President

One last question guys: I'm actually planning to take a year off after the MS program so that I can see my papers hit the proceedings when it's time for my applications to be sent in. If I'm gunning for a top 20 program, does it hurt to publish multiple articles at a low-ranking conference?

Thanks! I'll definitely be shooting for a research M.S. The reason why, is because I will be satisfying pretty much the "minimum" degree requirements for a B.A. CS degree, since I decided "Oh! I'm gonna major in CS" during my junior year... I can't do any quality research when I barely know a thing about the field. The M.S. degree would require three semesters for me to complete, and I won't be attending a different school for it! I'm going to study with profs that I've spoken with at my current school (Top 50 CS department, and there are some pretty awesome-O faculty members here.. most interested in Comp Linguistics, NLP, Information Retrieval, and Databases). So okay, I guess journal publication is actually useless; I'll just stick to conference papers... and I guess that'll give me more opportunities to resubmit for eventual publication on a different conference! Thanks for help shedding some light on my situation. I can see that pursuing an M.S. isn't that much of a set back for me (besides the opportunity costs).

Hi guys! Long time lurker, first time poster:D I usually try to read through all of the relevant posts that I could find about a topic prior to actually asking a question, so here goes! I read how a lot of the admissions pages on CS PhD websites try to encourage applicants to apply directly to the MS/PhD program, rather than to pursue a M.S. beforehand. 1. My question is, would pursuing a M.S. ever be a disadvantage to gaining admissions to a top program? 2. If it depends on the school, could someone please point out which school has this type of attitude towards those who have already obtained an MS? I'm worried that adcoms would expect more from those who have already gotten an M.S.( that is, publications on a beautiful journal or conference). This brings me to my next set of questions: 1. Are M.S. Computer Science students pursuing research usually successful at having their research published on decently ranked conferences/journals? Or is publishing actually more difficult than it appears to be? 2. Does it really take a year or more for a journal to be published? (I know the preferred venue is conferences, but I really like writing longer articles, and they supposedly have higher accept rates). 3. Is it common to have a semester project in a graduate CS course to be published? I ask, because some CS courses involve conducting actual research... I'm wondering if I can have a Master's thesis on a journal + a few conference papers derived from graduate level CS coursework. I honestly have more questions after reading through this forum, but I really don't want to write a book! Your thoughts would be thankfully received, and I, from the bottom of my heart, will return the favor to this community once I educate myself about this stuff:D