<p>Hey all! I just finished up with my Junior year of undergrad, and I'm interested in going to grad school for a Master's in Computer Science after I graduate. I know that PhD programs are really competitive, but I'm not interested that (despite the funding difference). I honestly have no idea how tough admissions to Master's programs are by comparison.</p>
<p>Schools I'm interested in:
-First choices: Cornell Tech, Georgia Tech, SUNY Stony Brook
-Other options I'm considering: UC Berkeley, UCLA, Columbia, Massachusetts - Amherst, Chicago, Boston U</p>
<p>-Majors: Computer Science; Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computation; Philosophy
-3.85 GPA with two Ws; 161V, 161Q, awaiting score for AW; University of Alabama, Birmingham
-One year of mobile software development research, currently working with natural language processing research
-If I need two rec letters, they will be from the two professors in charge of the NLP lab (one I've had for two classes, the other is the head of the lab). If I need three, I'll get one from the director of my research group sophomore year.</p>
<p>First question: Does it look bad to retake the GRE? I want to raise my Q; I'm a Math major, I want to do better than 161.
Second question: Do I have a good shot of getting into any of those programs? I got denied to a lot of schools coming in to undergrad, and I don't want to get my hopes up to fail all over again. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>You can take the GRE as many times as you like. Nowadays, ETS allow you to report only the scores you wish to report so you can simply report the best one.</p>
<p>It is hard to say what your chances are. Normally terminal Masters admissions are less selective than for Ph.D. programs since they expect self-funding. My guess is that you would be able to get into a number of your listed programs, particularly UMass, Stony Brook, and Boston U. THe others are probably a bit tougher but you are in the ballpark.</p>
<p>Great, thanks! I’d be happy if I got into Stony Brook, but to be honest I’ll be satisfied as long as I get in somewhere (unlike ugrad where I was almost universally rejected by top-50 schools).</p>
<p>Unfortunately for me, I went ahead and reported my score to four schools (I didn’t do much research on the GRE before I took it, so I didn’t know how good 161/161 was). At least I didn’t test poorly, it just wasn’t as great as I would’ve liked. If I take it one more time, I’m hoping it won’t look too bad to have sent a school two sets of scores. </p>
<p>161/161 is pretty good, I wouldn’t sweat it too much.</p>
<p>Grad programs admissions is pretty different than undergrad. Just a peek at your posting history, you applied to uber selective undergrad colleges/programs. But I saw you reported acceptance to GTech. I don’t know if students from your university routinely go to these grad programs but be sure to get input from your profs.</p>
<p>I’m wondering why you don’t go directly to work and perhaps find a company that will pay for your MS since you will be self pay. That would mean a huge amount of money to you.</p>
<p>Are you intending a professional ms? Probably you won’t have a problem applying for those. Like I think Chi only offers the professional program for stand alone MS and I doubt it is that hard to get in, you don’t even have to have a CS background.</p>
<p>I think Berkeley will be very competitive being a number 1 program, realistically out of reach unless there is some good research fit. Likewise GT, Cornell, UCLA, UMass. Those are all going to have sub 10% admissions. . Maybe try UMass. Stonybrook and BU seem reasonable. Having the research background is a big plus. and your strong gpa. Don’t know if the MS at columbia and cornell are the professional ones, and I wonder if not having work experience will hurt.</p>
<p>Interesting that I just read that GT MS program applications were up 30% last year. All programs seems to have a surge but it seems they are getting some buzz from the online MS pilot they are running. Fresh MS students on campus are about 23, where those taking the online course are 34, on average.</p>
<p><a href=“One semester in, students satisfied with unfinished Georgia Tech online degree program”>One semester in, students satisfied with unfinished Georgia Tech online degree program;
<p>BrownParent, you questioned whether Cornell had a professional MS program. I am applying to a MEng program at Cornell Tech, their new campus they opened up in NYC about a year ago I think. Here’s some information on the program:</p>
<p><a href=“http://tech.cornell.edu/media/filer_public/2013/10/14/meng_factsheet.pdf”>http://tech.cornell.edu/media/filer_public/2013/10/14/meng_factsheet.pdf</a></p>
<p>So that’s my first choice. I think the online MS at Georgia Tech is interesting but wouldn’t consider it except as a last resort; I don’t like online classes, and I want to work with the department if I can. </p>
<p>I’m considering working first, getting MS later, but as I’m unsure right now, I’m going to go ahead and apply and see what happens. And I have the money to pay for the MS degree (I am actually receiving money from my ugrad institution, so I haven’t had to spend the money I had for that). </p>
<p>And yes, I’m interested in a professional MS, I’m going to go into the business world after getting the degree. I’m not opposed to a research-oriented program, but I’m not going for a PhD so it would be for experience-sake alone.</p>
<p>I never considered that lacking work experience would hurt. Is it not common for a lot of ugrads to apply for MS programs without working first? Either way, if it doesn’t work out for me now, I can always work for a bit and come back later as you said.</p>