Computer Science applicants, where are you?!

[zaphod_beeblebrox]

ok someone posted that he/she got rejected from MIT with having 12 publications. How is it possible to have so many pubs?

He or she has already probably got a Masters degree from somewhere? I've known people who blindly tend to submit papers (even if they don't end up in great conferences).

[tedjj]

But masters is only 2 years. Assuming he/she published for 3 years of undergrad - that means more than 2 papers per year;p There are profs who publish less;p

[new_neo]

Profs look at the quality of research work...just having 12 or say 20 publications wont make it for you.....theres gotta be some incremental contribution to the literature....again there are many 2nd or 3rd tier conferences these days....and in case any of these are national level then Profs simply discard such papers....with these 2nd or 3rd tier conferences, it has become possible to publish by just merging any two existing algos....or just making a better experimental evaluation....hence one cant just compare the number of publications....without having a look at the quality.

[new_neo]

Again if you see the list of profs sorted with H-index, many few MIT Profs make it to the top 50....this is because there profs doesn't give importance to number of publications....they just publish very significant one or two papers each years in Journals or 1st tier conferences which are mostly meant for such profs and their PhDs...

[tedjj]

What's H-index?

[defmacro]

What's H-index?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirsch_number

[kuntal]

saw some entries about columbia. seems like they are laying few decision every now and then. (mostly rejects though). I still haven't heard anything from them yet. does it mean i'm climbing up the ladder or they are just waiting to finish off some important stuffs and have some free moment to trash out all the rejects at once?

[inactive_since_inf]

Patience is the key my boy! :wink:

[new_neo]

@all

Can you please tell me if it is possible to leave after completing MS even if you are enrolled in a PhD Program. Whats are the pros/cons of doing such a thing?

[bernard]

cons: your profs might think negatively of you and will not give you strong recommendation letters.

[finest_engineering]

pros:

The PhD has some real diminishing returns. You can finish your masters in 1-2 years and that makes a big difference over a BS and you will learn A LOT of useful stuff and really improve your general knowledge of your field. The extra 3-5 years you spend on getting a PhD will focus your attention on a very narrow topic. The PhD is only worth it if you really want to do it and want to go into research. Remember, these are your best years, you are young and ambitious. If you want to take risks in business and make it big, don't waste your life in grad school.

cons:

Your professor might not like it, whether he will hold a grudge depends on his personality and how misleading you were in the first place.

It's your life though. Be selfish.

[jikkujj]

Did anyone hear from the USC CS PhD program yet?

[tedjj]

About a week ago they were waiting for fellowships, not sure about now.

So it is a final week for me:DD Hoping to make decision by March 10:P

[Guest]

I spoke with the graduate person at USC last week about when decisions would be sent out. She said that they would come out sometime by mid-March. So just be on the lookout for correspondence from them over the next two weeks.

[thanhdd]

Profs look at the quality of research work...just having 12 or say 20 publications wont make it for you.....theres gotta be some incremental contribution to the literature....again there are many 2nd or 3rd tier conferences these days....and in case any of these are national level then Profs simply discard such papers....with these 2nd or 3rd tier conferences, it has become possible to publish by just merging any two existing algos....or just making a better experimental evaluation....hence one cant just compare the number of publications....without having a look at the quality.

Definitely true! If you have one paper in top tier conference, you most probably get admitted in top school.

In my case, I haven't got MS yet. After my undergraduate, I spend 2 years researching to strengthen my profile. I have 11 publications; half of them are national, the rest are international, but in low tier conference (which I am not aware of their quality before). Despite the fact that my GPA is 4.0, and I am valedictorian (ranked 1/3000), I got rejection from Cornell, though.

[belowthree]

Yeah you really have to be careful where you publish, especially as an international student... there's just so many lousy conferences overseas that if you don't have some strong work in conferences well known in your field you won't get any recognition for your ideas. Unfortunately this means you have to shoot for a much higher standard a lot of the time... the reason I'm still unpublished is because we've only been applying to top tier conferences and we weren't quite ready to do that yet...

Anyways... a few handy guides:

Specifically for security:

http://faculty.cs.tamu.edu/guofei/sec_conf_stat.htm (Aim for Tier 1, but publications in Tier 2 are very reasonable.)

General:

http://www.core.edu.au/rankings/Confere ... 0Main.html (I think this ranking is somewhat dubious and not all that great in terms of correctly distinguishing between A and A+ conferences, but it does provide a good reference on which conferences to avoid. Generally you should aim to publish at no conference rated lower than an A unless you have a good reason. (i.e. it's a beginning conference or workshop or something you really want to publish in and you don't particularly care about that paper being seen as particularly notable.)

The citeseer impact ranking, in my mind, is completely dumb and doesn't correspond very well to how much people respect conferences, but it also exists.

[kuntal]

dose anyone have any definite idea about funding scenario in NCSU?

[nitzenator]

Hi All,

I am an international student and I have gotten admit in CMU MLT (Masters in Language Technologies) at LTI.

I have got some doubts and would really appreciate if anybody from CMU SCS could answer these:

1. Is MLT valued at the same level as MS CS. I have research interests in information retrieval and machine learning.

2. I am bit apprehensive about going there studying among a group of geniuses and extra-intelligent people. I mean here I am without any international publication, an avg. GPA in my undergrad(though I was good in my undergraduate projects which were aligned with my research interests) and I have been away from academics for almost 2 years now in a programming job. Would I be able to match the standards of the degree prog.

3. How does the funding scenario for Fall '09 students look like, specially for masters.

Thanks in advance.....

[nowhereman]

Hi All,

I am an international student and I have gotten admit in CMU MLT (Masters in Language Technologies) at LTI.

I have got some doubts and would really appreciate if anybody from CMU SCS could answer these:

1. Is MLT valued at the same level as MS CS. I have research interests in information retrieval and machine learning.

2. I am bit apprehensive about going there studying among a group of geniuses and extra-intelligent people. I mean here I am without any international publication, an avg. GPA in my undergrad(though I was good in my undergraduate projects which were aligned with my research interests) and I have been away from academics for almost 2 years now in a programming job. Would I be able to match the standards of the degree prog.

3. How does the funding scenario for Fall '09 students look like, specially for masters.

Thanks in advance.....

If you are admitted, then they consider you smart and good enough for the program. So don't worry, go ahead to pursue your career.