Calling all CS grad school applicants

[MDK]

Originally Posted by Duong_Qua

Admitted:
- UC Berkeley (tuition waver + 18.3K stipend fellowship/9 months - 4 years)
- Cornell (29.5K tuition waver + 24k stipend fellowship/9 months - 1st year)
- Uni of Washington (tuition waver + 18K stipend fellowship 1st year)
- NYU (full tuition waver + 24.5k stipend/9 months - renewable)
- Gatech (33k tuition waver + 19.5K stipend/9 months - each year)
- Uni of Toronto

Waiting: Harvard, UCLA

My research interests are Machine learning/Data Mining/AI/Computer Vision/Algorithms/Optimization

Any idea where should I go?

Berkeley anytime anyday

[deadcoder]

Originally Posted by Duong_Qua

Admitted:
- UC Berkeley (tuition waver + 18.3K stipend fellowship/9 months - 4 years)
- Cornell (29.5K tuition waver + 24k stipend fellowship/9 months - 1st year)
- Uni of Washington (tuition waver + 18K stipend fellowship 1st year)
- NYU (full tuition waver + 24.5k stipend/9 months - renewable)
- Gatech (33k tuition waver + 19.5K stipend/9 months - each year)
- Uni of Toronto

Waiting: Harvard, UCLA

My research interests are Machine learning/Data Mining/AI/Computer Vision/Algorithms/Optimization

Any idea where should I go?

congratssssssss I'd like to know your profile.. if possible then please...


Any idea where should I go?----> Berkeley Berkeley Berkeley....

[wild runner]

Thanks, Antztein!

My interests would be something like AI, Algorithms, and Optimization.
So is it likely that a potential future employer would frown upon Duke's low US News ranking?

Originally Posted by antztein

Wild Runner,

What is thy area of interest?
That should help you decide the university.

I think Duke is a good choice, its highly ranked (not as high as Wisc-Madison)
and weather is much pleasant in North Carolina than Wisconsin. Also you get a lot of money here!!

I would choose to go to Wisconsin-Madison only if I wanted to do my PhD in Databases.

Hope it helps!

[antztein]

Hi Wildrunner,

If you wish to pursue research in Algorithms, you be better off at Duke than UW-Madison. Here's what I found on Duke's site -

The algorithms group, rated among the best nationally, makes leading contributions in computational geometry and topology, data analysis, data structures, approximation, online, and combinatorial algorithms, algorithms for database and data stream systems, high-performance computing, I/O-efficiency for external memory, geographic information systems (GIS), and nanotechnology systems and structural biology.

I personally wouldn't care about the rankings.
Given the shortage of high-tech workers and scientists in US, biggies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon etc. are hiring from lesser known universities too. I know of a girl who did her Masters in CS from UC Riverside and was hired by google.

For PhD one's focus should be on how good a particular department is in your chosen field of research.

Also wanted to add, the tri city area of Raleigh, Durham and Cary is known as the research triangle and a major hub for networking and open-source technologies. I believe Red-hat has their HQ there.

I personally visited Raleigh and absolutely loved the place...it is so green and beautiful and quite peaceful too.

I wish I'd applied there!

[antztein]

Oh and as for me, these are the schools I applied to -
(All for PhD-CS)

Wisconsin-Madison
UC Santa Barbara
UC Riverside
UC Santa Cruz
Rutgers
Northeastern University

Accepted - Rutgers, UC Riverside
Rejects - UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, UW-Madison
Pending - Northeastern

I am an Indian.

[deadcoder]

Originally Posted by antztein

Oh and as for me, these are the schools I applied to -
(All for PhD-CS)

Wisconsin-Madison
UC Santa Barbara
UC Riverside
UC Santa Cruz
Rutgers
Northeastern University

Accepted - Rutgers, UC Riverside
Rejects - UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, UW-Madison
Pending - Northeastern

I am an Indian.

Hi... antztein.... any updated news from Northeastern U? did you email them? I'm also waiting for their result.

[Modeler]

Originally Posted by Duong_Qua

Admitted:
- UC Berkeley (tuition waver + 18.3K stipend fellowship/9 months - 4 years)
- Cornell (29.5K tuition waver + 24k stipend fellowship/9 months - 1st year)
- Uni of Washington (tuition waver + 18K stipend fellowship 1st year)
- NYU (full tuition waver + 24.5k stipend/9 months - renewable)
- Gatech (33k tuition waver + 19.5K stipend/9 months - each year)
- Uni of Toronto

Waiting: Harvard, UCLA

My research interests are Machine learning/Data Mining/AI/Computer Vision/Algorithms/Optimization

Any idea where should I go?

For the people that are auto-saying Berkeley, do you have a specific reason other than national ranking? Is the tuition waiver for Cornell a full or partial waiver? It seems weird that they would partial waiver tuition but give you such a large stipend. If it were/is a full waiver, I'd say to seriously consider them because their AI group is very good. Also, I know from another thread that Cornell accepted you waaaay early, and has only just now finished sending out all their acceptances, so it would seem to me that they really want you and it never hurts to feel wanted.

Edit: is the stipend for Cornell renewable? If not, then obviously Berkeley on the grounds of being fully funded.

Edit again: 4 years of fellowship from Berkeley? Really?! Not like, one year fellowship and 4 total years guaranteed funding?

[Duong_Qua]

@Modeler:
- Cornell gives me full tuition waiver and only first year fellowship, financial support guaranteed for the whole study duration through RA/TA
- Berkeley gives me 4 year fellowships - unless if I receive RAship (which is normally higher than the fellowship) then that fellowship financial support will be waived

Specifically, for Machine Learning then which university do you reckon?

[Modeler]

Well, I don't think you can really go wrong with either, and its a personal decision so I just wanted to speak out for another option since the difference in quality of education and reputation is nearly negligible between the two. So many people are rank obsessed to the point where Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, or CMU will always be suggested as the best places to go. I could hear next week that CMU has accepted me off their wait-list or that Cornell has accepted me, but I'm already committing to Michigan because they've shown many times over that they really want me there and because I know 3-6 (if you count School of Information as well) professors I could work with there in my niche specialty (computational microeconomics and related stuff). So basically, I'm just saying you have several outstanding options that are worthy of your attention. Also, I've found it helpful to ask professors at your prospective places, "Why should I go to your school instead school X." They're usually pretty honest about accessing their own strengths and weaknesses.

I also wanted to throw out to you and anyone else considering Georgia Tech, I've heard terrible things about safety on campus, from professors and students who have been there. From multiple sources I've heard that there are no school sponsored activities on campus after 5 pm because its too dangerous!

[Duong_Qua]

Thanks Modeler for your information and great advices.