Advice on transferring?

alecbenzer
Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:56:19 +0000

It really reads like you are getting the “grass is greener on the other side of the fence” type of feelings

It’s a possibility, but I’m not convinced that it’s just all in my head. For starters, I’m not just attending a CS department - I’m attending an entire university. Ideally, I’d want to be at a University where I’m surrounded by like-minded people. I don’t feel it here, at least not naturally. Yes, I can try and hunt down the smart people, which is something I should probably do anyway, but it’d be nicer if I didn’t have to. It’s also a bit of an issue of diversity, I think. Basically, while I have some issues with the cs dept, mostly my issues are with the school in general, which I cannot avoid just because I’m in cs (and in fact, I think the issues I do have with the cs dept probably stem from the larger issues I have with the university).



you are at one of the top schools for CS in the US

Also, what are you making this determination based on? Knowledge of the school internally (like you know people who went here, or something), or just based on the reputation the school has externally? I know we’re ranked 5th or whatever for cs grad departments, and I know we’re a pretty good name in terms of recruitment. External perceptions are not what I’m principally concerned about, though.