Declining to reapply next year

[pitkin]

Hi.

I'm a CS student (Bachelor's + Master's), who got accepted to Princeton for a CS PhD (Machine learning). I'd applied to a ton of other places (ten in total), but got rejected from all of them (apart from an MS in Data Science at CMU which I rejected for various reasons).

Now, I wanted to defer the PhD for a year, since having been in academia for pretty much all my life, I think it might make sense to see how the tech functions in the "real world": a perspective I don't think I gained enough during my internships or undergrad. I also wanted to do this because I'm a little tired of academia at this point, and a long term goal of mine is to create real world impact: which might be easier in startups/industry than by doing theoretical machine learning in the academy.

Unfortunately, I recently found out that Princeton CS does not allow deferrals, so I'd have to reapply next year with the risk of not getting accepted. A prof also mentioned that there's no guarantee that I'd get accepted again if I were to apply next year. However, the graduate coordinator told me that 1-2 students do this every year, and said they understand my reasons for wanting to take a break. She also mentioned that of the three'd who declined to reapply in the past three years, there was only one who reapplied (and was successful). So there isn't really enough data to assign any good probability value to my chances next year.

Given all of this, do you guys think it makes sense to grab what I have and try getting practical experience via internships (of which there would be a good number for an ML student) over the next two years, and then figure if I want to continue in academia on the way? The problems the Princeton guys work on are definitely very exciting to me, but I'm not sure I want to spend the next five years in academia at this stage in life.

It's pertinent to note that ML PhDs seem to be very competitive (ten rejects hurt the ego more than I thought they would). Also, my profile might not improve terribly during the next cycle: right now, there are no publications, but there are a bunch of projects, courses and academic awards, and a Master's thesis is in the offing.

Thanks, and do hit me up for more clarifications!

Edited April 13, 2017 by pitkin

[DiscoTech]

26 minutes ago, pitkin said:

Hi.

I'm a CS student (Bachelor's + Master's), who got accepted to Princeton for a CS PhD (Machine learning). I'd applied to a ton of other places (ten in total), but got rejected from all of them (apart from an MS in Data Science at CMU which I rejected for various reasons).

Now, I wanted to defer the PhD for a year, since having been in academia for pretty much all my life, I think it might make sense to see how the tech functions in the "real world": a perspective I don't think I gained enough during my internships or undergrad. I also wanted to do this because I'm a little tired of academia at this point, and a long term goal of mine is to create real world impact: which might be easier in startups/industry than by doing theoretical machine learning in the academy.

Unfortunately, I recently found out that Princeton CS does not allow deferrals, so I'd have to reapply next year with the risk of not getting accepted. A prof also mentioned that there's no guarantee that I'd get accepted again if I were to apply next year. However, the graduate coordinator told me that 1-2 students do this every year, and said they understand my reasons for wanting to take a break. She also mentioned that of the three'd who declined to reapply in the past three years, there was only one who reapplied (and was successful). So there isn't really enough data to assign any good probability value to my chances next year.

Given all of this, do you guys think it makes sense to grab what I have and try getting practical experience via internships (of which there would be a good number for an ML student) over the next two years, and then figure if I want to continue in academia on the way? The problems the Princeton guys work on are definitely very exciting to me, but I'm not sure I want to spend the next five years in academia at this stage in life.

It's pertinent to note that ML PhDs seem to be very competitive (ten rejects hurt the ego more than I thought they would). Also, my profile might not improve terribly during the next cycle: right now, there are no publications, but there are a bunch of projects, courses and academic awards, and a Master's thesis is in the offing.

Thanks, and do hit me up for more clarifications!

I am sure you would have very little trouble getting good internships (Google, FB) during the summer if you decided to go to Princeton.

[pitkin]

3 minutes ago, light10491 said:

The PhD for computer science is not considered thatttt long, especially compared to other fields.

This is a very good program, and you had a lot of rejections. The chances of getting into another program in another year may be just as bad, if not worse.

And there is no guarantee your experience in the working world will be as great as you think it would be.

 

>>>The PhD for computer science is not considered thatttt long, especially compared to other fields.

Well, > five years is an objectively long amount of time  That being said, the prof I talked to did say it was cool to drop out after 2 years with an MS if I wanted to, and Princeton is cool with you leaving for upto two years in the middle if you so desire.

>>>This is a very good program, and you had a lot of rejections. The chances of getting into another program in another year may be just as bad, if not worse.

It is a great program with some really great ML theory faculty, absolutely. And they're hiring more this year! Absolutely, ML PhDs are just real hard to get into.

>>And there is no guarantee your experience in the working world will be as great as you think it would be.

Yes, I understand that, but there exists the itch to see what the big bad world is like. It's also true that I haven't found a job I'd be thrilled with yet, but there are interviews with some exciting startups lined up, so I'll have to take it from there, if I do decline.