Hi everyone,
I am a recent college graduate. I graduated with a biology/chemistry degree from a top 20 undergrad and applied to MD/PhD combined programs. Due to the competitive nature of admissions, I only got one acceptance from a good program, however it was all the way in the midwest away from my friends and family. Not to mention, I was never really interested in medicine and was just using the extra degree to benefit my research. Furthermore, I have been considering switching out of careers for a while because of the absolute dismal NIH funding rates by the government. I am now very happy leaving the research world.
I always loved computer science, but I never majored in it. I only took one intro to CS course in college but my major’s scheduling would not allow me to fit in any additional electives. Also, I already knew some CS from AP in high school and programming through my statistics class. Furthermore, my research background emphasized computation in analyzing genomic data. In theory, my work would have been better left to a computer scientist than a guy like me.
I am currently enrolling as a postbac student at a very well-regarded university with the goal of finishing up my prerequisites to enter an MS program. I was wondering, how competitive is admissions for an MS in CS since I am hoping to go to a prestigious program somewhere in the top 30 (I am not necessarily Stanford material). I am especially curious of how competitive this is going to be as someone without a CS-bachelors. Furthermore, how many classes will I need to get competitive?
Here are my stats:
BS in biology/chemistry from top 20 undergrad.
~3.7 GPA
About a 165 in each GRE section, my quant is a point higher. 4 on the essays.
2 scientific publications
3 years of research (not related to CS and related to my major)
CS/Quant background from undergrad: Intro to CS, Statistics, Calculus I and II, one year of physics.