finknottle

TOEFL is much easier than the GRE's verbal section. So more than the TOEFL, you should be worried about the GRE. If your TOEFL score isn't great, I'm guessing that your GRE's verbal score will also follow suit. Even if there are decent schools that would be willing to overlook TOEFL's scores, or accept substitutes such as IELTS, GRE is pretty much the de facto standard in the US and you can't escape that.

You aren't exactly helping yourself by flaunting your name on a public forum and talking about how professors from universities in your "lower rung" are all too keen to have you. I'm sure they would love to hear that you only mailed them to test whether your mails get responses.

It will be difficult for you to get into a good CS program. If you have a B.E./B.Tech from an accredited institution, it is all right. If you have a B.Sc. (not referring to a B.S from IISC which is still 4 years) or M.C.A or some other variant, it will prove difficult. The difference is not so much about the duration as it is about the degree itself and the reputation of your institution. A B.E or a B.Tech is a 4 year program, but you can do it in 3 if you overload courses. A B.Sc. is a 3 year program to begin with. Most US universities ask for an equivalent of a 4 year program. Also, A+ from Mumbai doesn't count for a whole lot unless you are referring to IIT Mumbai. And don't target just California. Your visa will get rejected as a potential immigrant.

For a Master's in the US, I would say that you have a good stab at top 20. Professional Master's - even better. The GPA thing is tricky, but it looks like you have decent stuff to offset it. I would recommend getting in touch with professors personally before applying. Also, try to address your GPA in your SOP and/or request your recommenders to address it in their letters. At the very least, it should save you from getting filtered out right away due to your GPA. It's alright to work for a year or two before returning back to school. For me, I felt that it was much needed. Not to mention, it helps in paying tuition and bills too. Which is very important if you aren't funded.

Glad you guys posted. I've been collecting names of apartments close to Tech, and this is what I've come up with so far: Windsor over Peachtree Alexander on Ponce AMLI 100 Midtown Park District Tivoli Tenside 1016 Lofts ​There were a few more too, but can't remember them right now. On apartment review websites, the opinion seems to be divided for most of these places and there's no clear winner. I think Tenside, Park District, Alexander on Ponce and Windsor over Peachstreet are rated better than the rest. I guess they are a shade more expensive too. Any thoughts?

If you aren't too keen on getting a diploma/degree, there are excellent free online alternatives. Check out https://www.coursera.org/ or http://www.udacity.com/ for example.

I heard similar things too. Homepark would be cheaper, but somewhat unsafe relatively speaking. To the east of the campus is Midtown, which has a few good apartments and to the west is Atlantic station, which also has a sizable student population. Without a car, I guess you would somewhat constrained to these areas in the vicinity of campus.

Did you email the general graduate admissions office, or did you mail the CS department? You should mail and call the CS dept., because they are the ones who would make the preliminary decision. You should apprise them of the facts, and tell them that you need to decide on another offer by so and so date. Since you haven't got rejected either, you might be stuck on some waitlist. The Apil 15 rule holds true for PhD applications, but some Master's programs take longer. I got a couple of offers last week.

Yes, I need to figure out housing too. From what I saw on their housing site, on campus housing is more expensive than rentals outside. And they mandate a one year contract for on campus housing, which you can't break unless you are graduating. So it's a no go.

I think most Master's programs say that. Even if you look at Stanford, Princeton or CMU's MS websites, they'll all say that. I'm feeling too lazy to dig up links, but I'm speaking from first hand experience. An MS program is always a springboard. More often for the industry than a PhD. That is quite true universally. And that's what all websites say. That shouldn't stop you from engaging in research if that's what you want to do. As long as the program is flexible enough, it doesn't matter what the website says. The website is made by a different team altogether keeping in mind a different target audience.

Isn't it the other way round? That's what the OP highlighted. Oxford's is a one year program. Georgia Tech on the other hand is flexible. You can choose to write a thesis if you wish. That would take you two years. Otherwise you can get out in one and a half too if you are just interested in coursework.

At least for Tech, out of state tuition is ~30k per year. http://www.bursar.ga...12-all_fees.pdf. Look at the field which says 12 or more hours for Master's and PhD students. It's 13,430 per semester. So roughly 30k per year if you add other miscellaneous one time fees.

What's your area of interest? What is the relative strength of CMU v/s GaTech in that area ? The thing with rankings, and reputation in general, is that it is pretty closely tied to research. So if you aren't heavily invested in it, it doesn't make a world of difference. Not if you need to break the bank for it. And those figures that you have quoted are a year's figures. So the cost will be 1.5 to 2 times as much over the duration of the program.

Hello. I'm headed to Tech too. This thread is surprisingly inactive.

A few days I think. Just wrote that I have accepted the offer, but I didn't get an acknowledgement or see a change of status on buzzport. I didn't get a reply from the Dean. I got the confirmation from the same staff member. So it could have just been a coincidence too. In any case, nothing to get worried about.

Yeah that happened to me. Nothing to get worried about. The acceptance letter that you have got would have been sent by someone on behalf of a Dean or a Professor. You can try mailing the Dean in addition to the staff member who had mailed on his/her behalf if you don't get a response. That worked for me.

1) Not at those places unless you boost your profile significantly. Apply to a wider set of schools. 2) The general GRE not so much. The subject GRE, definitely. Provided you do well of course. 3) Depends on who is better known to the committee and who would write a stronger letter. If your manager is someone who has research experience and has publications, or if he is a big shot, it will work. If that is not the case, I would say stick to the senior lecturer (which is at least assistant prof. or better right? I'm not familiar with the UK system.) 4) To an extent, but numbers are numbers. Even with your best case estimate of a conversion to 3.4, it doesn't make a very competitive application. The Cambridge tag might mitigate that to some extent though.

If you can't enroll for formal courses, I would suggest going through open or online/video courses such as MIT's OCW lectures. The course on Algorithms and Data Structures by Prof. Leiserson, who is also one of the authors of a pretty comprehensive textbook on the subject, is pretty good. Also, data structures and algorithms is a good starting point for someone interested in Computer Science. After that, you can get into other areas. I think a few other Univs also have similar online offerings. I think Stanford has courses under 'Engineering Everywhere'. Berkeley has them too I think.

This is too vague. You need to narrow things down. How many Math and/or CS courses have you taken? Do you have any programming experience ?

Have you got any funding from Princeton ? If yes, then that is definitely something to consider. Even otherwise, it will be easier to get funded later on at Princeton than at UIUC since MCS is a professional program. The CS dept at UIUC won't support you financially in anyway. You would be free to look for funding elsewhere though. Leaving that aside, I feel that CS at UIUC is a much better option in general. Princeton is a much smaller dept. and great for theory, but since you aren't interested in academia/PhD, I don't see that as an advantage. Edit: I think you will have to write a thesis at Princeton since its a normal MS. I don't know if you can do something else instead for the required credit, but you should also keep that in mind. If you aren't into it, it can become a nightmare. There won't be any thesis at UIUC.

Not really. That final check at the Grad Office is just for official formalities, paperwork etc. Barring exceptional circumstances, there is no reason for them to block it.

I wasn't aware of recent changes in Wisc Mad's policy or the funding situation. My information is probably a couple of years old. The people I know at Wisc Mad have been there for about that long.

If you want to factor funding in, Wisc Mad has a pretty good record of funding grad students (including MS) through TA/RA posts since Wisc Mad is pretty selective, and they evaluate MS students in the same way as PhD students while admitting them. However, WiscMad is better in Comp Arch & Systems than other areas.

MS Apps (Parallel and High Performance Computing, Computer Architecture) Admitted: Georgia Tech Rejected: Stanford, Princeton, UIUC, Wisc Mad, Rice, EPFL, Penn State Waiting: UCSD, U Mich, U Minn, UFL

If you mean M.S. CS, then I guess not. Ph.D. admits had gone out though. I applied pretty late to both of them, and not expecting a decision any time soon. In fact, applying late is a big disadvantage for GaTech at least, from what I've heard, since they have rolling admissions. Anyway, my status on buzzport changed to Action - Dept. Decision Pending (from No decision has been made), and under the Application Checklist, a new line popped up. It says Visa/I-20 Missing and Required. It doesn't mean much, and I confirmed this by mailing them, but at least it moved one step in their processing pipeline.