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angusBF

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Everything posted by angusBF

  1. Hey again, Congrats on the REU. I don't think you can go wrong with a strong research experience on your grad school application. Where are you going, if you don't mind sharing? keep it beefy, angusBF
  2. Hey CSGuy, Well, I don't have a similar record or even background to yours. I will be going for graduate school in CS with undergraduate background in Physics and Applied Math. So I can't effectively comment on your course work except to wonder, how is your major GPA so low if you only list one C within your CS/Math courses? But you say that you "intend to apply to grad school" shortly. To me this signals that you need to be emphasizing your capabilities as a researcher and perhaps trying to get your name on a publication. Yes, industry experience is good to show your competence in the subject. But unless you are getting a publication or a glowing letter of recommendation directly related to your intended CS research out of it, I don't think it will help you as much as a research experience will. Besides the fact that you already spent 1.5 years working at your industrial place, which clearly shows that you can do the job there. If I were you, I would go with the top 20 REU if you are seriously considering applying and getting admitted to a graduate program. Otherwise, go with industry. Hope this helps, angusBF
  3. Hey dant.kz, I have been thinking whether I wanted to take the CS GRE or not so I have looked into some preparation materials. But I haven't actually taken the test. It's true, it's pretty hard to find good test preparation materials for this test, but there are a few. Here is a link that has a list of several useful resources. Especially the Titanium Bits study guide has quite a hand full of good responses on the net. The guy who wrote it asks for $10 if you want to use the study guide beyond a two week period, but I'd say that's incredibly cheap for a good resource. You should check out the other sources as well though, especially the official ETS booklet since it is actually the only "official" ETS preparation material. Finally, others claim that starting with the CLRS Algorithms textbook and other textbooks you used while in undergrad is the way to go. This will give you solid prep since no one test preparation book will cover all the material in enough depth. However, just an aside...do make sure that you actually *need* to take the CS GRE and will benefit from it before you spend a lot of effort on preparing because this will be a difficult test. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/646203/useful-resources-for-the-gre-computer-science-subject-test Hope this helps, angusBF
  4. Hey Jake, I am not a Statistics person, so I don't know too much about that area. The only thing I can say is that the official U.S. News and World Report rankings put UNC's statistics program in the top 10, while Columbia's is in the 20s (see here http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-statistics-schools/rankings). But I do agree that when people hear Columbia, they tend to think that it's more prestigious than UNC, but that probably depends on what group of people you are talking to. If you speak with Statistics professors, I am sure they have high regard for UNC if it's so well ranked. Also, I graduated from UNC as an undergraduate. So I will agree with you on the atmosphere and the living situation in Chapel Hill. It is quite a bit more quiet than NYC, but I don't think you will get bored. There are plenty of things to do and entertain yourself with if that's what you are concerned about. Also, the living costs are RIDICULOUSLY low. You can rent a very nice and spacious two floor townhouse with a roommate, which is very close to campus, and has all amenities including a W/D in your unit and pool/tennis court/beach volleyball court for $840/mo. I am speaking from first hand experience. That's definitely a plus. Further, UNC is a public university whereas Columbia is a private one. So I could be wrong, but at least in my area of study public universities are much more generous with RA/TA funding for Masters students than private ones. So if I were you, I would be inclined to choose UNC. But you should definitely get more opinions. I hope this advice helps in your decision. Cheers, angusBF
  5. No probs, grad I could be of service. Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks for being my friend . No more friendlessness lol.
  6. Yes, thank you. I am beefy indeed . Though I don't actually have any friends right now. I am totally friendless , it's so embarrassing. Wana be my first gradcafe friend?? That's a very good question. I thought quite a bit about this when I was applying. And I think the answer is: "it depends". I concluded that if you are applying to a top school, e.g. Berkeley who "recommends" it, you need to gauge your application against the ones that they will be receiving. Meaning, consider the fact that they accept less that 5% of the people all of which have excellent grades, research, letters of recommendation, and likely at least one publication. If your credentials measure up to that, then you will probably be fine without taking it even though it's "recommended." If your credentials are not quite there, the GRE subjects might put you in consideration and prove to the admissions committee that you know what you're talking about when it comes to CS. Because the CS GRE is known to be a pretty tough test. But considering the fact you will (likely) not be applying to a top 10 school, this is not such a big concern. It seems to me that you can craft your application well enough to be right on par with the applicants to the universities in the 20-50 range without a "recommended" CS GRE score. So I say, if you believe you are well suited for the program and can present a strong case for yourself given your experience, then go for it whether it's "recommended" or not. However, the real thing to consider here is........that was the make it or break it for me........do you think you could score well on it? Go to the ETS GRE website and download a test booklet for the CS GRE and look at some of their sample questions. It's available for free. If you think you know the stuff well and will be able to get a good score with timely preparation, then by all means go for it. I don't think it will hurt you to present a good score and will likely solidify your position as an applicant to any university you choose. But, if you look at the questions and think....mmmmyeeeeaaah. Then seriously re-consider. I think it is much better to apply without a "recommended" GRE score than to supply a bad one. "It is better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." Cheers, angusBF
  7. Hey, ala_alf Welcome to the grad school applicants club :-). We could all use some help here on one issue or another... The 3.2 is a bit low in my opinion. But.....if it really is mostly due to one bad semester, like you mentioned, the admissions committees will definitely notice that. They look for patterns in your transcript. As in, are the bad grades concentrated in a particular academic area or during a specific time period? If your bad grades are mostly during your freshman year, they will want to see improvements in subsequent semesters. If you have noticeable improvements, the 3.6 Major GPA will serve you well. Because the admissions committees are also much more interested in your performance in Math, Science, and CS courses rather than say History or Sociology courses. As for your GRE scores.....If you are looking at 20-50 schools, I would say it's quite acceptable. I got accepted to a top 20 school with a lower quant and lower verbal score than you, but I did get a higher writing score. GRE scores are by far not the only factor in your admissions decision, I am almost leaning toward saying that it is one of the weaker factors. Admissions committees are more interested in academic performance, research, letters of recommendation, and statement of purpose. I would say the GRE score is just a "background check" type thing, to make sure you can speak English well enough and do simple math. So if you want to re-take it, sure it's your choice. But I think it's quite an acceptable score and no, I seriously doubt that your application would be rejected based on your writing score. You are not applying for English or History. Recommendation letters weigh quite heavily in the admissions process. You should do your best to get letters focusing on your research abilities, i.e. your abilities to produce creative and original work. Letters focusing on your excellent abilities and dedication working in some lab, for example. But I have no idea what company you work at, so I can't say much else about this. Another thing they usually recommend to individuals who have been in industry for a few years is to attempt to get at least one recommendation letter from an undergraduate professor who has known you closely in either a classroom or a laboratory setting. So see if you could still re-connect with any of them. Yes, I think you do. Check out the websites of the schools to see what research projects they are doing and try to relate your experience and interests to those projects. If you can make a strong argument in your statement of purpose as to why your work experience makes you very well qualified for projects in a specific area, I believe you will have a good shot at being accepted. In general, it is much harder to find a fully funded Masters program. I was looking for that option and was only able to pinpoint two schools in the top 20 that offered it. So I think that whenever fully funded Masters programs do exist, they are actually harder to get into than the PhD programs at the same school. That being said.....yes, you could look into Masters programs offered by the 20-50 schools and read their websites *carefully* to see whether or not they offer funding specifically to Masters students. Some of them will not mention anything about Masters funding, in which case you may want to e-mail the graduate coordinator of the program and ask. Others will explicitly tell you whether or not they offer Masters funding. If they offer full funding, you will probably not know whether you will be doing RA or TA until you get accepted. But if you are just looking to get funded, that shouldn't be such a big difference to you. Furthermore, you need to consider if those Masters programs are course based only or research based. You may be able to find a funded Masters program that doesn't offer too many research opportunities, making it not what you are looking for. So read carefully. If you are not able to find too many Masters opportunities, I highly recommend looking into PhD programs in the 20-50 range. I do think you have a shot if you put together your application carefully, i.e. very well written statement and good letters. And for PhD programs you usually don't have to worry about finding funding, they just give it to you upon being accepted. I couldn't find a single private school in the top 20 that offered full funding for a Masters degree. I would think that private schools in the 20-50 are probably the same with their Masters funding. You will just have to read the websites to find out the specifics. But I did find two public schools that offered Masters funding and I am going to one of them to do my Masters. Both public and private schools give full funding to PhD students. Alright, hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. Best of luck! angusBF
  8. Well, first of, don't despair. If they haven't sent you an admit yet, it doesn't automatically imply that you are heading for a rejection. Admissions decisions are usually sent out in waves, so you might have missed the first few. I would recommend promptly calling or e-mailing your 2nd choice school and attempting to request an extension for your response for as long as they permit. Afterwards, I would recommend *calling* the Delaware CS grad admissions office. In my experience, I tend to get more out of admissions people over the phone than over e-mail. They might be difficult to catch on the first try, but be persistent. Good luck!
  9. Hey, did you get your funding from UNC? Did you accept the offer?
  10. Well I know this is a little off topic since we were trying to discuss the problem iced^T is facing...but seems like a good opportunity for me to ask you about the following situation I *could* end up in. I have been accepted to a Masters program with full funding at one university and wait-listed to a PhD program at another. My absolute highest preference is the PhD program and I seriously want to attend, but unfortunately I am *still* on the wait list after about 2.5 months. The admissions folks there claim that decisions will be made "mid-May," which is in about 2-3 weeks I suppose, but my deadline to accept at my Masters school is pretty much now. No, I can't ask for an extension there as I already did that, this *is* the end of my extension. I thought about it and decided that I will accept the Masters offer as there is no guarantee that my PhD school will come through and I can't take that chance. And if the PhD program doesn't end up accepting me, then I would forget about all this speculation all together. Also, I do honestly like my Masters program though if I got accepted into my dream PhD school now off the wait-list I would hate myself if I declined it as there is also no guarantee that I would ever get accepted again. So..............I decided that I will ditch the Masters people if my PhD program comes through. Any thoughts on that? Yes, I know they won't be incredibly happy, but at the same time you can't always make everyone happy in life and in this case, the primary person that I am concerned about is myself. Yes, that's a little selfish, but would you take a bargain that effects the rest of your life? I will be choosing to give up two years of my life basically if I decide to stay with my Masters if my PhD offer comes through. That's a pretty long time considering that I will be giving up two years at the end of my career. And I don't think it will be such a huge inconvenience for them anyway because my Masters school has a rolling admissions process with a final deadline of June 1st 2010. So I am 100% certain that they will still keep people on the their wait-list past mid-May. So were I to later reject, they would certainly fill my stop. Please comment, thank you.
  11. Well, I haven't been in a similar situation and I don't know of anyone else who has. But I do think that not having funding is quite a valid reason and I think they would understand that. But really, what would they do if you ultimately rejected the offer? I understand they probably won't be thrilled, but I don't think you would really be causing such an inconvenience for them considering the scenario if you don't actually get any funding. If you did have funding and then rejected, they will have to decide whom to allocate the new funding to, I suspect. But otherwise....I don't think I would be too concerned with making them a little annoyed and just do whatever would be best for you in this case. But then again, this is just my opinion :-).
  12. Raul, Yes you should definitely keep focused on your Masters studies and not let your grades slip. When I said that those grades may not be the major factor in your admission, I did not mean that you should neglect them :-). You know what I mean. As for the TOEFL, yes you should prepare somewhat, but I wouldn't stress too much about that as your English seems pretty good to me. The TOEFL tests "light" English skills and conversation, so if you can communicate well already you should be just fine. As for the GRE, do your best on the verbal portion, but you should make sure you can get the highest possible score on the math portion as you are planning on going to a technical graduate school. The verbal score for admissions will mostly be used to make sure your English skills are adequate for an American university. Besides, some of the top schools like MIT CS don't even require GRE scores at all, though most do require them. I am just saying this to point out that the English score is mostly a formality and I would seriously doubt you would be denied admission because of it. Cheers, angusBF
  13. scyrus has a very good point about conversion mismatch. But I don't think it's unusual to see international students with very good credentials get accepted to top universities and still have a very poor American GPA equivalent. Just scan through the results posts on this forum, you will see quite a few international students posting their acceptances and stats with the GPA number being quite low on the 4.0 scale. So I think that graduate schools are perfectly aware of this situation given that they have so many international applicants every year and a decent number of them get accepted. So I would think they have already looked into how to "map" or judge an international student's transcript. Moreover, I'm fairly certain that graduate schools don't just look at the overall GPA as 3.0/4.0 for example, but actually look in very close detail at what courses you have taken and what grades you obtained in each as some courses are more important for the department than others. So like I said, you could spend some time trying to figure this out, but I think devoting the vast majority of your time and effort to research and publications would serve you best. If the admissions committee sees your bachelor transcript and already decides that it is very strong, you have already proved to them that you are able to take Computer Science classes successfully. So I don't think your Masters transcript with classes will have such a strong impact on them unless you end up doing very poorly there. I think for someone who did not do well in their bachelor classes or is coming from a different background other than Computer Science a Masters transcript would have a much greater influence on the admissions committee. So I would say that they would mostly be expecting to see strong research contributions, i.e. publications, from you as a result of your Masters degree.
  14. Well, I would say that depends on which schools you choose to apply to. If you apply to the top 5 CS schools (MIT, UC-Berkeley, or Stanford calibre), I would have to say *no* because that would be quite risky. You must have several "back-up" schools in case you are rejected. All these schools are very competitive and you would be putting all your eggs in one basket if you only apply there. Most people I know applied anywhere from 5-10 schools. So 5 is not a bad number per se, but you have to plan accordingly. Usually the rule of thumb is to apply to several schools you are fairly certain you match up to and are a very good fit for, several "back up schools" for which you are likely overqualified for, and a few schools which are very good because you could get lucky and get in anyway.
  15. Hey, Raul I am not sure how much help I will be, but I thought I would perhaps help get the discussion started. I don't know a whole lot about real time systems work except for that yes, UNC-CH has a very good real time systems group. I know that because I did my undergrad there and applied there for graduate school. I also know that MIT has very strong distributed systems work. I know that because I was an intern there doing work in distributed systems (http://groups.csail.mit.edu/drl/wiki/index.php/Main_Page). So if you are interested in these two areas, I would definitely apply to MIT and UNC-CH. That's probably as much actual useful info I can give you here. As for your stats and chances at acceptance...Well, top schools like MIT and Berkeley are very competitive when it comes to CS. For example MIT received over 2700 applications this year and schools of this caliber typically accept less than 5% of all applicants. So judge for yourself. I am fairly certain they get a load of applicants with perfect GPAs who apply there, so I would think it would be quite helpful for you to increase your GPA significantly. Don't get me wrong, GPA is not the only factor in an admissions decision as research, publications, and letters of recommendation are also crucially important. But I would say that a 3 out of 4 GPA is hardly competitive for a school like MIT or UC-Berkeley. UNC-Chapel hill, yes maybe, if you have good letters and research experience. Aside from an improvement in GPA, I would say that research/publications are definitely a must for top schools like MIT or Berkeley. Usually people who get accepted there have at least one publication of some sort, conference or journal. Especially if you will be coming in with a research focused Masters degree in hand, it would look quite suspicious if you don't already have a few publications behind your belt. I think their expectations of you as a Masters degree holder will be higher in that respect. And if you have good research contributions, good recommendation letters should hopefully flow out of that. You will usually need three letters to apply to most schools, but some schools will accept four or even more if you inquire. I submitted four for both MIT and UNC-CH, both accepted an extra one. Though you might have to ask how to go about submitting the extra letter. However, there is absolutely no use including an extra letter if you are not absolutely certain that that letter is (a) very strong and helpful for you and ( presents you and your potential from a different angle as opposed to all the other letters. If you are not certain that a letter from a professor will be strong or helpful to you, don't submit it. Depending on the school, the admissions committee might get annoyed at extra material that is not helpful given that they already have a ton of applications to process. Finally, for some applicants the statement of purpose could become a significant part of an admissions decision. If you are coming in will less than perfect grades, that could likely be your situation. In that case, I recommend you spend a good deal of time looking through each respective school's project websites and find something you are genuinely excited and passionate about. For your statement to be convincing to the AdCom, especially for top schools, it *must* be sincere. They can sense an insincere letter from a mile away as many of them have been on admissions for years. So make sure you really identify the reasons you are attracted to the program and what makes you the perfect fit for them. This could be the deciding factor in your admissions. Also by you doing some of this research independently, it will give you a better idea of which of these schools you listed you would actually want to apply for. Because the quality of the research and the number of famous faculty members is not the only factor you will need to consider. For many people the overall "feel" of the department, location of the school, etc. could be equally as important. So even though getting opinions of others could be very useful, I think it is ultimately a really personal decision and only you will be able to decide best which school is right for you for whatever reasons. I hope this was at least somewhat helpful and will aid you in your graduate application process. Cheers, angusBF
  16. Hmm, sorry about that. I don't know how, but I read that and thought Michigan State and not UMich. My bad. Yeah, they are quite comparable in CS. I agree with explorer-c here. Location is a good criterion, but I would still personally go with UPenn I think. I haven't heard of too many robotics/AI from UMich (from collaborators, papers, etc.). But yes, since you are doing only a MS, research may not be such a big factor for you.
  17. Yes they do. I got the same exact funding offer as everyone else. In fact they don't even care if you are applying for a Masters or a PhD in the application process. They told me that straight out over the phone when I was applying. They accept people based on merit and you set your degree objective once you get there. You can pursue a MS or PhD or both, whatever it's up to you basically.
  18. Hey again, I am wait-listed at MIT CS at the moment and I am really hoping to be accepted there by April 30th. Most people on this forum say that nobody ever declines offers from MIT, which is completely untrue. Faculty at MIT say that approximately half of all the offers they make are declined since the people who are accepted at MIT are likewise accepted at all the other top schools (Stanford, UCB, and CMU). So it's only a matter of how many reject *this* year. So we'll see.....perhaps with a little bit of luck a dream will come true :-). Otherwise, I'll see you at UNC this fall. I will be going for a Masters there for 2 yrs.
  19. Hey, So it sounds like you are planning on going even though you have no aid at either university. In that case, I would say it's a no brainer. UPenn is an excellent university. It is highly ranked in Computer Science and has researchers who collaborate on robotics/AI projects with MIT. I know that for a fact because I worked at MIT as an intern. If robotics is what you want to work on, then check out the following people at UPenn. They are the ones that collaborate with MIT on several large robotics projects: Mark Yim, Vijay Kumar, and Dan Lee. Hope this helps in your decision.
  20. Hey again, Glad I could help. I now know of two people, fully funded, who accepted offers elsewhere. So I am certain that you'll get funding notification shortly. Most likely by the end of next week. No, I haven't accepted this offer yet. Janet will hold my offer open till April 30th. I am waiting on a wait-list decision somewhere else. So I may free up another funding offer soon-ish. Let me know whenever you get your $$ and good luck!
  21. Hey again, Did you end up accepting the offer from UNC? I sure hope so because I know for a fact one of the people from their visit day, who was fully funded, accepted somewhere else. So I am fairly certain you would get his funding. They have about 15 people on the wait-list, but since you are officially accepted already, I believe that you would have priority for funding. Once again, good luck.
  22. I think you should absolutely go ahead and call them. They are perfectly aware of the fact that for a large number of schools the decision deadline is Apr. 15th. They will understand the reason for your call.
  23. I agree with metasyntactic. Check out WPI for professors and projects you are interested in and if you feel like you can find a good fit for your interests, go for it. Furthermore, given the fact that WPI is so close to other universities in Boston (Boston U, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, ...), I am fairly certain that you would be able to find a professor at WPI who on some level collaborates with others from these "bigger name" schools. In that case you will get your name out there either way and could even end up working closely with some of those collaborators or scoring a rec letter from them. But Columbia does sound nice though.....tough choice. Do they flat out deny funding to MS students or did you just not get allocated any? Meaning, is there any opportunity to get funding once you accept the offer?
  24. Well yes, that's what they tell you officially on the wait-list letter. "In the past several years we have not been able to offer admission to any students placed on the wait-list." But I know this to be untrue directly from one of the MIT faculty who told me that they have known of several students who were admitted from the wait-list. I also know this professor to be serious when discussing things like this. So I am under the impression that they tell you this on the letter so you can't blame them for stringing you along so to speak.
  25. Come ooooon people. If there are 50 people on this wait-list, or so they claimed to me, perhaps at least one of you has read this message?!?!?? If so PLEASE post. Even if you read this *after* April 15th, please please respond anyway. My deadline for my 2nd choice school is not until April 30th. Thanks.
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