Q3 - Does an undergraduate degree from a reputed institution make the application more favourable? Should that be emphasized in the SoP?Ī handful of indian institutions are known in the US: the IITs, the NITs, and perhaps IIITs. Professors will ignore such errors, as long as the meaning is clear. While it is important to spell-check and grammar check your SOP (so that it looks professional), minor grammatical mistakes are okay. Q2 - Do professors ignore minor grammatical errors if the ideas are otherwise good? Extracurriculars such as sports, quizzing, dancing, organizing events, etc. Admissions to Masters and PhD programs are based purely on your potential for learning advanced material (Masters), or research (PhD). Q1 - Does mentioning extracurriculars in the SOP count a lot? How much of it should be written?Įxtracurriculars do not affect admission decisions. He has published in top OS conferences such as SOSP, OSDI, FAST, and NSDI. Ritchie Dissertation Award in 2016, the Microsoft Research Fellowship in 2014, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Alumni Scholarship in 2009. His paper in FAST 2017 was awarded one of the two Best Paper Awards. His work has resulted in patent applications with Microsoft, Samsung, and VMware. He did his undergraduate work at the College of Engineering, Guindy in Chennai. Remzi and Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He joined UT Austin in Fall 2016, after completing a post-doc at the VMware Research Group in Palo Alto, California. Vijay Chidambaram is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science department at the University of Texas at Austin. It gives the direct perspective of the professor in CS from the renowned University of Texas, Austin. This article is a must read for anyone currently working on their essays/SoP. Out of every 100 students applying, 36 to 40 get successfully admitted. You would also come across top requirements for admission to UT Austin.ģ6% - 40% is the acceptance rate of University of Texas (Austin). This is an essential guide to University of Texas (Austin) admissions. Vijay Chidambaram generously answered some all-important questions that students have with respect to their graduate essays/SoPs.