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I have a very bad undergraduate percentage (BSc maths, 58.3%) and from a no-name university. Mostly because I was not interested in pure mathematics and gave all my time to CS components of the course. However, I worked hard and got admitted to one of the best research institute in India (CMI) for MSc CS and maintained a consistent A grade. I also bagged some good internships at very prestigious Indian institutes (IIT-K, ISI). I was also offered PhD position in CS at both CMI and ISI last year.

I wish to join PhD outside India mainly due to stipend (very low in India, wont be enough for a family of 3). However, my BSc marks keep haunting me and often leave me very disappointed.

What are my chances to make it to a good university (<300 rank) in US or European countries? How much does BSc marks matter for a PhD candidate?

Also, should I take a PhD position at a low rank institute (~700 rank) if the professor is well known and has very high research throughput?

Also what rank and how many colleges should I apply to to maximise my applied-accepted ratio?

Thank you very much for giving it time to read.

Sursula
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Iam
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    You're very confused if you think PhD positions pay much in the US. You basically get payed slightly above minimum wage – FourierFlux Jul 16 '21 at 07:33
  • @FourierFlex In india phd stipend is around 400 USD. So a US stipend’s saving is equal to whole stipend in india. – Iam Jul 16 '21 at 08:14
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    Do you think you can save 400 USD a month in the US, with a family of 3? I am honestly asking this reality check. Maybe if you got a good paid PhD in Urbana, IL ? – EarlGrey Jul 16 '21 at 10:34
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    @EarlGrey By family of 3, I meant me and my parents. They’ll be staying in India only and 400 USD in INR is good sum for 2 people to live good life – Iam Jul 16 '21 at 10:55
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    Ok let's do the math, a PhD position gives roughly 2K a month, 800-1k is going to rent(probably more tbh), at least 250 food, you will also need a car, car insurance, cell phone, various other expenses. The idea you're going to send back any substantial amount of money(even 400) is pure delusion. – FourierFlux Jul 16 '21 at 13:05
  • I think your MSc, thesis and internship are far more important. But I want to address the elephant in the room: it is not your grades but the fact you are not in the country where you are applying. Many supervisors prefer candidates they can meet or who got a degree from their institution (or one they trust). In the country where I got my PhD (EU), supervisors often selected international students fresh from the uni's MSc programme. We had 4 Indian students in my year, 3 stayed for PhD. Maybe you could try to find a 1-year scholarship to a country/uni you like to get your foot in the door? – Aolon Jul 16 '21 at 15:07
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    @FourierFlux $400 mail back to India is possible. But, you'll have to suffer a lot. I know a Taiwan student saved around $500 a month in a midwest college town. What he did is, $300 housing (6 people living in a house,$300 food (he cooked himself) $300 for other expenses, like textbooks, cell phone etc. I forgot to mention around $250 for health insurance. – Nobody Jul 16 '21 at 15:50
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    Back to 50 years ago, many (if not most) Taiwan students had TA/RA around $200 a month. Their parents borrowed quite a bit money for the airline ticket for their children to go to US. So, they had to pay back the debt. The way they did was, spend @100 -150 a month after a year they paid the debt. During that year, they sleep on the floor, pay very little rent, eat dog food. Many of them are emeritus professors now (meaning they are retired). (One of them is a good friend of mine, so I know) – Nobody Jul 16 '21 at 16:11
  • @scaaahu 200$ of the 60s are roughly 1.8k of today. I am quite sure they were sleeping on the floor (not many people were renting to asians), quite sure about the huge debts taken by their families, I am not quite sure about dog food (canned meat can have an ugly aspect) and I have some ideas what rural people with bright minds and poverty background were doing with so much cash (it starts with g, it ends with ambling). I am quite sure that many of those emeritus professors overblow the hardness they encountered, promoting the enduring-hardness style "PhD only for those who will not die". – EarlGrey Jul 19 '21 at 13:56
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    @EarlGrey I assure you dog food is a real story, although I did not actually see them opening the can and eating them. I did see the opened cans in the trash and they did not have dogs. I did not ask them if they bought wrong can food or they simply bought it because of cheaper price. I did know they were having financial problem. They had to borrow $20 from me (I only had that much in my wallet) for the food that night. when I visited them for an assignment. Sorry I cannot continue. It's so much memory I don't want to remember. – Nobody Jul 19 '21 at 14:20

2 Answers2

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Ph.D. programs look for one main thing: Research.

Have you conducted research in CS during your Master's degree, and did you present a paper in a conference? This will make a significantly more positive impact on your profile, than the negative impact of poor grades.

Further, your poor grades were during your B.Sc degree. You have since completed a Master's degree in CS, and did quite well in terms of grades. Your B.Sc grades will not make any real difference, if you show evidence of research potential. This is through publications/presentations and other projects you have undertaken. If you wish to offer additional evidence that the B.Sc grades do not reflect your academic potential, a line in your Statement of Purpose should suffice. Don't go overboard on this, it really isn't necessary.

Read this comprehensive community wiki answer for more on how the admissions process works for Ph.D. programs in the US. You have other things to think about, things that are much more important than your grades. You need to think about obtaining letters of recommendation, drafting a well-written Statement of Purpose that provides evidence of your research and academic potential, and so on. Your B.Sc grades are among the least important things in a Ph.D. application when you have already completed a Master's degree with good grades.

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I can't speak much for the US, mainly Europe.

From my understanding the professors are frequently not too much interested in your grades (particularly in maths/CS). It is more important that you show that you looked at that professor's research. That you are interested in the research ideas conducted at that chair, that you understand the implications of that research.

Let's say you are interested in machine learning approaches, but apply at a chair for analysis - that will not fit!

mjoppich
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