I asked the graduate adviser, who is the director of academic programs. She said traditionally all their M.S students are funded by RA or TA. That's the reason she gave. I'm in the M.Eng program which is pretty new so I might be the first case of trying to change to a M.S.
I was worried about my GPA since I got a B last semester, but she didn't seem too concerned. She said "well you DO have a 3.6," as if that's a good GPA or something.
Anyway, she told me to fill this curriculum form and have my thesis adviser sign it. Even though the fact I'm self funding is new to them, I don't think it's a deal breaker. Why would they turn down someone who is self funded and want to do a little research? The only other reason is probably due to the fact that M.Eng admission standard than the M.S. But if she thinks my GPA is good enough, and my GRE is good enough, I don't see an issue.
I think it's important that when I fill out the form, I give a convince reason why I want to do a M.S. Here are my reasons:
1. I want to do a Phd later and a MS would be a smoother transition.
2. Getting research experience in a topic I'm interested in is very important to me.
3. I'm taking a couple of 500 level courses with research projects that are highly relevant to my topic anyway.
4. I've been attending the group meetings of the thesis adviser I want to work with last semester, and we have already decided on a project.
Do you think those are convincing reasons? I guess the reason I asked here is because I want to know how to improve my petition. You guys probably understand the perspective of the school/dept. thanks