<p>I'm a junior at a local state university hoping to get into a graduate computer science program in Fall of 2015. I'm a "non-traditional" student and will be applying around my 27th birthday. I should be sitting at around a 3.8 GPA when I graduate, and frankly I'm not worried about the GRE, recommendations, or my essay.</p>
<p>I'm hoping to get into Wisconsin-Madison or Washington-Seattle, which have highly-ranked, extremely selective CS graduate programs. Minnesota-Twin Cities is my fallback, and I feel I'd be able to get into that easily. I really don't like what I've seen of the UMN CS curricula, so I'd probably even consider other out-of-state schools before settling on it.</p>
<p>My main concerns are that my undergraduate institution and age/non-traditional status could be big negative factors. While I think my school is great, it certainly has no name recognition outside of MN. I've been scouring the web and even some of the universities' admissions pages for opinions and info on this, but I haven't found much. Anyone have any thoughts on how this will affect my chances?</p>
<p>I will be going in with nearly a decade of relevant professional experience, if that helps (or hurts). I'm not planning on doing any extra-curricular activity or anything, since I'm a working adult with very little free time.</p>
<p>My other concern is calculus. I'm going to scrape by Calc I with a B, and I was thinking of taking Calc II Pass/No Credit. Ironically, I'm considering an applied math minor. It's pretty much straight A's otherwise, especially in my CS classes. Will some bad grades or pass/no credit in math garner significant negative attention?</p>
<p>I can’t answer as to the math front, but as for age: grad school applicants aren’t all fresh-faced 22 year olds straight out of a traditional college background. There are lots of people who take a break somewhere along the way and get work experience before deciding to return to grad school, so I don’t think your age would be a problem.
As for the name recognition of your undergrad institution, I don’t think that’s as big of a concern, either. It’s more important what you do while you are at that university. Students at the top graduate schools don’t all come from the most well-known undergraduate institutions. As long as you are going to a reputable institution and taking advantage of the opportunities available to you there, you’ll be in fine shape on that front.</p>
<p>Also, as a Wisconsinite, I’ll throw in my totally unbiased vote for Madison.</p>
<p>Thanks, I appreciate it. I’m feeling a lot better about my chances. I will see what my professors think on math. It’s not even that I’m bad at it; I’m taking 12 credits and working 45+ hours a week, so it just gets to be a little much. I’m really hoping my professional experience will help me out, because again, I’ve thus far not done anything above and beyond taking classes and working.</p>
<p>Madison is a great city, and it’s a good tech hub with plenty of employment opportunities, in case I find myself getting out of academia and staying there. I really like the looks of the courses I’d take and the department in general. Of course, the same can be said of Seattle, but Madison is closer to “home” and as a Minnesotan I get special tuition rate only slightly above the resident rate. It’s ostensibly a little cheaper than UMN is for a resident, at least for the CS grad programs.</p>
<p>I take it you’re looking at a master’s degree, then? If you were looking at a PhD, a lack of research experience would be a big concern, but for a professionally oriented master’s, it’s not relevant.</p>
<p>It seems weird to have Madison described as a “tech hub,” but since my brother is there working for Epic and I know of a few other significant companies in the area, I suppose you’re right!</p>
<p>Are you interested in a Master’s then? At Madison they admit Master’s and PhD applicants as a single pool, which makes me think that the applicants are going to be research oriented. Do you have any research? That is just a guess, though it makes sense since there are not differing evaluation criteria for MS vs PhD. They did have 1,200 applications last year, iirc. ouch. EC’s don’t matter. Your relevant work experience may be a big plus, I don’t really know if it isn’t academic. I don’t see your age as being an issue at all either, and you aren’t that old. I understand that top programs in CS do give some weight to your undergrad program, but it doesn’t shut anyone out. If admitted you have a very good chance to get a partial or full funding offer. </p>
<p>Taking calc ll p/f seems weak to me. I don’t believe they allow their own undergrads to do that or for any course in the major.</p>
<p>I see that they just now are offering a Professional Master’s program, no funding, intended as a terminal degree. I presume that this will be easier to gain entry to if you have work experience and no research as they won’t be evaluating your on research potential.</p>
<p>I am interesting in doing research, but I don’t have any research experience to bring to the table. Not yet, anyway. My work experience is entirely professional, not at all academic. I’m not sure how I’ll even be able to get research experience the way things are right now, but I guess we’ll see.</p>
<p>I’m not interested in a professional masters’ degree (e.g. an MCS without a thesis component) at this time. I’d either go with the UMN MCS or Urbana-Champaign distance MCS if I decide later I want to go that route. Right now I’m actually thinking PhD, just with the option to stop and finish a master’s, but even going straight for an MS is a possibility. </p>
<p>Yeah, I kind of figured calc to P/F would be weak, but I figured I’d ask. Call it hope. I’ll probably just take a lighter load when I take it so I can focus on it. I should probably take calc III, too. I just have so little desire for more calculus.</p>
<p>Either way, I’m glad to hear my institution shouldn’t be a big deal and my age is basically a non-issue. That’s huge.</p>
<p>@ptcs15- To be honest, a Ph.D programs at HIGHLY selective universities will be extremely hard for you to get into…
It’s not about your age. It’s your lack of research experience.</p>
<p>The top schools get TONS of applicants that they turn away who do have research experience. They will most likely not take a person without it.</p>
<p>As you know, Ph.D programs is all about research research and more research. They want people with proven research abilities. The lower tiered schools may feel differently about it, but the top schools want it because they “can”…</p>
<p>I thought because you talked about tuition rates you were interested in Masters. Most programs will fund the Phd, but I do see offers without on gradcafe.</p>
<p>You need to have a talk with your professors about what is needed to get into a PhD program. Do they even know you will be applying PHD and are going to give you letters for that? I think you are assuming you will get a positive LOR and that will be a good LOR. But no. The LOR has to discuss your research experience and what kind of potential you have based on the research you have done. Otherwise it is Did Well in Class, which counts for zero.</p>
<p>I don’t think UMN is any sure thing, given no research. Or if you mean for Masters, just 2 years ago they had 900 applications for 60 slots. But your work experience will likely help with that, not to mention that gpa. UWashington is a no go, don’t apply. I don’t know about UW Madison since they do admit as a pool and some are obviously only going to be Master’s students. Maybe your profs will know if you have a chance. Worth a shot. Still 1200 applicants this year for maybe 85 slots? Maybe a bit more, not sure. I’d discuss other options with your profs.</p>
<p>Bear in mind I’m not applying for next year, so this year’s applicants don’t matter.</p>
<p>Madison’s CS graduate handbook talks about applying for assistantships or getting a job to pay for tuition and expenses. I definitely didn’t get the idea that a funded degree was by any means <em>guaranteed</em> with admission, even for PhD, but admittedly I’m still murky on the whole thing, even after all my perusing. Absent a funded degree, tuition is definitely relevant.</p>
<p>I would definitely consider applying for a terminal master’s, but I’d just assume not limit my options prematurely, so research experience it is. I will discuss further with my professors in the near future.</p>