<p>Hello everyone. Any advice would be helpful. I currently go to a state school (GMU) and am trying to apply for Computer Science Masters programs. I would really like to go to a school where the primary focus of the Masters program is not to accommodate working professionals who are coming back to get their Masters degree. I was a commuter student for four years and never really got the college experience that most people had.</p>
<p>My GPA is 3.2. I have multiple independent researches, 2 internships with a Fortune 500 company, and pretty good LORs. My extracurriculars are excellent. I am expecting an extremely high GRE, if not perfect. </p>
<p>Is there any funding that I can expect at any university, or am I better off applying to state colleges like VA Tech, UVA, etc? I was originally going to apply to University of Chicago, Cornell Tech, Georgetown, Penn State, and Rutgers, but I don't know if I even have a chance, and if I do get in, what will be my funding opportunities. </p>
<p>Any immediate advice would be extremely, extremely helpful. Thank you again in advance.</p>
<p>I’d love to hear about schools where I might actually have a chance at getting in as well. Any suggestions are appreciated.</p>
<p>Those schools on your post are not really known for CS, why do you pick them?
There are literally tons of schools that are better known and easier to get admission into. Have you try Purdue, UIUC, or similar caliber?</p>
<p>I just want to note that graduate school is very very different from undergrad. You won’t be able to recapture a sense of your undergrad years by going to grad school, even if you choose a program that mostly has full-time students as opposed to working professionals. So I think you should choose whichever CS program is the best fit for you.</p>
<p>Extracurriculars that are unrelated to your career are not important in grad school admissions. The research and the internships will be important; anything like fraternities, volunteering, Model UN, etc. - that stuff won’t matter much to a CS department. If you did something like an app development club or a robotics team, that will matter.</p>
<p>If you could get into UVa for CS, that would be a great value - UVa is in the top 20-30 schools for CS. Cornell is top 10-15 and Penn State’s around top 15-20. The other schools are mid-ranked, but that doesn’t make them bad choices.</p>
<p>The truth is, most people fund the majority of professional master’s degrees through loans. CS is a little different because it’s a hybrid, so it depends on what kind of program you plan to attend. If you go to a program that is aimed towards sending people out into the work world, and trains you to be a professional computer scientist, there will likely be little funding available. If you aim to go to MS programs with a heavy emphasis on research and that prepare people for PhD programs (even if many do go into professional jobs next), then there may be funding available for some or all of the students. Also, even some students at professional MS programs get funding sometimes through being an RA or TA. You have to inquire with individual departments. Sometimes the information is listed online and other times, you can ask current students and/or the departmental secretary about what’s available.</p>
<p>But there’s no reason to do an either/or - you can apply to both. If you want to apply to UVa and VT as well as Penn State, Rutgers, etc., you certainly can. I advocate both. If you got funding somewhere like PSU or Cornell, great! If not, going to UVa or VT may be a great bargain.</p>