albertlee

thanks for the reply but for: 2) I don't plan on giving out their contact info. I just would like to mention their name, that's all. For instance, "I did XXX under Dr. Doe." For such simple name mentioning, do I still have to go through the hassle of contacting each one of the researchers I've worked with? It takes days for them to respond. 3) It just turns out that the most recent mentors I had would write the best letters because of my performance in their groups. 4) So since my two of my letters are coming from my most recent two mentors, my question is then, would CS adcoms go on asking people whom I've worked with in the more distant past? I don't mind the adcoms checking with the most recent one since I am getting a letter from him any way.... please clarify more thanks

So in my resume/personal statement, is it considered OK to mention the names of people who supervised me on projects? Do I have to go ask each one of them before I do this? So I had 4 research projects, each with a different mentor. I decide to only ask for the most recent two mentors for letters. The third one will be from my own school. Another concern is, if I do mention all the names, is it likely that the admission committee goes about asking mentors I had from the more distant past whom I don't letters from? I didn't perform nearly as well in my first two research projects....... please help thanks so much

thanks so much for the suggestion!

Most CS grad schools have hard deadlines around Dec/Jan. However, the schools don't state explicitly whether they want letters of rec to be received by the same hard deadline. Is it assumed then that they have to be in by the same deadline? Or they can be received some time later? If so, how late is acceptable?

Hi all, I just got my unofficial scores. 155v 168m I think I am ok with my math score. However, it looks like my verbal is only at the 65th percentile. :-( Do you guys think that my verbal is too weak to deserve a chance at a top 5 school? Should I really retake my GRE? I am aiming for a PhD.

Ok, this sounds a bit absurd. If it's not the EE department admissions committee deciding who should get the 3-year fellowships, then who does it, some liberal arts-y deans trying to recruit well-rounded charismatic dudes? I hope some one can clarify. thank you.

thanks for the reply. So I am curious. You now study at a math instead of cs grad school?

thank you so much for the reply, SiraRaven. I initially wanted to become a researcher in pure math, but then as I progressed I felt I enjoyed computer science more. To me, I just felt I wanted to have more time to see what I really should pursue before I settle down on one. Any way, if any one has any more input to my first post regarding how my duration of bachelor might affect CS PhD admission, please don't hesitate to comment. Thank you

Hi, Due to research and study abroad (I've always wanted to go outside US and just experience a new culture), if I want to graduate my BS in 4 years, I can only get a BS in Mathematics, with considerably many CS courses under my belt, but still not even close enough to be awarded a BS in Computer Science. So, at the moment, I am thinking of maybe just take one more year in order to graduate with a BS in CS and Math. I am perfectly fine with this financially, but I am wondering whether or not taking 5 years to graduate will work against me in grad school admission, since they probably want people to already own a master 5 years after completion of high school? I think I have the capability of getting a master in this extra year, but my school is undergraduate-focussed so no master or PhD any way. So, which path should I take? 1) graduate in 5 years with a BS in Math and CS and better research credential. 2) graduate in 4 years with a BS in Math and good research credential. Please help! thank you

thank you so much for your reply, symbolic. Now, the irony is that, I only have research experience in software engineering. As far as AI goes, by the the time I apply to grad school, I will only have taken some AI classes and done some AI projects. Do you think the lack of my AI research experience would make my application weaker? The thing is, it's pretty hard for me to get research experience in all my fields of interest.... :-/ please help

sorry for this double post, but any input to my above message??? I really need to decide whether or not applying to the software engineering PhD program is worth it.... thanks!

thanks so much for the reply. The reason I am asking is, it seems that CMU's software engineering program focusses primarily on your total solution development, that is, skills in aggregating technologies for developing software solution that are often important in the industry. I have extensive research background in software engineering, especially in compiler and multi-core programming. "Prior industrial software development experience, especially software design and programming experience as a member of a system team, is a strong asset. Students without sufficient quantity or quality of experience will spend more time during the program gaining practical experience. At a minimum, we expect that every student entering the program will have experience equivalent to two summer internships as a member of an industrial software development team." From the description of the website above, it seems like CMU's software engineering program wants people who have used lots of technologies like AJAX, C#, you name it, before in industry say Microsoft to develop for instance web applications, mobile phone applications, etc etc. I have never used any of these. I have done programming jobs for my research developing parallel tools for scientfic data file format conversion at a US national lab, but they are all written in C, Fortran, and Java. I don't know if these programming experience for scientific computing research rather than industry software development would count. :-/ That's why I am hesitating. I don't want to apply to something if I don't even meet the obvious requirement stated on the website. Any input to this would be highly appreciated!! :-) Thank you

Hi, I am prospective graduate school applicant. My interest lies in incorporating other computer science domains such as AI into software engineering. Now, should I apply for a PhD in software engineering or a PhD in computer science? What's the difference between the focus of these two programs? please help