PS: Please note that this my opinion from my experience. All the things I have said are NOT verified by anyone. So ask other people too. But the below mentioned things will cover most of the aspects regarding factors for admission.
GRE subject test is “recommended” by some US universities. Its not compulsory. It varies from uni to uni and most people who have done their undergraduation in CS/IT don’t need to give it.
Plenty of factors are considered apart from your GRE and TOEFL scores.
TOEFL is just used to measure your English proficiency. As far as i know, TOEFL score does NOT influence your admit decision as such. Passing it is just a requirement.
In fact GRE score is mostly used as a “filter” as such. That is if you have more than certain GRE score (lets say 1250 for a particular university) you will qualify for more comprehensive review. Then afterwards it’ll come as a factor in admission if you and some other competing student have matching performance in all other criteria.
The other factors are (in no particular order):
- Your Statement of Purpose (SOP).
- Your Recommendation Letters.
- Your college academic performance.
- The reputation of college you have applied FROM.
- The number of seats available in the course you are applying to.
- The reputation of the university you are applying TO. (Eg. Stanford has more chance of rejecting you than USC for the same course)
- The course you are applying to. (Eg. Management and Technology courses are comparatively easier than the core subject course like Computer Science.)
- The research work/ project work you’ve done.
- Work experience (if any).
- The specialization/research area you mention in your SOP while applying.
- Other small factors like your grammar in SOP, your tone, your resume.
Note here that all the above factors may or may not be considered by a particular university. You have to assume all of them do act as a factor and do your best in all of them. The fact is that the admission decision process is very subjective and inherently opaque to the applicants. All you can do is do the best you can and hope for the best.
Applying to US universities requires lot of work and you have to start preparing from right now for all the above mentioned things.
