Hey everyone, I’m a recent RD admit for MS&E. I’m actually trying to figure out whether I should go the MS&E route or just go CS, so can anyone offer insight on the pros and cons of the two majors? Also, since CS is so popular, is there an overcrowding in the department, e.g. many TA-taught courses and less access to help?
Thanks!
There’s no need for you to decide now - you have until the end of sophomore year to declare (and honestly, if you don’t declare by then they usually just send out warning emails, I know some people who didn’t declare until junior year). Take some classes required for both majors and then make the choice. They don’t expect you to major in what you put on the application and once you declare a major it’s not too hard to switch if you change your mind (though if you switch late it might be hard to graduate on time).
CS is very popular and you can expect larger class sizes than many other majors (at least at the intro level). With that said, to my knowledge no standard CS courses are taught by TAs. Courses here are almost always taught by professors. In CS you’ll usually have section in addition to lecture. Section is with 15ish students, led by a TA and meets once a week to cover material related to the course. No matter what major you choose, sections are usually TA led while lectures are usually led by profs. Sometimes sections are mandatory and sometimes they’re optional.
As far as access to help, there are quite a few resources for CS specifically. TAs are good resources and professors are (I think) required to have office hours every week that you could attend as well. There are usually hours during the week where you can go during the evenings and get help from a variety of TAs on CS specifically.
^Great advice!
There is some overlap with maths, CS classes, and Physics. You can find the degree requirements on-line and specifically see the courses that overlap between the two. You’ll have plenty of Ways classes to fulfill as well, so you definitely have some time to decide.
You could also do MS&E with a CS minor.
Unlike princeton, you can double-major both if you think that you are strong enough.
MS & E is almost the same as ORFE.
if you do MS&E with a CS minor would it take longer or could you just fill your electives with CS classes?
Also what kind of job/internships do most MS&E students pursue?
@schakrab You generally can’t “double count” courses (i.e. if you count a course towards your major then you can’t count that course towards your minor or another major). While you could take CS courses for your major electives they can’t be the same CS courses you apply to the CS minor. You should still be able to graduate just fine in four years with a MS&E major and CS minor. You can look up requirements and make a rough 4-year plan to see how many courses you would need to take per quarter to graduate on time with both but it is completely do-able.
@shakrab
MS&E undergrad here.
MS&E is a really broad major with a lot of interdisciplinary learning. Some of that includes CS. You can definitely take quite a few CS classes as an MS&E major if that’s what you wish to do.
That being said, MS&E has a core that is mostly geared around computation and analytics. From there you basically branch out into concentrations, which are whatever ultimately interests you most.
Most MS&E majors tend to go into Finance or some sort of startup companies due to their versatility in several computational/analytical fields.
Ultimately, it’s way too early for you to decide right now. Alot of people come into Stanford thinking they want to MS&E and CS (they are both very popular for incoming students) and ultimately do something different. I only decided to do MS&E recently like half way through my sophomore year after taking classes in many different departments.