<p>I got admitted to MS of computer science in both UT Austin & Columbia. UT Austin has a top ten cs program, but columbia is an ivy… wut do you think?</p>
<p>as a current UT comp sci Student (and a rejected MS CS applicant), i will be more than glad to give you some insight.</p>
<p>Here are the pro’s of UT Comp Sci department.
- Top notch reputation, especially in A.I., Systems, and formal methods
- Well recognized professors, bunch of AAAI, IEEE, Alfred P. Sloan, ACM Fellow/award winners and etc.
- From what I observed, friendly atmosphere amongst the graduate students.
- Tuition is low, 8k for out of state/international students!
- Living expenses is dirty cheap as well (in comparison to NY)
- Austin is a high tech town, slowly transforming itself to the “silicon valley” of the south. In addition, Austin is an awesome town for living in</p>
<p>if you have any more questions, feel free to ask me</p>
<p>btw if you don’t mind me asking, what were your stats? Just want to see what kind of tough competition I was facing against :/</p>
<p>also, in a way, I am in the same boat.</p>
<p>I am trying to decide between UCSD (top 15 CS program) and Brown (ivy with similar reputation). Currently, I am leaning towards UCSD b’c of the cheaper tuition (by ~10k and potentially 25k if i get california residency).</p>
<p>However, Brown has a professor who I am highly interested in working with, but she’s on sabbatical 
:/</p>
<p>I am also waiting on USC, apparently they mailed out my admin decision today.</p>
<p>hi, as im an international student, i dont know if my profile would help~</p>
<p>BS college: a top 3 from china with one year exchange in a top 10 college in canada
GPA: 3.7 GRE 660/800/5.0 CS sub: 840 91% with some research background in ITS but no paper</p>
<p>i think cost is definitely an issue between these two alternatives. ive 2 additional questions</p>
<p>1) im personally very commited to high-tech entreprenuership. is there any special program in UT that would help me?
2) wut is normal class size in UT? it seems that UT has a very large undergraduate program (Over 800?). i dont want to attend big classes in graduate school…</p>
<p>UCSD was on my list as well, but i didnt catch up with its deadline.
wish u good luck with USC~</p>
<p>Top 3 university from China, I am guessing either Tsinghua, Peking, or Nanjing university? 
Our professors think highly of students from either of those 3 colleges, no wonder you were accepted :D</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I am not sure if there is a “special program” per say. However, it is not unusual for professors and the graduate students work closely with the local industry. However, it is not unusual for students to work/intern for a local company during the summer or do part-time during the school year. There might be co-op opportunities available, but I am not sure.</p></li>
<li><p>The graduate class size is relatively small. You might have up to 15-20 students in the mandatory classes (such as advance operating systems), and 5-10 people in the electives. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>feel free to ask me any questions.</p>
<p>I had a smiliar decision to make at the MA level and opted for Columbia.</p>
<p>That being said, the beauty of graduate education is that the quality of the faculty in a given program matters far more than the name of the school or its status as an “Ivy,” which means nothing beyond the undergraduate level. </p>
<p>I’ve accepted an offer of admission and funding for a PhD program at a mid-level public school, and the master’s-level students I met during the open house there were far more impressive than my classmates at Columbia.</p>
<p>Read into this what you will–it’s worth about what you’re paying for it–but I wonder if you might receive a stronger education at UT-Austin, just based on the fact that the school is required to live up to a certain standard that Columbia, due to its name, might not quite achieve. </p>
<p>Again, this is simply my experience as a Columbia master’s alum and an incoming state-school PhD candidate, but it is a perspective nonetheless.</p>