How I was accepted to Georgia Tech OMSCS (Online Master of Science in Computer Science)

September 28, 2018

1. Accepted to Georgia Tech OMSCS!

September 2018, I received official acceptance letter from Georgia Tech OMSCS - Online Master of Science in Computer Science! 🎉

This OMSCS program is an online course, but the screening process is exactly same to on-campus program. So it is required to prepare SOP, recommendations and TOEFL score. Here I’m going to explain what’s needed in this article.

2. Admission Criteria

It requires:

  • Bachelor’s degree
  • GPA 3.0 or higher

If applicants do not meet the criteria, it will be judged by case-by-case.

For international applicants, the TOEFL score is also necessary.

  • TOEFL Score: more than 100 (for international applicants)

Since I could get 104 of 120, I was relieved about this.

3. Required Documents

3.1 Resume

English resume is necessary. You can list your education background and work experience.

3.2 Transcripts and Degree Certificate

If you don’t have the official transcripts and degree certificate, you need to ask the university that you graduated to issue those documents.

At first, just uploading the scanned file is enough for the first application. But after I received the official acceptance letter, it is necessary to send the official documents.

3.3 TOEFL score

If you’re an international applicant, you need to submit the TOEFL iBT score.

When I applied, more than 100 points (of 120 points) is required. (But now, I can’t find the score in the website so it may be changed now)

And the TOEFL iBT score required for all of the graduate courses in Georgia Tech is more than 90 points and at least 19 points for every section.（Link）

3.4 SOP (Statement of Purpose)

Two kinds of essays are required.

  • Essay (1): Career Objectives and Background Essay “What has prepared you for this program?” (Up to 2,000 characters)

  • Essay (2): Statement of purpose Academic and career plans. (Up to 4,000 characters)

The points that I put emphasis are:

  • Why I want and need to study

  • Explanation that I have enough abilities and skills to graduate

  • What my career plan is, what I want to do after graduate

I suggest explaining these points with actual examples.

It will get better if you ask your friends to check and write it again. Also, it is effective to write it as a story rather than just a list of the facts because the readers are also human.

3.5 Recommendation letter from 3 people

Since I have work experiences, I asked the people as follows:

  • The professor that I studied under at the university

  • Software engineer who is my mentor

  • Client that I developed for

I heard that it’s better to prepare one from the boss, one from the colleague and one from the professor/teacher of the university, and I followed the advice.

It is important to ask the person who knows you well. Because, if they don’t know you well, it’s impossible to expect them to write actual episodes.

Luckily everyone willingly accepted to write them. The professor I asked for has moved to another university, but he is still working as the professor.

3.6 GRE is not necessary

In general, GRE: Graduate Record Examinations is required for many of the graduate schools in the US.

But, for Georgia Tech, it’s not required. If you want to submit, you can do so as it’s optional.

4. Schedule

There are 2 enrollment season: Spring and Fall. The deadline for each season comes about 4-5 months before the semester starts.

It really takes time to prepare TOEFL score, essays and recommendation letters so I recommend you to take enough time to do it.

5. Summary

The entire process to prepare all documents was much harder than I thought. I was working weekdays so I needed to prepare those documents on weekends. As I don’t know much about SoP and recommendation letters, I also needed to study every document.

But I believe it is worth doing. If you think you want to gain a master degree in computer science or you want to study at the graduate level like me, you should try. I hope this article would be helpful to someone who is interested 😊

by @takp