I'm looking to do Computer Science with studying graphics in some way. I have a lot of ideas involving optical illusions that would be great for handheld devices. Perhaps some of you remember that project from some years ago. I thought it was a really original project, with very compelling results. I got a lot of good responses on it from anyone I could get to look at it. I thought I would be a shoe-in to most grad schools based on that project alone; I got no responses at all. I'm pretty sure it was because of my GRE scores, I just completely bombed the CS subject test.
I'm not certain of where I want to go. Superpig mentioned trying to apply to Oxford, which *would* be freaking phenominal, but I'm just not sure I could swing it, financially. Carnegie Mellon seems to be the #1 center for mixing Computer Science and Cognitive Science, which is the essential basis for study of optical illusions, but again, I got passed over by them the first time. UMBC seemed like a safe bet last time, but alas it was not true. Georgia Tech is one of the premier schools for doing graphics study, and they overlooked me too.
So help me out, guys. I want to pick my school more based on location. I'd like to live in the Philadelphia area, the Baltimore area, or the UK.
Also, I need to figure out my angle for my applications. I don't want to take the GRE again, it's expensive and studies I've read suggest that it has almost no correlation to academic success anyone, which makes me want to refuse on principle alone. I have 3 years of work experience under my belt now, and my resume is pretty good. I *do* have an original research project to my name, and I've spoken at conferences before.
Maybe we can work on a plan of action for things I can do before I apply to help bolster my application.
