jpc123

I was in a similar situation, having studied Econ. I applied to both MCIT at Penn and MS at NYU. I ended up going with the latter. It seems to me that they were willing to consider the fact that I had work experience that involved programming (mainly for data analysis) and that I demonstrated a keen interest. In line with this, perhaps you can consider taking some non-degree courses in CS at your local university. Thsi way you can provide some kind of track record in the area. If that is not an option (it wasn't for me given my work schedule), try to take advantage of the many offerings online (coursera.org offers a lot of CS-oriented courses that are quite interesting and might at least work for your statement of purpose)

OP, I was in such a position as you describe. My undergraduate background is in Economics, and I will be attending school for an MS in CS program. I think you need to play your strengths: undoubtedly you have very strong quantitative and reasoning skills (given your major), be sure to communicate that as clearly as you can. In the meantime, I think work experience is a factor that can work in your favor. Look for opportunities to get involved in programming roles, or a role that uses computation skills heavily (data analysis of some sort might be something to look into). Then you can leverage this in your SOP. Be sure to research programs, there are various programs out there who are quite lenient with prereqs (as in, they will accept you into their program and then require you to make up whatever formal background you are missing). Best of luck!

@subwaymatch I did post my result on the admissions result page. Undergrad mejor was economics. GRE: 170 V/164 Q, 5.5, gpa 3.93.

psamora, I applied for fall 2013 (had my app in by march 1st) and heard back about a week ago. I will probably be accepting the NYU admission and inform MCIT asap, so that my spot can be given to others.

Chai_latte, thank you for your response. That is my general sense as well. Just wanted to see if there were any differing views out there. Both are the same for me in terms of cost, and I'm not too concerned about the benefits of the Penn alumni network, because I attended Penn for undergrad. I think this answers my question...Thanks!

I was accepted into NYU (Courant) MS CS and Penn's MCIT. If I do the latter, my goal would be to transfer into the traditional MS in CIS (technically, it is done as a dual degree, and one graduates with both MSs). Do people have any thoughts on either of these? I'm mainly interested in Machine learning, NLP, amongst other areas.

H1B process is independent of your school. The only factor that I think might play a role is your employer. If your employer pays for expedited processing, that might mean you get the visa faster, versus regular processing. But I'd say that's about it. Otherwise, it's purely a function of applying before all visas are issued and having your paperwork complete, which shouldn't depend on your school either.

seems like some phd decisions are coming out today, according to the results website. I suspect my Master's app has been rejected at this point...

Anyone know when they (Courant) are releasing decisions this year for their Fall admissions MS in CS program? I looked through past results and the date range seems to be pretty large (from early-March to mid-April).