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Don't do the PhD. But heed the advice above, you might re-apply after your MA and find yourself going to a LOWER ranked school. How do you avoid this? Plan ahead and get the heads up on what will improve your application early, don't waste your two years there - do something substantial with your end goal in mind.

Take the leap and go to Brown IMO. Moving is scary, but go into it with the right attitude and I guarantee you'll have an amazing experience. More importantly, you'll learn more than if you stay where you are.

I say send a card. It's more sincere IMO since you took the time to get a card and mail it.

I've TAed for almost two years now, and when I first started I felt the exact same way. Also, I was kind of anal about making sure that everything I did as a TA I did as perfectly as possible. I would go as far as recording entire precepts beforehand to make sure I worded everything in a clear and understandable way. This was in addition to grading, holding office hours and answering e-mails. I felt like I was spending far more time than my colleagues on TAing. My advice after going through that is not to stress out about it. It sounds like you're doing fine. Get your responsibilities done, but at the end of the day remember that after your two years there what's going to count is the research that you did. You need to be a little selfish as a TA, otherwise it's possible to get sucked into doing too much. Now, it sounds like you're actually not doing too much at all, but I say enjoy it while it lasts - not all TA gigs will be as awesome. If you REALLY feel you're doing too little, just be direct and ask the professor what responsibilities he wants you to have.

Your GPA is strong, but your GRE is pretty weak. For most universities your verbal score won't mean much, but for the top ones your application has to be strong across the board. I recommend re-taking the GRE and improving your verbal score. Assuming your recommendation letters and your statement of purpose are strong, here's my gut feeling on your chances: Columbia MSCS - Yes UC Berkeley MSCS - No UCLA MSCS - Yes UCSD MSCS - Yes Stanford MSCS - Unlikely Princeton MSE CS - Unlikely Cornell MEng CS - Yes Dartmouth MSCS - Yes Harvard SM Applied Math - No opinion Yale MS Applied Math - No opinion Good luck!

You're still young. Go and live your dream. Have no regrets. At the end of the day, you will know that you went for it, and while your concerns aren't petty, in the face of following your dream you will find a way to get past obstacles. You've come this far, don't stop now.

Just e-mailed my department and they replied in minutes that I had won a CGS M! Good luck everybody!

Talked to Graduate Studies and they said they can't release the decision information. God why do people still insist on postal mail? Same with Harvard... I now officially have a grudge against Harvard and NSERC.

Guess I shouldn't have stabbed my eye out there.

I applied through my school. I didn't get a PIN it just says: NSERC PIN (if known) And a blank text box. =/

I never got any kind of application confirmation email (or pin for that matter). I'm a little worried.

I applied to many of the top ten programs and received admits to Stanford (no funding), Princeton (full funding), UIUC (no funding), and Cornell (awaiting information). My initial belief was that it would be impossible to receive funding for masters in CS, so it was quite the shock when Princeton offered the tuition waiver + TAship. My belief is that Princeton accepts very few students (past few years only have like 3-5 people in each year) because they tend to help fund the ones they accept. If you're not satisfied with the programs you got into, a masters could be worth considering, but I really would not expect to get funding from the top programs. Worst case though is you could go to a far less expensive but still great program at a public university. Good luck!

Thanks for all of the awesome advice guys. I will be keeping it in mind as I make my decision in the coming weeks.

Joro - The more likely path I'll go down is making my own video games / movies rather than join a corporation (although movies would probably be more of a hobby), I've already helped work on some bigger game titles at game companies and worked on some personal games as well. You might ask why I'd want a masters at all if I want to be in the video game industry.. and I'm not really sure at this point.

I don't think there is harm in asking. I don't think that having a significant other and caring about whether your schooling conflicts with his makes you air-headed, if anything you're careful and considerate of the actions you're taking. Explain the situation (that you are most likely going to this university either way, however you are asking for an extension to make the situation less stressful). Obviously they don't need to accept your request, but if they really cared to keep you I don't think they'd force your hand unless they had extremely strong reasons.

Joro - My future plans are in the entertainment industry (games/movies). I want to start my own business at some point. explorer-c - That sounds reasonable... so you don't think there's too much discrepancy in "brand" between the two? Thanks guys!

My top choice from the beginning was Stanford, and I am incredibly happy that I have been given this choice of schools. The choice has come down to Stanford vs Princeton. Stanford is not offering any funding (I don't believe they are offering anybody funding for a MSCS), but Princeton (MSE program, master of science in engineering) is offering a full tuition waiver (38K/year) and a 25K/year Teaching Assistantship. On the basis of finances, it's a pretty clear picture. Stanford has better weather and a higher ranking in US News (#1 in graduate CS compared to #6 Princeton). How much does this difference in ranking actually mean to my prospects of getting an awesome job somewhere, or in terms of credibility? Is the Stanford MSCS admission criteria more lax because they are not offering funding? Some people say a Stanford MSCS is more of a "if you can pay you can go" deal. Any input is helpful... what would you do?

Hi all, Does anyone know anything about the Princeton MSE program? (Master of Science in Engineering) I applied and was accepted in February.

Hi fellow gradcafe members, My profile is as follows: 3.76 GPA 800 quant (94%), 660 verbal (94%), 5.5 aw (92%) 2 years of strong Software Engineering experience 3 strong letters of recommendation No research experience What do you think are my chances of getting into Stanford MS CS for this fall?