Not him but in general you need tier 1 publications, recommendation letters, a strong statement of purpose (very clear idea of what you want to do research in) and faculty fit. GRE scores are generally used as a filter. They won't get you in, but they will keep you out.

Forgive my ignorance, but how many undergrads have actually published a paper? I'm not saying it's impossible, but I was under the impression that this is something that happens once you get in to grad school, not before.

I'd say a more pertinent stat would be "how many undergrads who want to pursue a PhD have published a paper". At least at my alma mater, there were many opportunities to partake in independent research during our Junior and Senior years working closely with a professor to work on an eventual paper.

More than you might think, especially at tier 1 universities with funded undergraduate research opportunities[1]. You don't have to be first author to be published.

[1] https://members.cur.org/members_online/members/directory_lis...

How helpful is just being named on the paper? I've been working on a project for a year that just had its submission, not sure if I should try for good grad schools though or just target industry (Big4+Unicorn) instead.

In the asymptotic words of someone else[1]: I don't see why you think it's such a great accomplishment -- all my friends have a Ph.D!

A very relevant read FWIW.

[1] https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.phd.html

Eh, I'm personally more interested in an MS first, then see if I'm better suited for industry or full time research.

Grad school, if your ultimate goal is not academia, will most likely be an irresponsible use of your time.

I'm really interested in ML, so I'd like to try my hand at an MS at minimum - getting into an ML team should be pretty difficult without specific domain knowledge. If I don't like it, I'd just go into industry directly afterward.

Care to qualify that?

Surely any irresponsible use of time is a personal deficit, not a graduate curricula's.

From a complexity barrier perspective, consider a career in ASIC design.

From a market saturation perspective, consider a career in any discipline of psychology.

I am taking the simplistic view, and looking at the numbers from very simplistic view. Depending on what you expect out of Phd, advancing your knowledge might mean worlds to someone, but you could learn much more practical experience in those 5 years. It's up to someone's opinion.

Let me rephrase and probably further restrict what i mean: - If you want to work in big four(which was my assumption from Big4+Unicorn piece), you are better of not doing PHD in terms of progress careerwise. here is the reasoning, using some numbers i have seen around: - Big 4 usually let's you start Level N straight out of school. If you do PHD, they let you start Level N+1. Master's doesn't change anything, you still start Level N. - Phd takes (approximately) 5 years. - Promotions take 1-2 years, depending on your ambitions, your manager etc. Assume 1.5 years. - With the above numbers, instead of 5 years in PHD and start at LN+1, you could easily get to LN+3. If you are ambitious, you could get at least one promo in 1 year, which would put you in 1 year into LN+3, making you close to LN+4.

In all these 5 years, you'll also be banking stock refreshers, people would get to know you well, you could build reputation, and you would have a good chunk of money in the bank.

If you are targeting starting your own company, depending on what it is, phd might help (taking phd topic and making a company out of it is common). However, I believe, you could do much more in those 5 years, and you wouldn't have to go through emotional ride of graduate school as an extra stress.

Again, it all depends on what you want with phd. if your goal is working for FANG, 5 years of your youth is worth more than a phd.

I don't know exact percentages, but if you have top tier publications, or at the very least have relevant research experience, solid recommendation letters & faculty sponsorship then your chances of being admitted increase dramatically. Getting into top graduate schools isn't easy. GPA wise, usually your junior/senior year is the most important aspect. Good luck!

From my experience most PhD students haven't published anything before grad school.

To check whether this the case for your situation, you can browse websites of current Stanford students if your target discipline and check whether they published anything before their first year of graduate school.

Study something you love. Work hard. Get top grades.