Search the Community

Hi, I was accepted at Columbia and Northwestern PhD in Economics and I am waitlisted at NYU. So at this point, I am deciding between Columbia and Northwestern, but still considering NYU in case of getting off waitlist. I will really appreciate for any opinion of which place seems as the best place to go. My research interests are more inclined towards financial economics and micro theory (where I know NWU has a strong tradition), however I am opened to other fields, so I am looking for the best overall department (any opinion regarding this I will appreciate it a lot). Also, I will like to go to the place that maximizes the chances of getting a good/decent academic placement (placements seem similar for the three programs, but maybe someone has a different opinion). Thanks a lot!

Hi, I was going through some independent essay writing questions. These questions ask us to take a stand of either for/against or choose an option among 2 options. I want to know if it is possible to take a neutral stand or write an answer containing mix of both options. For example, please see below question: If you were an employer, which kind of worker would you prefer to hire: an inexperienced worker at a lower salary or an experienced worker at a higher salary? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer. I would like to include points for both inexperienced and experienced workers. Each has its own merits in different situations. So, do I have to pick one over the other or can I include both in my answer? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Aparna

Hi guys, General Question: how useful you think involvement in open source projects can be for admissions? Not big projects like Apache or Linux, but small to moderate size. Will universities have enough time to checkout what we have done and what project it is to consider it as a factor for admissions? Specific part regarding me: I was doing some course in Artificial Intelligence, and as a course requirement I had to do some project. And I chose to do a AI project on Automatic Document classifier (or can call a Spam Filter too), I got very much interested in that topic and want to take it more seriously, work for sometime and convert it from a course project to a serious piece of software and release it as a open source project(working with one more guy on this). So, my question is, will such things help in admissions? Will they(can they) really go checkout the project and if its good, consider my application seriously. I am a non-CS guy (or more specifically, Electronics and Communications Graduate), and want to do MS in CS. Will this be more helpful in my specific case? Also, I would release it may be in July, And will be applying in November!!! So will it make it seem deliberate act for admissions??? :hmm: Please share ANY information/Thought/Opinion you guys have regarding this. Please also take the Poll I have put on top of this post (Numbers really help!!!:p)... Thank You MicroKernel :)