pomegranatesrgood

Well the GA Tech MSCS degree is described as "terminal" and is designed for placement in the industry. I'm not a fan of theory of computation and architecture either, which is why I chose GT for their Human Compute Interaction dept. I'm doing the MSCS with HCI concentration. If you like graphics you should check out their GVU (Graphics Vision Usability) Center. It's one of the best I've seen, second only to probably CMU or Stanford. http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/ Hope this helps. But it all depends on what you're interested in. Also the weather - do you want to thaw your car everyday in the winter? :) If you really have no particular sub-interest, I think either school is fine. If you don't mind the weather and high cost of living, Columbia has a better overall reputation. And NYC is just as fun, if not more so, than Atlanta.

It all depends on the school you apply to. Lower tier schools have lower requirements. If you want to get into a "good" school, I think you should retake the GRE. But there are some schools that are ranked really low that would accept those scores - but I don't think they're worth applying to.

While I donno about the phd program, I grew up near UC, and cinci is a wonderful city. Very friendly and liberal. I think you'll like it there. One thing is, it's very hilly. So in the winter, when the roads freeze, driving can be scary. I remember my dad taking me to school, and we slid backwards down a very steep hill and hit a bunch of cars on the way down.

Well actually UCSD has faculty of my interest too, just not quite as many as GA Tech. I called Berkeley and they said they don't really care if your advisor is a "big name" or whatever, they just want to see if you're capable of doing quality research, and if you align with one of THEIR professors when you apply for PhD. Also, one of the professors at UCSD is a visiting professor at Stanford in my area of interest, so I think he's pretty well known in that area too (a "big name" so to speak). So academically there's not much difference between the two. My decision is pretty much going to be swayed by other factors like campus/weather/city/culture, and I think UCSD wins in that :)

I would say GA Tech. My friend is there for PhD in AI and it's pretty strong. US News ranks GA Tech at 12 and Purdue at 19 for CS PhD. I haven't done much research otherwise on Purdue.

Neither school has guranteed funding (Masters students usually don't get that anyway). I know UCSD is more beautiful, but GA Tech has more faculty of matching interests. How much does that matter for MS? Also I'm wondering if it's easier to get into UC Berkeley for PhD if I graduate from UCSD.

Don't worry Laorulez, I did the exact same thing, and it worked out great. Here's my story: Went to Ohio State U and did terrible. Got a crappy major (GIS), about a 2.5 GPA, and no prospects for a good future. After much soul-searching, I decided to re-do undergraduate and this time redeem myself. Enrolled in Clemson for Computer Science and studied my butt off. Clemson does not average GPA with a previous school - they start completely fresh. With transfer credits from Ohio State, I finished BS in CS in 2 years with a 4.0 major GPA and 3.94 cumulative. Got a high paying software engineer job at a major corporation, and after 2 years of work experience I decided to apply for grad school in CS. Studied extremely hard and took the GRE (got 1560), and applied to UC Berkeley, UCSD, GA Tech and UC Irvine. Each school received my transcripts from both schools. I was really worried that my Ohio State transcript would kill me, but they actually didn't care because the courses were not relevant to the CS Masters I was applying to. And in my SOP I detailed how I've changed my ways. Got rejected by Berkeley but got accepted to UCSD and GA Tech (still waiting for Irvine). So I basically went from no future to a bright one. It can be done - you can transfer credits to another school and start over and finish in about 2 years with a new GPA. Pick a good school that you can transfer into and a new major that is in high demand and interests you, and in 2 years your life will change :) Good luck.

It depends on what you love to do. I personally don't care about finances (I'm horrible with my own money), so I couldn't do a financial degree. I love computer science and human-computer-interaction, so I'm going into that area. The pay isn't bad either. But yeah, in the end, it's a balance between what you love to do and what income you're willing to live with. If you feel you enjoy financial engineer or any of the more lucrative areas, then by all means go for it. It sounds like biology or the natural sciences are very unprofitable, and I would agree with not going that route unless you had some extreme undying passion for it. Find another area that appeals to you and that you can make more money in :)

Please help me choose between these two schools for Computer Science Masters. They're both ranked about the same on US News for CS grad school. My ultimate goal is to go to Berkeley or Stanford for PhD. Would UCSD offer an advantage in phd application for Berkeley since it's both in-state and part of the UC system? Also, how much does the Masters advisor's prestige matter for phd application? Any help is appreciated. Thanks. p.s. - I didn't get into Berkeley MS program :)

I think we're undersestimating the importance of job satisfaction here, especially in computer science. People who love research are those who love to invent and think of new profound ideas and turn them into reality. That satisfaction is what makes work no longer work, but play. I work at a major corporation as a software engineer and I get paid well. But I can tell you it can be very dull and dragging, to the point where I don't want to go to work at all. I've realized that I'm the type of person who needs to pursue his own ideas and create things that are novel. I can't just sit and be a code monkey and be disallowed to pursue my own intellectual interests. That's why I'm going to grad school with the longterm goal of getting PhD. I know financially it's not the most lucrative path, but it doesn't matter. I love freedom, both in my daily schedule and intellectual pursuits. I can't spend my life working 8-5 on other people's projects. Also, regarding the desirability of PhD in the industry: My company LOVES PhDs. I remember talking to my boss who said he just interviewed a person who had a PhD in CS from GA Tech, and he said even though he was not impressed by the person, he'll hire him anyway just because he has a PhD from a prestigious school. They can't pass it up. Just my 2 cents :)

I think rocky is right. Forget my answer :)

2) two standard deviations = 4 * 2 = 8. Interval means 15 +- 8 = 7 - 23. 3) 8 is 2 * 2 * 2 so n, n+1, n+2 must have a total of atleast three 2s in their factors. So 1 * 2 * 3 = only one 2. 2 * 3 * 4 = 2 * 3 * 2 * 2 = three 2s. 3 * 4 * 5 = two 2s. 4 * 5 * 6 = three 2s. 5 * 6 * 7 = one 2. 6 * 7 * 8 = four 2s. So you can see it alternates so the answer should be 50%.

Wow, great job. Party time! Good luck in school!

If you get an 800 the 3rd time, it will look better than right now. My advice is do all the sample quatitative practice sections you can get your hands on (online, books, etc). That's what I did - spent about $200 on books and online tests (about 25 tests total or something), and got 800 luckily. I have some advice on how to tackle the Q section in my post in this forum.

Universities usually take the best out of each section, so your profile right now would be 790 and 350. But you should call each and double check with them. But 350 is pretty low to be competitive... I would suggest you study REALLY hard on the verbal, memorize a huge list of words, and take it again and get atleast 400-450.