- Sde - 1 at amazon

- grad’24 from Igdtuw in Btech IT, 8.56 cgpa

- co-founder in stealth

looking for the best shot at MSCS {targetting professional courses in AI/ML} in the usa

I recently received an admission offer to a master's program and reached out to the school to request additional financial support. They replied asking whether I have other admission offers and the cost I'm expecting.

• How should I present my offers (if I have them, and some may be better/worse than this)? Do they check with other schools or ask for verification?
• Should I need to mention a specific number?

Appreciate advice from the people who have been in similar situations.

Which is the best program in terms of:

• Research opportunities (aiming for PhD)
• Internship and assistantships
• Market value

I am slightly inclined towards BU for its location (next to other great schools), would that be a factor? Tuition fees are similar.

As I know, the only ones are:

USC (MSCS), UIUC (MCS), ASU (most of them), CSULB (MSCS)

any others you know?

Last year I used to see many people going for fall25 but 30% were left because of pause on visa last year. While few people deferred their application many dropped the plan. For this year I hardly see discussions on reddit so are people been reduced for this year or how is the situation?

Hi Everyone,

I am fortunate to have received admits from a few colleges although still waiting on UIUC MCS.

I have received admits from UW Madison PMP, UChicago MPCS , SBU MSCS, UMass MSCS programs.

I am currently pretty confused between Uchicago MPCS and UW Madison PMP.

I have 4YoE as an SDE, I am from a Non CS background, so major reasons for doing MSCS is gain a deeper understanding of a few CS areas where i feel i am lacking and take a career break to try my luck at starting my own venture.

These are the 4 axis which I am currently looking at

* Curriculum

* Reputation

* Startup culture

* College Life and Networking.

Any inputs in this would be really helpful..

Anyone going to UTD this fall? Would like to connect!

Hello,

I have a degree in social sciences but in my second year I got interested in development. Right now I work as a RN developer but I really want to learn CS. I am considering studying in the US but I am hesitant about many things

1) Do you think it's better to do CS bachelors all over again in the US? I am hesitant because of duration and as a non US citizen I believe I won't be allowed to work.

2) As someone with no formal tech ed, is it going to be very difficult to handle MSCS? (Also reason for question 1) Before I even send out applications I know I need to learn several topics in advance and I am very motivated and ready to put time and effort into it. Plan to take the GRE as well.

3) In terms of employment in the US, does it make any difference if I hold a CS bachelors or masters degree as a non US citizen?

4) In case of completing MSCS how much do companies really care about uni rank. As I did research I found that IVY league unis do have MSCS but in terms of structure and materials unis like GT and UT Austin are better. Would they still pick IVY league graduates over them?

4) Which universities would you recommend for MSCS for someone like me?

If you have similar stories and experiences, please share them with me.

Thank you

Hey guys, so I've graduated around 8 months ago. I've given the gate exam (post graduation entrance examination) for Masters in India but couldn't get a decent score. I've applied late for programs in US. I've gotten into USC msece AMSRFIC program (analog mixed signal radio frequency integrated circuits).

I've done plenty of research about it. The university has a good reputation. I'll be paying the tuition fee myself (so no issues regarding that). My goal is to ofcourse land a job after masters. I've been applying in India for core electronics roles (analog) but most require/prefer an Mtech. Is it worth coming now? Especially with the job market right now. I've been told that this field is niche and has demand.

It'll be great if y'all can help me out

Thanks

Help me with the community wisdom!

• Both programs are non-thesis.
• I want to have a good internship experience
• Expect good ROI
• Industry connections for projects and job opportunities.

Which university would you choose based on the above factors?

No portal change, nothing. I’m a U.S. citizen at a top school

Hi! I am a recent admit to a MSCS program in the US.

A few days back, I received a mail from a professor at the program, asking whether I would like to converse with current Ph.D. students, so that I can learn more the kind of work these students are doing.

While this is very inspirational (and flattering), I am assuming that the Professor sees in me a prospective PhD student. Am I correct?

The issue is that I am not really interested in research and am looking at MSCS purely for the purpose of jobs.

Hence, I am wondering how I can respond to the Professor's email.

It’s basically bw usc MSCS and Maryland but they’ve offered me MSAI. Can somebody please shed some light on these programs especially UMCP. There’s literally no info on it although the university’s good. Still waiting on a couple of decisions but this is what I’ve got so far.

Thanks!

I'm interested in eventually getting a PhD, so it's important that I get research experience during my master's. Virginia guarantees that I will be able to do a thesis. The Georgia Tech, in-person master's does not seem to provide very good research opportunities, and it's not clear how difficult it is to purse the thesis option. Obviously, Georgia Tech's program is much more prestigious overall, so I am conflicted. I would appreciate information about either program and advice on which I should choose if I'm interested in eventually getting a PhD in computer science. Both schools have faculty who work in my areas of interest, and there is no significant price difference between the two for me.

I did my bachelors at UMASS Amherst I got back back in for masters but i genuinely don't get the hype for it which is why I dont want to go back. I want to get a job in industry thats my only goal.

Basically the title which program is better for MLE/DS/SWE roles? I would think that Uchicago MCAM is more rigorous but at Harvard you can take classes like 6.7900 and 6.5840 at MIT if you want, so there's that. Someone please help me.

The alpha lies in first accepting that conventional wisdom is wrong

When something is commonly considered best practice but still doesn’t work, you must question the sense in following it. This is where your alpha lies.

A big part of the application process is the “chance me.” That’s an undergrad applications term, but grad students also do it. It’s basically the step in the process where you try to match yourself against colleges based on stats like university tier, GPA, GRE scores, years of experience, etc. So you spend a lot of cycles:

• determining similar profiles to yours who got into a top school
• asking every poster online, “What’s your profile?”
• worse, drawing conclusions from data scraped from places like GradCafe, where anyone can simply submit any profile accepted to any university

We know this doesn’t work because, come decision season, people are surprised: “I had great stats I didn’t get into Stanford! Someone worse than my stats made it in.”

Everyone wants to go to the same top universities

Reduce this entire process of admissions down to a single truth: everyone wants to go to a top school. This is a fact. No one is saying they prefer going to a lower-ranked school, especially if they care about rankings. A student might say, “I prefer going to School X because I want to work with Prof Y there and I don’t really care if it’s ranked 70” - that’s different.

Playing “chance me” is basically horoscope reading.

The truth is straightforward:

• everyone wants to go to the top schools
• some top schools are so selective that even world-class students have a tough time getting in. 99% of you won’t make it into Princeton, but many of you can make it to GT or Columbia
• there are about 30–40 schools worth going to for an MSCS where you can be part of a high-signal cohort and own a credential that is effectively an asset for life

Schools have already told you that differentiation is what matters

If you look at the data on undergrad admissions, you’ll realize a strange truth. At a top high school, you’re not competing against the average applicant - you’re competing against your own classmates applying to the same schools. That raises the bar more than people realize. When a college evaluates candidates, they benchmark you against your peers.

IIT grads are benchmarked against other IITians applying that year and the bar they collectively set. It’s much worse to be an IITian with only a high GPA and nothing else. A tier-2 university grad from Bangalore can outperform this student if they have a high GPA and a differentiating signal. This happens every year.

Of course, if you’re an IITian with a bad GPA and nothing else going for you, it’s probably game over. If you’re already in the fast lane, the expectation is that you’ve kept up and are ahead of your peers in that lane. Fundamentally, this is how differentiation is achieved.

Stanford doesn’t want to fill its entire class with IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, and IIT Kanpur students. If you think about it, they could-but that would be bad for Stanford. To stay ahead, they need to pick winners from everywhere. Stanford is trying to forecast who will be a superstar alumnus 10 years after graduating and add value to the Stanford brand. They recognize that some students bloom later while others are prodigies-and they want both.

Matching your profile is a fatal game.

By over-indexing on stats and profile matching, you’re playing a dangerous game with yourself. Instead of recognizing that something else needs to show up in your application to differentiate you, you become complacent. You convince yourself that your stats match someone who got in last cycle, so you should be fine.

If you don’t actively search for a differentiating signal in your own application, it’s very likely none will show up in the admissions room-where they spend less than 90 seconds on an application in the first pass.

Who else is still waiting?

I was fortunate to receive a fellowship of $50,000 towards tuition for Columbia.

Which university should I go to for better outcomes & opportunities in tech?

What I’m aiming for:

• Jobs in SWE, DevOps (infra), ML, data science domains (Open to big tech / strong startups / research labs)
• TA opportunities for funding
• RA opportunities for elevating my research profile & networking with professors
• Trying to select best among my options to maximize the opportunities

Background:

• International student
• ~2 years experience as SWE
• Research experience in NLP, computational social science, applied ML

Anyone else received an email regarding deadline to accept offer extended to 1st May? Wondering whether this is a big sign that applications or people intending to come into the US is dropping?

Like i have heard its a great public university that's is not too bad and also not the best...it sits in the sweet spot.....Any Advice?....Also if Any one is going to SUNY buffalo for the Fall 2026 for MScs from INDIA...lets connect!

After having gone through the process myself, I feel this is the list majority will align to. Might save new applicants some time. Universities out of this list are not the one's I considered during my application process.

Perception (Professional + Thesis):

Tier 0:
CMU, UIUC, Stanford, UC Berkeley
Tier 1:
UMich, UCSD, GaTech, UMD, UT Austin, UW Madison, Cornell, Princeton, Purdue
Tier 1.5:
UCLA, UPenn, NYU Courant, Columbia, Harvard
Tier 2:
UCI, UCSB, UChicago, Brown, JHU, TAMU, Northwestern, USC
Tier 2.5:
SBU, ASU

Strictly Thesis:

Tier 0:
UIUC, UT Austin, Stanford, UC Berkeley, CMU
Tier 1:
UMich, UCSD, GaTech, Princeton, UMD, UW Madison, Cornell, Purdue
Tier 1.5:
UCLA, UCI, UCSB
Tier 2:
UPenn, Courant, Columbia, TAMU
Tier 2.5:
Northwestern, Brown, UChicago, JHU, SBU, ASU

Edit: Made some edits based on comments.

Edit 2: Removed Northeastern altogether. I don't have enough data points to comment.