[General Question] I DON'T have good LORs but have solid research experience,internships and publications and a GPA of 8.5/10. Advice?

So I am still in my undergrad and I have published 3 papers in good conferences, won a ton of hackathons, have done a few research internships but I still don't have a good LOR since most of the professors I worked with knew me for no longer than 2-3 months(I worked with profs from other unis) and hence are reluctant to give LORs.

My university professor can give an LOR, but I am from a local tier-3 Indian engineering college(meaning, the professors don't have that good of a research profile either. In fact, I have a paper in an ICML workshop, while over half of my uni professors only publish in low-ranked conferences.

Any advice on how I can get a good LOR or if LORs even matter that much?

Any other advice on boosting my profile would also mean a lot to me since I am aiming for top public universities like UT Austin, UCSD, UIUC etc , possibly with a scholarship since I am not sure if my student loan would even get approved because of a bad credit(CIBIL) score.

Posted Apr 5, 2025, 4:43 PM UTC

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