<p>I realize that USC has a very large population of graduate students so I looks like a good school to go to from grad school. </p>
<p>I wanted to ask, what would be my chances of getting accepted into their graduate program for computer science. I have a 3.3 cumulative GPA from a American university and my GRE scores were a 590 on the math and a 490 on the verbal, and a 3 for the writing section. Do I have a good chance of getting into their CS department? Also, what's it like going to school there?</p>
<p>@xraymancs: Yeah, I figured that. I was going to try applying for their upcoming September deadline and see if I get accepted. If not, I’ll just study up and try to get a better score, and then try for the January deadline.</p>
<p>@psydent: I was planning to just borrow the money and pay it off after I land a job. My parents could help me out for a little while, in the interim, but overall I’m confident that a masters in CS will provide me with enough qualifications to get a really strong position within a good company.
As for what I want out of a M.S. CS degree, I’ve been told during internships, because that’s all I’ve done, is that in order to go as far as you can in the CS/IT industry one has to specialize in something. I have a few ideas for a thesis, so I intended to pursue the thesis track while there. I have three ideas as to what I want to do a thesis on and USC has a large enough department that I believe I could find a professor to do one of them under.</p>
<p>I agree it’s a good idea to get a better score if not accepted the first time. </p>
<p>Did you do CS in undergrad? That should be enough to get a good job if you have decent professional experience and/or a portfolio. It seems you want to go further though, maybe for one of the cool CS jobs at Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, or a startup. USC is a good place to get a M.S. from not only for the education but there’s alum at all those companies and the recruiters come at least once a year.</p>
<p>If you can find a USC professor who you would want to study under, then reach out to them to learn more. </p>
<p>I think you might have a decent chance of getting in. Mentioning on your app how you reached out to a prof and your interests align (if they do) could only help.</p>
<p>Getting a M.S. CS from USC is interesting.
The profs are any possible combo of these attributes: brilliant prof or night job prof, horrible teacher or excellent teacher, sort of easy or really hard, etc. Ratemyprofessor has decent reviews for a number of them.
The other students are at all levels, from elite to incompetent. The incompetent ones will frustrate you to no end, but the elite ones are great to work with and learn from.
Outside of academics, USC is a large school but it seems most masters students (if they don’t know other students) find friends in class or with similar interests such as through the many clubs and orgs. Being in LA is great with so much to do, but if you choose to stay within a block or two of campus is has a sort of small city vibe if that’s what you’re looking for.</p>
<p>Hopefully that helps. Any more specific questions? And please keep us updated on the admission process and if you get accepted!</p>
<p>Yes. My undergrad is in CS. Though it’s not from a very well known school. I went to Loyola University Chicago. So, that should help.</p>
<p>Thanks Psydent, if I do get in I’ll let you know. Though I think I need to retake the GRE first. I probably wont have enough time to make it for the September deadline, I’ll apply anyway, but then try again in January.</p>
<p>When I was going to grad school at USC in the late 80s, I thougth the (adjunct) night job profs were better than the permanent ones. The adjunct professors better understood how the subject matter applied to the real world.</p>
<p>^ It’s still that way.
To clarify, night job profs does not mean they’re less intelligent. I used that term to represent they’re still working in industry and usually have a more practical or application based focus then other profs. What I meant by brilliant profs are ones who tend to deal more in theory and research. Sorry if the implied connotation was not clear. All USC profs are obviously quite intelligent (even if you disagree with the grade you receive).</p>
<p>Example: last year I had a prof that worked by day and lectured 2 nights a week. Sure he just talked off the slides, but it was an easy class. He wasn’t liked by many because he has an edge to him, but he was a good prof if you knew how to interact with him (well thought out questions). I liked his class but others thought he was too hard because they were bad programmers and his class had a significant implementation portion. His class was a valuable learning experience to me because I put a lot of effort into it, and it ended up being fun. Others seemed to give up too easily.</p>
<p>How expensive is USC for their Masters in CS? I got in as an undergrad (I’m going to be an incoming freshman), but I decided not to attend because it was too expensive (going to UCLA instead)? I’m close enough to commute so housing shouldn’t be an issue.</p>