asmithe

Hi gazzik, I don't mean to threadjack, but I am very interested in hearing your opinion about CalPoly's CS grad department. The school is one of my top choices for the next admissions cycle because of its "learn by doing" approach and close ties with industry in CA. What do you not like about the grad department? I too do not have a background in CS (only a few courses), so I thought Poly's undergraduate focus won't be too big a deal because I need to fill in the gaps anyway. Anticipating your opinion. Thanks!

Thanks for the advice bsharpe, I didn't know there was much demand in industry for bioinformaticians. This is completely unrelated, but does anyone know about Cornell's MEng CS? Is this program as tough to get admitted as it's MSCS program? I met the basic prereqs listed on their site and I like the industry focus (and shorter course).

Thanks for letting me know, I really like the program and it is close to home but I was a bit scared off by the website.

Hi bsharpe, yeah I have thought about it, but in reality I'm trying to get away from bioscience research with this change of fields. At least in my experience (doing basic science research) progress is far too slow for my taste, and the practical applications of the research are too distant. I am interested in some aspects of computational biology, but I don't want to be tied down to academia. Do you feel that given your program you could move into a developer/engineer role in industry should you want to?

I've looked at UMass Amherst and SUNY Stony Brook, and I will probably apply to them. Overall from the FAQ pages I've read most publics seem to demand a much stronger background in CS than I could possibly have (often asking for 10-12 courses of background, essentially a BS). Any suggestions for good schools public or private that are forgiving of poor CS background?

Um, you should discuss this with your committee. Leaving with a masters might be a reasonable solution.

haha not really, I just wrote them down as I remembered. I'd say Dartmouth is my first choice and Brown was the one I was least certain I should apply to. In regards to USC, I don't know much about the stats needed to get in, just that the program is a good fit. Out of the others I don't have a huge preference, it would come down to cost most likely.

Hello, thank you for reading. I recently graduated from a small unranked state school with a B.S. in biology, I've been working at the university doing research since graduating. During this time I've taken some CS courses and want to apply to a MS program. My GPA is probably my biggest downfall, mostly out of laziness, I never really enjoyed biology that much but I didn't know what else to study. If you could please look at my list of schools and let me know which are a waste of time/money to apply to. I know my stats and situation are not ideal so I don't want to waste application fees and my letter writer's time. Thank you all for your help. Overview Domestic Applicant with US degree School: small unranked state uni Degree: B.S. biology Undergrad GPA: 3.34 cumulative (3.47 not counting freshman year, didn't take it seriously) Post-Bac GPA: 3.8 GRE: 164 Q / 159 V LOR: 2 very good, 1 average 3.5 years molecular biology research (1.5 yrs full-time, 2 yrs undergrad) with 1 first author publication in Molecular Microbiology CS Courses Taken (all post-bac): -intermediate programming (Java) -linear algebra -data structures and algorithms (single course) -discrete math -computer organization Also taking machine learning but won't have grades in time for application deadline. Schools: Tufts Boston University Northeastern Brandeis University of Southern California Dartmouth College Also other suggestions for schools are welcome.