Machine Learning MSc/PhD - Americas and Europe

[pgx]

I am interested in pursuing a career in Machine Learning. The problem is that, at the moment I am not quite sure if I want to make a 5 year PhD commitment. It might happen that I can find full funding for a MSc degree if I go for it. Can someone please share their opinion on the Machine Learning departments in the following universities

1) Berkeley

2) Stanford

3) Columbia

4) Princeton

5) University College London (they have the Gatsby unit and so on)

Later added:

6) CMU

7) UCSD

8) UC Toronto

If you think that some university should be on the list but it isn't, please share (including European !) Also, I am interested if after a MSc I can directly take the qualification exam, rather than taking classes again for 2 more years .What is the usual procedure in the US?

Edited September 8, 2010 by pgx

[weninger]

Three things:

First, most top schools do not distinguish their applicants between MSc and PhD. They just accept the top X number of candidates as graduates students. Once in, most PhD students, in my estimation, actually do get a MSc degree on the way to a PhD. They do this because PhD is (as you say) a long road, and if they don't finish they still want something to show for their efforts.

So if I were you I would apply for a PhD program (which will likely get you funded) and then get the MSc on the way. If you find that you don't want to spend the extra 2-3 years then don't and you've lost nothing.

Second, quals vary from department to department. Typically, in America, you are required to take 35 or so course-credit hours. The qual does not waive that requirement. So, although PhD candidacy is based on passing the qual, you cannot graduate PhD without passing the dozen or so courses.

Third, of your list:

1) Berkeley

2) Stanford

...are fantastic ML schools.

You might add CMU and UIUC and Cornell to that list too.

3) Columbia

4) Princeton

... are not ranked as highly, but if you find a professor that invests in your particular line of ML research then you'll be fine

I do not have any opinion of European Schools, except that I've heard a lot from MaxPlank in Germany and Edinburgh in Scotland -- although I am not specifically aware of their ML prowess.

Best of luck!

[pgx]

Thank you! What about UCSD/UC Toronto/Johns Hopkins? Any opinion on that?

Edited September 9, 2010 by pgx

[pgx]

Or Cambridge? The ML department seems to be very fruitful, according to the number of papers they have published.

[explorer-c]

I am interested in pursuing a career in Machine Learning. The problem is that, at the moment I am not quite sure if I want to make a 5 year PhD commitment. It might happen that I can find full funding for a MSc degree if I go for it. Can someone please share their opinion on the Machine Learning departments in the following universities

1) Berkeley

2) Stanford

3) Columbia

4) Princeton

Berkeley, Stanford *and* CMU are the place to be for ML (I assume ML here means theoretical ML rather than applied). But I'm wondering why the preference towards Columbia and Princeton because there are other schools that are generally more well known for ML such as Georgia Tech and UIUC.

[OH YEAH]

Regarding Princeton--perhaps he wanted to work with Robert Schapire? I don't know much about ML, but he is listed as the #4 author in ML on Microsoft Academic Search.