Need help in university shortlisting.

Question

Could anyone help out , I've my list but there's way too many ambitious colleges i feel. Could someone balance it out.

Hi All , I'd love to get some sort of an evaluation of my profile with respect to non thesis based MS CS courses in the US for Fall 23

Undergrad : 9.25 CGPA ( Btech In Comp Science from Tier 1 college )

Work Experience :Data Engineer at a reputed MNC ( 2 years by the time of enrollment )

Internship experience : 
 - 3 months at a startup as an SDE
 - 6 Months as a Data Engineer at the same above MNC
 - 2 months as an SDE intern at another MNC
 - Freelancer with 3 successful jobs in the course of 7 months in the pandemic

GRE : 320 ( 165Q 155V AWA-4)
TOEFL : 111
Research Experience : Weak ( might have a publication in a local conference by the time of application)
LORs : 2 professional ( both strong from recent employer ) 1 academic ( decent )

-- edit : I can get 2 academic LORS as well , going by the nature of comments

List:
CMU
UIUC (MCS-professional)
Georgia tech
Cornell ( 1 year MENG)
NYU
Purdue 
UCLA
USC 
NEU

A D · Answer

Hi,
If you have less than 5 years of experience then at least 2 LORs from professors are required. Even if you have more than 5 years of work experience, you would require to get permission from the university to submit 2 professional LORs. Here is my take on the universities mentioned:
CMU  ambitious
UIUC (MCS-professional) moderate to ambitious
Georgia tech - moderate to ambitious
Cornell ( 1 year MENG) - ambitious
NYU - moderate to ambitious
Purdue - moderate to ambitious
UCLA - ambitious+
USC - moderate
NEU - safe

Other suggestions are:
UCI - MCS = safe. Not MSCS(MSCS is highly research-oriented)
UCI- MSWE = safe. Not MSSE(MSSE is highly research-oriented)
Uwash seattle  ambitious - but worth applying
Uwash brothel -  safe
Uwash tacoma -  safe
NCSU = safe 
Stony brook = safe

I wouldn't advise going to mass enrollment schools like ASU, UTD. They are safe for you but it would be a waste for your profile.

I would suggest going through the yocket admit data using the connect feature of all universities you want to apply to and then decide which universities to apply. If you find profiles similar to yours then apply. You can also shortlist the universities using the college finder feature.
https://yocket.com/college-finder
https://yocket.com/connect

Smoky zz · Answer

Hi Sanil
Since you already have a spectacular profile, I Would suggest you to remove NYU and Go For an UC either Davis / Irvine , You can try your luck for San Diego and Also Add few safe Uni like ASU and Stony Brook both of which are actually good for CSE.
and Links for the same
1. ASU
https://yocket.com/universities/arizona-state-university/computer-science-248
2.Stony Brook
about:blank
3. UC Davis
https://yocket.com/universities/university-of-california-davis-868
4. UC Irvine
https://yocket.com/universities/university-of-california-irvine/computer-science-264