zannebrain

I just visited there. Yes, funding is pretty much expected in the second year since students build relationships with professors and the like. Its not to say I won't get funded my first year though as there are still several opportunities. I'm still weighing the pros and cons, but they have a very strong department in many areas. The city is nice, faculty very friendly, the prospectives and current students were all very talented as well as humble.

I was accepted into Madison as well. It has a great reputation in CS. The city itself has a good number of technological jobs. The most prestigious of which is Epic Systems from my understanding. They're a medical company and have an amazing campus. However, there are more opportunities on the westcoast.

I just got my letter from Madison. I'm very happy to be accepted into their PhD program, however I am not guaranteed funding. I don't know what to do now. I'm from the midwest and Madison is the best school I was accepted in to. I really had my hopes up to go there after looking into some of the research and course work. I'm not entirely sure what to do and what this means. Would it be wise to accept anyway? Or should I not even risk the chance of accumulating serious debt?

There is a fair amount of theory in CS and I think it would be difficult to jump into graduate level courses from an unrelated degree based on what I've seen and know. I'm wrapping up my undergrad in CS this semester. The degree is often times about 45-55 credit hours at most schools, that's a good chunk of material. Yes, CS has a close relationship with math, but its mostly discrete based. It wouldn't be hard for a mathematics major with programming experience to jump into graduate CS (in some areas they may even have an easier time than CS majors). Anyway, you seem like a very bright and motivated person so maybe these issues ultimately won't matter. I just think its good to have a healthy notion of the amount of foundational material there is. Understanding object oreintated programming, data structures, discrete math and algorithms with get you a long way. Maybe the CS GRE is a good way of prooving your ability?

I also applied to Iowa. I know they're big on verfication right now. I haven't heard back yet though. If your domestic it should be fairly easy to get into their PhD program. I've met Chris (very nice and chatty guy) also and plan to work with him. It sounded like he was expecting the possibility of two more PhD students. Well let me know how it goes. Who knows we both might end up in the same place depending on things.