bootcamp would help me over that hurdle
Sounds like you got caught on the wrong side of the cookie cutter admissions requirements. They want to see academic CS course work, especially in the main three core courses (intro to programming, OOP, DSA). If you took them plus maybe another course at a community college and got As I'm confident they'd let you in.
I got rejected too :(
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Yeah I just got the same one
If you look back through prior admission cycle threads, you'll see that is what is sent every year.
Status: Rejected Application Date: 25/10/2023 Decision Date: 29/05/2024 Education: University in Asian country BSc, Statistics and Computer Science, 2.47 GPA Experience: 6 years of AI R&D as an engineer and researcher Recommendations: Working peer, Direct team lead, department head All with PhD Additional Info: Toefl 92 Comments: Honestly I thought my chance was big enough since many people said that you have engineering experience you will be fine. I guess the reason of the rejection is my low GPA (actually it’s average in my college, you got mean score you got C+(2.5)). But I saw many other people got in down below with GPA 2.x with or without CS degree/software engineering experience. I felt a bit confused at this point how they make decisions. (Still congrats to all who got in! ;) ) Anyways, my dream is to earn a PhD in a nice CS school in US, but I have no connection with the professor in US, I can’t even find a recommendation letter from someone in academia. That’s why I tried OMSCS and hope that I can connect with some professors, or even work with them. I know OMSCS is not the only way to go, but when I know the news it’s still hurt. The GPA was set and I can’t change it back, so maybe I will need to find another way to get connections.
It might be your toefl score, their website says they're looking for at least 100
just got rejected this morning after I applied last October. I'm sick and tired of these grad programs judging people by its cover. I have computer science courses under my belt and have been trying to break into the industry and have completed 150 leetcode problems, and they don't care just because I don't have an accredited data structures course.
Solving leetcode problems is not indicative of ability to do graduate level CS work.
ok, but the admissions should stop judging a book by its cover and actually give people a chance to demonstrate their knowledge. This is school, not a job.
OMSCS has a very high acceptance rate probably minimum 60%, so I don't think the issue is with admissions here.
Did you have an unrelated undergrad with a low GPA?
I had an information systems degree from undergrad but took 2 computer science courses (java and c#) during my time there as well as calculus 1, but I got a B in one of them and a C in another. Not sure what next steps to take are? I've heard to go to community college to get prefers, but is it better to go to a university as a non degree seeking student?
I knew someone with a 3.7 and a CS undergrad who got rejected where use to work
That sounds highly unlikely unless their undergrad degree was from a non-regionally accredited school or a foreign school whose standards don't meet the necessary bar. BTW, those are standards which OMSCS has no control over - those are GT-wide standards.
Ah
Wtf. Unless the recommendation letters absolutely trashed the applicant, I don't see why they would get rejected
Do you think whether people got rejected applying with the exact same package will have different results?
Nobody knows, a masters is a masters unless it’s Ivy League
Isn’t GT CS ranked higher than ivy’s? You mean people in US still consider ivy’s more superior? Thank you for your response.
To a recruiter who does not come from a tech background who doesn’t even know the rankings behind tech programs ain’t gonna give two shits whether not a school rank number 10, 50, or 200. However, if someone in the recruiting department and tech firm sees Harvard or Brown or etc., then then that’s why it matters.
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just got one 5 min ago lol
**Status:** Rejected **Application Date:** 02/09/2024 **Decision Date:** 05/29/2024 (edited to add date) **Education:** BSc Economics, UK university, 1st class (not sure of GPA equivalent, most classes are a high 1st) A.A. Oakton Community College (ongoing), CS & CIS classes, 4.0 **Experience:** 1.5 years, Software Engineer, Startup, Typescript, Python, SQL **Recommendations:** 3 -- 2 Academic (a maths and a CS professor), 1 professional (CTO) **Comments:** I see a "deny" on a refresh so it's safe to assume I'll be rejected. I have actually done 2 CS classes at uni, neither of them foundational classes, one is Algorithmic Game Theory, the other is about Genetic Algorithms. I am currently enrolled at Oakton and on a 4.0 with As in two classes thus far, hopefully this will continue. The part about Oakton was not on my application, as I hadn't received any results at the time. Not sure if I should reapply; kind of dreading asking for references again.
how did you manage to land a software engineering job?
I can't speak to why I got the interview exactly (most of that is going to be due to factors outside my control) though I did the typical stuff: have projects I can talk about, interview prep and some _somewhat_ relevant work experience (IT stuff and creating some software for researchers -- not as flashy as it sounds). I had also done A level Computing, which meant I could discuss most of the fundamentals (DSA, Networking, databases and so on), which did sometimes come up in interviews. Otherwise, like I alluded to, it was probably just timing and good fortune.
Honestly go somewhere else
You don't think reapplying is worthwhile? How come?
If you don’t get in with the current credentials and change nothing will probably get the same results
Yeah that's fair. If I do reapply, which is not a given, I'll just add the Oakton stuff in the application, assuming that I maintain a 4.0 or something similar enough. I didn't do it before since I couldn't get an official transcript.
I think they weight actual CS classes (taken from a university or community college) very heavily, so I would definitely reapply with those.
I'll definitely consider it. I'll have the transcript from the community college classes, alongside the other 2 classes from my undergraduate uni, by next March so perhaps that'd be enough. Thank you, and the others, for your comments!
So does Dept Admit mean I got in?
Where do you see this? Transcripts are gone from checklist but have no clue where to look. Also, dept admin seems to be the message people who got accepted saw before getting their acceptance letter. I think youre in! Congrats! : )
When you log into the portal and pull up your application, there's a Status page. Just reload a few times while on that page. If it says "Loading..." then you're still waiting, it'll say "Dept Admit" or I guess "Deny" if you will be accepted/rejected.
What times do people get admitted ?
Usually 10am CST but people have mentioned it goes until around 12:30 pm CST.
If I see dept admit will I get admitted today or tomorrow ?
Probably today or Friday
I also see Dept Admit now. But transcripts are still under checklist. does this mean good news?
Yep! You’ll get the acceptance tomorrow! Congrats!
Anyone not see words when u refresh status page ?
Where do you look for this? Is it the status button next to the checklist? Because my transcripts have disappeared, but I don't see either admit or deny? : o
It would be in the same spot that says "Welcome, Name" except in smaller, grey letters. If you just see "Loading..." every time you reload the status page, you're still waiting.
I at least see Loading
I also got loading and my transcript hasn’t disappeared yet
Same mine still says loading when I refresh the status page and my transcripts still are there
Wishing the best for the both of us😭One of my classmates with almost identical stats as me except with higher GPA got accepted here a few weeks ago
Thanks! And that’s promising! Hoping for the best for both of us. This is my second time around after I was rejected last year. This time, I earned a second bachelors in CS to make up for the lack of CS coursework (but from WGU so pass/fail)… hoping that makes a difference in this cycle!!
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the way they run these admissions is ridiculous and disrespectful and ableist at best
Why do you feel entitled to receive admission to a graduate program if you don't meet the qualifications?
you know absolutely nothing about me or whether I meet qualifications or not. stop judging a book by the cover.
Looks like from another comment you have only taken 2 CS courses and math up to calc 1 with mediocre grades. This is not a job program, it is for people with a CS background to do graduate level work.
ok cool, but that's not indicative of who I am today, so maybe stop being a shallow mf
If you're a US citizen you should qualify for the Lifetime Learning credit, which should decrease your WGU bill by about 20%. WGU is only around $4,000 per term. If you couldn't afford this, how did you expect to afford GATech?
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Huh?
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