[OT] Graduate School

[ced1106]

Stanford MSCS here. Went after a MS only b/c I had a BS in biology then took community college CS courses. Had I had a BS in CS, I wouldn't have gone for a MS.

Found out about pointers the hard way so wasn't able to slack. I also saved $$$ by becoming a TA and working in the consultant's help desk. Looks nice on the resume.

Second on the classes. Some **really** unique classes (seminars) were available only to graduate students. Learned lots of really interesting stuff (introducing AI into businesses, fonts).


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[MJEggertson]

I'm a chemist, about a year and a half from getting my PhD.

How busy are you going to be? It all depends. You get out of grad school what you put into grad school, and for the most part, you make your own schedule. In the hard-sciences, grad school is more like a job since they pay you a salary and usually waive your tuition. You put as many hours in as you wish, at times it demands a fair bit of attention, others not so much. As for time relative to an undergrad degree, I'd say less. Grad work is very much a 'leave the office at the office' situation, at least in the sciences. I purposely never think about research at home. But that's not so say I don't have the occasional 12-16 work hour days. You will have assignments from classes for the first year or two, but the class load is minimal relative to undergrad, since you'll likely be teaching as well.

I guess what I'm trying to say is you should make as much time as you need. Some people work 80+ hours a week. Good for them, if they want to and enjoy doing it, all the power to them. Myself I don't do it, I would go insane. I don't want to be working hours like that for the rest of my life, so I refuse to work them now (work-load is one of the main reasons I never went into medicine). I have enough time to do a few programming projects on the side, and to relax some.

Advantages depend largely on your discipline, and more specifically your goals. Best find out from people in the field you're going into.

A thesis is a contribution to the body of research. I don't know too many masters students, but as far as I know, the only difference to a doctorate is the scope of the research. A master's dissertation will typically involve a smaller or less-involved project, leading to a smaller thesis if one is done. What the thesis contains, is the same regardless of degree. As for thesis versus non-thesis...I don't know. I never looked into getting an MS.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Experiences do vary a lot, but most people I know in grad school who are interested in it and have the opportunity do do some sort of extracurricular activity or two or three.

The lack of a set schedule is a bear, but in my department, which is very odd being a strange mix of English and Technical people, most of the grad students just get this strange intense look and go completely zen and relaxed for about six years.

They get an amazing amount of everything done and frighten me.

So, I think if you don't freak out and have an idea of what you want to do you can do it.

The level of freedom is simply sickening after several years of non-academic working.

Not free time, mind you, just the ability to get up from your desk and walk around when you want to or work on what you feel like.

 

[Iron Sheep]

I completed my PhD in Math at UCLA in 97. As I remember, the first couple of years were very focused on getting past the qualifying exams; once they were done the pace settled down a bit as you went about finding an advisor, a research area, doing the research, and writing things up.

It's much more like a job than undergraduate study, particularly if you are working as a TA or RA. If you're lucky you'll even have your own space on campus (a desk or shared office, most likely), which makes it much more "work-like".

Coursework was less of an issue than undergrad: you know how to organise your time and do what you have to do. A C in grad school is often considered to be a failing grade, so you have to be doing pretty badly to get less than a B.

Where you will likely find the biggest difference from undergrad is if you have to do comprehensive or qualifying exams in your program. These can be quite hard, and you have to do some serious studying for them. They can also be extremely stressful, and in the UCLA math program it was whether you could pass these exams which basically decided whether you got a masters or PhD.

I basically stopped playing RPGs when in grad school, but much of that was because I relocated to go to grad school and never found a good group to play with. I had enough spare time that I could have played RPGs, but instead I did thinks like hiking, mountain biking, reading a lot of books, seeing some opera, etc.

The usefulness of a graduate degree really depends on what you want to do with yourself once your done. If you want to be an academic, then the PhD is essential; it's also essential if you want to be doing research work in industry. Beyond that, it depends on the field and industry. In CS, my understanding is that a masters makes you more employable than just a bachelors degree.

As for dissertations, in math at least, a PhD thesis is supposed to be a significant new contribution; a masters thesis doesn't have that expectation: a well-done literature review can be well-received, particularly if it's bringing together a scattered body of work.

To sum up: you should probably go for it. If you want a PhD, look for good places that will offer you support. If you want a masters, look for good programs that you can afford.

Corran

 

[Mistwell]

I have a graduate degree, but it is a JD (law), so I don't know how analogous that experience is to a computer science degree (you pretty much have to have the degree by law in order to practice in the field).

I will say that, after 4 years as General Council for an computer-related company, we never hired a single person with a masters degree in computer science, and our CTO hadn't even finished undergraduate college before dropping out of it complaining that he knew more than any of his professors. Most of our best tech guys dropped out of high school in fact, or had degrees in business. A lot of people in the industry seem to think that changes in computers happen at such a rapid rate that universities are not capable of keeping up, and are always teaching you things that were only useful two-three generations ago in the field, and that your time is better spent actually working in the field than getting a degree in it. I don't know if that is accurate or not (since it is not my field), but it certainly was accurate for that company (which did very well).

 

[johnsemlak]

A friend of mine once called grad school 'like being an undergraduate, but without the fun.'

 

[Tuerny]

Thanks for the information everyone. It has proven very useful. At my school if you are going for a Master's Degree you only have to be a TA or an RA if you go for a Graduate Fellowship (which requires you to write a thesis). I am planning to do so as that pays for all of your tuition plus 12K per year. Only professors and doctoral students teach classes at UCF though, so if I am a TA I actually will be just an assistant, helping with a lab/recitation section or helping with the preperation and grading of assignments.

One of the main reasons I am considering going to graduate school (or law school, if I do well enough on the LSAT) is because of how crappy the economy is. I figure that with a master's degree I will be much more marketable in the work force then I would be if I just had a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science.

 

[bolen]

Clear Dragon

I am in Genera Relativity theory.

However I got my masters working in HEP. I worked at SLD at the Stanford Linear Collider. He's why I left HEP is for people who enjoy working in huge collaborations. You have very little say in what goes on. That is the nature of the beast. I am also worried about the future job prospects in HEP. It really seems to me that all the excitment is going over to Europe withthe exception of BaBar and that will only last a few years. When the US stopped the SSC they signaled the end of HEP in the US, I am afraid.

What school will you attend?

I go to the University of Mississippi

 

[Zander]

Currently I am leaning towards continuing at UCF because it has an excellent CS graduate program and is one of the most inexpensive graduate programs in the US.

I have three degrees (BA, master's and doctorate) all from different universities. I did that on purpose. I got into the master's course where I did my BA and into the PhD course where I got my master's but chose to move on each time. The reason was that you get a broader exposure.

If you stay at UCF, you'll have the same professors with the same areas of interest. If you move, you'll meet new faculty and be exposed to areas of CS that you may not have considered otherwise. So if your academic and financial situations allow you to move, you should.

 

[Tuerny]

Re: Re: [OT] Graduate School

Well, you're a smart hero, so that's a good first start.

<lots of snippage>

PSS(3) If you're not attached, keep in mind that some of the cute undergrads you'll be TAing are not legal yet--nothing good can come from dating your students. But, it happens all the time. (Not me, though. My girlfriend would skin me alive).

Acmite

Thanks for the tips Amite. I am actually planning on entering industry whenever I finish my Master's program so I am leaning a bit more towards coursework. At my school the main difference, at least for a Master's degree, between the research option (I assume that the Thesis option is relatively equivlant) and the coursework option is that the Research option requires six less credit hours of coursework (two classes) but you also have to write your Thesis.
I am planning on using my master's degree mostly as a way to gain a greater depth of understanding of Computer Science in general (and the edge that brings) before I enter the field. However, I have to admit that the oppurtunities for those who are writing a thesis are very tempting for me. And having a thesis is also something I could probably include in future job applications.

And I am not too worried about dating my students. I am a Computer Science major after all, so most of my students will be guys, and the cute girls are generally few and far between.

Getting skinned alive is a baaaaad thing.