csperson

I can't remember... But you can certainly write anything you want in your personal statement. However, in your personal statement, you should focus on talking about computer science research, like cs research you did in the past, and cs research you want to do as a PhD student. If you are getting a MS in CS, then maybe you don't need to talk about your music history degree.

Well, go to the "best" school only if there is a big gap between the rankings (i.e. a top 15 school and the #90 school). I had a friend who got into a top 15 school and a school ranked ~90th. He chose the lowly ranked school just because they offered him more money. After graduation, he ended up getting a not-so-good job...

LOL. Why would an A- hurt you????

There is certainly a number of professors at top schools who did not get their PhDs from top schools. But, if you look closely, most of these people are not like in their 20s or early 30s and some have non-CS degrees. A lot of them got the positions when there weren't that many CS PhD graduates, like in the 80s or earlier, or in the early 90s in some cases. The faculty job market today is different for our generation. Just look for young people who are professors are top schools but did not get their PhDs from top schools, you will not find many. The bottom line is, ranking matters (like *size matters*). Just go to the best school you get into. However, there is not that much difference between the top 5-20 schools

Ranking certainly matters if there is a big gap between two schools. I have studied at both a school usnews ranked somewhere in #75-#100, and a top 15 school. There is a huge difference in the quality of research, professors, peers, job opportunities, and everything between the two schools. There was a small number of the PhD graduates from the lowly ranked school who ended up in places at Google/Microsoft. But almost nobody was able to secure a faculty position at a school ranked higher than #100 (most faculty positions were at non-PhD granting schools). A few of the PhD graduates had trouble finding *any* job for a while (yes, there were pretty much willing to take almost any job). At the top 15 school, PhD graduates were able to get faculty positions at other top 15 schools (including Berkeley). When they got jobs at places like Google right after graduation, they got very high starting salaries. Nobody had trouble finding a good job.

Take a grad class at Berkeley (if allowed), and make sure that class has a research project or something?

Ohio State is ranked 28th for CS PhD by usnews. So it is NOT bad... I mean, a top 30 school And isn't it true that CS PhD students (at any school) generally get funding after a semester or something, even if they weren't initially offered funding? Maybe this is no longer true due to the bad economy?

If you have enough money, then you can probably enroll at UC Berkeley as a non-degree seeking student and take some grad classes???

I agree. If you look at NRC's rankings for CS based on research productivity, it totally does not make any sense for some of the schools.

I'd trust usnews only, but that's just my opinion.

My professors told me the acceptance rate is significantly lower if you are an international student. Most of my American friends applied to ~ 10 schools, and most of my international friends applied to 30 schools. Of course, if you are really good, then no need to apply to too many schools.

lol. $200-$300 more per month is a lot for a grad student.

Wow, $30000! I'd probably just go to USC for the money. I doubt USC is that unsafe. In fact, I'd consider it safe Did anybody else even get that kind of money????? Mine's like 10K less. I'd definitely rule out UCSB as the other 3 schools are much higher ranked

I agree, these two are different fields

UMCP is ranked higher than UMass in CS overall, but if you look at the rankings for AI on usnews.com, UMass is 8th in the nation, but UMCP is 13th.

Well, this is just how one professors thinks. I don't know if how many other professors think this way...

I don't see how visa costs would be a factor though. Visas do not cost that much and schools don't pay for the visas. Students pay for their own visas. A professor told me that in the admissions process, a BS degree from a lowly ranked school in the US may weigh more than a BS degree from a top school in a foreign country.

Schools definitely prefer domestic students. I think some places have a large percentage of internationals simply because not too many Americans applied. In public schools, domestic students can get in-state tuition and that saves the schools a lot of money. I heard it can cost up to 3 times for a school to fund an international student.

He only said that because he believes men are more superior. A lot of men are like that. You will see more men like that in the future.

I think the CS professors just want the best PhD students they could get. I don't think gender plays a role in the admissions process.

We are totally unlucky this year... This year seems to be the worst in history for CS PhD admissions. I heard that even last year, schools took significantly less students. But then this year it is much much worse than last.

I am wondering about this for Computer Science PhD programs, but I would guess it applies to most other disciplines as well. According to the number of "accepts" on the grad cafe result page, the number of "accepts" for many schools for fall 2011 is often only about 1/2 of the number of "accepts" for fall 2010. For some schools, the number of accepts is less than 1/3 of the number in 2010. I am wondering why? It's the bad economy isn't it? Or is it that less people are posting results on gradcafe now???

Actually, I had never heard of google coding challenges... But as far as I know, most people who got into top programs did not do google coding challenges. It seems like the best way to get into a top program is to have a recommendation from a professor that the admissions committee trusts. That recommendation needs to talk about some research you have done (kind of in details). So I would just ask a professor if I can do some research for him instead.

It seems that in every lowly ranked school, there are several CS professors who graduated from top 20 schools... But if you look at UIUC CS, there is at least one professor who went to a non-top school.