CS Ph.D. Desired by Humanities Major

[flosincapite]

I am in quite a conundrum, and I was hoping that you of thegradcafe's forums might help.

I received a B.A. from Duke University last year, majoring in English and Classical Languages. I am now in an M.A./ Ph.D. program in Comparative Literature; the plan was for me to be a professor. It has taken me perhaps too long to realize that I find the humanities to be little more than a worthless curiosity: pleasurable, but not worth diligent study.

I am interested in artificial intelligence, particularly the field of natural language processing. I have learned C++ on my own and kept up with math, but I haven't done coursework in CS or math for a while. Essentially, I meet none of the qualifying criteria for any CS program, let alone one at a top school.

Therefore, I would like any and all advice you have on how I should proceed. My eventual goal is to receive a Ph.D. in CS from a respectable university. What should my next step be? Do I try a certificate program? Second bachelor's? How do I fund such endeavors?

Many thanks for any advice you can give.

[starmaker]

There are a few places, like Tufts and Brandeis, that have post-bac programs specifically for people in your sort of situation - people with little or no CS background who want to get a grad degree in CS. I don't know the details on Brandeis' program, but Tufts' is intended to be functionally equivalent to a CS minor. You probably won't get funding for a post-bac program, but unlike a second bachelor's it's short and relatively cheap.

If you would be okay with approaching things from the ECE side, rather than the CS side, you might also look at Boston University's LEAP program, which is designed to bridge people with no engineering background into MS programs in their engineering school. And LEAP has significant financial aid available (including the possibility of full funding once you hit the actual MS portion of the program). You could get an MS in CompE and then a PhD in CS (this is not uncommon).