CSallday

Thank you everyone for the replies! I will definitely do this! :-)

I am currently a Masters student. I am working on a computer science paper at a top conference along with 2 other classmates. One question we are having is about the author ordering of the paper. We are all planning to apply to PhD programs, and so the author ordering matters a lot. Since we all contributed about equally, we agreed that we would put author names alphabetically by last name. My last name happens to be last of the 3 of us. Will being the last author of this paper not help a lot, as compared to being first or second author. Is there any way that I could indicate to PhD admissions committees that I had a large part in the paper - just as much as the first author? Will the committee assume that I took more of an advisor role in the project? (Advisors are usually last authors in grad-student papers). Thanks in advance for the advice!

I am interested in building technology to help people in the medical field, and I have some computer science publications related to this area. I have a Bachelors and Masters degree in Computer Science focusing on human-computer interaction for health, and have also taken multiple computational genomics courses. I have never taken a pure biology / natural science course at the university level. I have an otherwise strong application (test scores, GPA, rec letters, computer science publications). Am I likely to not get in due to my lack of coursework in the natural sciences or biomedical engineering? Is this program suitable for someone like me who wants to take some of the medical coursework offered in the program but coming in with a primarily technical background?

If your ultimate goal is a PhD, definitely become a full-time Masters student where you focus on research and getting publications. One nice strategy is to take lots of courses that are project heavy and result in publishable work. I know people who have gotten 3-4 solid publications just from the papers they wrote for their projects in their grad-level courses. Good way to kill 2 birds with one stone. Also, since one of the most important aspects for PhD admissions is rec letters from professors (not your work managers), you will want to spend as much time as possible interacting with your professors and possibly doing research with them.

I disagree that OS is a prereq as well. I know a PhD student at Stanford focusing on SYSTEMS who didn't take OS in undergrad. Don't stress about this.

As tough as cicada2014's advice is, I mostly agree. I think you could apply to some Masters programs to get more research experience if you want to go to these top-20 schools for a PhD. I think your profile is good enough to get you into some top Masters program, where you can build up your profile for PhD admissions. Also try to get some publications out of your current research for when you apply in the future. If you don't want to go for an intermediate Masters, you can apply right after you graduate from UW and make sure you get publications (ideally first author) out of your current research during the rest of your senior year. Good luck!

I am a Masters student at a top-4 CS school and I am currently doing research here. I have internship opportunities at Microsoft and Google, but I also have the ability to stay here over the summer and do research. Would taking the internship negatively affect my chances of admission compared to doing the extra research here over the summer? I will be applying to the PhD program here as well as other top places next Fall.

Thanks! Does anyone know of any other fellowships that I would be eligible to apply to as a Masters student?

I'm about to start my first year of a 2-year (fully funded) Master's program. Afterwards, I plan to pursue a PhD. Since the NSF fellowship requires that you apply within the first 2 years of *any* graduate study, I need to apply this year and/or next year in order to be eligible. If I apply this year and get the fellowship, will I 1) be allowed to accept the fellowship given that I won't enter a PhD program until 2017, and 2) be allowed to put off funding until I enter the PhD program?

This is all very good to know. Thanks!

I am only familiar with top-20 programs. From those: Stanford funds their 'strongest' incoming MS students with a TAship. Princeton funds its Masters. If you count MIT Media Lab, their Masters program is funded as well.

As somewhat of a side note, I have seen a surprisingly large number of CS professors who create startups based on their research ideas (this is particularly prevalent in my field). I have also seen people switch from industry to academia (and vice versa), so you have the freedom to try out both careers with a PhD.

@ivortytowerunlocked: I know the approach is holistic, and that for the schools where a professor will admit you rather than the department (not all programs do this), different professors put different value to different parts of the application. But for the very top programs, I feel like you need to be strong on all parts of the application, and I was just wondering what was needed for the prior publications part of the application (especially for a masters student at a top program, who would probably be expected to have a bit more publications than an applicant straight out of undergrad or undergrad/industry). @icydubloon: Thanks. This sounds reasonable for the top programs.

What level of publications are expected to get into a top-5 PhD program? Obviously, there are different levels of publications you can have. There are many different types of publications you can have with varying degrees of academic prestige: - First author in a top conference in the field. - First author in a workshop of a top conference. - First author in a non-top-tier conference in the field. - Non-first author in a top conference in the field. - Non-first author in a workshop of a top conference. - Non-first author in a non-top-tier conference in the field. - Poster presentation in a top conference in the field. - Poster presentation in a workshop of a top conference. - Poster presentation in a non-top-tier conference in the field. - Unrelated publication. - etc. (notes vs papers in some conferences) Do you need a first author paper in a top conference in order to get into Stanford/Berkeley/CMU/MIT? How "low" in the prestige of papers can you go for it to be acceptable? How would you rate these different types of publications from an admissions standpoint? Do multiple publications in lower-tier venues / lower-tier methods of publications (like a poster presentation) make up for not having a pub in the top conferences in the field? By the way, I plan to research HCI. And I am currently in a masters program at a top-4 CS program. Any insights would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Stanford said that I could convert my TAship to an RAship at any time if I found a professor who was willing to do so. I also didn't mention that these two publications were underway when I was applying because I didn't know I would be making these additional publications until this semester. So my second round PhD apps would already be stronger because of them. The Information Science department at Cornell does all the applied CS research at Cornell. My prospective advisor, for example, has a joint appointment as a CS and InfoSci professor. However, I don't know how CS departments would feel about hiring an InfoSci graduate. The research at Cornell is amazing and the environment from visiting is also a great match for me. Tough choices....

I have narrowed down my acceptances to two options: 1) a fully funded CS masters (stipend via TAship) at Stanford, and 2) the Information Science PhD at Cornell University. The Information Science PhD at Cornell was not my top choice, but it was definitely one of my top-5 best fit PhD programs when I applied. Stanford would have probably been my first choice PhD program, but I didn't get in and instead got this funded masters. I just got the Stanford acceptance today. Until today, I was ecstastic about attending Cornell and I was pretty set on it. Now with this Stanford acceptance with funding, I have NO idea what to do. Here is a little more context: My senior year CS grades will be a little low, but I made all A's in CS courses prior to senior year. If i go to Stanford, I plan to make all A's at Stanford, since I can clearly do that if I put in the work based on my preparation and good grades from my undergrad (a top school). I would also have a lot more publications when I apply to PhD programs again after my Stanford masters. I had one unrelated low-tier journal publication when I applied this year. This semester, I will be publishing two more papers in higher-tier conferences, and I also expect to publish during my time at Stanford. This would give me the opportunity to have a much stronger PhD application (with the exception of senior year CS grades, which should be compensated by Stanford grades). I am scared, though, that I will have put in all this work at Stanford and then not get into a better PhD program, which would suck because then Cornell probably wouldn't accept me again after I turned them down. So this is all a gamble. (BTW I also got into UIUC PhD in CS but after visiting, it wasn't as good of a match as Cornell). So...what do y'all think? I honestly have no idea what to choose. Any and all opinions would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks so much in advance. (Side question: I won't get rescinded from either of these programs if I make a C in operating systems this semester, right?)

I currently have an admissions offer for a PhD at Cornell Informatiom Science as well as a PHD offer from a few other CS programs (the highest ranking being UIUC). I am currently planning to go to Cornell, as there are a ridiculous number of professors there whose research interests match mine. I eventually want to be either a CS professor or a researcher at a big lab like Microsoft Research. Will pursuing an Information Science graduate degree rather than Computer Science hurt my career goals? This is the only reservation I have about acceptng the offer. Everything else about the program is perfect and matches exactly the type of research I want to pursue (CS applied to social sciences).

I just got an admit as well. My recruiting faculty sent me a follow up email stating that I am in no way obligated to work with them be cause I indicated several areas of interest on my app. I have no idea if this extends to everyone or not, but it's very likely that you are not tied to that faculty but they admitted you because they would like to work with you.

Awesome. I'm technically in information science. I'm going to try to spend some time in Ithaca and some in NYC in order to try to get "the best of both worlds." Oh, does anyone have any opinions on UIUC CS vs Cornell Information Science?

Both large companies and startups are familiar with the top 20 Cs schools. So you should choose UT Austin / Georgia tech over UChicago for sure, unless there is something particularly special about the UChicago program (I.e. They cater to people who did not do their undergrad degree in CS)

Interviewed at Berkeley, haven't heard back. Assuming they are just sending all the rejections slowly...?

I got into Cornell and am very excited about the program and my advisor. However, my advisor is at Cornell's NYC "Cornell tech" campus. Does anyone know anything about this campus? What are your opinions of Cornell tech vs Cornell in Ithaca? Thanks!

Thank you for the response. This at least gives me some hope, especially since my number 1 POI says on his web page to not contact him regarding admissions because he is not involved with the admissions process. Now to wait.....

A couple of questions regarding Harvard CS PhD admissions. Has anyone received an official acceptance email from them, or just the unofficial acceptance from the POI? And does anyone know if all the acceptances for Harvard have already gone out?

Yeah, if you look at previous years, there is a small chance of getting into any of these schools (since none of them have started sending rejections yet and all of them seem to occasionally have a late admit). But I think the chance is small.