MS CS - Rutgers vs Stony Brook

[mayankgupta]

Hi,

 

I got an offer for Rutgers and Stony Brook. My interests lie in Machine learning and AI in general. My preferred choice was Rutgers, however the low tuition of Stony Brook has forced me to reconsider my decision. 

 

The I20 amount of Rutgers is $48k vs Stony Brook $35k.

 

Are there any significant advantages of choosing Rutgers over Stony Brook when tuition is also an important factor? I am planning to join the industry after the program.

 

Thanks in advance.

[abhi.verma87]

Well... congrats on your admits. I have been stuck in the choice between Rutgers and NCSU for a long time now. MS CS admits at Rutgers are a breed very hard to come by must say. Rutgers and Stony Brook are both awesome Unviersities. Both of them hold a very good reputation when it comes Systems oriented courses or courses related to Algorithms and Theoretical Computing(my intended specialization), because then it would mostly be the cost factor ruling my decision though Rutgers is still a better program but not worth the large difference in cost.

 

Now as for your decision... the first thing you would want to consider is how are both of these schools as far as Machine learning or AI courses are concerned. What courses they offer, how the respective professors are and if there is any interesting research going on in these areas at either of these universities. Cost will be a factor secondary to the one mentioned above. If both the schools fair well for AI, Stony Brook would be an obvious choice.

 

Well all the best with your decision.... am guessing 15th April would be the deadline to choose for Rutgers 'eh. I just hope i can make up my mind by then too :/

[mayankgupta]

Thanks for the reply. Both the universities do have similar courses on the subject. I feel Rutgers has better research going on in this area because Stony Brook has little information on their page.

Now I am thinking if the difference in research is significant enough to choose Rutgers over Stony Brook, given the low tuition.

 

All the best to you too.

[goku_supersayan]

Go to Stony Brook. Cheap and the Best!!

 

My friends got 120K + Salary upon graduation. Actually 4 friends, all got similar package ... Algo Professor Skiena is too good ..... You would complete the MS well under 20 Lakh ... even way less if you get some funding.

 

Even I have a Stony Brook Admit, but I got a better offer. So, with a stone on my heart, I am leaving Stony Brook Admit for Fall 2014.

 

I have admits from UIUC and CMU. But heading for UIUC computer science. I know, it would be 15 Lakh more expensive than what I might do at Stony Brook but yeah ... I am willing to pay 15 Lakh more for the huge difference in ranking of the CS department and the Brand name of UIUC.

[abhi.verma87]

UIUC is an awesome admit... @goku_supersayan. Congrats for the same ...... its totally worth those extra bucks. It's a huge difference in reputation that we are talking about ..... and UIUC won't be ranked amond the top 10 for no reason. 

 

I totally agree with what you said about Prof Skienna.... he would be my first choice professor in case i end up at Stony Brook (haven't got the admit though). And anyways I would have accepted the offer any day because of my interest in Algorithms and Systems in which Stony has an awesome reputation. It's just that Mayank here is interested in AI and Machine Learning and not sure how good the course for AI at Stony Brook is.

[viralshah]

Hi @Mayank Gupta.. what did you decide.. I still haven't got any admit from both but in case I do, I'll be in the exact same dilemma. My preliminary interest too lies in Machine Learning & AI. N FYI: even though stony brook is cheaper its i20 amount is $70k. Hope you know this by now!