I’m trying to decide if I should put in the effort to get a masters (i.e. take GRE, get rec letters, etc). My question is: would I be able to get into a good CS graduate school?
Here’s my situation:
- Undergrad CS degree from top 5 CS school (non-ivy). Decent engineering school but otherwise not very prestigious. Good at CS though.
- Graduated in 3 years. (Is this bad?)
- 3.75 gpa.
- Had many software engineering internships, some during school year. 2 at large well-known companies, 3 at somewhat well-known trading firms.
- Straight out of college I went to Google (interned here previously). It will soon be my 1 yr anniversary. I'm on a team that is very hyped up (and heavily AI/ML). Though my work is 100% software engineering.
- No research experience, period.
- I can probably get one or two strong letters of recs from my bosses. I can probably get one decent letter of rec from a prof I had a decent relationship with in school but haven't kept in touch with.
What are my chances of getting into a top school (specifically any of: Ivy, Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, CMU)?
(I mainly would want a masters so I can sharpen up on AI/ML things and possibly do some research and explore the possibility of getting a PhD)
You work at Google and you want to leave there to get a master’s degree?
I’m considering it. I’m interested in doing research as well. I have a good relationship with my boss and the company so I would probably be able to come back easily.
If you just want to do research, there are plenty of industry jobs from that, particularly government work and large companies, like, well, the one you’re at. You can probably find research there if that’s the goal.
Why do you want to possibly get a PhD? Are you looking to go into academia?
In my opinion, there are enough resources out there where you can good a good understanding of AI/ML without getting a masters in it.
All that said, there’s no harm in applying - do that and go from there.
I’m very curious what school this could be - any “Top 5 CS school” will be plenty prestigious for a masters degree. I think you may be very overvaluing brand name, especially given that CS rankings and prestige are very separate, and a top CS school will be all they see. My only thought would be UIUC or UW, either of which have a huge name in CS, which is all that would really matter.
Your chances should be very good it would appear.
@PengsPhils it’s UIUC. The reason I want a masters is so I can get a PhD, as my chances of getting into a good PhD program right now are low (0 research experience, no really strong recs from profs, etc). I want a PhD so I can do research in industry. It’s very difficult for an undergrad SWE to transition to industry research without a PhD. I am doing a lot at work and with internal classes with ML though. That said, I still feel a formal education will be valuable.
People leave top employers all the time to go to other top employers, or to smaller firms or start-ups, or to graduate school. Sometimes they re-enter them and sometimes they don’t. Those places aren’t perfect.
Yes, you can get into an MS program. Graduating in 3 years is not bad. You’d probably want to go with 2 letters from professors and 1 letter, at most, from a boss who is an engineer and can speak to your potential to succeed in engineering. (Ideally, that boss would also have an MS, at least.)
But there are many competitive applicants to top places, so the only way to know if you can get admitted is to apply.