MSCS CMU vs MEng EECS UCB

[Irene_Adler]

Hello,

I have secured admission in

1. MSCS from CMU and

2. MEng in EECS from UCB with specialisation in Visual Computing and Computer Graphics with $16,000 grant

I am confused between the two as I am not sure if a one-year MEng program would be treated equivalent to an MS, when it comes to job prospects. My aim is working in the industry, preferably industrial research at places like Disney Labs, or Dreamworks Research. I am pretty sure I won't be doing a PhD in the near future, at least.

Will UCB give me an edge as the program is industry centric with an intensive capstone project in a specialisation of my choice? Or will CMU be better being an MS degree (but with only course work)?

Any advice would be really helpful, thank you in advance!

[QUALIA]

I am admitted by UCB EECS MEng, rejected by CMU MSCS. I think CMU has better courses. 

[Pleaaa]

I would go to CMU. The bar of CMU CS is much higher than MEng UCB from the admit profiles. Also, the curriculum of MEng does not provide many choices as CMU does.

 

[toxicdevil]

Masters degree does not help in getting jobs as much as you'd think.

I would go to CMU is my goal is to work in USA. Studying in USA will help in getting jobs later (and visa too). Plus CMU has a much better brand name than UBC.

 

This is of course considering that money is not an issue.

[qihqi]

For industry MEng and MS is treated the same. There are schools which MEng is 2 years program and MS is 1 years (for example Harvard); so recruiters cannot know which is which unless they spend the time doing the homework (which they don't). Once you get an interview it's the performance on the interview that matters. At least in software industry, masters (sometimes even PhD's) are hired to do the same job as a bachelor, you might get 5k ~ 10k more in annual salary but that is it. 

So I think for job perspective those 2 are really the same.

[TheMostPowerfulApplicant]

On 3/19/2016 at 9:46 AM, toxicdevil said:

Masters degree does not help in getting jobs as much as you'd think.

I would go to CMU is my goal is to work in USA. Studying in USA will help in getting jobs later (and visa too). Plus CMU has a much better brand name than UBC.

 

This is of course considering that money is not an issue.

I highly disagree. CMU is only known best known for CS but that does not mean it is a better brand name than Cal.

Btw no one calls Berkeley "UBC", it's either Berkeley or Cal.

[firefoxquantum]

On 3/19/2016 at 7:16 PM, toxicdevil said:

Masters degree does not help in getting jobs as much as you'd think.

I would go to CMU is my goal is to work in USA. Studying in USA will help in getting jobs later (and visa too). Plus CMU has a much better brand name than UBC.

 

This is of course considering that money is not an issue.

I've known a couple of guys who got somewhere in the north of 60k right after their Masters. So that statement is highly subjective.