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GinoAcknowledges t1_it5g8vi wrote

OP, I was in the same spot a couple of years ago. You're facing an uphill battle. The reality of it is that academia is a very closed world, and you'll find it very difficult to get in unless you have any of the following: (a) an elite college background (b) publications (c) personal relationship with a potential advisor.

Realistically, (a) and (c) are not attainable. I was in the same position. But I was able to get into a top 15 ML PhD program after a couple of years of sustained effort. Look into two things: doing a masters program at a good uni for CS (use csrankings.net, notice that many of the most productive CS schools aren't super difficult to get into) and most importantly — getting published. You don't need to get published at a top conference like NeurIPS or CVPR. As a non-PhD student, if you can get 1-2 workshop papers (very easy, workshops have like a 50% acceptance rate) and a paper at a lower tier conference (again, high acceptance rate, like 50%), you'll be in a very good position. This is how I did it. Combine that with reaching out to potential advisors beforehand and you'll have a extremely good shot at getting in and having your pick.

Let me know if you need any more advice.

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pumpkinsmasher76 OP t1_itdwmay wrote

I'm probably thinking of a couple ms programs. I have graduated so any other ways to do research with profs and gain relevant experience since I've been out of school for a couple years now?

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GinoAcknowledges t1_itgk5nt wrote

If you have the time, reach out to professors and ask if they have internships at their lab. If you have the financial resources, you can mention that you’re not looking to get paid. Again, this will work best if you already have some previous research you can show that attests to your research ability.

In my case, I did research on my own before reaching out to potential advisors. They were all impressed by me having published papers on my own. I want to emphasize that publishing on your own isn’t difficult especially if you target conferences that are lower tier (look up ML conferences by acceptance rates) or workshops at top conferences (CVPR, NeurIPS, etc). You don’t even have to publish, having a high quality paper on the arXiv is often good enough.

That would be my recommendation to you. DO NOT wait for a mentor to take you under his wing or a professor to “help” you with research. They will not do that. Most of them are super busy and are looking for someone who can immediately jump in on a project and know what to do. I promise you that you’re smart enough to start doing research now, and if you start now it will be immensely easier for you to get opportunities 5-6 months from now.

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