Need help orienting myself

[anthromind]

Hey Guys,

I'm a US-born grad student in the social sciences at Uchicago and i've been charged with trying to get my cousin into a terminal MS program in computer science. She's getting her bs in engineering at Punjab University, and is in a master's program right now there. I dont have all of her stats and dont want to add another "RATE MY CHANCES NOW BCHES" post anyways. Instead, can anyone point me to threads/resources which will help me get a better feeling of general trends etc.? For example, I'm having trouble seeing if she should continue her MS program in India. A family friend recommended that she shouldn't, because she will repeat the coursework here (that friend is from the same school in india and came here for ms now phd...but she got admission with an m.s. so I dont know)

Anyways I could go on for days...any help would be much appreciated!

Edited December 21, 2010 by anthromind

[beanbagchairs]

I am not sure what you meant by "the general trend"; but, this is what i think about ur cousin's situation:

1) Finish her MS in India. Having an MS wont hurt, actually it's awesome.. Just make sure that she complements that MS with great research experiences. What I'm trying to say is that being in a master program will help her to get research experience... which counts a lot for PhD programs...

2) If she did not finish her MS, then she probably need to address that issue in her SOP... or else adcomms will be wondering why.

3) I am assuming she's halfway in the MS program? she might be graduating just in time for the next app season... getting these apps ready take a lot of time (and, uh.., money)