velua

You should have applied to a couple safeties...

Maybe try to see if you'd fit in with the other students better at one place. Both in terms of non-academic interests, and also if you're going to feel significantly above/below them intellectually. Or potential advisors. Or areas of study you're interested in. Maybe also consider smaller companies. Unless you're completely sold on living onsite at Google for the rest of your life and having no life.

Oh, UCSD isn't in San Diego? I see.

It's nowhere near April 15, so no.

How many classes do people usually take in M.S. CS programs? 3/semester? Also, I don't see why no university housing is a con. University housing is a scam. For example, my university apartment was $800/month my senior year (I think) and there were 4 of us, so they were making $3200/month. All for a crappy place with paper thin walls that might be worth $1600/month in the real world. We weren't even allowed to have a car there without getting some special permit too. At bigger schools, you also want to avoid all the partying too close to campus anyway. Rent in Pitt will be dirt cheap compared to SD, though.

Well, look people up from those companies on Linkedin and see where they went to school.

In general, I would say to go by location. Once you graduate and apply to jobs, HR people will throw out resumes of pretty much everyone who's not in-state. Having an M.S. isn't exactly rare these days. It's the new B.S. California is clearly better than Pennsylvania for CS jobs. You also want to land a job before you graduate. If you move after graduation to a state with a good economy, you'll have to deal with interviewers pretending they've been living under a rock since 2008, saying "oh, so you don't have a job?" However, with CMU, I'm sure the networking factor is very powerful and could land you a job anywhere in the country if you do well.

Like I said, go to some programs' websites at schools you're interested in. They'll list what background you should have, as CS grad programs attract applicants from many different majors. They'll all say programming in the basics (Java/Python/C++, C, etc.), data structures, algorithms, automata theory. Most will probably also want computer systems/organization/architecture and operating systems. Some also would like a software engineering course or compilers or something else.

I don't think GRE is that important. You're going to have issues with very little CS background, sociology major, not much of a portfolio, few recommendations outside of academia. Is there a local university where you can take at least data structures and algorithms? After that, computer systems, automata theory, and operating systems would help a lot.

And depending what you mean by top... for most people it's pretty impossible to get into the really elite schools (whether that means top 5, top 10, or whatever else).

I'm currently taking classes at my local uni in CS. I was a math major (but took some CS classes too). One problem I've run into is the classes at my particular school fill up right away and I don't get the chance to take the ones I want. Last semester I tried to get into the Operating Systems class, but it was full, so I went with the graduate algorithms class instead. I ended up really liking that class, but OS was full again this semester, and I could only get into the graduate OS class. Turns out that one is way too advanced for me at this point, and I'm hoping someone drops the undergrad version soon. Might have to wait for the fall to take that class by moving somewhere with a bigger university. Anyway, the state school I'm doing this at is very convenient because I can just register for classes as long as there's an open seat and I can afford the class. For pre-reqs, I just email my college transcript to show I've taken the pre-reqs at a different school. Some schools will be a pain and make you fill out applications to be a non-degree student. Some schools even make you get 3 letters of recommendation. It's almost like applying to grad school at these places just to take a deficiency course, pretty ridiculous. To answer your other question, I think it depends what CS classes you have under your belt. You can look up admissions criteria at schools you're interested in. They'll typically mention they want data structures, algorithms, automata theory, computer architecture, operating systems, maybe a couple others too.

I understand that. But I would imagine lots of the foreign students would struggle more on the verbal, and even the Americans (like me) wouldn't do great on the verbal because I'd been reading math books for 4 years, not books with "real" words. I agree about the GRE. The problem is what math should they test? Calculus is the only real math most science majors take. If they ask you to compute a bunch of easy derivatives and integrals, it's not really any different from the current test except that the science majors will get the same scores they already do and the English majors will flat out fail. The subject GRE is about 50% calculus and is legitimately difficult though. I think I got a 730 on it (out of 990 or something) and the percentile was somewhere in the 60s I believe. Half of the calculus questions are actually more theoretical real analysis type questions. I remember figuring out how to do one of the GRE problems my 2nd year into a Math Ph.D. program. Maybe one could take the Math GRE (or the Putnam!) for fun to boost an application since there's no longer a CS subject test. Edit: Oh, and on the math subject test, I wouldn't have done anywhere near that well had I not been a calculus TA for 2 years. Really got me to learn the material well. They should probably just eliminate the GRE entirely, and just require the subject test for certain fields.

I like score 2 also. But I saw on one school's website (not even highly ranked) that their average scores are something like 152 math, 158 verbal, which surprised me (for a CS program). Who cares that much about verbal for CS? When I took the GRE (for math grad school) 4+ years ago, I got 800 math, 550 verbal, which is apparently something like 156 verbal, 170 math. And I felt 550 verbal was pretty good for a bunch of nerds who haven't touched a literature book for 4 years. Btw, did they make the math section harder with the new scoring system? Because back when I took it, 800 was 94% percentile. Something seems a little strange.

Hi all. I'm currently taking some deficiency courses (as well as some graduate courses) to prepare to apply for M.S. programs, and I'm likely going to apply this summer to a few programs that offer Spring admissions (then apply to more in the fall if I don't get in anywhere). Some of the schools at the top of my current list offer Spring admits. My question is: does it tend to be easier or harder to get in as a Spring admit to these programs? Again, I'm looking at M.S. programs, not Ph.D. I'm not sure that the answer would change my plan to apply for the Spring anyway, but I was just curious what people thought.

When I was looking at schools for PhDs, a big part of it was identifying research interests -- looking up specific professors and seeing what their research is about, taking a look at some of their papers, etc. For Master's programs, some are just about taking courses, while others may include a thesis option/requirement. Is a reasonable approach to go down the top 100 list choosing schools that are in an area you wouldn't mind living in and that have a variety of courses you'd be interested in taking? Then taking a look at specific professors after that?

Thanks for the post. Not much experience with stats. My research experience did involve statistics (and programming) though, so I'd try to emphasize that. I also passed the first actuarial exam a while back, which is on probability. I'd hope I don't have to retake the GRE. From what I've seen so far, programs want scores within the past 5 years, and I will have taken the GRE 4 years before application season. They would find out about my Math GRE Subject test on the score report anyway. I would like to think quantitative programs don't care as long as you get near perfect score on the Math part and a respectable score on the verbal. In math programs, nobody cared about the regular GRE, except the actual university (not the department making decisions). Actually, I don't think I put GRE stuff on my resume last time, just entered the scores in the applications. (I also didn't list my Putnam score last time since the score came out after applications were due.) I'm aware that there is a difference between what you learn in an academic environment and what you need to succeed as a software engineer. Having a Master's could open up opportunities certainly, but one reason I'm considering it is to "remove" the gap from my resume as I've been looking for a job for a while now. (Who knows, maybe just taking a couple classes this fall at the local college to bridge the gap in my CS knowledge before applying to schools could help enough with the resume gap to land a job.) Also, my degree right now is in Math, not CS, so that makes it tougher to get past HR. And the fact that most of my programming experience is years old makes it hard to convince hiring managers that I'm the best candidate. Learning everything I'd pick up from coursework certainly wouldn't hurt me with respect to job prospects. Additionally (perhaps most importantly), it would give me a couple years to build up my skills/portfolio. I'm not looking to go for a Ph.D. I'm going to register for the Automata Theory class today. Unfortunately, the Operating Systems class is full. I'll see if I can get on a waitlist or get in an OS class at a different college nearby. The only other open class I see that I could take is an advanced algorithms class.

The only publication I have was from my REU (undergrad). I was only in the program long enough to take classes, didn't advance far enough to do research. Too bad I'll have to talk about it... things were alright at first, but my motivation and grad GPA went south the last year there. I suppose I could talk about how I turned things around by taking courses at my local uni and doing well, and maybe even working on a couple personal programming projects or Project Euler stuff. To be honest, I was a little discouraged when applying to grad schools the last time around. Granted, it was for Ph.D. programs, and maybe math is more competitive than other fields. But most of the schools I applied to were ranked around 10-30, and out of about 10 schools, I only got into 1, and that was after being waitlisted past 4/15. That, and my lousy grad school experience, makes me doubt that I'd get in to a top school. But maybe if it's a self-funded Master's, they wouldn't care as much.

I could take classes at the local uni in the fall on Operating Systems, Computer Architecture, Automata Theory. Not sure if Computer Architecture would be essentially the same thing as the Computer Systems class I took before. Compilers and AI classes have pre-reqs that I haven't taken. Could also take a Database Systems class, but that's not one of the classes I saw as a basic pre-req for admissions. If I don't get a job this summer, I suppose I could take classes in the fall on OS and Automata Theory, apply for spring admissions in some places, and if I don't get in, take Compiler Design and something else in the spring while applying for fall admissions.

First off, I apologize if I'm asking obvious questions here that get asked a million times. Didn't see a sticky in this subforum with common questions. I'm considering getting an M.S. in CS, and I have a few questions. My background is as follows: -B.S. in Math a few years back, around 3.7 GPA (3.5 GPA in CS courses... or 3.6 if you count discrete math as CS) -My GRE score was 800 Math, 550 verbal, 4.5 writing. This is apparently equivalent to 166 Math, 156 verbal on the new format. -730 on the Math subject GRE and 20 on the Putnam -I was in Math grad school for a Ph.D., but I became miserable and quit after a couple years -One Math REU with a publication (the REU was pretty computational and involved some programming) -Experience with Java, C, Assembly. Have a book on C++ and a book on Java Android programming I'm hoping to start getting through pretty soon I'm trying to get a job as a Software Engineer, but it's been tough for a variety of reasons and I'm considering getting an M.S. for this reason. I've taken programming classes, data structures, algorithms, computer systems, plus tons of math (including discrete math, cryptography, linear algebra, etc.) I'd prefer to apply directly to an M.S. program than to try my luck with Ph.D. programs and then quit once I got the M.S. Anyway, here are my questions (maybe I'll add something later if I forget anything): (1) If listing relevant coursework on a resume, what math courses are relevant besides discrete math and maybe linear algebra or cryptography? (2) From a cursory look at different programs' websites, it appears I'll need to take a couple pre-req courses I haven't taken before. Do programs tend to say "you're admitted, but you need to take these courses," or is it unwise to even apply before taking the courses? (3) Is it worth putting a decent Math GRE Subject Test score on a resume? What about Putnam score? (4) How high of a school could I reasonably aim for? I know I'm not going to get into any top 20 schools, but should I look for programs ranked around 40-70? (5) Do you need to have a particular interest/have a professor in mind, or do you just apply and then figure that stuff out later like in Math? (6) I know programs will care about projects you've done, but would they care about things like Project Euler? (7) Is it a problem if all 3 letter-writters are Math professors? I have one CS professor I took two classes with and got As, but he's pretty terrible about responding to emails, so it could be hard to contact him. I know one other CS professor who would respond quickly I'm sure, but I only got a B+ in his class. Thanks in advance for the help. Edit: Actually, the new GRE sections are apparently out of 170, so my Math score should be 170 since I got every question right, not sure why the ETS site says the conversion is 166. Probably doesn't matter though.