Can I get into a good university??

I got less than average grades but have 8+ years as programmer and designer. Can I get admission to a good US university like UCB for a prospective PhD course?

• I did my Engineering Bachelors from a good University in India (Pune University to be precise) but I sucked at grades.   If I be brutally honest,I was below average if you start looking at average grades in my class. But I was good at problem solving and at programming. It has been more than 8 years since I finished by Bachelors. Currently, I work for a startup and design and implement solutions for some of the complex real world Networking problems. I have decided that academia is where I belong instead of teaching clueless engineers in companies, who come out with high grades without an iota of experience on how to solve seemingly practically difficult and impossible problems. So, can I get to a good grad school (UCB precisely) with such less than stellar academic record, provided I have decent GRE and TOEFL scores? Does my work experience in Industry help me? And no I do not have research papers to my name nor publications. Maybe couple of minor patches for Linux Kernel. But I have built products which were shipped in real world. Can someone out there give a middle aged programmer/Computer science hopeful some sane advise?

• Answer:

  When I was in similar situation couple of years back I did some research on the subject but unfortunately outcome was not that positive. Most US  universities do not give a damn about your work experience (unless it involves filling few patents) which may be right thing to do as skills you need to excel as an real world engineer (or knowledge worker) are quite different from what you need to be a successful knowledge producer. Foreign universities are very meritocratic when it comes to Phd admissions as Phd student is an investment for them and competition is pretty high. Academic excellence is a must for admission in top 30 grad school. Since you have 8+ years of experience I think your age may also go against your profile as most of the universities prefer much younger talent. Now if you are determined to pursue your dream of doing a phD & willing to  lower your expectations for admission to top 100 schools (anyway they will  better then our own IITs & Phd from there can also lead to many academic opportunities) then I would suggest you to follow a two step admission process. You should first look for admission in a competitive & respected MS program that can be converted into a full time PhD based in your performance. I think with a good GRE score & work ex  that would be little easier for you crack then direct admission to a PhD program. Once there you can build relationships & credentials that can help you to get promoted. Suggested read :