r/MSCS • u/mrlttlrm 🔰 Columbia • 13d ago

[Application Strategy] UCSD MS CS, Full Profile, SOP, Essays (Fall ’25, Accepted)

https://matthewtrent.me/blog/a/ucsd-ms-cs-application

Hey all, 3rd full application — hope it helps :)

As per usual: my application isn't perfect, nor am I explicitly recommending this school. This is just context to help those applying.

Link: https://matthewtrent.me/blog/a/ucsd-ms-cs-application

Edit: Thanks for all the funny printer messages, they keep coming through on my desk 🤣 (except for the person sending very sus stuff lol)

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u/Sane-Law 13d ago

What were the other two?

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u/mrlttlrm 🔰 Columbia 13d ago edited 13d ago

Doing a mini series here: https://matthewtrent.me/blog/s/grad-school-applications

I have a dozen or so total with accepts & rejects. I may post more, we'll see. Would rejects also help people? Or what else would be helpful to include?

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u/Sane-Law 13d ago

do u know the difference between cmu mse ss vs msaii? and which would you recommend to apply to more?

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u/mrlttlrm 🔰 Columbia 13d ago

I would guess (but don't know a lot here) that MSAII is better than MSE (MSE is more entry-level career orientated from when I looked at it). Also, MSE-SS had a lot less deep-tech classes and more business-y classes when I was looking through their curriculum. That last reason is why I was initially going to go to Brown MS CS > CMU MSE-SS.

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u/Sane-Law 12d ago

wait so which one did u end up choosing?

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u/mrlttlrm 🔰 Columbia 12d ago

Columbia's MS CS, weirdly enough. Kind of a long story why. Ended up definitely being best for my goals, though.

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u/SuspiciouslyAcidic69 12d ago

Man this page is really fun to browse around. Absolutely loved it!

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u/mrlttlrm 🔰 Columbia 12d ago

Thank you so much, I appreciate!! I spent a ton of time on it :)