Re: graduate school in theoretical computer science

On Oct 1, 7:44 pm, cplxp...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Oct 1, 4:32 pm, djime...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Daniel A. Jimenez) wrote:



In article <fa7e32bf-36a0-4e53-9a89-a43848c4a...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,

 <cplxp...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Oct 1, 6:49 am, Cenny Wenner <CWen...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[ stuff deleted ]
Is it a Master's or Ph.D. that you are applying for now? The former
will obviously have a greater impact on the latter than your
undergraduate studies.

I think you're right, I probably should look into easier problems and
different subjects.  I've kind of been interested recently in things
like randomness and information theory.  I like your idea of trying to
find easy problems, haha.  That does seem like a good strategy.  I
wonder if there any open problems in information theory, or pertaining
to things like Kolmogorov complexity.  I'll have to investigate.

I'm going for a Ph.D., I think.  I'm more interested in research than
industry.  I wasn't entirely sure I understood your final sentence.

I think Cenny was implying that it would be a good idea for someone
with concerns about his ability to get into a "good" graduate school to
first do a Master's somewhere, something I was going to suggest that you
do anyway.  If you do a Master's now, then later you can apply to "good"
Ph.D. programs and they should look more at your Master's work than your
undergraduate grades.  If you produce a strong Master's thesis with some
good publications, that will considerably strengthen your application.
--
Daniel Jimenez                     djime...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
"I've so much music in my head" -- Maurice Ravel, shortly before his death.
"                             " -- John Cage

Oh ok.  That sounds like good advice.  Maybe if my master's thesis
were sufficiently impressive I could get into a top-notch school like
MIT.

Yes, with stellar GPA during your master's. Poor undergraduate will be
overlooked by strong Master's, er oh yeah and strong GRE (CS or math
subject area whether required or not).

I was on a graduate school admission committee (as a grad student) in
CS, and there are innumerable applications coming in from all over the
world, and before the reviewers even -see- the admission application
(for grad school it's to the specific department) the secretaries had
already computed a purely numerical weighted score for each
application (based on GPA/GRE (TOEFL if needed)) and with a pure
numerical cut off, a large number are just plain dropped, not looked
at further. Only after that do things like publications/
recommendations/personal statements/etc come into play. These latter
things are -very- important, but to differentiate among people who
already gotten past the grade/GRE threshold.

What are the differences between a master's program and a Ph.D.
program?  Is financial aid different?  Also, is it easier to get in to
a master's program?

Yes, it is easier. Sometimes it is expected on the way to a PhD,
sometimes it is a way for someone with a different background (or poor
same background) to get a good first or second try.

I think math is more like humanities, and cs like engineering as to
financial aid. In math (like someone else said) I think a master's is
sort of like a consolation prize (for not finishing a PhD); financial
aid is simply a PhD student is the one teaching all the 'recitation'
or 'study' or 'review' sections (the 'big' professor will stand up in
front of a huge lecture hall, but the PhD student will lead the
smaller 20-30 student 'real' explanations for the same class).
In CS, the master's students and some 1st year PhD students will teach
the sections of a big class (to earn their financial aid) and most PhD
students will be supported (i.e. get their financial aid) by being on
a research grant under a professor (which is usually found during the
first year of PhD).

(this is all from experience at a big state university, so it may be
different under other circumstances)

As to math or CS, if you want to do TCS, I don't think there are many
math programs that are strong on that. The closest would be a good
mathematical logic program (in a math department, not philosophy
(obviously if the mathematical logic program is in the CS department
then you're in luck)). A bonus, but not a necessity, for a CS
department that is good in theory is that the math department in the
same school has a good logic and/or combinatorics program.

Mitch
.

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