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Any idea on this


BuzzBee

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Hi,

 

I am BuzzBee. Attempting to prepare for Gre and do well in Quant. :eek:

 

I already have a graduate degree from Harvard ( in Education Statistics) and 4 years work experience in a big 5 firm in Technology consulting in the US.

 

Now I am planning to apply for MS/Ph.D in CS. Though I have 4 yrs work experience in software, I do not have any idea as to how strong my non CS degree would count for my application.

 

Do any of you have any idea on experience on this kind of transition.

 

Good luck to all the aspirants..:grad:

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First, in trying to help, you might get more replies if you, or the mods, move this post into the "Grad school admissions" section.

 

I think you are asking if having this other grad degree will accentuate your application or make you really stand out.

 

Having another graduate degree does not always put you to the forefront of an admissions committee. In fact, some professors may see it as "degree collecting" or an inability to stick with a career path. That said, if you can connect your first degree with your plans now, it's not going to be a glaring issue on the application. So depending on how you phrase it in your SOP, is how the admissions committee is going to view it. It should be seen as a continuation of your interests.

 

Your Non-CS degree will give the admissions committee a good idea of how you handled graduate work in the past. So, hopefully, you did well in the program!!!!

 

Hope this helps.

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Hi MsDemeanor,

 

Thanks for your input. I appreciate your comments.

 

Yes, I am making a case for my transition along with my work experience in my SOP and I have done quite well in my earlier degree. I wanted to get others opinions so that I can cover all aspects on this issue to make my application storng. Just don't know how to move this thread into Admissions section.:hmm:

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Buzzbee

 

It depends... did you previous grad degree involve taking a lot of CS courses? Were your statistics classes computationally intensive? Did your work involve writing original code? What was your bachelor's degree in? Are the answers to these questions supportive of your proposed PhD studies?

 

I think the strength of your application depends on how coherent a picture you past experience (academic and work related) forms. Labels don't normally mean very much. The fact that your graduate degree was in educational statistics is probably less important than the number of advanced CS classes (and the grades) that show up on your transcript. If your proposed work is in statistical analysis, the degree and your work fit into the overall picture nicely and will be looked at as a plus. But if you want to do graphics or robotics or something, it raises some questions. The fact that you've spent so much of your life doing unrelated stuff may even be looked at as a negative in that case.

 

Good luck

 

RBGuy

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