<p>I am wanting to go to graduate school after being outof school for 10-13 years. 13 from graduation 10 from last classes taken. I am NOT looking at a top tier school, I am well aware that I may be struggling to get in at all.</p>
<p>My grades the first time around could have been better and semester scores varied wildly. the biggest reason for the swings was due to caring for an ill parent, working and trying to go to school also, very stressful.</p>
<p>I graduated with a BS with only a 2.75, though.
I completed 2 majors Math & Comp Sci.
My GRE scores from 10 years ago were about 740A, 650Q & 550 V
(I know I'll have to retake them, I'm brushing up now)</p>
<p>I have some research experience in the form of an experimental physics class.</p>
<p>In the interveaning years I've worked as a software engineer & Unix/linux systems administrator for the government & Fortune 500 companies. I have some very good professional references that I can draw on and I am looking to contact some of my former professors to see if they would be willing to provide me with a reference and/or advice.</p>
<p>My goal is to get my Phd. in computer science with an eye towards teaching. I understand that this is not a small undertaking and that there is a huge oportunity cost involved that may not ever be surmounted. </p>
<p>If I have learned one thing it is that "Perseverance is the key to success."</p>
<p>I would love some feedback on this and any suggestions on how to proceed.</p>
<p>Back in the olden days of my undergrad (not too long ago), a fellow student told me that places like SUNY's accepted hard working grad students who had rougher rides in their undergrads, at least in math, and had decent programs in the subject. I think the minimum GPA they accepted was 2.7, I don't know about computer science though, but I figure the requirements might be similarly lenient.</p>
<p>A low GPA is not so bad as long as you have really good GRE scores. I knew someone in your position, but in a different area. He had a problem with references. He ended taking 2 classes just to get the references he needed.
With the SUNY schools i think Blobof is correct, the rumor I heard is that you have to pick the "working class" SUNY's and not the high class SUNY's. I think Stony Brook, Albany and Buffalo are the high class SUNY's.</p>
<p>I don't think that Stony Brook, Albany and Buffalo would be considered high class in very many areas. And if you exclude these three that would leave Binghamton as the only university center where one could earn a Ph.D. I might check out groups of schools that offer Ph.D. programs but are not the flagship universities of their states. Schools in the mid-America conference come to mind like Ohio U, Toledo, Miami, Western Michigan etc. I have no idea whether they offer a Ph.D. in CS but I imagine they are no more difficult to get into than the SUNY schools.</p>
<p>If your ultimate goal is to become a professor you really need to graduate in a top graduate program. If you want to become an instructor, then the program doesn't really matter. SUNY Buffalo is a MAC school.</p>
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If your ultimate goal is to become a professor you really need to graduate in a top graduate program.
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<p>Not 100% true....schools don't pay as much attention to USNWR as students do. If so, then a lot of schools wouldn't hire a lot of their professors, because not everybody who can teach went to HYPS.</p>
<p>There are a glut of prospective professors out there. I go to a USNWR:National Universities Top School, but I already know that even withour reading USNWR. I look at my faculty information and I can Identify each of the Universities, most are in the Ivy League category. I would assume anyone who gets a PHD would be able to teach, but its your credentials that allow you to teach at the best schools. Event Horizon has a low gpa that may exclude him from even a moderate school.</p>
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I would assume anyone who gets a PHD would be able to teach, but its your credentials that allow you to teach at the best schools.
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<p>I go to a regional master's school that is not highly ranked in USNWR (only a top 20 master's school in the western region), but there are professors who teach with terminal degrees from UChicago, Princeton, Harvard, UCLA, USC, Stanford, and other bigger name schools....my school president got an A.B. from Brown, Masters and Ph.D from UChicago. So I guess their credentials didn't allow them to teach at the "best schools"? A lot of professors at my school also went to "unknown schools" according to USNWR...like the University of Utah, Northern Arizona, University of North Dakota, Utah State, and BYU. (A little side note: my statistics professor used to teach at Williams College in Mass. before coming on board at Westminster of Utah.)</p>
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If your ultimate goal is to become a professor you really need to graduate in a top graduate program.</p>
<p>Not 100% true....schools don't pay as much attention to USNWR as students do. If so, then a lot of schools wouldn't hire a lot of their professors, because not everybody who can teach went to HYPS.
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<p>Not 100% true, but there is something to it. For the highest chance of getting a tenure track job, one should go to a graduate program with a good placement rate for tenure track jobs. I do hope you get in somewhere that makes you content, event horizon.</p>
<p>I think the "something to it" is that the top universities attract the top talent and the top talent, all things being equal, perform the best, do the best research and get letters of rec from famous profs. However, less stellar talents in undergraduate school can rise to the top in graduate programs that are not top tier because research creativity is the great equalizer when it comes to securing tenure track faculty jobs. Demonstrate to a university department that you have an ambitious and ultimately ground breaking research program able to draw grant monies from the major funding sources and they will open their doors (and wallets) regardless of whether you are from Harvard or Podunk U. And if the guy from Podunk U demonstrates a better teaching style and is more personable, that will beat out the guy from Harvard if the research is the same.</p>
<p>My father has been a computer science professor for quite some time and none of his three degrees are from Ivy league schools or what people around here refer to as "Public Ivys." I graduated from a Ph.D. program at a state university. Although I chose not to pursue a job teaching at a 4 year school, most of my classmates did and they are all in tenure track positions throughout the U.S. Once gaining admission it matters what you do as in what you get published. </p>
<p>Check into the Ph.D. programs that interest you. Some programs will allow conditional admits for promising students who have either a low undergrad GPA or a low GRE score. These students must obtain a certain GPA in order to gain regular admit status. A graduate admissions office or specific academic department could tell you more about this.</p>
<p>I plan on doing just that. I want to save my PHD for the best doctoral program i can be admitted to. I plan on using my master's to get ready for the PHD, that's why I haven't chosen a top notch program for my Master's. I am also hoping that it will greatly increase my chances for a TA/RA position during my master's.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses.
Here's my plan for now.</p>
<p>Keep studying for the GRE to get the best scores I can.
Reaquaint myself with some of my old professors and ask about references plus ask for any advice from them on how to proceed.</p>
<p>Investigate non degree seeking admission to take a couple of classes which then could be used as evidence of my ability.</p>
<p>Also investigate conditional addmissions to the program</p>
<p>It'll probably be tough getting a TA/RA position at least right away so I'll need to figure out how I'm going to pay for this. Perhaps I can at least get a tuition waver assuming full addmissions. My wife is working so that'll help, I just hope it doesn't count too much against me.</p>
<p>I'm going to look at the two state universities that are close to me. I'm in Kansas so I'm talking about Kansas State U. & Kansas U. If neither of those work out I'll switch to a national search.
I'm assuming that just about any graduate school would be considered a stretch, some more than others, but still....</p>
<p>Any additional thoughts & comments woulg be appreciated.</p>
<p>GREs are extremely important if you want to get into a top school, but some "lower tier" schools are not as picky. the one thing that might be a problem is that your gpa is low. most programs want at least a 3.0. there might be a way around this, i dont know.</p>
<p>my advice to you, based on my own experience, would be to go to a lower ranked MA program, work your behind off for 2 or 3 years just going crazy with research, your papers, conferences, etc., get chummy with the professors, get the grades, and then you probably could have a shot at some really good schools.</p>
<p>but those 2 or 3 years will be hell on earth, because lower ranked MA programs usually pay pennies compared to the salary you are probably used to, but hey, if you are willing to make the sacrifice and really want a phd, then go for it.</p>
<p>p.s. there's nothing "low tier" about Kansas, in my discipline, its ranked no.1 in the nation.</p>