carolbells
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Posts posted by carolbells
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9 hours ago, Sea Salt said:
Hey, @carolbells, thanks for the update! I’m glad that you’re enjoying Penn.
I have some questions if you don’t mind.
- Which classes have you taken, and what’s the typical class size (if it’s all on Zoom, how many students are in the meetings)? Have any courses stood out as your favorites?
- Is it difficult to secure electives (especially at Wharton)?
- NYU has a dedicated Center for Data Science that holds events like company info sessions, private career fairs, datathons, etc. How strong is the data science community at Penn, and how is the program viewed within the university? Are there similar events/services?
- On the topic of internships, has the school helped students secure these, and are most of you finding them in Philadelphia or elsewhere?
- Finally, do graduate students typically live off-campus or at Sansom Place? I think Rittenhouse Square may be my best option.
Thank you!
1) So far I've mostly taken classes required for all DATS students including Stats, Machine Learning, and Big Data Analytics. Electives so far include databases, forecasting analysis, and probability models in marketing. Classes have been online this school year. Since classes are recorded many people don't show for the live lectures but classes sizes highly depend on the classes you're taking. I say average is about 30-50. So far the most interesting class is Probability Models in Marketing - it's one of the most popular classes in Wharton and the professor is a really good orator.
2) Depends on the particular class - the forecasting analysis class is in Wharton and pretty much everyone I knew who wanted to get into the class was able to get in. The probability models in marketing class is much harder to get into due to its popularity. They only allowed about 15 people outside of Wharton to get into the class. Usually it's not really a problem
3) There are company events that shared to all DATS students but from what I know, they aren't limited to only DATS students - anyone outside of the program can attend them as well. There's only about 50ish students in each year's cohort so we're a small bunch and it wouldn't make sense to only have programs for just us. There is the Data Science General Assembly, Wharton Analytics Fellows, Penn Data Science group, etc. that also allow students interested in DS to meet up. It's a bit hard to say how strong the community is due to the program being remote at the moment but I think it's pretty reasonable.
4) I personally got my internship on my own without anyone from Penn. I think most of my peers experienced the same. There are career fairs and stuff like that but ultimately the students are the ones who put in the effort to get the internships. I find that most of the companies at the career fairs are centered around the East Coast which I'm personally not interested in so I didn't pursue the pipelines that the school might have offered. Most of us found internships outside of Philly in places like Seattle, SF Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, etc.
5) I think everyone I know lives off campus - but usually only several blocks away. I don't know anyone who lives in Sansom place.
Hope this helps!
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12 minutes ago, Sea Salt said:
Yes, I think @carolbells picked UPenn over NYU and Columbia. It's probably worth reading through again, though, so I'll check it out. Any info helps. Thanks!
Yes I'm currently attending UPenn and I'm really enjoying it so far. I mainly chose UPenn over NYU because I wasn't a fan of night classes and like the flexibility of UPenn's program. I'm able to take classes in Wharton and count them towards my degree, for instance.
Despite UPenn being a newer program than NYU I found that all of my peers were able to get internships in data science, data engineering, ML engineering related roles for this summer, so employers definitely do not look down on it.
I didn't get accepted to Columbia's program but I would have chosen UPenn's program even if I had gotten in since Columbia's cohort size is quite big, only lasts 1.5 years, and most of their classes are at night.
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@bigcake Sorry for the late response - haven't gone on gradcafe in awhile
GRE: 164 Q, 162 V, 4.0 Writing
GPA: 3.9/4.0 BS in Computer Science
Did several internships in consulting, a startup, and a FAANG company related to front end development and data science
US citizen
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@Bulmicoa Trump only banned green card processing, which doesn't affect international students
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I'm guessing that anyone who hasn't heard back from Columbia by now and did not get a waitlist notification is rejected. Wonder why they haven't sent the rejections out yet.
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2 hours ago, tangc2 said:
Same here. I emailed them today, and they said they are sending out additional decisions (including waitlists) over the next couple of weeks...
I read that applicants who were waitlisted had interviews first. But I never received any interview invites nor a rejection email, which doesn't make sense to me.. I'm pretty much assuming a rejection at this point ?
I interviewed with them in early March and still haven't received any response yet. Not sure what to make of it.
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@Applicant20 when did you get the notice?
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Also, does anyone have an idea when more decisions for Columbia MS DS will come out? Still waiting for mine...
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@happypanda521 no - in fact, it's probably better to take an offer now because it's harder to find a job
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@david0217 My strategy would be to try to look NYU alums on Linkedin and see what they're up to now. That might help.
When I did that I find that NYU alum seems to get more brand-name company jobs. I have also heard of @Guest123's note that Columbia seems to be a cash cow program. The fact that you have to put down such a large deposit and made a decision so quickly for Columbia raises red flags for me. NYU's only asking for a $250 deposit and gives you a month to decide.
Edit: grammar
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@indigo_squirrel_6 Depends on what you want to prioritize. If you want to graduate quickly with low tuition but potentially sacrifice getting a thorough data science education in multiple subjects, choose USF. Otherwise I'd choose NYU.
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13 minutes ago, ilovepenguins said:
How much is to be paid by Mar 25??? When did you interview??
Had I been in your place I would go for NYU DS as it is a 2 year course (Columbia is 1.5 year) Nyu also offers specialization track and some amazing capstone with a lot of flexibility.
@david0217 I agree with ilovepenguins.
Also, 7 days to make a decision?!? That's such a red flag to me.
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@streamblazer Congrats! Mind if I ask when you got your interview request?
In response to your question, I'm personally a bit skeptical of UC Berkeley's program given that it's only a year long. A quality program probably should be at least 3 semesters. However, alumni of UC Berkeley's program seem to go to good places, so it's not a poor program. I personally would choose Columbia out of the two options given though.
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I saw some people getting acceptances to the columbia ds program on the results page. Can anyone here verify that decisions are being released?
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Columbia DS said they were going to start releasing decisions mid-March, but given the coronovirus outbreak, I expect results to be delayed
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@hellobello I'm most likely turning down NYU because I'm personally not a fan of night classes. I realize it's a pro for some but it doesn't fit my learning style and I'm concerned about being out at night in downtown. I also like Penn's curriculum better since it's more flexible and their cohort size is smaller.
Edit: Also, another thing to note that it's a lot cheaper to live in Philadelphia than Manhattan.
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1 hour ago, david0217 said:
Can I ask where are you leaning towards against NYU? Are you thinking going to UPenn?
Yeah I'm leaning towards UPenn at the moment. I'm waiting back on Stanford MS CS. If I get in, I'll probably attend that program.
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@hellobello April 4 for me. I'm most likely going to decline the offer so good luck!
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53 minutes ago, Ksull27 said:
I see what you mean. Thanks for sharing that info. On a final note, setting aside the program’s different goals, is your friend happy with his/her decision, the quality of education, the class sizes, etc.? Do you think he/she would do it again?
She did ultimately want to enter a more engineering based role so the program fits her. She's happy with the decision ultimately.
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4 minutes ago, Ksull27 said:
I can definitely see that, since the data informatics programs fall under the computer science department umbrella. However, I think those career paths are probably a lot more common with the MSCS (data science track) than the MS in Applied Data Science, which seems to have more of a balance. To make things more complicated, they also have an MS in Analytics offered through the engineering department, which if I remember correctly, is more focused on the math/stats.
I'm quoting a friend who currently attends the program. While that may be true theoretically, the reality is that a lot of students enter the applied data science program with a limited CS background so they can transition into SWE or data engineering. the MS CS (Data Science) program requires a CS background, so students without the background would choose the applied data science program.
I don't really know much about the MS analytics program since its new. I would feel hesitant in being the first batch for a new program.
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2 minutes ago, Ksull27 said:
@carolbells Congratulations on your acceptances. It sounds like you’re leaning towards UPenn at the moment, but I see that you also applied and were admitted to USC's MS in Applied Data Science. Would you mind sharing your thoughts on the program? I’m torn between that and UVA’s MS in Data Science. Thanks!
Thanks! I don't know much about UVA's program but from what I heard about USC'S MS in applied data science is that it's very geared towards people who want to enter software engineering or data engineering rather than analytics. I'm personally looking for more analytics based programs so I'm not really considering USC's program at the moment.
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@jimjamlorde My app has been under review since Jan 6. I got an interview on Feb 29, so review status is not indicative of anything.
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11 hours ago, ilovepenguins said:
What about USC MS CS (Data Science Track) and Columbia MS DS ?? How do they compare to Uwash, Upenn, Harvard and NYU-CDS
A friend at USC's program said most people end up going into SWE or Data engineering rather than data science and analytics. Idk what your goals are, but if you want to do more analytics kind of work, I wouldn't go there. USC's program is also huge. Some of their classes can have 200+ people, which makes it hard to get to know your professors.
Columbia's a 1.5 years program. I'm not too inclined on going to programs that aren't 2 years long because they aren't as in-depth. I think comparing NYU with Columbia, I would choose NYU because their program is much more established and have greater variety of coursework. Columbia does have the Ivy League branding though, so it's a tough choice.
Columbia and NYU also tend to have classes at night to accommodate those who are working full time. That can be a pro or con depending on the person.
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12 hours ago, Sj2189 said:
Thoughts on Mit MBAn Vs Stanford ms data science vs Harvard data science?
I would 100% choose Stanford. Very strong program
Fall 2021 Data Science/Analytics Applicants
in Mathematics and Statistics
Posted
@Sea Salt
Most people do 3+3 in Year 1 and 2+2 in year 2 (that's what I'm doing). There are several people who do something like 4+3 in year 1 and then 3 in the following Fall to graduate a semester early but this isn't very common
I'm still debating on doing the practicum since there's lots of classes that I really want to take and doing a practicum would take time off of them. I think practicums are helpful when you don't have an internship lined up or something but if you do, I wouldn't stress about doing the practicum unless you really want to. Practicums are conducted within the university, I don't think you'd work with outside companies on it.