u/Forsaken-Elephant471

I’m trying to get a realistic sense of my chances for top CS graduate programs, especially funded/research-oriented MS or eventual PhD-track programs. Do I have any chance anymore?

An important distinction is I need funding.

Background:

• Domestic applicant
• CS + Math at a semi-known university in the US
• Haven't taken the GRE yet but I've gotten close to perfect on every single practice test online so I should do well.... hopefully?
• Graduating in 2 years (Rushing through school has unfortunately taken a toll on my GPA...)

GPA:

• Current GPA: ~3.5 (After two semesters). Second semester didn't go too well, mostly in my math courses.
• Hoping to finish around 3.7 if next semesters go well

"Experience":

• TA for CS and Math courses
• Competitive Programming: top 2% in the world
• Several years building software projects and leading small dev teams (mostly in an extracurricular context, however)
• One of my projects/products unexpectedly became fairly large online with a semi-large user base.
• Projects that I've worked on have accumulated
  • 1M+ downloads
  • 10M+ aggregate content views

No Research yet but will soon have some, but likely only a couple of months experience before applying.

Couple of questions:

1. How much will the GPA hurt me for top programs? I can expect the answer will be "a lot" but I don't know if it takes me out the running or not.
2. Does graduating in 2 years help, hurt, or look neutral?
3. Can strong engineering/project experience compensate for weaker research? I assume not.
4. What tier of programs should I realistically target for funded admissions?

Would appreciate honesty lol. Or what I can do (besides getting involved in research) to help my application in the little time I have left. Thanks