Topic: Graduate School o Why Go To Graduate School? o BS degree is not sufficient training. o Advanced degree good for career o Getting job o Getting good salary o Affects type of work you do o Make contacts, friends o People take you more seriously o Which Degree? o BS - basic technical work o MS - more design responsibility, more independence o Ph.D. - research, design, teaching o Other degrees- Law, Medicine, Management o What do you want to do? o When to Apply? o Deadlines typically between November-January for fall. o Some schools admit in mid-year. o Now or Later? o You'll appreciate grad school more and get more out of it if you work for a while. o But it is difficult to return to school after work. o How Long Does It Take? o MS - 1 to 3 years. (depending on thesis/project). o Ph.D. - 3 to 10 years. 5-6 average. Increasing. o Where to Go? o Try to go to a good school. o (personal opinion) in a reasonable location o Large departments give you a choice of faculty and area of concentration. o But some departments are strong or weak in certain areas. o Where are you going to get in? o Depends on grades, GREs, recommendations, statement. o Some faculty emphasize "smart"; some emphasize research experience. o Statement should make sense, not say anything stupid. o Make sure grammar, spelling, are okay. o Recommendations o Typically 3 required. o Can supply more (but not more than 5-6) if you have both industrial and academic recommenders. o But more are not necessarily better. o Try to use the original form (it has boxes to check) o Financial support o At good schools, (almost) all Ph.D. students are support- ed. o Fellowships o Research Assistantships o Teaching Assistantships o At weaker schools, support may or may not be provided. o MS students get support only if funds available. o Stay at Berkeley? o Generally recommended to change schools o But not if quality/location far inferior. Rankings of CS Graduate Schools 1993 NAS Study Stanford 4.97 MIT 4.91 UC Berkeley 4.88 CMU 4.76 Cornell 4.64 Princeton 4.31 UT Austin 4.18 U Illinois 4.09 U. Washington 4.04 U. Wisconsin 4.00 Harvard 3.94 Cal Tech 3.93 Brown 3.86 UCLA 3.73 Yale 3.73 U. Maryland 3.69 NYU 3.60 U. Mass 3.59 Rice 3.55 USC 3.52 U. Michigan 3.49 Columbia 3.45 UCSD 3.45 U. Chicago 3.31 U. Penn. 3.31 Purdue 3.28 Rutgers 3.25 Duke 3.17 U. North Carolina 3.16 U. Rochester 3.13 SUNY Stony Brook 3.12 Georgia Tech 3.10 U. Arizona 3.05 UC Irvine 3.03 U. Virginia 3.02 Indiana U. 3.00 Northwestern 3.00 Johns Hopkins 2.96 Ohio State 2.92 U. Colorado 2.90 U. Utah 2.90 Oregon Grad Inst. 2.83 U. Pittsburgh 2.81 Syracuse U. 2.80 U. Florida 2.70 U. Minnesota 2.67 UCSB 2.65 RPI 2.63 UCSC 2.59 U. Ill. Chicago 2.56 Washington U 2.54 Michigan State 2.53 Penn State 2.52 CUNY 2.52 Dartmouth 2.45 Boston U. 2.42 UC Davis 2.42 SUNY Buffalo 2.42 NC State 2.36 Arizona State 2.33 U. Iowa 2.31 Texas A&M 2.30 U. Oregon 2.20 U. Kentucky 2.12 URLs: http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/leblanc/nas-rankings.html http://www.research.sunysb.edu/research/nrcdata.html#discindex