Masters in Machine Learning

[dustlandfairytale]

So, I'm very sure I don't want to do a PhD, but I'm definitely interested in ML and want to do a Masters degree in either Machine Learning or CS with a focus on Machine Learning. How good/bad are the following universities considered?

Stanford

Princeton

UIUC

Cornell

UMich

Edinburgh

UCL

Cambridge

ETH Zurich

EPF Lausanne

What are the other top ML universities where I could pursue a Masters degree?

[Networc]

I saw Microsoft's Academic Search referenced in a post the other day - it's pretty interesting (I'm sure some would disagree).

Here are its results when you search based on "Machine Learning", "Last 10 Years", and "All Continents". Hope it helps!

[orangeMan]

I saw Microsoft's Academic Search referenced in a post the other day - it's pretty interesting (I'm sure some would disagree).

Here are its results when you search based on "Machine Learning", "Last 10 Years", and "All Continents". Hope it helps!

I didn't know about this Microsoft Academic Search. Thanks so much for sharing!

[dustlandfairytale]

That's very interesting! Thanks! Is there anyone who disagrees?

Edited January 16, 2012 by dustlandfairytale

[weninger]

The Microsoft Academic Search is great for some things. But this is not one of them. H-index and paper numbers are not the best indicators of research quality. Most salient point -- People can write lots of papers in crappy conferences.

A much better indicator is funding amounts and sources. That is, NSF funds are competitive and very rigorously reviewed by top scientists. If a university (in America) has 3 awards for ML research vs 1 or none, then its obvious where the quality research is.

[weninger]

To follow up on my last post, more to the point. You've got a good list there.

I would certainly add CMU and UDub. Depending on what you are interested there are really great researchers a WUSTL, UPenn, and UNC-CH.

For PhD students my advice is: find a list of professors first, then consider the school. For MS/MCS students: always pick a top 5 school if you can.

[dustlandfairytale]

Thank you!

[Networc]

Weninger: Would you consider the Microsoft site useful if it were used as a starting point? For instance, take the schools that appear high on the Microsoft list for Machine Learning and then see how well those schools rank on PHDs.org for criteria such as grants, awards, and student outcomes?

[ace589]

Microsoft's Academic Search does seem to have some faults. I would not use it as strong indicator of a good school. Some schools with a good reputation appear to have no data.