frenzydude

See even if we leave the unethical, unfair, risky, and deceitful parts out of this whole equation, there's still the idea that you were ridiculous enough to actually not only post your plan on an internet grad school forum, but to boast and brag about it like no one has ever thought of it before. Sure, the users on this site are pretty anonymous, but you just never know who anyone really is, there are plenty of people here who are at the same school. There are all of those "meet and greet" threads and even in the field specific ones, you find out that at least a handful of people are going to the same schools. Someone just might put two and two together if you get cocky and divulge too much information, maybe it's not likely, but again there's always that possibility, because once it's out there, it's out there. If you're planning on lying, cheating, and stealing, at the very least be smart enough to keep it to yourself so no one can drudge up the "I'm going to cheat the system and be damn proud of it" thread you callously posted and get you into trouble. I'm not quite sure if you've picked up on the disgust factor that almost everyone has expressed, but the fact that you're trying to bring us around to this by having us think about you spending the money you'll save at a nice restaurant is disgusting. And if you have such little regard for academia you have no place even thinking about taking up space in any program.

I feel like the people who post in this fashion for their very first post, are the ones that just don't come back to read the responses anyway or if they do they don't respond because they don't see what they're expecting to see. They probably post the very same thing on lots of forums and see if anyone out there will do the work for them. Sorry, but saying "I wrote a paper and I'm interested in this," then throwing down a huge list of schools and expecting someone to "categorize them" in some way is ridiculous.

A very inappropriate way to ask that question for a newcomer. You haven't even written what you want to apply for - MS or PhD ! Things are a little different here, and this is not edulix.

I have presented a paper in National Level Event.
I have done projects in C,JAVA,JSP,OpenGL.
First prize in the Shell Script competition.
Was Class Representative, organised Departmental events.
I will be having 1 year experience till fall2012
Was NCC candidate in school.

I have interest in Networking and Computer Systems. I have gone through some universities..please help me to categorise them...

University of Wisconsin Madison
Ohio State University,Columbus, OH
Uni of Massachusetts, Amherst
Washington State University,Pullman
Pennsylvania State University--University Park
University of Chicago Chicago, IL
University of Florida Gainesville
University of Utah,Salt Lake City
Stony Brook University SUNY Stony Brook,
Virginia Tech Blacksburg
North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities Minneapolis
University of Arizona Tucson
Arizona State University
University at Buffalo SUNY Buffalo
Iowa State University Ames
University of Georgia Athens
Uni of Texas, Dallas

You have no right to judge unless you yourself have not made a single ethical compromise. We've all lied, cheated, and stolen before. The difference between you and I is the difference between Master and Slave morality.

So the key is to avoid getting caught working.

My idea was that I should just work at a startup company and code for them while studying for the MS. I know several PhD students who actually have their own companies while studying for a fully funded PhD. As long as I prepare a research project before I begin the MS program, I'd be able to show to my advisor that I'm actually doing some research.. lol. She'll think that I'm having reasonable progress for a first year student.

But thanks for the comments guys. You've really helped me solidify my plans to do this. I promise myself that I WILL do this, IF (1) I don't get admitted with a full-time scholly from an MS program or (2) My employer does not sponsor a part-time MS for me.



That's the thing, I can definitely pull it off when it comes to work load - I worked 42 hours a week during the semester as an undergraduate, and during one summer, I worked 70 hours. Not to undermine the experiences of other people or anything, but all this struggling has made me realize that money's important, and feeling all guilty about ethical ramifications is just for suckers who had it good in life.

But it's unfair to say this, but it's just a generalization.

How difficult would it be to "pull off" this plan?

If a software engineer works for about three years, and decides that he'd like to have a masters degree in order to bypass Human Resource screenings for new recruits, then couldn't he just apply for a fully funded MS/PhD program?

I plan on working like 20 hours a week without the department noticing, and after the MS requirements are finished, I just drop out, saying a PhD is NOT for me. Free masters, additional work experience (probably at a start-up).

Let me add some contrast to this discussion. This past admissions season, our school had an applicant who was very qualified but not sure if she even wanted to go to grad school. She was at the top of the pile, and we recruited her very heavily, even though she was obviously a high risk student (in terms of dropping out early). If you are desired enough, then they might not care so much.

The simple fact is that a ton of PhD students drop out. The company I work at is full of PhD drop-outs, not because they planned to leave with a free MS, but because they simply realized it wasn't for them and decided to stay after doing an internship. It happens. It may not cost the schools as much as some people have suggested, because stipend funds usually come out of larger government grants, and treating the tuition waiver as part of the cost isn't quite the same when you're talking about students who would never have paid it to begin with.

That being said, it seems unlikely that someone who's not qualified to have their employer pay for a MS could get into a PhD program. You also seem to lack some basic understanding of the PhD process which means you won't get in.

I'll also note that funding is often guaranteed only on a year to year basis. If they suspect they are being conned, then your funding will get cut off, you'll leave without a new degree, and you'll have wasted a year of your life.

And I don't need to note the ethics because you don't care.

It probably won't matter for schools in the top 20-25, but the story could be different for lower rank schools. In any case, GRE is the least important among GPA, research experience, SoP and recommendation letter.

Don't get a too bad score because it may raise some red flags, but I think your score is fine given that you have a decent research experience, recommendation and a good academic standing.

It's really hard to come up with quantitative ways to rank schools. Publication counts might be meaningful, but you also want to consider how often the papers are cited, where they're being published (high-acceptance regional conferences vs competitive high-impact venues), etc. And you want to somehow normalize by the size of the department, since obviously larger departments will have more publications. It's hard to measure this, and you have to make arbitrary choices. And then when you try to combine several factors (e.g. publications, admissions percentages, etc.), you have to come up with a way to weigh the different factors. At the end, you're going to have a ranking that's highly sensitive to arbitrarily chosen parameters, and it's almost meaningless (though you can still get a sense of different "tiers" of schools).

The US News rankings are nice because for grad programs, they're based only on opinion surveys. No parameters to tune; just a straightforward way to directly measure the perceived prestige of a school. If you're interested in the reputation of a department, this is what you want, and these are the rankings people are usually referring to.

When choosing between schools, I think the thing to look at is the actual job placements of alumni of the particular labs (not departments) that you plan to work in. Assuming your end goal is a particular career, then I don't see why anything else should matter. Obviously top schools are going to have better job placements on average, but you can find plenty of labs at lower-ranked schools with stellar job records (often at schools that you wouldn't guess unless you were familiar with that particular research area) and conversely, you can certainly find research groups at top schools that have a mediocre record. You'll also find that some schools tend to be oriented more toward industry vs academia which might be something to be aware of if you have a sense of which direction you want to go.

I think the advice to go to the best school you can get into is "on average" a good heuristic to follow, but it's not always black and white and it might be the wrong thing to do in some circumstances. If you dig just a little bit deeper, you should be able to figure out how good of an education you'll really get and what kind of career placement you can expect.

OSU not good enough unless you have no alternative!

I think a specific ranking like 7th, 12th, ... is rather meaningless. The tier is the better term. Let say MIT, CMU, Berkeley,.. are in tier 1, UCSD, UMass, UMich, .. are in tier 2, OSU, UCI, Chicago, ... are tier 3 and so on.

So, pick several schools that fit your research interest the most in each tier and apply. That was how I did.

I think you should definitely target the top 20. Also, I think you meant Fall 2012 and not 2011.

UPenn.. Ivy.

Thanks for your response
i would be keen to pursue artificial intelligence/robotics/human machine interface
JHU offers a broad program in CS where i can take electives of my choice
upenn has a custom program in robotics
can you guide me if JHU is better overall or if UPENN offers better job prospects
incidentally tution with 50% aid at JHU is just about same as tution with no aid at UPENN
i need to revert by 20th with my decision
help...

alok

i have 2 admits one from jhu and other from upenn-both for MSE in computer science
can someone knowledgable help me with selection process
which is better and why
1. course content
2.faculty standing
3.job scene
4.quality of life
5.costs

urgent response appreciated

alok

Princeton for theory!

I would contact them and maybe make a case about your situation
You need to know
Of course, some schools are sooo stuck up that they just send you a generic "your application is still under review, we will have decision in mid April"

My case:
I got an acceptance from lower ranked but still awesome school and program, they invited me to recruitment days, the works
so I waited for a couple of weeks to hear back from higher ranked stuck up school, they first said mid-march, now they are saying mid-april
I contacted the Department and they just told me to contact grad admissions.
i know I am waitlisted, but just tell me so, dont string me along
Anyways, I accepted the other offer and if this stuck up school happens to accept me I will DECLINE with joy and happiness because even if I am accepted I am no second class student to be treated like this just because they think they are soo good

anyways, this is my story

I just got accepted into BU and I'm considering going there this fall. My biggest issue involving apartment hunting is that I'm traveling for the entire summer so I won't be able to visit Boston to look at any apartments. I've been looking into Boston University's off-campus apartments, but the only one that would let me sign a lease without going there myself is out of my price range; my budget is around $600-700. I'm hoping to find a room in an apartment with 2 or 3 other roommates to offset the costs but I'm not sure if I can find anyone without actually meeting them in person. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks a lot! I think I will go to IC to study CS.

Well you obviously are not an adult yet, since you rely so much on your parents and cannot stand up for yourself.

I spent $0 on my undergraduate applications due to fee waivers, but for graduate school applications, there are some programs that will not give me a fee waiver. I'm applying in Fall 2011 for PhD Chemistry. How much money did you spend on graduate school applications?

Since you want a PhD anyway, I think you should go for UMD. It is just not worthed, in my opinion, for taking an unfunded master over a funded PhD offer when your ultimate goal is getting a PhD.

congrats on the admits

UMD PhD.