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OH YEAH

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Everything posted by OH YEAH

  1. I don't think coming from a name brand school helps in and of itself. The reason it is so important is because your letters of recommendation are important, and professors at name brand schools know the professors that you want to work with! However, that won't help so much if your recommendations aren't great. If you don't have research experience, then what exactly will your LoRs say that will convince an adcomm that you are prepared for doing research? Every year I see the admits for Princeton, and almost everyone comes from a name brand school. What will set you apart from those people will be your research experience, and you don't have any. I wouldn't get your hopes up.
  2. You want to "major" in Computer Science? You applied to liberal arts schools (Richmond, Oberlin)? Is this for undergrad or for grad? If you are applying for undergrad, go to Richmond or Oberlin!
  3. You seem to misunderstand... it isn't that you would have a "better chance" to get into a good PhD program, it's that you would have a chance at all. I would totally put my money on 3.3 and research over 3.7 and no research. But then again, if we are talking about "good" PhD programs, it is likely that the person with a 3.7 and research will get selected...
  4. Where the Princeton admits at? I'm again going to be going to (at least one of) the welcome dinners for the new recruits so I look forward to meeting you guys in person Speaking of dinners, I'm jealous of everyone who gets to pick schools. It is a lot of fun travelling place to place, meeting cool people and being wined and dined.
  5. I didn't. Who cares about the specific dates? I've never seen that advice given anywhere.
  6. The information you have given is not sufficient for me to come up with appropriate schools. One needs a sense of your research potential. If I had more information about your research, or knew where it was published, or had an idea of the kinds of letters people would write for you, then maybe. My first impression is that your research did not appear in very good places, because 1) journals aren't the main means of dissemination in systems, and 2) four publications is a lot for only one research experience. But to be sure, I wanted to clarify, and/or take a look at your publications to try to gauge how interesting and involved the research was (I partially work in systems). People in PhD programs on this forum are your peers. We're generally good contacts to make, if only because you should be networking in grad school. I've met people from this forum before. Nobody is out to expose you. However, I'm not "very, very curious" -- I am doing you a favor, not the other way around. *Perhaps you shouldn't be so sensitive
  7. You got 4 publications out of one semester as an RA? Where are you published?
  8. Yes, I know that it costs a good bit of cash to publish in PLoS. I don't think these costs are necessary, though--doesn't most of it go to actually printing the articles? For instance, PLoS One is cheaper than most on that list, and is online only from what I recall. There's no reason to print journals anymore--print on demand is greener and cheaper. That being said, I think PLoS is a step in the right direction, and it is nice to have an official organization to back open access ideas. I agree that the arXiv is the way to go. At least in CS, you don't get paid to review articles, so there is no reason any of the process should cost money at all (except for hosting costs, which are cheap).
  9. Let's not take that for granted -- a lot of careers have been made through NSF grants that *didn't* require the material to be open access. I would like to think that this great move was made partially under pressure from concerned scientists. It's still not good enough. Not a dime should go to these publishing companies, as they do not provide a service that the community could not perform on its own. It's still a waste taxpayer money, and given how tight money is for research grants, we should be guarding that money as carefully as possible from special interests.
  10. Why vote down the OP? (corrected now ) It's true. While publishing companies used to provide an essential service--typesetting and physically disseminating the research--they no longer provide either. At least in computer science, we typeset everything ourselves. As for physical dissemination, who cares? It makes more sense (to the readers, to the authors, to the funding agencies, ...) to save the publishing costs, put the material for free on the Internet, and let whoever wants a copy spool it to their printer. Now the role of journals and conferences (the latter if you are in CS) is brand name, but this is a function of the community, not the publisher. One can transfer prestige by simply having all of the distinguished members of the community move to a different home. This is most often seen when entire editorial boards resign and fork the journal (which has happened many times). This is the best introduction to the problem I know of. http://www.scottaaro...ngs/journal.pdf Those looking for a longer, but perhaps more comprehensive account, should check out Knuth's experience resigning from the Journal of Algorithms (http://www-cs-facult...nuth/joalet.pdf). It will probably be our generation that finally cuts out the leeching middle man, so spread the word. P.S. I am jealous of the biologists, who have the Public Library of Science (http://www.plos.org) behind them.
  11. 2 posters, not papers... posters generally aren't competitive. I don't actually think it is easier to get into the MS program at Princeton than the PhD program because they are both fully funded (I don't actually know, though). I think you should apply to whichever fits your life's goals. You seem to have a lot of research experience, so if your research was good and your letters of recommendation have very positive things to say about you and your research then I would encourage you to apply.
  12. Uh, examples? I just looked at Berkeley and MIT and didn't see such a requirement, and I know Princeton doesn't have such a requirement. Nobody cares about your verbal GRE as long as you aren't in the 30th percentile or something. Your "average" recommendations are what will kill you, not your GRE scores
  13. That sucks. I just assumed all grad students had (shared with 3 or 4 people) offices with their own computers. Guess it is a CS luxury :-)
  14. I find it weird people carry so much stuff with them. I usually carry nothing but the essentials (keys, phone, wallet) and my iPod for the walk to the CS dept. Sometimes I leave my phone at home. I have notebook/pen setup at both my home and office desktops. I also a keep a notebook/pen/reading light next to my bed. I only carry my laptop when I need to give a presentation---if I want to walk around and think, I either use a whiteboard or take a notebook to a random peaceful location on campus. Internet is just a distraction. Is it that History students do not have offices with computers?
  15. My girlfriend bought me a space pen a year ago, and I've never looked back. It's really nice to never have to scribble to get the ink running, and it can write from any angle no problem, which is great when lying down with a notebook to brainstorm. It never bleeds either. It really is the perfect pen. Specifically, I have this one: http://www.spacepen....ebulletpen.aspx
  16. We know almost nothing about you, and there are hundreds of CS MS programs in the US. Since you seem to have no filtering criteria, why don't you just go down the US News list and see if each masters program looks good to you.
  17. I think you should go with the "stunning" one, but make sure your employer knows how to write a letter of recommendation (http://www.cs.brown.edu/~sk/Memos/Grad-School-Recos/). "Very mediocre" letters will only bring your package down, and if that letter doesn't talk about research at all, I see no benefit of picking that letter.
  18. If you have no research experience then I think you won't get into the schools you mentioned for PhD. I don't think you can produce a strong SOP, because your SOP should be primarily talking about your research experience and convincing the adcomm that you are capable of doing research. Likewise, if your LORs aren't from academics (let alone well known academics), it is even harder. There are different applicant pools to the PhD and MS programs; it isn't the case that it is as hard to get into an MS program, which you will pay for, as it is to get into a PhD program, which they will pay for. If you have a lot of work experience and good coursework in CS I think you'll be fine for a masters program (although I don't know how selective the schools you listed are).
  19. Of course there isn't necessarily a correlation between high intelligence and politeness. I think a lot of smart people act this way to get a rise out of people. In other words, they like to troll. Which is what Aaron is doing.
  20. Hey man, I'm just speaking what I think is the truth--you come off to me as a super duper mega troll. But in my defense, I PMed you about the troll stuff and didn't blast you on the forum for it. But since you decided to bring it out of PM, fair game, right? Here is why I think you are a troll: - You cycle from "thanks, that helps!" to "man everyone here is so cliquey" to "here are MY philosophical insights" and back again. - You act like you understand academia ("So far I've done alright, and so far I've noticed academia in "real life" values these things - integrity, truth-seeking, standing up for oneself, standing up for facts, standing up for doing things the best way possible. It's only a bunch of online grad students that think they know better.") but in another thread you admit that you seem incapable of handling academia/research. - You brag about your grades, you rag on TAs, blame the forum for... god knows what ("It seems a lot of people on here dislike whenever anyone mentions something above some generic average. Above average on the GRE? Best not mention it. Good grade? Keep it to yourself. Good school? Be careful what you say. Good house? A lot of money? Little debt? Happy family? Don't have to study for the GRE? Spend less than average time on something (like, say, an SOP)? All these things are off limits.") yet again, you appear to be inept/helpless when it comes to research (which is what really matters). It is infuriating, and, as a result, you've managed to rile up a good number of the forum members. Good job. I simply don't buy that a graduate student at Stanford could honestly be as consistently rude, floundering, or self-contradictory as you have been. Maybe this is just how you are and I am a terrible person, but either way, I refuse to engage you any further after this message. I think you should stop posting and reflect on how silly you have been.
  21. Here's what I'm thinking: - You don't seem to need a masters. You have a degree from Columbia and great work experience. What exactly would a masters demonstrate? It might get you a "mandatory" pay raise, but in those cases, I think any masters will do, so you don't really need to worry... - If you DID want a masters, you sound smart enough and you have an interesting story to tell. I think you would do well in the admissions cycle. What would be important for you is to get really good grades and a really good math GRE score. A spot of research wouldn't hurt either. - I've never seen someone your age in a top-tier PhD program in CS. I think you're too old for a PhD, and you don't have the research experience or educational background to be competitive at top schools. You would have a ridiculous amount of catchup to do in your postbac/masters program. That being said, if you're an exceptionally smart and hardworking person and manage to get your stuff together, you might be able to pull it off. I'd think long and hard about what you want out of life, and whether a PhD will help you further those goals. - If you want to learn how to code, consider self-study. I think it's really hard to teach how to be a good programmer. The best way, in my opinion, is to think of something the world needs, and code it up + release it as open source software. I can't imagine you're in it for the social aspect, since your peers will be much younger than you.
  22. I imagine you also got downvoted because the members of this forum are or have been TAs. I'm a TA, and I found your post fairly offensive. It is enough of a struggle to fit meeting with students, grading assignments, and sometimes giving lectures along with my regular research load (no, it doesn't get lighter), the class I am taking, and my family. On top of this, I have to hunt down people and give them their assignments--perhaps just to be told "thanks for grading my assignment, but I actually know just as much about this as you do!"? As if TAs care about demonstrating their superiority over those who take the course. How petty and immature.
  23. Surely, you have some sort of point to make since you are posting on this forum. When you fail to be polite, your point is obscured. By conforming to social norms, you can quickly come to enough of an understanding with other humans such that communicating your point is possible. By not conforming to social norms--i.e., being unnecessarily confrontational as you have been in this thread--it is much more difficult to make your point, because you have to "figure out" the other person. Pick and choose your battles carefully. Is your point really to expose thegradcafe as a clique? Is your point to let us know how you make friends with people ("I am a very long-term friendship oriented person.")? If so, stop trolling. If not, you are doing a poor job communicating with us, and you should reevaluate your philosophy.
  24. VLDB and SIGMOD are the best of the best database conferences, so if your papers are real contenders (and your letters of recommendation indicate this, and come from professors who one would believe) I think you've got a great shot. Being a resident of the USA might increase your chances ever so slightly, but not as much as being a masters student reduces your chances. If those papers got in, and you just had your bachelors, I'd say you'd get in anywhere you wanted. As a masters student, it is less impressive since you have had a year (or worse, two) to do more research than the other applicants. I think you still would have a great shot for top 10-20 schools if those got in, though. When will you hear back from the adcomm? Can you update your application while it is in review to say that they were accepted?
  25. And be sure not to say things like "Even though I don't have formal research experience, I have applied experience in X, Y, Z...." Just don't draw any attention to the fact.
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