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From: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: have BA in philosophy : trying to get into CS grad school
Message-ID: <1103@rti-sel.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 8-Dec-86 10:11:10 EST
Article-I.D.: rti-sel.1103
Posted: Mon Dec  8 10:11:10 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 9-Dec-86 11:27:18 EST
References: <343@wheaton.UUCP>
Reply-To: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, NC
Lines: 29

In article <343@wheaton.UUCP> stefan@wheaton.UUCP (Stefan Brandle) writes:

>I would like to hit grad school next fall.  A number of schools should be
>sending me the application stuff right now, but I'm afraid that they will
>look down their noses at my background.  Does anyone have any suggestions
>on how to present myself so that schools will give me a chance?  Somebody
>suggested that I need contacts.  Should I phone up the department chairs?

Some schools are more hard-nosed than others about getting people with
a heavy CS background. When I started graduate school in CS at the
University of North Carolina, many of my fellow graduate students had
liberal arts/humanities backgrounds. Four years later, departmental
policy seems to have changed: they're getting away from admitting
folks with non-CS backgrounds which I think is a BIG mistake (some of
the most creative people in the department when I was there came from
a non-CS background).

I think the key is to sell yourself to someone in the department so
you have an advocate. Get a copy of the catalog and see who in the
department has been doing research in your areas of interest. Then
schedule a trip to the school and talk to these people about your
interests, showing them (if you can) some of your undergrad work. It
sounds like you have a VERY solid minor in CS, so I don't think you
have that much to worry about.

By the way, my undergraduate major was English literature. I finished
my MS in computer science in 1985. Good luck.

                        -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly