Carnegie Mellon indecisions

[demonv]

Hi,

I am an international student and have been admitted to the ECE dept in CMU for MS. While applying I had specified my field of interest as DSP as both my college projects were oriented in this regard. While I am excited to get an offer to join right now I'm in two minds. I have a few doubts.

1. I'm not sure if I want to pursue my MS in DSP itself. Is it hard to change fields after joining? CMU's compsci department is best known and how hard will it be to shift to that department, if not fully atleast attend some courses? The reason fro that is below. I want to make sure every penny is well spent atleast?

2. I'm not sure if an MS will be worth 70K $ fees!! :-O

I have accepted the offer from CMU and am currently waiting for my I-20.

[LucKy_StriKe]

Hi,

I am an international student and have been admitted to the ECE dept in CMU for MS. While applying I had specified my field of interest as DSP as both my college projects were oriented in this regard. While I am excited to get an offer to join right now I'm in two minds. I have a few doubts.

1. I'm not sure if I want to pursue my MS in DSP itself. Is it hard to change fields after joining? CMU's compsci department is best known and how hard will it be to shift to that department, if not fully atleast attend some courses? The reason fro that is below. I want to make sure every penny is well spent atleast?

2. I'm not sure if an MS will be worth 70K $ fees!! :-O

I have accepted the offer from CMU and am currently waiting for my I-20.

A1. There is no MS in CS at CMU, so you cannot shift to the CS department for a direct masters in CS(either ways program transfers are almost impossible).

However, i have some good news for you.

MS in ECE at CMU is a very flexible course and you can switch from DSP into whatever you decide to pursue, your course registrations are done in july or august and you'll be talking to your advisor after you reach there(either ways they wont mind your field switch, you choose the courses you want to take, they can only advise you).

Secondly, you can choose most of your courses from CIT(carnegie institute of technology under which the entire CS and ECE departments operate) which would count towards your degree.

A2. Students who're in the MS in ECE usually get pretty good internships and later even better jobs, so your $70K would typically be returned within an year of working. Do mail a couple of current students who do work closely relating to what you want to pursue and ask them about their current job prospects so that you can get a clearer idea.

p.s: i regret not applying to the MS in ECE at CMU because i thought i was a sure-shot into one of the other programs CMU offers

[krok]

FYI: CS does not operate out of CIT. CIT (Carnegie Institute of Technology) is the official name for Carnegie Mellon's School of Engineering. CS operates out of the School of Computer Science. So ECE and CS are in two separate schools at CMU therefore CS classes are not as accessible to ECE students, though I am sure it's manageable. It's probably SCS students get first preference/access to CS classes.

[Go_Girl]

Hey demonv could you please tell us more about your profile so that we can judge our chances?