IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING GRAD
SCHOOL IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
(revised
October 8, 2001)
You may be
aware that there are two kinds of CS grad programs (and the same is true for
many other disciplines): those where
most/all students are expected to pursue a PhD, and those where students
usually just go for the master’s, and a few go on for the PhD. The really prestigious schools will want you
only if you tell them you want to go for the PhD. Doctoral programs are designed to be
individualized: rather than following a
departmental ladder of required courses, you can set your own agenda. MSc programs are usually an extension of
undergraduate CS coursework, sometimes topped off with a few months devoted to
research working with one professor for the master’s thesis.
As a matter
of fact, some schools offering the MSc may not even require a thesis. But if you take that route, it may be more
difficult to enter a doctoral program as easily when you’re done. During your first term in grad school you
should take time to begin narrowing choices on a major professor, who will be
your long-term 1-on-1 instructor, your advisor, and maybe even your boss for a
while. As soon as possible during that 1st
term, meet (or at least get to know all the faces of) the faculty. Once you are there, find out if any
professors are going to be on sabbatical in the near future. It would be a shame to pick a major professor
who is going to be gone for several months at the time that you are ready to
begin your thesis. Choosing a major professor
is probably a more important decision than choosing a graduate school.
If you are
looking for a master’s program, I think you may be better off at a department
where is no PhD program. That way, the
professor won’t be as distracted with lots of other research projects and can
spend more time helping you. The quality
of classroom teaching at master’s institutions tends to be much better, with
smaller class sizes too. Doctoral
programs are usually located only at very large schools. But if you are PhD-bound (and you might not
know it for a while!) it’s more efficient to do all your work at one school,
with the same major professor.
Miscellaneous
Sources of Information:
In major
libraries you can find microfiche cards containing the college catalogues from
practically all American and many foreign universities. Similar information can also be found on the
Internet, as universities and individual departments have their own HTML home
pages.
If you are
interested in ratings and rankings, there is a book entitled
“Research-Doctorate Programs” published in 1995. The Library of Congress call number is LB
2386 R 47. But note that prestige is
strongly correlated with the number of faculty.
The more professors a department has, the more research “output”, and
greater chance of national recognition.
The Federal
government publishes a book each year called the “Digest of Education
Statistics” (also available via the Internet), and you can find out things
about the discipline as a whole. It can
tell you, for example, the number of CS degrees awarded each year in the US,
and you can observe trends of growth and decline. Currently American universities award about
25,000 bachelor’s, 10,000 master’s and 1,000 PhD’s in CS each year. In addition, you can hunt down another annual
publication called “American Doctoral Dissertations”. It lists the titles and authors of all
dissertations written in the US, by field and by school. You can use this to see what grad students
are writing about, and where.
The National
Science Foundation (NSF) also publishes a treasure trove of statistics about
scientists, graduate students and degree data.
Here’s a good place to start:
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/pubdata.htm
You should
familiarize yourself with what the various research areas (subdivisions) of CS
there are and which one(s) you find interesting, and probably which ones you
hate as well. Browse recent issues of
the Communications of the ACM or IEEE Computer to get a flavor of what is out
there.
Eventually
you will need to pick a school that has a grad program in CS that will meet
your needs and desires. To make this
task more manageable, I’ve come up with some questions you need to consider
when examining a particular program.
Many of these questions are not seeking a good vs. bad answer, but
address issues you need to confront sooner or later. Find out:
- What courses are required for the
degree
- If there is a comprehensive exam,
what subjects are covered on it
- The research areas of all the
faculty, and also notice if there seems to be a lot of professors
concentrated in one particular area…
For example, ½ of the faculty may specialize in AI. And of course, find out – tactfully – about
the reputation, personality and clout of the individual professors.
- ASSISTANTSHIPS –
a) Will the school pay for your tuition
in addition to your salary?
b) What are the criteria for earning and
keeping the assistantship?
c) What duties are expected of a 1st
year TA or RA?
d) Are TAs required to attend a training
program or orientation?
- What is the lowest mark allowed
for CS coursework in order for you to count it towards the degree? Also ask whether required courses can be
taken pass/fail (probably not).
- Is a minor subject required? In other words, do you have to take
classes in other departments?
- Is a reading knowledge of a
foreign language required for the degree?
- Once a student has completed all
the required coursework, is it permissible to work exclusively on the
thesis/dissertation without taking any additional courses? In some schools, a student must always
register for at least 1 regular class per term (except summer) even if
you’ve taken all the required classes.
- What is the minimum course load
per term?
- Are any classes offered in the
summer?
Are
students required to be in residence in the summer?
What
do students typically do in the summer – can one get an industry internship in
the summer?
- How many grad students are in the
department?
How
many of those are full time, and how many are master’s students and how many
are PhD students?
- Is OFFICE SPACE available for all
students, or just for those on assistantships, or…
- What hardware is available for
student use?
a) Is there a “grad lab” with 24-hour
access?
b) Access to laser printer
c) What kinds of machines (and operating systems)
do they use? Sun, NeXT, SGI, PC, Mac, …
d) Are students required to own a PC?
- If a student really wants to go
for the PhD, is it required to get a master’s (and write a master’s
thesis) first before taking the doctoral preliminary exam? How long into the program do students
take the prelim (or qualifying) exam?
(e.g. 2nd or 3rd year)
- What proportion of students are
from foreign countries?
- How many MSc and PhD degrees were
awarded this year? In the last 5
years?
- Is the department more committed
to serving the needs of the undergraduate students? Don’t ask this directly, but you can
gather this by looking at how many undergraduate majors there are versus
how many grad students are in the department, and by how many classes are
offered at each level. Beware that
at big schools, you may be dealing with a department that is trying to be
really 3 departments in 1: a
graduate program, an undergraduate program, and courses for
non-majors. Each of these 3
endeavors can be a huge undertaking.
Beware of tension between these multi-faceted goals. Similarly, is there any tension between
the goals of the master’s and PhD programs?
- What is the level of prestige of
the department within the university?
How does the department get along with its neighbors and other
departments (e.g. electrical engineering, math) that might compete for
students and other resources?
- Can any undergraduate courses
count towards the graduate degree?
- What courses were offered in the
most recent academic year? This
will give you an idea of what electives are typically offered.
- Is the school on the quarter
system or the semester system?
- For the school as a whole, how
many grad students are there? And
how does this figure compare to the number of undergrads? Some prestigious schools have more grads
than undergrads.
- What is the typical rent for a
2-bedroom apartment in the area?
How far of a commute is it from a nice neighborhood to school? -- Find out from people who are already
there.
- How long does it usually take a full-time
student in the department to get the degree? The typical numbers in CS are 2 years
for the MSc and 4 more for the PhD, but these are national medians and
there is a lot of variation.
Graduate degrees are often treated like fine wines.
- FUNDING! Are the faculty successful in securing
grants to support their research, so that they can hire their own grad
students as RAs? It would be nice
if your major professor can pay you while you are getting your degree
(without you having to do additional work not directly related to your
research, such as teaching). The
best financial aid is the “fellowship”, which is awarded to a few of the
best entering grad students. A
fellowship is like a scholarship – an award, with no work obligation.
- What is the school’s Carnegie
classification? This rating is
given to the school as a whole, and gives you an idea of the academic
climate of the school. In
descending order of prestige, they are:
Research I, Research II, Doctoral I, Doctoral II, Comprehensive I,
Comprehensive II, …
- What classes are TAs expected to
teach (in later years)? Although
teaching may seem like a distraction from getting on with your own
academic progress and not seem as desirable as a research assistantship,
you may enjoy it immensely. About
being a TA: what freedom does a TA
have in teaching his own class? Is
there a department-mandated syllabus?
Can you make up your own homework assignments and tests? How many students are in each section,
and how many sections must I teach?
- What jobs have recent graduates
taken?
- Does the university library have
a good (extensive) collection of CS books, and more importantly, journals
and conference proceedings?
- Does a student have to be in
residence while finishing the thesis/dissertation? It’s a good idea to stick around, but
some people get early job offers they can’t pass up. The down side is they may forget to
finish the thesis!
- Are students who have
assistantships or fellowships allowed to supplement their income with an
outside part-time job?
- Has the department experienced a
stable student population, or has it been growing/shrinking lately? Would the department like to see the
number of students (both undergrad and grad) grow, shrink or stay the
same? Is the department overcrowded
(not enough faculty or office space)?
Are there brand new faculty members? Does the department plan on hiring new
faculty soon?
- Is income from being a TA or RA
subject to state and/or local income tax?
Are Social Security (FICA) and Medicare taxes taken out of
assistantship income?