UC Irvine - MS in CS

[nellie22]

Hey all,
I have got an admit to UC Irvine for their MS program .. well past the usual April 15th deadline .. but worth the wait i guess .
Anyway, I was wondering how the program really is - I have not seen much discussion on the CS program here (in the Donald Bren school) and do not have any contacts currently attending here. Being an international student, campus visits are not possible, so inputs from anyone familiar with the program/city would be nice ..

I get the impression that the university is very research focused, so would this be more phd-friendly degree then, for instance, the MSCS at Gatech or Stanford?
Also, can someone comment on the placement prospects after graduation?

[Stanley Ipkiss]

Aren't you the individual who has been admitted to Stan, Cornell and Purdue! In my opinion UC Irvine doesn't even come near to any of these graduate schools. So why bother?

Else, if you are trying to create a discussion for others to benefit then it is fine.

[CalmLogic]

In my opinion UC Irvine doesn't even come near to any of these graduate schools. So why bother?

Exactly.

[nellie22]

@Stanley Ipkiss and CalmLogic,

that was exactly my intention - to bring together some knowledge, first-hand, if possible, on this school. I do not want to end up comparing schools just based on the USNews' rankings - there is so much more to the decision.
Ground realities often come through in forums like these, and though i have heard the university recommended favorably in a few discussions, it would be nice to get more specific about the college and the surrounding city (even if its just that the gorges around cornell are too gorgeous to resist, this kind of information isn't easy to come by).

For instance, the reason i applied here ws because the description of the research on their site looked very interesting..
(This is from the general UCI catalogue)

The Bren School of ICS began as a department in 1968 and has
given creation to some of computing’s most significant advancements
including revolutionizing computer-aided drafting techniques;
the creation of the current Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP/1.1); development of the Internet standards for HTTP and
Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI); the founding of the Apache
HTTP Server Project that produces the software for over 60 percent
of public Internet Web sites; and the creation of the Domain
Name System (DNS) that translates Web and e-mail addresses into
the numeric system used to route information along the Internet.

On the academics and faculty front, the university has some fantabulous names in data-mining and databases, so I would seriously consider it..

Factoring in the location and reputation (that its in the UC system), the expenses seem very reasonable (about 38k, if i am not mistaken.)

Thoughts, anyone?