Need help in deciding which CS programs to apply to.

[ahmadka]

Hi everyone. I'm trying really hard these days to try and figure out which CS programs to apply to, but I don't really know how to filter them out. ... Really, I don't know !

 

I know there are factors such as location and cost, etc., but to me things like 'quality' of education,  future/job prospects, and value of the degree matter more.

 

But as there are so many good universities within the US, how do I decide between them ?

 

One common answer is that people look at the research taking place in the universities. But from what I can tell (after a few days of googling), most universities have very similar research stuff mentioned on their website.

 

Plus, I personally don't have much interest in research as my main goal for getting a CS degree is to help redefine me as a 'CS' person (previously have engineering degrees) and to help me enter the CS job market.

 

So any hints on how to go about this will be very appreciated.

[spec789]

The suggestion of "looking at the research" is for students who going to graduate school primarily to pursue research. It sounds like you may be more interested in a coursework based Master's.

 

You can start narrowing down your list of schools by first talking to any CS professors you know, even if you only know them from having taken a class with them.

 

Additionally, if you are only interested in pursuing the CS Master's so that you can redfine yourself as a CS person and get a job in that field quickly after you finish, then I would narrow down your list by looking at programs that have strong industry ties. Look for programs that have many events or classes that receive heavy industry support, or programs that have a large portion of their professors who are supported by industry grants or frequently collaborate with external companies (their websites should have a list of sponsors if they do).

[ahmadka]

Additionally, if you are only interested in pursuing the CS Master's so that you can redfine yourself as a CS person and get a job in that field quickly after you finish, then I would narrow down your list by looking at programs that have strong industry ties. Look for programs that have many events or classes that receive heavy industry support, or programs that have a large portion of their professors who are supported by industry grants or frequently collaborate with external companies (their websites should have a list of sponsors if they do).

 

What you've said here is something that hits a bulls eye with me, but its something I've tried to research about myself too ...

 

I've tried typing in all kinds of things in Google to get a list of such universities. I've tried looking at university pages (research sections in CS department websites), and virtually also universities claim to have "ties with industry giants such as Microsoft, Google, etc., ..."

 

So what you've said is 100% correct for my case, but I don't know how to get this information ... Some examples on what to search or what to look for specifically on university websites would be really helpful !

Edited August 5, 2014 by ahmadka

[ahmadka]

Also, I admit that if universities hold industry-involved events at the university level, then you can say that the university has ties with the industry.

 

But how can this apply to individual professors ?

 

Say I find a professor who worked for some tech giant five years ago, how can he possibly help me right now, as any ties he had with the company are now a thing of the past, and anything fruitful coming out of a previous professional link will have very limited positive outcome I think .. So why should I look at individual professor's past ? I don't get this point ..

 

The most he can probably help you is regarding things like how the company was, what was his work like, etc. But even these opinions can easily be gotten on the internet nowadays, so what's the point ?

[victorydance]

Since you don't care about research, just take the top 10 ranked CS schools and apply there.

 

Which would be:

 

Carnegie Mellon

MIT

Stanford

Berkeley

Illinois - Champaign 

Cornell

UW

Princeton

UT - Austin

Georgia Tech

[Kleene]

If I were you, I would look at professional Masters: Cornell MEng, Illinois MCS, etc.

[ahmadka]

If I were you, I would look at professional Masters: Cornell MEng, Illinois MCS, etc.

 

I'm assuming you're trying to say that some CS program are targeted towards industry while others are more research/academia oriented ..

 

If this is what you meant, how do I determine which CS Masters programs are from the first category ?

[ahmadka]

Since you don't care about research, just take the top 10 ranked CS schools and apply there.

 

Which would be:

 

Carnegie Mellon

MIT

Stanford

Berkeley

Illinois - Champaign 

Cornell

UW

Princeton

UT - Austin

Georgia Tech

 

I don't think applying to top universities only is a good strategy because you might get rejected from all of them

 

Rather, I need to pick universities from high to low, so that I'm accepted at least somewhere ..

 

So in order to filter out universities (which are 50-70 at least), I need some factors to consider ..

 

And still I don't know what those factors are ..

[spec789]

But how can this apply to individual professors ?

 

Say I find a professor who worked for some tech giant five years ago, how can he possibly help me right now, as any ties he had with the company are now a thing of the past, and anything fruitful coming out of a previous professional link will have very limited positive outcome I think .. So why should I look at individual professor's past ? I don't get this point ..

 

You need to search with professors who are currently working with companies, i.e. they are currently working on (or have students who are) projects sponsored by a company, e.g. Google. If you have the chance during your Master's to do a project with a professor with strong (and current) industry contacts, then you can leverage those contacts to find a job after you finish the Master's.

 

Unfortunately I have no CS-related examples examples of groups being sponsored by companies, but I can give an EE related example (my field is in EE). Virginia Tech has a very strong power electronics program, and they have their own research centre devoted to this field, called CPES. This research institute boasts very strong industry ties, which they refer to here:

 

http://www.cpes.vt.edu/partners.php

 

As for events, sometimes the universities have competitions that receive many industry sponsors, such as MIT's annual AI programming competition 6.370, aka Battlecode (at the moment the site seems to be down), or the autonomous robotics competition, 6.270 (https://scripts.mit.edu/~6.270/sponsors/).

 

Maybe it is the case the CS-departments generally do not work very closely with industry. In that case, the best advice to follow is this (due to the prestige factor):

 

Since you don't care about research, just take the top 10 ranked CS schools and apply there.

 

Which would be:

 

Carnegie Mellon

MIT

Stanford

Berkeley

Illinois - Champaign 

Cornell

UW

Princeton

UT - Austin

Georgia Tech

 

Be aware that some of the universities on this list, such as MIT, do not offer terminal CS Master's degrees to incoming graduate students (i.e. their M.Eng program is only open to their undergrads).

Edited August 6, 2014 by spec789

[spec789]

I don't think applying to top universities only is a good strategy because you might get rejected from all of them

 

Rather, I need to pick universities from high to low, so that I'm accepted at least somewhere ..

 

So in order to filter out universities (which are 50-70 at least), I need some factors to consider ..

 

And still I don't know what those factors are ..

 

Unfortunately, barring ranking and research, and if you cannot sort by ties to industry, the only criteria I can see that you have left are factors such location and cost.

[qat]

It seems like your search criteria should be based on job placement statistics of some sort.  Current students may have a rough idea of these.  Maybe an easier thing to do would be to find a list of companies coming to each school's career fair and see if you're satisfied with the companies on the list.