Note that admissions for MSc admissions usually differ quite a lot from PhD admissions, and the criteria can be very different across fields. Things have changed significantly since 2010 as well, and are likely to change even more radically in the next admissions cycle as a result of massive funding cuts to the sciences that the US is currently experiencing. Couple this with radically restricted foreign student visas resulting from new federal policy...

So this should probably be read as "Demystifying the American Graduate Admissions Process for MSc programs in CS in the 2010s".