Profile:: Abt Work Exp and MS in CS !!!

[MSHunter]

Hi Friends,

Below are my details ::

GRE : 1350 (780+570)
TOEFL : 105

Academic : 76% BE in Electronics and Communication engineering
Toppers %: 85% i guess (i was among the top 3 students in the class)

Work Exp : 3 year experience at oracle (relevant i guess)

No Papers/Publications

LORs : 3 from UG Profs and can manage 1 from my manager.

I want to shift from ECE to MS in CS,specializing in Databases/Datamining.


I would request you guys to suggest me some universities which are very good in Databases/Datamining.

Also i would like to know:
1) If my 3+ Years of Work Experience @oracle would be given weightage.
I suppose the Work Exp is relevant to what i want to Peruse in MS..but it is not a research experience.
2) Or is it that only research Experience is given preference and not Work Experience.
3) My UG was in Electronics and i want to shift to CS.
Well, i know it is advantageous to take up Subject GRE,but is it possible to get an admit to CS dept with out writing AGRE in good colleges?


Eagerly awaiting your replies
Thanks for your help in advance.

[CalmLogic]

3) My UG was in Electronics and i want to shift to CS.

Yeah, the issue is that you seem to not have taken the prerequisite CS courses that many if not most CS graduate schools require. On the other hand, ECE folks seem to often transition to CS, so I would recommend contacting CS graduate department advisors about your situation. Regarding the GRE CS exam, there are schools, such as UCF, Colorado State University, and Florida Institute of Technology, that explicitly state that they allow the GRE CS exam to compensate for such prerequisite coursework. I assume there are many other CS departments that would also allow a certain score on the GRECS to compensate for coursework.

If you want to go to graduate school for Fall 2008, I would recommend UT Dallas as a safer but good option. They seem to only require 1 course in linear algebra and 2 courses in calculus along with a degree in a quantitative field (which you have). Other schools that are non-CS friendly include Utah State and maybe the University of Houston. However, Utah State and Houston are not as good as UT Dallas, IMHO. The University of Utah (whose deadline passed on December 15th) also seems friendly to exceptional non-CS students, according to their CS website.

Some schools that are good in data mining:
http://www.urch.com/forums/computer-...ta-mining.html (Top schools for database/data mining)

1) If my 3+ Years of Work Experience @oracle would be given weightage.

Yes, definitely, but, at least at some schools, that would be more as a boost to an application rather than as a way of determining if you meet the minimum requirements for admission.

[MSHunter]

Hi CalmLogic,

Thx a lot for your advice.


===========================================
Yeah, the issue is that you seem to not have taken the prerequisite CS courses that many if not most CS graduate schools require
===========================================
But, i have taken most of the Pre-req Course that many CS schools ask for .

I had the option of choosing the below Courses in my UG in Electronics ::

1) Operating Systems
2) Programming (C,C++,Java and Assembly language)
3) Data Structures
4) Algebra and Calculus (We had it as Mathematics 1,2,3 and 4.Most topics were covered)
5) Computer Organization and Architecture
6) Computer Networks
7) Neural Networks(AI)


Regarding Software Engineering and Databases, i have Experience in these fields (i donno whether it will be considered as a Pre-req).

Except for Compilers and Automata Theory,i suppose i have taken most the Pre-reqs in my UG Electronics.


Is there any chance that good CS schools consider the above as a Pre-req,so that i need not take up Subject GRE for a shift to CS Dept?

Please adivce.


Thanks.

[MSHunter]

Bounce


Guys..any Suggestion/reply to my above post ?

Thx a lot !!!

[CalmLogic]

Most CS grad programs may consider your background sufficient since you seem to have taken most of the common CS prerequisite courses.

It seems possible you could even be accepted at GA Tech with your profile.

[MDK]

But, i have taken most of the Pre-req Course that many CS schools ask for .
I had the option of choosing the below Courses in my UG in Electronics

Does that mean you have taken all of the above mentioned courses?

) If my 3+ Years of Work Experience @oracle would be given weightage.

It depends on the type of work, what was your work exactly ? a developer ? DBA ? working in warehousing and mining ? application server?

I would recommend contacting CS graduate department advisors about your situation

This is the best thing to do.

Theoretically, any Bsc of Electronics and Communication would compensate for computer science degree IF you want to specialize in NLP or networking related field. However, I am not sure if it would compensate in other fields because as I assume : you haven't taken any courses in Databases or Data mining , even if you are working in data mining with Oracle , your job is a developer of the available suits of data mining not a researcher who develops new algorithms and explore other ideas.

Regarding research experience, most of the MS students don't have good research experience, still they get admission since the program will guide you how to do research and prepare you for a PhD.

[MSHunter]

Hi MDK,

Thx for thy reply.

I am not saying i have taken all the courses,but would like to know if the courses i had chosen in my UG would help me get an MS CS admit in good schools (like GATech,UMN,Upenn,U of Maryland....) (dreaming but is it possible ?)

Regarding the kind of work i do:

I was a developer for an year and since then i am into DBA stuff.
So u can say,i manage both Databases and Application Servers (including Data warehouse Servers).

[CalmLogic]

I have posted my reply here:

http://www.urch.com/forums/computer-...tml#post530010 (Profile:: Abt Work Exp and MS in CS !!!)