explorer-c
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Posts posted by explorer-c
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Yeah, I read that thread too. I was wondering how UCSD compared. Does anyone have an opinion on this?
I'm in Computer Vision and my opinion is that they're about equal in reputation so you probably should choose based on fit or even location!
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Eitan Grinspun, Ravi Ramamoorthi, Steve Feiner (I don't know how this set is representative).
No. That is not a representative set. For one, it doesn't include Shree Nayar, arguably the most famous vision guy in Columbia. Anyway, if you have heavy interest in computer vision, then there is no contest, Columbia is much better. If you're leaning more towards ML, then Princeton is better. Just so you know, last year I was deciding between Columbia, Princeton and a bunch of other places. But since I have a pretty specific interest in computer vision, I ended up not going to either of those places, but Columbia was on my shortlist.
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UMD is at least as good as UCSD in computer vision. IMO it's not a good idea to delay your PhD just to shoot for the top 4 because of 2 things: 1) it was a crapshot before and it'll be a crapshot then; 2) UMD is already a very good school in computer vision. Larry Davis is a professor in UMD and he's a pretty big name in computer vision. Steve Seitz is a famous computer vision professor in UW and he is a graduate of UMD. I honestly think if you're already in a top 20 school, you have all the resources needed to succeed. So no need to be too narrowly focused on getting into the top 4.
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4/5 years for direct PhD as compared to 2 + 3/4 = 5/6 yrs for PhD after MS.
I think that's an overly optimistic estimate. In most top schools, the average PhD completion time for CS (for all students, both with and without masters) is around 6 years.
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has anybody that applied to the school of interactive computing heard anything? They said they'd try to send notifications out by the first week of march..welll here we are!
.. i hate waitingHow was your visit weekend? One of the guys here told me if you got a yes from your POI, then you'll almost certainly get in.
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Hi,
I took GRE for two times and could not get into any school this year - if I take GRE again will it increase my chances??
If your score is already decent enough, then no. If your score is absolutely terrible then retaking and getting a good GRE score will prevent your application from being tossed straight away but won't necessarily help you get in. Also, the higher the school rank, the lesser they care about GRE.
People can probably give you better answer if you specify the kind of schools that you're applying to as well as the rest of your profile.
If I take CS subject test, will it help? since my undergrad is from a very insignificant school.
If they don't know your undergrad school, then yes it will help if you get a good score for the subject test. But like I said previously, the higher the school rank, the lesser they care about GRE.
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Thanks for reply. I did have looked at the program ranking and know that Cal's CS program is among the best. But I do not expect if my future employer will also know this, or understand what I really did during the PhD program.
Any employer worth a salt will understand the general ranking for a specific program. Don't worry about it.
By the way, if I choose to go to a more prestigious university, like Princeton, will it enhance my chance to get a better job?
If you're planning to stay in the CS field, then the answer is no. And also, Princeton is not more prestigious than Berkeley in CS. Having said that, your advisor and your research quality will play a big role in landing your first job placement. So in my opinion if you're deciding between top 10 schools, choose one that has the best research opportunity in your subfield.
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Would you please tell me which professor you are indicating to? I have been interviewed by Georgia Tech and was informally told about my admission there, although I have not received any official notification from them.
There are plenty of awesome professors here. But since he's talking about HCI, most probably he was referring to Gregory Abowd. A really famous and overall great guy.
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How can you you use that to your advantage? The answer is simple. Ask him how. He surely knows better about this process than the average applicants here.
- hello! :) and anonacademic
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Hi!
I'm going crazy here waiting for the Cornell and Harvard SEAS results. Has anyone heard anything from these programs yet? Anyone got any idea of what their admission/rejection process is like?
Last year I received the results for both around February.
Finally, if say I don't hear from them for a couple more days, would it be ok to call them and ask about my admission status?
My suggestion is don't do that. They are already busy as it is, so I'd say wait until at least mid march. You still have until mid April to decide anyway.
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Don't fret over it too much guys. There's basically nothing you can do now. Just enjoy the moment! Last year I got most of the decisions in mid-end February.
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Thanks - I just wasn't clear on whether you meant that IF they reimbursed you then that was what they did, or if in fact your experience was that they all reimbursed you.
They all offered but I couldn't take up on the offer because I'm an international and it was too much hassle for me to get a visa and plan the trip in a rather short notice (They only gave me around 2-3 weeks preparation time for the visit).
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So did all the schools that accepted you reimburse a campus visit or what?
Like I said before, all offered to reimburse plane fare and gave accommodation.
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Nope, applying for fall. This school has rolling admissions. It's top 25, not top 10 though.
I see. Most of the places schedule campus visit in batch so they could organize a "visit weekend" more efficiently. So I think you'll still have to wait until February. If you're talking about UNC, my friend said the same thing applied for them too even though they do rolling admission.
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From my experience, they typically will tell you about it via email. Also, they will offer to reimburse the plane fare and provide accommodation. But I'm pretty surprised you got the decision so early. None of the top 10 places that I applied to last year gave me a decision before February. Are you applying for spring admission?
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Just so that you have something to compare with: I'm in Computer Vision, which is sort of AI and I have 1 paper each in ICCV and CVPR, which are the 2 top conferences in my field. Even though I have well above average publication record, I didn't get accepted to all the top 10 universities. This is to serve as a reminder that there are no guarantees when it comes to graduate school application, even when you have a good profile. If I were to be honest, your profile is good but pretty average for top 10 universities. There will be many students that will have similar credential as you. So, my advice is to apply to a wider range of schools. Just remember that there are many institutions outside the top 10 who also conduct excellent research.
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I am interested in pursuing a career in Machine Learning. The problem is that, at the moment I am not quite sure if I want to make a 5 year PhD commitment. It might happen that I can find full funding for a MSc degree if I go for it. Can someone please share their opinion on the Machine Learning departments in the following universities
1) Berkeley
2) Stanford
3) Columbia
4) Princeton
Berkeley, Stanford *and* CMU are the place to be for ML (I assume ML here means theoretical ML rather than applied). But I'm wondering why the preference towards Columbia and Princeton because there are other schools that are generally more well known for ML such as Georgia Tech and UIUC.
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Hi,
I have following questions:
1- Is it better to contact professors before formally applying to a university?
Not necessarily. I believe this is not common practice in CS, but I still think it wouldn't hurt if you tried. I'm an international applicant and I didn't do it in the last application season. I'd say my result was pretty good, so I don't think contacting professors is really necessary.
2- If a professor does not answer my EMail, may I try again after several days? Or is it better to try other professors?
If they don't reply, they're probably busy so it's better not to bother them with unsolicited email. Better try other professors.
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I'm taking 2 classes and my research is rather interdisciplinary so I have to go to a few meetings with different groups each week. In 1 week, classes take 6 hours of my time while the meetings take 8. That's an ideal load for me, so I'm happy with it.
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CMU, MIT and Berkeley probably have the most comprehensive group of CV people. The rest of the top 10 EXCEPT Princeton (Stanford, UW, Georgia Tech, UIUC, UT Austin, Cornell) are also very good and they're about equal for CV, with some schools being better than others at some areas.
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They also pointed out some schools that were ranked highly but should not be considered for application, because of their admission reputation.
Can you explain this statement? I can understand not applying to a highly ranked place because no one works on your area. But I think I've never heard "because of their admission reputation" being used as a reason before.
Now, to highlight that it's a crapshoot, at the time I applied to: #2, #4, #5, #7, #11, #13, #14, #15, if I recall correctly, and got into, with full funding, #5, #7, #11, and #14. The problem is that every year, even if you're a great candidate, the professors in your area may or may not be looking for students. Further, if you're not as great of a candidate but somehow few people applied in your field and there is a new faculty or a lot of students graduating, you may find yourself with much better chances at an offer.
I also attest to this crapshoot-ness of application. I applied to several top 10 schools and some of the results seem a bit random.
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Thanks for the link. My research focus is in the AI field and was the topic of the research I did this summer. The schools listed above are indeed all over the place and have since been updated with the following schools.
MIT
Stanford
UT Austin
UI Urbana-Champaign
Your list is missing some strong AI dept like CMU, Berkeley, Georgia Tech and UW. Also, those 4 + your list are all top 10 universities, you might want to add a few safeties because to be honest your stat, although good, is probably pretty average for top 10 universities. To stand out, you must have outstanding recommendations.
I will probably be adding to this list but they all have a strong focus in my area of interest as well as having specific projects that I can relate to. I don't have an absolute plan to pursue my PhD at this time though it is something which I am considering and would be beneficial (considering my goals to do research as a career). The reason that I do not have a specific plan for a PhD is that I just don't know how things will turn out. It may well be that I can get a good research position in a company without having to have a PhD. This brings me to a questions I have been wondering about. In my SOP I state that it is likely that I will pursue a PhD after my masters but that I do not yet have an absolute decision. Is this a good idea? I think I do a good job of solidifying my research ambitions as well my reasons for pursuing a masters, so I don't think my mentioning it doesn't come across to the reader as weak sounding (after all, its the truth). But I am wondering if it may be better just to say that I have goals to pursue a PhD flat out. Any thoughts?
In my opinion, don't say you want to pursue PhD flat out if you don't want to. It will show in your statement. Your current plan sounds better as long as you say it the right way.
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Hey, I also graduated from a university in Singapore but I'm in CS. I have lower GPA than you, comparable GRE but way better record in research. I managed to get accepted into several top 10 schools in CS (which usually I think have lower acceptance rate than MatSci/MatEng) so I think that means research experience counts a lot more than GPA and GRE. By the time I applied, I already have a couple of papers at the top conference in my field so I think that is the major factor that boost my application. In my experience, there are a lot of great research opportunities in Singapore so ask your Professors and look around. You have excellent stats so I think once you boost your research credential, your application will be in a pretty good shape.
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Thanks a lot guys!
PhD CS aspirant: Advice on Tier 1 universities
in Computer Science
Posted
It is really important that your recommender is known by people at your target university. If you haven't worked with one yet, find one.
For PhD at top schools I would argue that having at least 1 well known recommender is practically a requirement (based on my own experience as well as a few other friends'). Without a rec letter from a well known professor, your chances drop significantly.