mvirtosu

Hi, Texas A&M University does not offer financial aid for MS CS students. And, as far as I know, it is not very high ranked in CS (some say it is a dead end for research in CS). U of Missouri, Rolla said there is financial aid available, but they did not offer me any (although I applied there as a safe school). I cannot tell you anything about the other schools because I did not apply there.

Yes, you are right. The GATech subject has been long debated here, and you should receive some answers (unless those people left on vacation). If I am not mistaken, gforce is heading for GATech, try asking him also. Fortunately for you, there is still plenty of time for you to decide (if you are going to apply for fall 2006).

I would suggest Columbia for no 3, UCSB for no 7 (since you said you love California) and Utah for no 8. Good luck!

Edit: sorry, double posting! Anyone knows how to delete one's posts?

Hi sakib: I cannot say McGill and Queen's can be considered safe. The process of admission to canadian universities works something like that: professors review the applications and they are the ones making the recommendations for admission. So if there is no professor there interested in your work, you are in trouble. I applied to University of Waterloo and U of Toronto. UW offered me admission and financial aid, and U of T no admission. No, I will be attending U of Utah, they offered me a TA. That's why I told you about the admission process as a lotery game, you may never know who admits you and who does not. I am sorry, I have no ideea about UCR. If you are really interested, you might start a new thread on the "university admission" forum asking this question. Mihai

Sakib, USC is indeed highly ranked when it comes to its PhD program and its computer science department overall reputation. The MS program admits a lot of students and it is therefore less competitive. However, I would love to hear other people's opinion. I applied to University of Missouri Rolla and North Dakota State University as safe bets. You won't even find them in the CS USNews ranking. :) However, they admitted me, but did not offer any financial assistance. Hope other people will post their views too.

Hi Sakib, Admission to US schools these days is resembling more and more to a lotery game. There were many cases in which people with less impressive backgrounds were in, and, at the same time, people better prepared were denied admission. And, although I woudn't want to discourage you in any way, I would suggest to play more safe. I did not apply to any of your safe schools, so I couldn't say much. Except for the fact that, from what I read on this message board, University of Florida (Gainesville, I presume) has a good reputation. But then, I might be wrong, please check with other people too. I did apply to Columbia and got accepted to their MS program, without aid. So if they admitted me, it is fairly easy to get in. However, their MS program is not so well known as their PhD program and it is also a terminal degree, meaning you cannot continue towards a PhD. I would say USC is more like a safe bet than U Florida, UCSB and RPI. I am talking about USC's MS program, which lacks financial aid as well. If you have other views, please post them. And you are right about CMU and I am glad you could find the financial resources in case you would be in. Good luck with that! Mihai

sakib, I don't think you will get any aid from the MSE professional degree at CMU. In addition to that, although I am not an expert in your field of interest/area of specialization, I think you should add a few safe schools to your list. If you have already done so, please tell me which of them you consider safe schools.

sakib, Unfortunatelly, I am not interested in graphics. And yes, to be admitted to some universities, they need to have your TSE score in order to be considered for a TA. In other places, they award you the TA and then you are required to take the TSE (and perform well) or another test administered by that university. With respect to this latter case, I can tell you that the University of Utah, for instance, requires international grad students who will be TAs to attend a workshop and take speaking tests two weeks before the beginning of classes (unless they already took the TSE).

Sakib, If you are interested in graphics, you can apply to U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or University of Utah. Both universities award financial aid to MS students and it is not necessary to take the TSE.

Thank you, bond.

What does "smu" stand for? Southern Methodist University? :hmm:

confused_sakib, Please do not hijack other TMians' threads. Post your profile, questions and concerns in a new thread on the "University admission: graduate" forum.

@ritwik: unfortunately, I have no idea. Sorry.

In France, the language used is mainly French (French people, generally speaking, do not know or do not want to speak English), although some PhD students write their internationally published articles, obviously, in English. I cannot tell you the best schools specifically for Computer Science, but I can tell you that best schools are those around Paris. And for engineering (computer science, translated as "informatique" is considered to be more like an engineering discipline rather than a science one) top schools are: Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Centrale Paris, Ecole Superieure d'Electricite (Supelec) and Ecole Nationale Superieure de Cachan.

Generally speaking, in Europe you must have a Masters degree in order to apply for a PhD. So, if you have just finished your Bachelors, you must add one year (for the Masters) to those three you mentioned (for the PhD).

Financial aid for Masters is not as possible as it is for PhD, but your chances are pretty high. I'd suggest applying to those universities who have only one admission process (both for Masters and the PhD), and therefore treat Masters and PhD students equally when awarding assistanships. Such universities are U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, U of Michigan Ann Arbor and MIT (though not very sure about the last two, please check their websites' FAQs). Another university where I saw many financial aid awards for Masters is Purdue. Edit: and there is also the possibility (not recommended by some TMians) of enrolling in a PhD program (with the financial aid it involves) and leaving the university after being awarded the Masters degree (if the university awards a Master degree after two years or so of work towards the PhD - you should specifically ask the university about this) Good luck!

Your dream will come true. Good luck!

Dimas, If I may ask, why are you mainly concerned about Californian state universities? What do they have special? Thanks.

I believe you do not have to be a CS major in order to apply for a MS in CS, but you should have taken some core CS courses as part of your undergraduate instruction (each computer science department has such requirements). My undergraduate major was automatic control and, although not very successful, I did make it through to a middle tier school in US for a MS in CS. In order for us to suggest some universites to apply, please post your intended area of specialization and other details of your profile, such as your research experience, GPA, work experience, etc. Good luck!

Well, to be honest, your Q score is a little low, even if you do not need financial assistance. You might consider retaking the GRE. The safest place to apply for a Masters degree in CS, without aid, is USC. You could also apply to Columbia (I don't know if they are interested in databases, however, in my opinion, it's quite easy to make it through to their MS program) and Virginia Tech (as gforce said on another thread, they have a masters in software engineering). Unfortunatelly I cannot tell you anything about the universities in your list because I did not apply to any of them, excepted for USC (PhD). As for safe schools, you could apply to University of Missouri, Rolla and North Dakota State University. A final word of caution: please check if the universities listed above have spring admission. If you have more questions, don't hesitate to ask. Good luck! Mihai

What are your research interests? Software Engineering? Edit: and do you need financial assistance?

Check out these links: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/advice/prospective.html and http://userpages.umbc.edu/%7Egurumurt/newgrad.html Good luck!

UTA is ok, but I've heard they are frequently loosing applications. :)

I would also advise choosing the better school. Such situations occur frequently and schools are getting quite used to them.