How to study abroad in software engineering?

The application competition of software engineering major in American universities is very fierce. The development of IT industry has created countless programmers. Although the software developed by everyone is used in different fields, everyone is a programmer, that is, a software engineer. Therefore, when applying for software engineering in American universities, all the people who have written programs can be said to have practical experience in this field, and they can all be squeezed into this boat. Therefore, the software engineering major in American universities is favored by students and staff. As the number of applicants increases, it becomes more difficult to get an Offer. How do students compete with software engineers with several years of work experience? However, the application of software engineering major in American universities is not only as simple as working experience, but also better than who can write coding. Let's analyze the application elements of software engineering major in American universities.

Analysis of application elements of software engineering major in American universities;

1, paper >; Important honor/award/experience > background > GPA> recommendation letter > TOEFL/GRE > Ceramics > PS(SoP)>GRE, which is an eternal inequality.

① paper

The most important thing for American universities to recruit people is to look at your research ability and see if you can work for your boss. Although it is too absolute to measure a person's research ability by papers, it is mainly the case at present. Because you can say whatever you want about the project, foreign professors basically don't understand domestic projects. The papers here mainly refer to the English papers of international conferences, local conferences and forgetting conferences. Due to the characteristics of cs software engineering, almost all the important papers in this discipline have been published in international conferences (at least for the first time), mainly top conferences in various fields. Of course, we can't expect our domestic CS software engineering applicants to publish papers at these top conferences, but at least articles at some more formal conferences (if the judging committee knows about these conferences) will definitely greatly increase your admission. As for periodicals, unless there are articles in JCST, Journal of Software and China Computer News, we can emphasize the difficulty. Other Chinese periodicals are better than nothing.

② Important honors/awards/experiences

The favorite honors/awards of foreign professors are mathematical model competition and mathematical competition. Of course, it is national, and world-class is better. If it is local, something is better than nothing. Other important experiences, such as MSR, are also good. In addition, some important scholarships and research internship experience of big companies may also play some roles. As for the experience of student cadres/other majors (unless it is very important and outstanding), forget it.

③ Born.

This is your school. Very realistic. Birth is absolutely important! In fact, whether in China or the United States, birth (graduate school) is very important. Students who graduated from traditional prestigious schools/Ivy League schools are indeed more cared for in school choice/employment than students from other schools. Of course, you can't just look at a person's birth, but generally speaking, birth is absolutely important. As far as the application is concerned, the general elite schools only look at the top schools in China 10, and so do other countries (for example, India only recognizes IIT, and others are thrown into the trash can). If you don't come from the Top 10 background and have no other outstanding advantages, then there is only one end.

④ Average grade point.

Although most of the top ten schools claim that it is enough to get a GPA of 3.0 or above in 4.0, according to the practical experience over the years, the GPA of computer majors who successfully applied for Top 10 is generally above 3.6, and the average GPA of freshmen in individual schools can reach 3.8.

⑤ recommendation letter /PS(SoP)

In fact, foreign professors still read letters of recommendation. If there is strong support (see your references and the writing in them), it is still very important. To some extent, in fact, people should pay more attention to letters of recommendation than ps! Of course, due to well-known reasons in China, reliability will be discounted to some extent, but if your referees or teachers are very responsible or your content is well organized, it is still more important.

TOEFL /GRE only needs to pass some thresholds, which is easy for most students in China, but TOEFL may be difficult to achieve. Many schools have a limit that TOEFL scores can't be lower than one book, and some schools have quite high requirements for students' TOEFL scores! The bottom line of TOEFL score for international students applying for American universities is 600 (old TOEFL), and the actual experience is that the top ten computer majors often reach 630-650.

Because of the wide application of computer science, most American applicants often choose a master's degree, while academic doctoral degree applications generally compete among international students, so excellent TOEFL scores are essential. In addition to GREGeneralTest, applicants are advised to take GRE computer subject test as far as possible to show their professional strength and win the favor of the school.

All landowners ceramics

In fact, the important coefficient of ceramics is variable, and it is very important to get it right, but it is based on a certain foundation: your strength is really strong, and your background and direction are in line with the boss's wishes (or the direction the boss wants to turn)! So ceramics must find the right direction, find the right boss, and don't be blind. Some important principles, such as: don't set up two or more departments at the same time, AssisProf needs more manpower than Asso/Pro (if he has enough funds) and so on.

8 personal statements

In addition to the requirements of other majors, it is best to highlight your scientific research ability in the computer field through personal statements and show your scientific research potential to the school.

2. Choose schools VS choose professors

If you can choose, I suggest you find a good boss. Completely abandon the' prestigious school plot' cultivated by China. Unless you have other ideas, the American system is based on professors and centered on professors. They have to find their own money and sell themselves to the outside world. If he is good and well-connected, it will be of great help for you to publish a paper and find a job in the future. On the contrary, if you follow the wrong teacher, you will not find a job in the future.

3. Master VS Doctor

If the family is well-off, you can consider applying for some MSC projects. MSC is not easy to win prizes, so it is much easier than getting a PhD. If you apply for the offer of software engineering and falsely report the SEmaster of vocational training, then it is at least as difficult for you to get the offer as an MBA.

Applying for a master's degree has three advantages:

You can go to work in America after your master's degree.

② It is more convenient to apply for a doctor's degree in the United States than in China.

There are countless CS jobs in America, which are well paid.

In view of the problem of American university scholarships, most domestic students apply for doctoral degrees, and doctoral degrees are easier to get scholarships than master's degrees. However, many students stop their doctoral studies and start looking for jobs after obtaining master's degrees. Most schools in the United States are allowed to obtain a master's degree after completing a certain number of credits in doctoral programs. In schools that don't allow this, China students usually try to transfer to master's programs and then graduate. Therefore, many American university professors have great opinions on this, which will have a negative impact on China students' future applications. Whether you can graduate early or change to a master's degree depends mainly on the source of scholarships. Because TA's scholarship is from the school, not from the department, it is relatively easy to succeed. Moreover, the money to help research RA is closely related to the boss or department, so your early resignation will have an impact on the project, so it is often not easy, depending on the boss relationship and timing.