Logic, Philosophy, Computer Science, Methodology, AI: Hear me out

[1f3_2kf2]

Hey gradcafe forums,

I am in my 5th year as an undergraduate. I messed up but I still have ambitions of getting a PhD from a top university. My major is Information and Computer Science with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence and a minor in Philosophy. My GPA is 2.8 right now but by the time I graduate it will be (barely) above 3.0. My CS GPA is 3.4. My Philosophy GPA is 3.7. My junior/senior years GPA is 3.4. However in Calc1 I got an F, retook it and got another F, retook it and got a B-. In Calc2 I got a C+ (this all happened during my 2nd year due to immaturity reasons. I am actually good at math). I have not taken any other math classes, instead I took advanced logic courses.

I go to a (read: the) school with a department of Logic and Philosophy of Science. I've secured 3 positive to strong letters from faculty in this department along with 1 strong one from a CS AI professor with whom I have done research. I have strong test taking skills and I expect my GRE scores to be high. No publications. I've done about 5 term-long projects/independent studies.

Here is my plan: Apply to Carnegie-Mellon's BS in logic, computation, and methodology. It is in their philosophy department and they teach exactly what I am interested in. I could not find a more appealing program I feel like I am a great fit. However I don't know if my 3.0/math weakness will be good enough to get me in.

From there go to UC Berkeley's PhD program in logic and methodology of science. However I don't know if a MS from CMU will be enough to get me in. This program suggests undergrad applicants had majored in philosophy/math and I have an extremely weak math background.

From there go on to be a university (not community college!) level professor in logic or something. However I don't know if such a unique PhD program would land me any jobs, let alone tenure track, at a university. Berkeley does not release placement data for this particular PhD program. What kind of departments would I be looking at? Math? CS? Philosophy at a school like CalTech or CMU?

I'm not applying until December 2010 so I have plenty of time to think about things. But I would like feedback from you all. Can I get into Carnegie-Mellon's BS program with my GPA/math weakness? Will the MS I earn be enough to get me into Berkeley? I know it is a good idea to have many options, so what are other programs I can apply to if I want to study logic but I have a weak math background and I didn't major in philosophy? What are some things I can do from now until then to improve my chances?

Thanks for your consideration,

1f3_2Kf2 (my favorite chess opening)

[Euphoria5L]

Do you have a degree right now? Just apply to CMU's MS program. Because you didn't say where you were, I'm not going to guess publicly, but if you are where I think you are, your letters will go a long way, along with a good writing sample. Take a few more math courses where you are, do well, and apply to CMU. They do allow for screw-ups in undergrad if you can explain it well enough, you know.

As for jobs after that, you'll need some other skills. And while I'm not sure about Berkeley's program, yes, an MS in the field will help quite a bit. You should definitely talk frankly with your letter writers and ask them what they thing you should do. They know you better than we do, and a strong writing sample coupled with strong letters can offset a low GPA. They can help you with that, too. What sort of logic background do you have, anyway? What are your interests? I assume it's up through standard metalogic and probably includes a course in modal logic, yes?

People from logic departments end up everywhere. Math, philosophy, and computer science departments all like logicians. It will entirely depend on what you end up doing in your Ph.D. program. You should also not discount some other schools, like the Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation in the Netherlands, CMU, CUNY, and UCLA. Here is a list of philosophy programs in mathematical logic; that should help you a bit more. Also, CUNY offers an MA program, so that's an option as well.

But get that math background! It will help you more than you know!

[1f3_2kf2]

Thanks for the reply Euphoria,

I am currently in my Winter quarter of my last year and I am already taking a full load. I still have Spring quarter before I graduate, but if I want to retake my other F's and complete my AI specialization then I will have a full load and no room to take any math courses. Although I can see that it could be worth it to not finish my specialization and instead take some math courses. This will be a very tough decision for me I guess I ought to ask my counselor/professors. ...When I asked a theory professor for a research position his first questions was "what is your math background?". I have not taken enough math courses have I? Will this be the end of me?

My logic background is:

Set Theory A

Metalogic A- (this was my first exposure to FOL!)

Incompleteness and recursion theory A

Independent study in nonclassical logics (tense, modal, intuitionistic)

independent study in quantum computation

I never really took a proper intro to logic course. I was exposed to it in CS classes (digital logic design lol).

I guess I can use the masters program to figure out my interests, because you'd ask me now I would say logic in general. I suppose the theory of computation interests me greatly, but is that not a good area to be interested in?