Please Help!!!

[deepuj]

Hi all,i am from india, i have done by bachelor of technology in mechanical engineering, i am now working in a reputed software company in india.I wish to do MS in CS after 2 years of work. I want to know if they will accept me, i.e since i am from mechanical background, will i be eligible?? Will giving subject gre help my cause. por favor, El Señor help.
Also since i am not from cs background ,i dont have a strong hold on pure computer science subjects, can anyone suggest me any book, from where i can begin.

Thanks.

[CalmLogic]

can anyone suggest me any book, from where i can begin.

A textbook that covers the most topics is a discrete math book. (The most popular discrete math book is by Rosen. I use the an older edition since it's cheaper.) However, the best way to study is to start with the sample problems, using textbooks mostly as references.

As to whether you even need to take the GRE CS, I don't know, but it would not hurt to e-mail a graduate advisor at a school you are interested in going to.

[deepuj]

Hi ,thanks a lot for thy response calmlogic.

[CalmLogic]

BTW, regarding funding, a significant number of CS grad programs will aid most Ph.D. candidates once they are accepted into the program. However, since you would be applying for an M.S. program, your chances of getting aid are significantly less, especially if you don't have an impressive CS background.

Having said that, I think it's good that you are interested in an M.S. rather than a Ph.D. Though this lowers your chance of getting aid (funding), this obviously increases your chance of getting accepted (since it's obviously easier to get into an M.S. program than a Ph.D. program) and, as you probably know, Ph.D. graduates in the U.S. get paid less than M.S. graduates since Ph.D. graduates are usually desperate for an academic job while M.S. graduates usually work in industry.

BTW, many American software developers are not interested in CS grad school for good reason:

I was recently pursuing my MS in Software Engineering, for no better reason other than it seemed the best way to advance. Then I looked around at my peers, who had taken the path to get their MS and PhD, to see how much good it did them. The answer turned out to be: very little. Few of them were able to leverage their credentials into any sort of personal benefit. A friend of mine in the Software Engineering program were out having drinks one night, and he told me he had almost completed his MS. And I said "What For?". Because that and $1.50 will buy you a ride on the subway. Every tech employer I've spoken to wants the perfect engineer, AND a pony. They want you trained 10 years with 50 cutting-edge tools that have only been around for 5 years. God forbid they have to TRAIN you to do your job. All an MS does is overqualify you. I recently switched to an MBA program, and I think it's the right choice, at least for me.

Career Guide for Engineers and Computer Scientists

since i am from mechanical background, will i be eligible??

Your work background in software development will be helpful for admission but many C.S. grad programs will only accept applicants who have taken a number of prerequisite courses prior to applying. Though you apparently haven't taken most of these prerequisite courses, there is a partial list of CS grad programs that waive prerequisites based on performance on the GRE CS and also the Partial List of Universities' CS Subject Test Policy (Partial List of Universities - Subject test policy).

Of course, it is not easy to get a great score on the GRE CS without a background in theory of computation, discrete math, etc., so at least 6+ months of study may be required. Also, while performing well on the GRE CS may allow for admission, getting funding is another issue since you apparently didn't take formal CS courses or do research projects related to computer science. (If you did research in mechanical engineering, it may be helpful to get a recommendation from an employer or former professor stating such research skills.)

In my view, it's all about time vs. money. Eventually, if you continue to build up your CS background you will get funding, but it may take a while to get to that point, and if takes years to do so it may be more worthwhile to fund yourself or do something else.

Personally, if I were to apply to grad school without having taken CS courses and wanted full funding, I would ideally publish research and get a great score on the GRE CS (800+). I would also take at least one distance learning graduate CS course (such as graduate level Data Structures) if I had the time and money. Doing some or all of this would show that I am more competent than most applicants, am highly motivated in academic subjects, and would be worthy of being a teaching assistant or research assistant.

For example, some advice from forum member KayKay:

About the financial aid, which comes after you have got admission offer from the university... you will have to put considerable amount of time and effort on it... you will have to email the professors in the department... try to convince them that you will be able to do productive work under him... don't give up if you don't get funding from the CS dept itself... you can approach the profs of other depts also... in such a case, you need to follow these steps..
step1 : introspect... find out your expertise areas...
step2: find a suitable dept where you can apply your expertise in a productive manner...
step3: look into that dept's web pages and research pages and try to locate the projects/profs who are doing such projects where you can contribute significantly...
step4: write to those profs, telling them how you can be useful to them if they take you as a RA...
in above process, the thing which will help you most is your past research experience (may be a project which you did during thy undergrad degree), relevent courses you did, publications etc....

and my best and sincere advice... be focussed and don't give up...

a word of cheer for Earthlings from nonCS backgrounds

And some new advice from the Computer Science Admissions forum:

All univ. have different preferences. For a non US student-Master's applicant order is GRE, GPA, PUBLICATIONS.
For PhD students, GRE , Publications, GPA. GRE generally serves as a prerequisite and then an assorted score is calculated on basis of candidate's profile, finally Yes/No is decided if the score is more/less than cut off of that year.
I know all this because I was in the selection committee of a US university.
Graduate Students in many departments are actively involved in selection

http://www.urch.com/forums/computer-...lications.html (What is major GPA, GRE scores or publications?)

Caveat: Everything I have written above is based on what I have read, not on what I have experienced since I have not yet applied to grad school.

[deepuj]

Hey thanks a lot calmlogic , thanks for all that info. ; really glad to have a guy like u here at this forum, i feel i am very luck that i joined this form.
I am really sorry but i got only more question for u guys.I make a promise that once i am in a position i will definitely do my bit to help out others here, like i am getting help from u guys.
Looking fwd to thy help in future, n thanks again n thanks in advance.

Cheers
Deeps.

[deepuj]

Hi i read somewhere in this forum that , the gpa calculated for admission is based on major subject, i did my b.tech in mechanical but i had some cs subjects like c programming, computer applications, electronics, so will they calculate the gpa based on my mechanical subjects or these cs related subjects. por favor, El Señor clarify .

Thanks in advance.

[deepuj]

Hi also to add, my gpa isnt that great, infact its very poor, its 6.78 on 10 point scale, but my b.tech is in mechanical, i had about 3 pure cs papers, they are computer programming, computer applications and electronics n in all these my points are 9/10(least) or 10/10. so i want to know will they see only the cs bases subjects or my mech subjects in which i have scored horribly, as u can make out from my scores.please , help me out in this regard, can any one por favor, El Señor tell me the universities which doesnt give much emphasis on gpas. well i feel all the odds are stacked against me, but atill i will give it a shot(atleast once) so i am going for the cs gre test, just asking these to know if it will bear any fruit or not.

Thanks.

[CalmLogic]

Well, yes, it does seem like the odds are stacked against you for funding, especially since it can be difficult to get funding for an MS degree even with an impressive CS background. However, some grad schools seem to do a much better job providing funding, and I have listed some of these programs below.

Regarding GPA, each university is different, but they are going to obviously be more interested in how well you do in CS subjects. Courses like computer programming and computer applications are not going to impress them since they are usually introductory courses that do not involve a lot of computer science theory like theory of computation.

Regarding the GRE CS, you certainly would need to start studying for it now if you plan to take it in November/December 2007.

When it comes time to apply, the important thing is to research which schools are more likely to provide funding. For example:

U of Iowa tries to give most or all of his studdents some kind of assitantshipbut then U of Iowa is not something extremely great...I am there because two of the professors are doing good research in very specific area of my interest!!

http://www.urch.com/forums/computer-...ght=ms+funding (Any CS schools offer financial aid for masters?)

Though the University of Iowa's graduate handbook is not very promising, they did get good rankings for funding PhD computer science students a decade ago. More realistically:

Admission into our Computer Science programs is a competitive process. Recent statistics show that only 10-15% of approximately 200 applicants are admitted every year to our graduate programs. Of these, only a small percentage of individuals receive financial aid.

If the applicant does not have a degree in computer science, or the equivalent coursework to that of a computer science major, the GRE Computer Science Subject Test is recommended (but not required) as part of the admission process. The GRE General Test scores of students admitted for fall 2005 & 2006 averaged approximately 560 Verbal, 780 Quantitative, 4.5 Analytic Writing.

http://cs.uiowa.edu/ProspectiveStude...standards.html

Anyway, I would also look into the following CS grad programs and see what others in the TestMagic forum have already said about them regarding funding. (I use Google's site search feature (site:urch.com) to quickly search for info on this forum.) Below are some of the grad programs on the outdated list of high ranking CS PhD funding institutions:

Washington State University (heard of this??)
Kansas State University
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Louisiana State U & A&M College
University of Texas at Dallas

Most amazing is this new information regarding almost 100% funding at a certain program:

Of the 98 International graduate students at NMT [New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology] in the Spring of 2001, only twelve are not supported by assistantships. These will either receive support from other sources (fellowships, their country or a company that has sent them to earn a degree at Tech) or they are employed on-campus.

http://infohost.nmt.edu/~grad/prospect/support.html

Of course, the grad schools mentioned above may or may not allow for the GRE CS to waive prerequisite courses, so you will have to check them out. From what I have read so far, I think you may have a chance with the Florida Institute of Technology if you do well on the GRE and the GRE CS:

Financial aid is available to a limited number of new graduate students. To receive aid you must have demonstrated potential in computer science, either by excellent grades in computer science and related course work, or by excellent scores on standardized tests such as the GRE. International students are required to take the TOEFL and must have a score of 600 or higher to be considered for a graduate scholarship. Official TOEFL scores must be reported to Florida Tech (Institution Code = 5080, Department Code = 78).

I know some guys who transferred from USC to here in Florida Institute of Technology becuase it was difficult over there to get an aid.One of the reasons is that there are a large number of desis.So it gets highly competetive to get an aid.

http://www.urch.com/forums/graduate-...e-good-gr.html

Though most of the M.S. students at FIT do not get aid, I'm sure some of them didn't even apply because they are funded by their company. FIT's CS department does state on their website that they prefer to evalutate based on GRE and GRE CS scores, so I think that's why you have a shot depending entirely on how well you do on those tests:
https://www.cs.fit.edu/Projects/admi...tship-faq.html

USC [University of South California] is said to be easy to get into but is relatively expensive and, most importantly: "funding is next to impossible for MS at USC (In at USC)."

And some posters' notes about North Carolina State University (NCSU):

This is what I have heard from my frndz at NCSU. Funding scene is bad at NCSU for M.S students (Its overcrowded) . The ones got aid are PhD applicants ( and they do generally get it).

http://www.urch.com/forums/computer-...out-aid-2.html (Admitted to NCSU PhD but no word about aid)

I have contacted a professor at Uconnecticut and it looks a promising place for getting funded.. Aid scenario at NCSU is absolutely minimal! and Syracuse clearly states no AID for Intl' MS CS students..OTH, Connecticut is not as highly ranked as the rest...

http://www.urch.com/forums/graduate-...-aid-help.html (Rankings/Aid help)

A poster with a pretty good profile (including one patent) got into the University of Utah's MS program with funding: http://www.urch.com/forums/admission...ncial-aid.html (In @ Utah MS CS with financial aid)

And, interestingly:

There is anectdotal evidence that a lot of people enter Ph.D. programs just so they can get funding for their Master's degree. Academics are oblivious, in my opinion.

http://www.urch.com/forums/admissions-results/20104-yale-2.html

BTW, it seems tough to get M.S. funding at Columbia, which I would think would have plenty of money:

http://www.urch.com/forums/financial...bia-cs-ms.html (Has anyone been offered aid at Columbia CS MS?)

Looking fwd to ur help in future, n thanks again n thanks in advance.

It actually helps me a lot. After writing this post, I feel more hopeful for getting funding for my M.S. degree since I am willing to go to any descent grad school.

[deepuj]

Hey thanks again, so hows thy preps going? are u from india, then where from in india, i wish u all the best for thy sucess.May god bless u n all of us.

Thanks.

[CalmLogic]

Thank you. Since grad school is not really seen as important by most companies in the US (where I live), I am in no rush to go to grad school though I am interested in it because I really think it will make me a better software developer over the long term and some job descriptions do require an MS.

Anyway, I know for sure I will have to retake the GRE CS before applying to grad school since my first score was very low, partly because I have never taken a course in formal computer science. (In retrospect, I would have taken the GRE CS for practice rather than allowing it to be scored.)

As of now, if I wanted to get funding for an MS program, I would ideally:

- score well on the GRE CS (ideally 800+)
- take 1-2 grad courses via distance learning prior to applying for grad school (since most grad programs will transfer in at least 6 grad credits)
- present a research paper to a conference or journal

However, to get to that point, I wouldn't be going to grad school until Fall 2009. My other plan, which is more realistic, is to just get a master's degree in software engineering via distance learning and fund it myself or have my employer fund it since I would take just 1-2 courses per semester while working full-time.

BTW, some advice from 2003 about Florida Institute of Technology, contacting grad students, etc:

U shud actually contact students who are already at FIT to find out about the situation. I am sure there'll be an ISA (Indian Student Association) committe who will be glad to provide u with all the necessary info.

As far as job scenario, be prepared for the worst and it doesn't have to be bcoz of the low rank of thy Univ. I know of a very good company which interviewed Stanford and MIT grads for QA position and after grilling them with all sorts of algorithms and data structure questions, they offered 1 out of 10 a QA position (just running test cases developed by someone else on a program developed by yet another developer). This is firsthand info bcoz my husband was one among the interview panel members for his company.....CSU hayward is also no better in ranking than FIT and at CSU Hayward, apparently u dont get any assistantship.
http://www.urch.com/forums/admission...ssion-fit.html (Got Admission in FIT)