<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I have been admitted to a Colorado School of Mines M.S. program in Mathematical and Computer Sciences;
WPI (Worcester) Graduate Certificate program in Mathematical Sciences (I applied with the idea of having an option to end at the certificate and attempt to enter a Ph.D. program, rather than to follow a full M.S. program);
Johns Hopkins Education Programs for Professionals (Continuing Education) M.S. program in Applied and Computational Mathematics;
NJIT (New Jersey) M.S. program in Engineering Science.</p>
<p>I intended for the programs to be similar: to allow me to take a cohesive applied mathematical/statistical/computer science curriculum for use in subsequent Cognitive Science academic or industrial work, or some statistical inference industrial work.</p>
<p>I am not sure where I should go. The financial situation is unclear for all of them; though NJIT would be the least expensive for me if I assume no support.
CSM seems to lack substantial research activity of interest to me; other graduate students seem genial, and degree makeup flexibility is pretty strong.
WPI is appealing, but I am not sure of ability to convert certificate program to M.S. program; it may also be rather expensive;
NJIT requires courses that might entail substantial prerequisite burdens; and I wonder about the department atmosphere.
JHU involves a Continuing Education program, with probably a largely working student population, and many professors from industry, or the Applied Physics Laboratory; it might be expensive as well.</p>
<p>Would anyone have insights? I have done some research, and made some visits, and have tried to find clear quality distinctions. But I am just not sure enough about differences in potential quality of instruction, resources, and academic experience to be able to overcome the large number of parameters that seem to be involved in my decision process.</p>