digi123

Yeah, it sux waiting for 'em.. but i got my admits/rejects last year around feb/march. good luck!

Hello, I visitied Michigan tech to see a friend.. its really beautiful up there.. upper peninsula right? To answer your question, I would say start looking at other departments you might be interested in and see if you can get a ta/ra from there. You may have to either contact their office to see if there is any formal process on how to do it or e-mail one of the other profs from there. Or, you can try e-mailing the profs in your department. In the school I go to, its kinda rare from first years to get RA's, since the profs really don't know how you work within a group. But peope do get them. Good Luck and congrats. :)

I agree with ^. But sometimes if you don't receive aid from your department, then you can apply to other departments to get a ta/ra. I think each department has their own way of doing it. So I guess you can look for other departments that you may be able to ta/ra in and see if you can get more information on how to apply to them. Usually you have to talk to the prof directly from the other dept.

No problem! Oh, ok, then it shouldn't be a problem. But you may not be able to transfer any of your MS credits since its not related to cs/se. CMU would be an excellent school! But I'm sure they're very competitive and their not so interested in gre or acads.. more on your research skills and the number of pubs in good conferences/journals. The only thing i would say about a cs phd vs. a se phd, is that in cs you may have more market appeal and well rounded than se since you have to take courses that are not just in se or your interested area. Again, those top ranking schools are more focused on your research capabilies, but then again.. most students that do apply already have really high gre's and near 4.0 gpa's. I don't see why not. :) Well, you can try for a fellowship.. like a nsf fellow (but u have to be a us citizen) or a graduate fellow.. those you usually get more than an ta/ra.. maybe around 30-35k or so plus tuition.. and that would be more than enough for a student.. You can also get a part time job, but usually you don't have time for that because of courses and research. Hope that helps..

Hello.. and Welcome..:) Well, I know most schools have software engineering as a concentration for CS.. so.. i would say you'ld be applying to cs phd programs? But since your background is not in cs (i'm not sure of your undergrad), you may need to take quite a few bridge classes. Definitly! Especially since your interests are in SE, usually that'll give you an edge against other students applying in SE without any industry experience. I worked about 4 years before starting my cs phd (not in SE), and seen that i'm able to handle lil things about school that i probably wouldn't have learned without being in the industry such as politics, networking, presentations, working with difficult ppl, etc. Depends on the school, usually RA/TA both have the same stipend.. if you have an assistantship.. tuition is covered, but not the fees. Usually the stipend amount should cover the stuff you mentioned, but you won't nearly make as much as you do in the industry.

a legacy system is like an outdated system that's no longer supported by its creators. Like VAX/VMS... There are a lot of legacy systems in large manufacturing and business (ex. cobol) companies.. to Vickyas400... Well, you don't need to submit your gre for RIT.. so hopefully you'll be fine there. :)

Hello, I just skimmed through your SOP, but the main thing I noticed is that it seems like its too general. Like the same SOP can be applied to any school with just a change in the last paragraph with the school name. Perhaps you can add a paragraph about why you want to go to ASU specifically, the professors and research groups your interested in. Also, if you can, add a couple of papers by some of the professors your interested in and why those are related to your own interests. Here's a good link with tips to help you with sop's.. http://meditate.pdl.cmu.edu/statement-of-purpose-tips.html

Sorry to hear that... It seems your gre is not that bad.. how is your research/work experience?

I'm not sure that's true for all schools. I know in the UIC app, there's an option you can choose if your willing to attend even though your not offered any aid.

Hello, Have you looked into RIT? They have a rolling admission, so you can apply whenever.

Well, you need to find someone that knows you best. So the higher you go up in the ladder, the less likely that person is going to know you. So I got my project leader and my supervisor. hope that helps.

I'll be going to umn-tc for cs phd this fall and from what I hear over there the financial aid is very competitive. I received full aid from there but with TA. I don't think they offer any aid to MS students since its already very hard to get fin aid when ur a phd student.

I would take two reccos from the university and one from your company. You might even want to get another one from the company, since some schools have three reccos as just the minimum. When I applied for ms and phd I had two from college and 2 from the company, but I've worked for 4+ years. The reason you need at least two reccos from a univ is that it may be more related to what your interests are in. Plus, your applying to a university not another company, so the reccos from profs may be better.

I agree with ^, but rankings is also good place to start looking at the different schools. Then from there you go through each school and look at the prof's research and such. For example, I went through each school of the top 100 cs schools (from US News) and researched which schools I had similar interests and applied to those. It did take a lot of time to go through, I think it took me a couple of weeks. But it was definitly worth it. I don't think I could have done this without having some sort of a list or rankings of schools.

I think reccos are equally valuable. Well, more like a confirmation of the rest of your creds. They won't use your reccos for a cut off like your gre score. But they'll def consider what the person writes in there. I would say the best type of reccos are from people that are well known or very distinguished. But the best kinds are those that express that you'll be able to accomplish whatever endeaver you pursue. That your a hard worker and stuff like that. If your applying to a MS/Phd program, then I would say someone from academia would be more valuable than an employer. Unless the employer is directly related to your interests and involved in your research. Also, if you worked for this employer for awhile like 3+ years, then it might be good since that person knows you very well. But I would look for professors/advisors first, maybe for the first two. Then if you don't have any other profs your close to, look for an employer.