Crossroads: Desire to Pursue an MS in Computer Science

[dakedo]

Rough sketch on myself as a student:

Biochemistry BS, 4.0 GPA

 

Took gap year to work on research (was planning on PhD in computational biology), fell in love with programming and computer science, moreso than biology, decided to take additional course work in spring semester to clear pre-requisites for MS study.

 

I taught myself a lot of CS stuff to do research (comp bio; algos, data structures, programming, the basics).

A CS prof offers to help accelerate my study after learning about my situation (waive me to take the ugrad courses immediately, as well as grad courses).

 

So, I'm still doing research (part time pay) and I'm looking to see if I can best use this time to start building my application to good MS programs (top 40+). Is this feasible? What courses would best prepare me for this? I may have access to graduate courses too. 

 

Thanks!

[OhMySocks]

Most of the programs I applied to listed prereqs along the lines of as at least one of each of the following:

Algorithms

Theory of Computation

Computer Architecture

Programming Languages

Operating Systems

 

Mine were Ph.D. programs but I imagine that most MS programs are looking for similar things. If you can take actual courses  to fill these, it would probably help you the most, but if you can teach yourself these it will still give you a leg up. Since CS wasn't your undergrad, you'll probably want to look into taking the subject GRE to show your competence in the subject. 

[dakedo]

I plan on taking them, since I have a bit of mobility in the department now. I might be able to do some grad level stuff to boost my app, too.

Top 40 is achievable then? I'm primarily looking for a career in industry, for now, at least.

[JohnP1]

I plan on taking them, since I have a bit of mobility in the department now. I might be able to do some grad level stuff to boost my app, too.

Top 40 is achievable then? I'm primarily looking for a career in industry, for now, at least.

 

For what it's worth, I'm applying to CS PhD programs with a BS in Biomedical Engineering.  I have been doing research in bioinformatics for the last two years and in my statement of purpose I discussed this and stated that I wanted to work with similar faculty.

 

Schools were pretty lax about requirements since I was more interested in applied work than work in system design or architecture or something like that.  I did take all of the requirements that were listed above, but I took several of them on sites like coursera.

[dakedo]

Alright, that's good to know. I'll try to just get it on my transcript so that people will be able to see it without questioning it. Apparently my university isn't that bad off, so I'll try my best with what I got.