<p>“… M.Eng program at Cornell is a really hectic course-based professional program which is more industry oriented and people usually don’t want to do research who go in for it.”</p>
<p>I don’t know about “really hectic”, seemed about the same as undergrad to me. They did a design project instead of a thesis; I guess how hectic would depend on the project one undertakes. The rest is correct, it was course-based and industry-oriented. The idea is it’s like a 5th year of undergrad, with advanced studies and more specialization in sub-areas of particular interest, and culminating in a capstone design project. It is not a research degree.</p>
<p>Above is all dated information, for how it was long ago, BTW, I have not followed it in recent times, could be all different for all I know. And I don’t know how it works/worked specifically in CS either, my comments were for engineering in general.</p>
<p>You would want to explore with someone at Cornell the extent to which you can turn it into a perfect platform to pursue your personal objectives. I don’t know the answer.</p>