svent

I urge you to look at the size of USC's program. This semester there are two lectures in their algorithms class, one with 212 students, the other with 188. That class is much bigger in the fall when most people take it. Not that TAMU is small, but it's at least more reasonable. At USC, you'll just be a number (and a good stream of income for them). Also note that Texas is fantastic for jobs. It's the only state that I'm aware of besides CA with 3 major cities for jobs. Sure there is no Silicon Valley, but Austin is pretty good as far as startups go, and Dallas/Houston have good economic climates too. Plus TX is very affordable to live in, and has no state income tax.

Regardless of what anyone says here, taking the test and doing a better job will increase your chances of admission, even if only marginally. If your time (and money) is better spent on other things like research or coursework, then don't take it again. Your LORs and undergraduate record will be the most important thing.

How about you apply this year with your current scores, then retake and get 165+ Q and apply next year and see what happens? Or just retake it without half-assing the test before applying at all.

Try to get 165+ Q.

Just be polite about it. I'd tell them which school you chose if they ask, or if you're close to someone at the department and would consider them a part of your professional network. Otherwise don't bother. I don't think the email needs to be more than two sentences long. If they had rejected you instead, they wouldn't feel bad about it (you spent money to apply as well). Now the shoe is on the other foot. I promise you as soon as you reject their offer, they'll send an offer to the person at the top of the waitlist.

USC's #20 ranking is based on the PhD program, which is legit. The Master's program is just there to rake in insane amounts of profit.

The wording in that image you posted makes me a little nervous. It sounds like you feel it's the right move, but I would hesitate to take such a risk. I do understand your desire to stay in DC and build your network, however. Let me tell you this from personal experience. I spent a couple years between my Math undergrad and CS grad (starting this fall) explaining to people I met that I was a student, but then had to go on this long explanation "well I was a Math major but have to take some CS classes to get my pre-reqs in so I can apply to schools in the fall blah blah." It was extremely annoying after explaining it the first few times and made meeting new people awkward. It made networking even more awkward, and I'm sure glad I'm just about done with this stage of not being a real student.

Do what you want. I would weigh the risk of burning bridges at FSU, especially given that your LOR writers are (I assume) from FSU. I'm probably a bit older and more cynical, but I would just take my best offer during this cycle, and not sit around letting certain schools play games with me.

"It's mathematically impossible to graduate with anything above a 3.1" "I graduated last semester with a 3.15" ?? If you didn't want to go to UF/FSU, why apply to them in the first place?

Assuming OP can get a job. That's the reason half the kids out there go to grad school anyway.

But taking and doing well in grad classes doesn't mean that much. Getting an A in a grad class is no big deal. There are many grad classes where you can get an A literally by just showing up most days. Getting an A in an undergrad class is much harder (usually). If you're barely a 3.0+ student, the fact is you're not the best out there, and I don't think it's worth the risk. Besides, this is AU you're talking about chasing, not UCLA or Harvard. Keep in mind when you take non-degree classes, you get no health insurance through the school, and you get no financial aid. If it's not an in-state school, things get very expensive. Would you have to move to DC and find housing to do this (which is very expensive in DC)? The fact that UF and FSU are offering partial funding, have already admitted you, and Gainesville/TLH are pretty cheap to live in make the right choice pretty clear. What happens when you chase your dream, do well, and still don't get in, because oh, well, "the applicants were even more competitive this year." They're leading you on, and I don't think you should buy a positive spin on a rejection. They don't believe in you, plain and simple. If I applied to a job and they said "you're not good enough, but if you come work for us for free for a year, we'll consider hiring you on," there's no chance in hell I'd seriously consider it. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. A bird in each hand is worth even more. Now I did take some non-degree classes to prepare my applications. Mostly undergrad classes, but a couple grad classes as well. One of them was pretty easy to get an A, but the other was quite hard. The intro class was a harder weedout class, whereas the advanced seminar-style class was easy, grades-wise. Taking the advanced grad class helped me show interest in my desired subfield, but getting an A in it didn't really mean anything. I did this because I was switching fields and needed some background to get in. If I had majored in the same field in undergrad, I wouldn't have taken non-degree classes.

Living in Indiana is safer and far cheaper than living in the horrible area of LA that USC is in USC admits as many people as possible and is huge. They have more postgrad students than undergrads. Their algorithms class has over 500 people I believe. If all you care about is ranking, go ahead. They have way too many red flags for me to want to go there, even if I do get in. I thought Rice was PhD only, aside from the professional Master's program, but Texas is good for jobs. UCSB is in CA (though not LA or SF), which is good for jobs. Raleigh is pretty good for jobs too, so if Duke has good coursework/research options for you, it's nearby. Purdue is near Chicago. Where do you see yourself living in 2 years?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=raleigh+cost+of+living

I'm pretty cynical, but it sounds like they want some more money and don't believe in you. Go with UF or FSU -- someone who actually believes you can succeed.

Who the hell cares about Ivy. You sound like an east coast parent. Go to UCSD. I bet UCSD tuition is cheaper too.

ucsd

I'll say this. In CS, many schools offer Master's programs which are still research-oriented. These are for people with a CS background from undergrad. Though you usually still have the opportunity to do coursework-only. There tend to be opportunities for funding, though PhD students are obviously prioritized. Then there are "professional Master's" programs (like UPenn's MCIT) which are major cash cow programs and are essentially like an undergrad CS program without all the extra crap (gen ed's). These tend to be for career changers who majored in English, Psychology, or whatever, and would have to spend a few years taking CS undergrad classes as a non-degree student just to get into a research-oriented MS program. People tend to have better career outcomes from the "real" Master's programs, but the people who got into the professional Master's probably didn't have the background to get into the "real" Master's programs anyway. Getting into a PhD program is hard, and research is key. That's why a "real" Master's program will be better.

I hear Stanford's MS class is huge (twice as big as PhD) so it's hard to get an advisor to supervise a thesis (especially since they care more about PhD students), and I imagine TAships are very competitive at the Master's level.

Look. If they believed in you, they'd be offering you funding. It's one thing to break into a field or get higher salary by doing a quick 1-2 year Master's (regular Master's, not sympathy Master's from a PhD program). Doing a PhD is a totally different story. Job prospects aren't so good with PhD, so don't even think about doing it unfunded unless you're already rich (even then, the department probably won't be that supportive of you).

Oh snap, just realized this thread is from 2012.

They won't think it's a joke degree. But your professors will think of you as 2nd class citizens to the PhD students. If you want to find someone to supervise a thesis, good luck. If you want coursework only, go ahead. The number of MS students in the department there is huge. Employers won't see a difference. I think the other posts in this thread are very useful too.

I thought Rice was PhD only? Or is it the Professional Master's? A lot of the course names at UCSB are "hidden" in the sense of being topics courses. I recommend looking here: http://cs.ucsb.edu/sites/cs.ucsb.edu/files/docs/290_area_list.pdf

It's true that places like Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD are best for going to Silicon Valley, but some highly ranked schools far away also have fantastic recruiting opportunities (places like UIUC, CMU, GaTech, UT Austin, Michigan, etc.). If you believe there's a chance you might prefer some other market to Norcal, consider that. UIUC would give you access to Chicago, UT Austin would give you access to Austin+Dallas+Houston, Michigan would give you access to uh... Chicago and Columbus? GaTech would give you access to Atlanta, etc.

Don't do PhD unfunded. Paying tuition for PhD is sort of like paying tuition for med school, except you'll quite possibly be unemployed at the end instead of making 6 figures.

It's in the middle of nowhere, but it's a very good school and you'd have excellent recruiting opportunities even from CA companies. Perhaps not as strong as Berkeley or even UCLA, but still top notch. The advantages are that you'd have cheap living costs and might have better access to recruiters from other markets, such as Chicago. If you get into UT, I'd probably go there though. Also cheap living, also good recruiters from CA companies, but access to TX companies as well. TX is probably the 2nd best state for tech jobs in the US, and probably has the best overall economy of any state in the US. It's also pretty central in the US and you might even get some recruiters from places like Atlanta or Denver, not sure though. I know you're just there to Americanize yourself, but you may want to consider what schools have better coursework/research that would match your interests.