PhD in CS in NYC area

[_Blue]

Hi,

I'm interested in applying to a CS PhD program in the area of new york city.

I know I don't stand a chance at NYU or Columbia, but I can't seem to find information about the acceptance criteria of CUNY schools and NYU-poly.

I will be in New York in August and visit these schools (I'm a foreign student) but in the mean while I would like to get an idea of what I'm up against.

some information about me:

- I'm 29 (female)

- I have a LLB (‪Bachelor of Laws‬) degree, AVG 81.86/100

And I'm about to have a BSc in Computer Science, AVG 87/100 (from conversion charts I've seen I think my GPA is about 3.2 or 3.3 out of 4)

- in the past year and a half I've been working for 3-4 days a week as a software developer in the R&D of a start-up company.

before that I worked in the internet security field for almost three years (also student position)

- I have not taken the GRE yet (but I assume I'll do very well in the quantitative part)

- I will probably get very good recommendation from both my college and my current employer.

- I don't have any research experience.

Do you think it will be possible for me to get into these programs (nyu-poly / cuny)?

If someone here got accepted to a PhD program i mentioned, I would love to know his/her GPA/GRE and other relevant information.

Also, if you have any suggestion regarding other decent PhD programs that might feet me , I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks you very much!

Edited May 21, 2011 by _Blue

[giantfox]

I know a decent amount of people in the PHD program at CUNY as well as had talks with professors about the admit process there. They seem to admit a large percentage of students into the program but the problem at that point is finding funding. I think that with a good GRE score you have a decent shot of getting in. Your best bet is to find professors in the CUNY system that you would like to work with and emailing them. I know that there are different opinions regarding the PHD process about emailing professors but I think in the case of CUNY it is probably a good idea.

I think CUNY would be a better program than POLY; many more professors in the system as well as the fact that you can take courses in both NYU and Columbia after you pass your qualifier. No research experience is the one thing that might hurt you in terms of finding professors who would like to work with you at the start, and you will probably have to TA for a while to keep yourself afloat at CUNY. Is there any field in particular that you feel like you want to work in, and any professors in general there?

Good Luck!

[OH YEAH]

You've never done research before. Why do you think applying for a PhD is a good idea? A PhD is a serious commitment, and "I'll go to whatever university will take me please oh please" graduates aren't exactly hot on the market.

Perhaps you could apply for a masters first?

[_Blue]

Hi,

First, thank you both for your answers.

I have no research experienced, but the classes I most enjoyed were the mathematical classes, computability, Computational complexity theory , algorithms , etc. I have not finished my BSc yet, and I'm meeting the dean next week to see if there is a way to get involved in research , to make sure I enjoy it as I think I would.

I was under the impression (and correct me if i'm wrong) that CUNY's schools are decent (not everybody can go to NYU...), I saw that CCNY for example is ranked in the top 80 CS schools in the US, and in a different ranking cuny was ranked at 50 something. I'm not familiar with schools in the US, and the knowledge I have is mainly from the internet, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

Since my husband has a job offer in New York , that I must study there which limits the schools I can apply to. If there are better places to go to (except for NYU/Columbia) i'd love to hear about them.

Regarding the funding, I hope to get funding, but I can manage without it if I have to (CUNY is not that expensive, and my husband will earn well).

I'd appreciate your opinion about שנםוא CUNY, and about job opportunities afterwards.

Thanks.

[giantfox]

CUNY is okay. I think you will probably be a bit disappointed at the level of the classes there. I've heard grad students complain about how easy they are and the level that they are taught.. but the point of a PHD program is to do research, not take classes. CUNY has a number of really amazing professors in some fields, such as Multi-Agent Systems, Logic, and I know some really great individual professors in Natural Language Processing as well as Cryptography (although ideally you would like a program in which there are an abundance of professors you would want to work with in your field). The goal of any applicant in Computer Science grad programs is to get into a top 6 and, if that is not possible, a top 20 ranked computer science program (Usually measured by USNews CS rankings). Anything below that number the only metric that is important is the individual lab that you would like to work at and the research that you will be doing. If you have a decent amount of publications in top venues it will not matter where you get your PHD (unless you go into industry, and then you want the prestige of the institution).

Getting research experience will help a lot. In your application you will need to write a research statement and describe some sort of research work you have done in the past. If it matches up with the work one of the advisers you are aiming to work with it will give you a leg up on the competition.

Paying for a PHD is not the smartest of ideas even if you have the money for it, and if you are doing research with an adviser (which is needed to complete your PHD) you should be funded under one of their grants. If you are paying for your PHD you might as well get a Masters from a better institution (such as NYU or Columbia (Columbia being the much better program)) and try to get some research done there before applying to PHD. Then you will know whether you really want one, and you would have the ability to drop out and get a decent job if you didn't want to do research. Even though PHD in CUNY would be cheaper, it would cost more in opportunity costs.

The only other institution I can think of close to NYC is Rutgers which also has a decent CS (comparable to NYU). Stonybrook is also good, but they are pretty far from the city.

Again: The research that you are interested in and the professors that you would want to work with are the most important thing. If you haven't answered the question of what and with whom you would want to work with I would not apply to any PHD programs.

About job opportunities afterward from CUNY.. it would be really hard to get a viable academic position seeing as you are completing with top ranked people from better ranked institutions for very competitive jobs. If your PHD research is in one of those fields that are more applicable than theoretical and you market yourself well you can get a decent job. Look at the alumni at the lab you would want to work at see where they ended up. Some labs have better success than others. Be careful to note that there is a difference between working as a Software Engineer at a top company and being a Research Scientist at a top company. Some labs may boast their students working for Google or such but they are employed as Software Engineers, jobs that may be just as easy to get as Master graduates from better institutions, and they might have been better off not spending the extra 3-5 years of their life to get to the same place regardless of yearly cost of the program.

Again, good luck!

[_Blue]

HI,

Thank you very much for your answer, it's very helpful.

Do you think it would be possible for to me get accepted to MS in NYU or Columbia, given my profile? are these programs very competitive?

Also, are there many job opportunities in this field in new your city ?

thanks

[csKid]

All these programs have high acceptance rates for MS. Write a good SOP and make sure you meet the requirement courses. (if you're bsc CS was three years) and the ace the GRE.

HI,

Thank you very much for your answer, it's very helpful.

Do you think it would be possible for to me get accepted to MS in NYU or Columbia, given my profile? are these programs very competitive?

Also, are there many job opportunities in this field in new your city ?

thanks