Tag Info

The choice is simple: If you want to do computer science research, get a PhD. If you want to learn advanced topics to be a better programmer, get a Masters. Now, there are some misconceptions you have about PhD programs. Given your long entry, let me reply with bullet points: You will be financially supported in a PhD program in the United States. This ...

Here is the algorithm. You can turn this into a markov chain and calculate your odds. IF (I.CantStandVisualBasicSyntax) THEN BecomeASurfer() END IF IF (I.LikeProgramming AND I.WantMoneyBefore30) THEN PursueMasters() ELSE IF (I.LikeProgramming AND I.CanWaitForMoney) THEN IF RAND(0, 1.0) < 0.1 THEN // Very Unlikely ...

It isn't so much about reducing your value if you stay. You should be asking, can I increase my value if I move? If you can, then move. If not, why bother? Some Pros for staying You're comfortable there, so you'll just glide into the work You know the quality of the institute You will already have working relationships with the professors Some Pros for ...

Maybe not Education for educations sake is not necessary for programmers in my opinion (it might be different if you wanted to become a doctor). It all depends on what kind of programming you think you'll be doing. If you're going into really hardcore algorithmic development or things like AI then perhaps it's useful. For most programming however you can ...

It really comes down to the reputation of your school. No one is going to turn away a student who got an B.S. + M.S in CS from MIT because of "lack of exposure" conversely if your school is ranked 2999 out of 3000 for CS schools you should transfer for the masters. Additionally I am choosing to do the masters + phd at one university.

No, industrial programming experience will not (directly) help you get into a top 20 school. I say not directly because there are many other factors that are more important: Your academic record -- I don't know how to "translate" your GPA score onto the 4.0 scale used in the States (typically, the Graduate School will translate/scale transcripts before it ...

Grad school after a few years of working, good idea - immediately after your Bachelors degree, not so good. Remember if I'm hiring at entry level for a typical entry level job, I neither need nor want someone with a Masters who willcost more than the same person with a BS. But when I'm hiring senior people,the Master's is helpful. But I don't hire senior ...

Many schools have graduate programs that are flexibile enough to be taken while still working full time. In fact, a lot of companies will help cover the costs of going back to school (at least they did, not sure about it now) as long as you maintain a certain grade point average in your classes. Even if you do end up not being able to work while attending ...

I finished my Masters in Computer Science in December 2009 and got my first job working as software developer for Boeing (where I am still employed). My Masters program was almost entirely a rehash of my BS Computer Science degree except without all the math despite going to a different college. I think I learned more about software development in two months ...

The real answer is more of an economic one than the one you've phrased. If you are getting your masters because the economy is bad and you want to ride it out, I'd advise against doing so. If you are getting your masters because you want to learn more, then go ahead and get your masters. Many folks are having troubles getting their first job out of ...

If it's going over Turing machines and Finite state automata then the only real world application I know is parsing. Oddly I have, on rare occasion, used that, but unless you are writing a compiler generator or a compiler that doesn't use a compiler generator it probably isn't useful. Databases and networking are likely more practical. My particular ...

A distributed VCS is a much better choice than SVN. Mercurial should fit your needs nicely - it's similarly powerful to Git, but it is much easier to wrap your head around it and it has nice documentation. However, if it turns out that most people in the team (or even just you!) are much more familiar with SVN and are not in the mood to learn a DVCS, I ...

I have this book: http://www.amazon.com/GRE-Computer-Science-REA-5th/dp/087891434X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293728836&sr=8-1 It is pretty interesting, and provides great insight into what is expected of someone looking to advance in post-grad CS studies. Most universities don't require the CS subject test though, so you should really just use the ...

Since you mentioned GRE, you're probably asking about your chances of graduate school admission and how they may be impacted by your Oracle certification. If that is the case, then the answer is simple: it won't have any impact. I met quite a few students at my alma mater (I have MS in Computer Science from RPI) who had spent some time in the industry ...

No. The process of getting a PhD, almost as a rule, has very little to do with lots of coding or programming applications. Being a founder of a popular app will be a character factor: "will this person drop out" for admission, but it does not answer the prime question for PhD seekers: Can you do original research (c.f. IEEE or ACM papers for examples of ...

I got my masters in IT about 8 years after I finished my degree. I mainly did it at the time because i felt my brain was not being taxed enough and, to an extend, the masters helped address that. Since then, the masters has added roughly $0 to my income but it did help me land jobs I may not have otherwise got. In several interviews the masters seemed to ...

Christopher Scaffidi has done an excellent job in 'Preparing for Graduate School Examinations in Computer Science'. Its a good booklet with sample questions and commentary. Also, its a shareware but the money is every bit of worth it! You guys should also find URCH CS GRE Forum helpful.

Note that this isn't specific to school since the problem you said is a pretty generic issue Pick a reliable VCS and stick with it. SVN is the easiest but depending on how your developing it (see below), you could also consider something a little less linear. Something like Git (but not Git itself) would be better since you can do easy branching. Divide ...

Your databases class will be more useful, though probably far less interesting. My instructor actually prefaced his Automata theory class with "this class has no application to software engineering. If you want something that's going to directly help you become a better programmer, this isn't it". (He was wrong though, since I wound up using my ...

Do web developers have to generally balance many projects whereas software engineers generally focus on one bigger software application? It varies a lot according to what sort of projects you're working on. Large projects require in-depth focus, but many software engineers work on very small projects. Do engineers generally spend more time ...

I took it 20-some-odd years ago so my experience may no longer be relevant, but from what I remember it covered a lot of subjects in many different areas, from computing reliability and availability for a given MTBF, to strategies for avoiding deadlocks in multithreaded or multiprogramming systems, to analyzing algorithms, etc. If the general test assumed ...

I looked into doing a PhD on several occasions. What I took away from it was this: A PhD is not something you get to affirm you are the world's greatest programmer. A PhD will not necessarily help you be a better programmer. It may help some, but the investment doesn't look so hot if that's your goal. A PhD is what you go after if you primarily want to ...

Every answer here will (correctly) tell you that a PhD is about research and not development. Also, a PhD is a huge commitment. I recommend going for an MS first since it'll be easier to get into, and it will be easier to finish. Once you have your foot in the door during a masters program, you can ask profs about segueing into a doctoral program. They'll be ...

Many of us have a M.Sc and some even have a D.Sc degree. Some companies might pay you an extra $$$ depending on your degree. It seems you already invested too much time and resources on your master's. Don't stop now if you really don't have to.

There's quite a bit of difference between what you'd learn in an MBA program and what you'd actually be doing as a software project manager. The core courses in the MBA program are designed to introduce students to the various areas of business such as accounting, finance, marketing, human resources, operations management, etc. If that sounds like what ...

In my experience, if you want to be good, is to have a gap and actually work on a software team under another project manager before pursuing an MBA, or MIS. My experience with MBA grads in the past is that MBA prepares you for a life of managing factory line workers, and the project managers I've seen that haven't worked as a developer on a software project ...

get your degree first. You have already invested in grad school, so you better continue your education. You have only 1 year left, so get it done and join industry more confidently. The type of job you will be ding will be different. You'll get paid more and your comments will be more welcome. On the other hand, I totally disagree that you cannot find a job ...

I think this is very specific and depends on the undergrad school you were from. Think about a scenario ( Eg MIT or any top Universities as the undergrad Uni ) why would go a notch down and switch universities just for the sake of it? If the department is reputable I would stick to same uni or one that is a step higher. Side Note: Most people also look ...

You could get a coursework-only M.S. and then do a thesis or even apply and get a second M.S. later. Essentially you'd take a wide range of high level courses and reacquaint yourself with the academic environment without as much pressure as a full research program requires. With the rise of distance learning options, this won't be as hard to swing as it once ...

In general no, but not always. But I think that's the wrong question to ask, really, because a Phd is certainly not about programming at all, except in a few rare cases. The real question is why you want to do a PhD, and why do you think you will be better than the thousand of other people who also want to do a Phd in the best universities. I can tell you ...