<p>Op’s challenge is not whether or not he/she has the qualification but whether if there is enough slots, funding, and if PI and student interests are aligned. For DS experience, DS stipulated that he wanted funding because the disparity/opportunity cost between a job (2006) and paying for a MS degree would be huge. He was not accepted at Stanford but got what he wanted somewhere else. </p>
<p>OP’s chances would probably improve with the proper background. But chances for anyone is very small.</p>
<p>Sorry for the delay everyone, but thanks for the honesty. I’ve taken most posts into consideration. I do know the difference between IT and IS and know I want to pursue CS and what it entails.</p>
<p>Based on the majority of your answers would anyone have any recommendations to decent Colleges/Universities for a masters in CS where I would have a decent/reasonable chance of getting accepted? As this would provide backups and alternatives when applying to Stanford.</p>
<p>I think the best thing to do at this point would be to take the necessary background classes in CS at a state university, or whatever the best thing is that you can afford. You can do this as a non-degree student. </p>
<p>You could try taking a look at what their requirements are for a computer science minor at the university; fulfilling those might be enough to get you into a master’s program. Grad students, at least where I go, frequently take upper-level undergraduate classes when they’re going for a master’s in something they don’t have a lot of background in.</p>
<p>I worked with a woman this summer who got her undergrad / master’s in Germany (it’s a different system there) in broadcast communications or something like that. She couldn’t find a job doing that, but Germany has this continuing education system through which she was able to take programming and CS classes more or less at her own pace. She came to my school for a master’s in linguistics, taking plenty of CS classes, too, with a focus on NLP (natural language processing). She applied to PhD programs, and was accepted to, among others, UT Austin and Carnegie Mellon - she chose UT. </p>
<p>That said, even people with top-notch degrees in CS with years of amazing research experience routinely get denied from Stanford. They just don’t have room for all the qualified applicants. For your master’s, a state university might wind up being the best you can hope for.</p>
<p>I am in a similar situation, where I graduated with a similar GPA with a B.S. in Finance from University of North Carolina Wilmington, but am now looking to pursue a career in Programming. I have taken Physics and Calc I in college, and have had 3 years of Computer Programming classes in highschool, where my last class was AP Computer Programming with Java and C++. I haven’t even thought about applying to a Master’s program, and have been looking more into going to get a second B.S. in computer science. Some schools allow you to transfer your courses from a previous degree to satisfy basic studies requirements for the additional degree. My question is… to pursue a serious career strictly in programming/software engineering, what would be my best route? I have no loans as of now and and have no financial obstacles to prevent me from more schooling. Thanks.</p>