Fall 2013 CS Master's Applicants

[ssk2]

Hello! 

Since I'm nervously awaiting admissions decisions for my Master's applications, I thought I'd start a thread in a similar vein to the CS PhD thread.

 

How are you all coping? When do you expect to hear back?

I've heard back from a couple of places and UMich should be next...

[Danbeals]

I am hoping berkeley decides at the same time as their Phd but who knows.

[ssk2]

What program did you apply to? The MEng looks like it gets decided last (with decisions being sent out in early April). No idea about the MS though.

[Danbeals]

I applied to a bunch of MS programs. It just seems strange to that they all have very few students just going for a masters. Maybe I have just been reading sites wrong.

[foboi1122]

I applied to a few UC's and Stanford and CMU MS CS programs. So far I've only heard back from UC Irvine. BTW, anyone know how CMU's MS CS program is? I've looked online and it seems good but I wanted to get an opinion

[WishfulThinker]

Any Canadian universities applicants?

[ssk2]

I applied to a few UC's and Stanford and CMU MS CS programs. So far I've only heard back from UC Irvine. BTW, anyone know how CMU's MS CS program is? I've looked online and it seems good but I wanted to get an opinion

 

See this post for more on the CMU MS:  (and the rest of the thread has some good admissions stats too).

[rustledjimmies]

I'm also applying for CS Master's programs this fall. So far I've heard back from (and been accepted at) UCSD and Purdue. looking forward to hearing back from more! Although I like UCSD a lot

[ssk2]

I'm also applying for CS Master's programs this fall. So far I've heard back from (and been accepted at) UCSD and Purdue. looking forward to hearing back from more! Although I like UCSD a lot

 

Awesome! When did you hear back from UCSD? I'm still waiting to hear back from them - I sent in my application pretty early, so hopefully they'll have some news soon... 

 

What area of specialism are you aiming for?

[rustledjimmies]

Hmm, let's see.. It was on Feb 1. I'm honestly not too sure, but I'm interested in computer vision, machine learning and AI. I kind of really want more breadth in lots of topics in CS though, which is why I'm going for a Master's... then I'll decide on possibly going for a PhD after. 

 

How about yourself? It looks like you have a pretty good school list. Grats on Cornell.. I was going to apply there, but do they have an MSCS program? I haven't checked in awhile, but I recall that on their website they listed some type of 1 year professional masters of some type, and I decided not to apply.

 

Edit - not that it's a degree of necessarily any lower caliber, it's just not what I was looking for

Edited February 10, 2013 by rustledjimmies

[ssk2]

You're correct - it's a MEng program. Not such a concern for me since I'm most likely not going to do a PhD afterwards! In fact, it works out slightly cheaper because of the shorter course length (although I hear it's all the more work during that year).

 

Going for AI / Robotics courses - although I don't have significant experience in either - which seems to be desirable even at Master's level! It's weird how self-fulfilling admissions for these courses are, i.e. you need robotics experience in order to study robotics (or even that you need research experience to do a PhD). UPenn rejected me - probably because of lack of experience (and the same with CMU's RI last year). Hopefully I'll have more luck with generic CS Master's where I can then just choose the AI/Robotics courses.

 

UMich should be giving out results this week for their Robotics and Autonomous Vehicles Master's, according to the administrator I emailed this week, so I'm currently regularly checking their status website!

[rustledjimmies]

Cool. I also applied to UMich. i know a couple people who went there, and had great experiences with the program and Ann Arbor. 

 

i 100% AGREE with you on this interesting phenomenon which is occuring now at a Masters level -- that they expect you to have significant research experience / experience in your field of interest. 

 

My only solace is this: The application form is the same for PhD and MS applications, so perhaps they expect all MS applicants to fill them out to the best of their ability, but when they make selections MS candidates are held to a much lower research/experience standard than PhD applicants. 

 

Still, the dynamics of being accepted at Master's vs. at a PhD level are all very confusing to me. 

[DFitz]

Hi folks. I'm also applying to many of the same programs as y'all. Ssk2, when did you hear back from Cornell on the M.Eng program? Congratulations, btw. I was accepted at CMU last night, but haven't heard from anywhere else.

[ssk2]

I submited my application in early October - before the Spring deadline. I think they must have assessed with those applications because I saw a decision letter online (on Apply Web) in November.

 

Congratulations on CMU! That's awesome - such a competitive department to get into to! Are you specialising in anything?

Edited February 13, 2013 by ssk2

[DFitz]

Thanks, it was certainly a nice surprise. I'd like to focus on applied machine learning, but my background is in economics and statistics so I need to catch up on some of the fundamentals. It seems like the CMU program is somewhat designed for people like me without a bachelor's in CS. Which program at Harvard did you apply to? I applied to the S.M. in computational science and engineering rather than straight computer science, as it seems to better fit my background and interest in problems of natural resource economics.

[ssk2]

I applied to the S.M. in Computer Science - but I'm not hopeful. They take (from what I can tell) less than 5 people per year. Their courses on multi-agent systems and robotics are really pretty interesting though, so it is near the top of my list! 

Edited February 13, 2013 by ssk2

[Danbeals]

Does anyone know if they will automatically consider you for a M.eng if you don't get in for an M.S. The reason I ask is because I have heard that sometimes berkeley doesn't even take any M.S. Students just PHd folks.

[naijaba]

Hi ssk2,

 

Thanks for making this thread.  I was recently admitted to the Computational Science & Engineering S.M. at Harvard. You mentioned that the regular computer science master's degree only admits 5 people each year? Was that from this data:

 

http://www.seas.harvard.edu/audiences/prospective-graduates/grad_data

 

It's hard to believe that Harvard SEAS has only 17 masters students *total* in its three programs (computer science, electrical engineering, and environmental science and engineering). Assuming that these programs are 1-2 years long, that's < 5 incoming students in each program per year. I assume the rest of my classmates would be undergraduates and PhD students?

 

Also, I was rejected from Princeton's M.S. program and have not heard back from others. I assume UCSD is a rejection because there have already been a few admits?

[ssk2]

Danbeals - I doubt it. I think the two programs are very different (academic vs professional), and the MEng program costs more (tuition) too! Perhaps you could ask them? They're very good at responding to queries via Google Talk at the listed times.

 

naijaba - yes, I extrapolated from those statistics! It's a very small department. I think the program you've applied for is new for this year though, so hopefully they're growing the class size for Fall 2013? When did you hear back from them? I'm expecting a letter at the end of March, but applied for straight Computer Science - not CS&E.

[ssk2]

As for UCSD - no idea. There have only been two admits on the Results Survey and judging by last year's results, we could still hear back between now and the beginning of April.

 

It looks like they send out rejections after the April 15th deadline though, which is a bit lame.

[naijaba]

So I went to the accepted-student revisit for Harvard's new CS&E program. They paid for two nights at a local hotel, but not our flights to Boston. I assume most schools don't pay anything for master's students to revisit, so it was a nice opportunity. There were roughly 40 accepted students to the CS&E program (including those who couldn't attend the revisit), no idea how many applicants, and they didn't tell us any admissions statistics. The entire engineering department got 1,938 applicants and accepted 185 in 2012. That means the CS&E program alone accepted 21% as many applicants as the entire SEAS did last year. The accepted applicants themselves generally did not have CS backgrounds. Instead they had a broad sampling of applied mathematics, applied physics, electrical engineering, and individuals who had worked in industry for several years. A few students were cross-admits to other MS and PhD programs. I'm not sure what their expected yield is, but roughly 67% of the students I met were intent on enrolling at Harvard. It does seem that they are relying on the Harvard name to lure students, as there are quite a few "computational science" programs now: http://www.siam.org/students/resources/cse_programs.php

 

@ssk2 - I asked about their regular CS master's program - they are actually trying to downsize it (sorry!). They said that they don't have a dedicated person to advise CS master's students. The CS&E program has a dedicated person (Daniel Weinstock), who is rather nice. I heard back from the CS&E program on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14th).

[DFitz]

Thanks for the info @naijaba ... I applied to that program and haven't heard anything back yet. Waiting on a rejection but crossing my fingers that I'm on an unofficial waitlist. My background is in economics and statistics, but it sounds like most of the accepted applicants have more technical degrees. Did you meet anyone with an Econ or social sciences background?

[naijaba]

@DFitz - There were a few people with economics backgrounds, but most of them had been working in industry for a while. They mentioned that they allow entering CS&E students to take one undergraduate upper-division course to prepare them for the CS&E courses. They were debating whether to allow students to take more prep courses, but I sensed that they wanted students who would be able to maintain the heavy computational course load from the get-go. I think that may have influenced their decision to accept more technically oriented individuals.

[justsayani]

ssk2- seeking opinion on my admit possibility from your experience

 

 

I have finished 3 SCPD CS courses (two 200 level and one 300 level) with couple of B and A in 300 course.

 

3.93 UG GPA (in CS), 4.0 GPA Grad GPA (in Math), GRE Q800 and V400. Applied for HCP CS Masters at Stanford Fall 2013.

 

Waiting for the results this week. Any opinions?

Thanks!

[justsayani]

also, currently working for one of the big wigs in the Valley, as SW Dev 2