Applying to PhD Programs in Computer Science (2014) [pdf]

Post by johntiger1 » Thu, May 14, 2020, 4:57 PM UTC

ackbar03 wrote: post #78

papeda wrote: post #41

For anybody interested in the computer science PhD process, a good complement to the featured article is Philip Guo's "The PhD Grind" [1]. It's a long (115p, but with big text) blow-by-blow account of the author's PhD at Stanford in the late 00s. It's neither sensationalized nor sanitized, and it's weirdly engrossing for an account of PhD research. I read it before starting grad school and I think it helped my "meta"…

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm currently doing a PhD and spent a few years in the corporate world. I've only read a fifth of it (the downfall) and I feel like some of his not so good experiences could actually be easily avoided by anyone with some work experience. Im already accustomed to knowing that half of the time the leader/professor might not actually know what he's doing or get you to do something that's o…

Post by superhuzza » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:04 PM UTC

tree3 wrote: post #52

scottishcow wrote: post #16

> Some people never do research again after completing a Ph.D. For such people, the Ph.D. was largely a waste of time. Is it? Some of my friends went on to start successful companies after getting their PhDs. I'm a bit envious of them actually, I didn't have that option as my research was on an obscure topic with zero commercial potential. > The Ph.D. is a tremendous opportunity. You get to pick an advisor in any res…

> Some people never do research again after completing a Ph.D. For such people, the Ph.D. was largely a waste of time. This statement reflects the writers' large ego, not reality. It's a shame how this point of view is prominent in the scientific community. I've seen similar rude statements from academic scientists who say that working in R&D at a corporation isn't "real science".

Post by downerending » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:57 PM UTC

glangdale wrote: post #57

downerending wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in this situation, decades ago, and indeed was turned down by CMU. At least back then, CMU like some other elite schools had no MSCS, making it even harder to make the grade coming from Podunk U. My strategy, which worked out okay, was to "bracket" the field by choosing a couple of schools that looked solid and had very large MS class sizes and to just view my "elite" apps as lottery tickets unlikely to pay off…

I think this is bad advice for most people. "An excellent advisor at Mississippi State will do you far more good than a crappy one at Stanford. And will probably cost a lot less." I applied to 6 schools - doing the "bracketing" thing (CMU+UCB as "reach" schools, Wisconsin-Madison & Washington as "mid" schools and Columbia and U Colorado Boulder as safety schools). I got into everywhere but UCB and Washington, but CMU…

Post by pnathan » Thu, May 14, 2020, 9:54 PM UTC

bo1024 wrote: post #89

pnathan wrote: post #13

Very interested in working through the PhD as a mid-career SW engineer with a MS. Curious how someone in that state would be seen by the acceptance committee, or, alternatively, by hiring committees post-graduation. Perspectives?

Not positive about hiring committees but I think most would be very open and judge you fairly. It won't be easy to get into a good PhD program, even with prior master's research experience. Did you get and keep old recommendation letters from your master's? That would be helpful. You could throw your application out there, but if not successful, a way forward is to identify a research area or problem, start reading p…

Post by bo1024 » Fri, May 15, 2020, 1:29 PM UTC

pnathan wrote: post #97

bo1024 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not positive about hiring committees but I think most would be very open and judge you fairly. It won't be easy to get into a good PhD program, even with prior master's research experience. Did you get and keep old recommendation letters from your master's? That would be helpful. You could throw your application out there, but if not successful, a way forward is to identify a research area or problem, start reading p…

>. Did you get and keep old recommendation letters from your master's? Let's go with _nah_: at this point they'd be almost a decade old. It would be a measurement that is almost irrelevant to who I am today and my experience. I'm sure I can swing managerial recommendations etc, and it's not out of the equation that, at least at the local level, I could do some interesting volunteer work at the local U.