Inside info on admissions in top CS programs

[starmaker]

I posted this link in another thread, but I figured it should be its own topic.

Prof. Harchol-Balter of Carnegie Mellon University has been involved with computer science PhD admissions at CMU, MIT, and UC Berkeley (all top programs). She gives a talk to CMU undergrads who are considering grad school each year, advising them on how PhD admissions at top programs work, and she wrote this talk up and put it on the Internet.

http://www.cs.cmu.ed...dschooltalk.pdf

It's a great resource - advice from an insider, with detailed explanations of what top CS programs in the United States look for in a PhD applicant.

Note to international students: The section on what makes a good letter of recommendation could also be a useful resource for your letter-writers, since standards for what makes a good letter differ from country to country and they may not be sure what an American audience wants to see.

Edited October 25, 2010 by starmaker

[beanbagchairs]

Ah yeah.. I downloaded that document. I was ultra-excited when I realized that it was written by a SHE, not another HE... (it's CS, you know)

I also find the document produced by the MIT AI Lab to be helpful: How to do Research (MIT AI Lab)...although the latter does not talk about how to get into programs.. nonetheless, a good read for those who are trying to make it in research

[newms]

Ah yeah.. I downloaded that document. I was ultra-excited when I realized that it was written by a SHE, not another HE... (it's CS, you know)

I also find the document produced by the MIT AI Lab to be helpful: How to do Research (MIT AI Lab)...although the latter does not talk about how to get into programs.. nonetheless, a good read for those who are trying to make it in research

Thanks for pointing to that document (link here) It looks to be a good read even though its a bit dated. I had a good chuckle at the authors' suggestions on how to find the top research papers in AI:

If you are interested in a specific subfield, go to a senior grad student in that subfield and ask him what are the ten most important papers and see if he'll lend you copies to Xerox.

[Amogh]

Thanks for pointing to that document (link here) It looks to be a good read even though its a bit dated. I had a good chuckle at the authors' suggestions on how to find the top research papers in AI:

read it too.. it's interesting how much things have changed in the 2 decades since that paper was written. .. take a look at jason hong's webpage for a complete list guys.(link)

[newms]

read it too.. it's interesting how much things have changed in the 2 decades since that paper was written. .. take a look at jason hong's webpage for a complete list guys.(link)

Thanks much for that link - that's a great resource. I particularly liked Randy Pausch's talk on time management. I had seen his 'Last Lecture' but I hadn't seen that one before. Good stuff.