Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!ncar!boulder!ccncsu!rachmaninov!olender From: olender@rachmaninov.CS.ColoState.EDU (Kurt Olender) Newsgroups: comp.edu Subject: Re: The need for an advanced degree Message-ID: <967@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> Date: 10 Jan 89 16:41:50 GMT References: <8901041445.AA20933@decwrl.dec.com> <18730@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <911@wilbur.unix.ETA.COM> <5802@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> Sender: news@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU Reply-To: olender@rachmaninov.UUCP (Kurt Olender) Organization: Colorado State University, Ft. Collins CO 80523 Lines: 47 By all means, get a Master's on the way. In most schools, it is simply a matter of filling out the appropriate forms, and perhaps taking the comprehensive exam. All coursework taken as a Master's student usually applies to the Ph. D. as well. Many schools, in fact, will accept large numbers of graduate course work taken at other schools toward the Ph. D. coursework requirements. One never knows what may happen on the way to the Ph. D. If one is forced to leave for whatever reason, then at least you have some piece of paper as a result. The real question, in my opinion, is whether or not to apply for the Ph. D. program or the Master's program in the first place. The answer unfortunately depends on the school. Some schools will give priority for financial aid to Ph. D. students, with whatever is left over given to Master's students. If financial aid is important, this will affect which program to which you apply. The last rumor about UC Berkeley and Stanford on this score that I heard is that they do not generally support Master's students in the CS dept. Some schools will not accept Master's students. UC Irvine, for example, doesn't really have a Master's program in CS. They give the MS as a terminal degree to those Ph. D. students that fulfill the course work requirements but don't make it through the rest of the program. Some schools, however, will not accept people with undergraduate degrees directly into their Ph. D. program unless they have absolutely outstanding credentials. They are reluctant to commit themselves to spending a great deal of time and resources (it costs a lot to put out a Ph. D. both in computing and faculty resources) for someone they don't know. They are much more likely to accept someone into a Master's program, and then once they have direct experience with that person, consider an application into the Ph. D. program, even before the Master's program is finished. The best advice I can give is to call (or visit if you live close enough) the school and talk to one or more members of the dept's graduate admissions committee. They are the people who actually make the admissions decisions for the dept. They can often give you good advice on the application route that would maximize your chances of acceptance and financial aid. A visit especially gives them the opportunity to see you as a person and not as a faceless piece of paper, and demonstrates that you are truly interested in a degree at their institution. Both of those impressions can only help and can make the difference if you have a "marginal" undergraduate record. (The definition of marginal of course depends on the school.) -------------------------------------------------------- |Kurt Olender | Computer Science Dept. | |olender@cs.colostate.edu | Colorado State Univ. | |303-491-7015 | Fort Collins, CO 80523 |