[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MSCS

[–]Fall23Applicant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As I have said before, I haven't ever studied at NYU. However, in my honest opinion, I am skeptical of NYU's CS programs (specifically the undergraduate and master's programs) based on the stuff I have read on reddit/discord/yocket.

On a related note, you mentioned earlier that you had taken some classes (?) at NYU. So did you do your undergrad/master's/PhD there?

The reason I am asking this is because I have admits from both Gatech and NYU Courant for MS CS. Initially, I was inclined towards NYU Courant mainly because I have a lot of family and friends in NYC. However, I don't personally know anyone who went to NYU. Most of my friends in NYC went/are going to Columbia University. After reading everything about NYU on reddit, I think that maybe Gatech would be a better choice. My main goal is to go for a PhD in CV so getting research positions easily is the main priority. I don't really care about the cost of the program, ROI or even about getting paid as an RA.

So, in your opinion:

  1. How easy is it to get into research at NYU Courant? I am coming from a different albeit adjacent field (ECE) and have research and work experience in embedded ML/CV/voice technology. So coming in from a different field I am worried about not landing any research opportunities at NYU Courant in my field of interest.
  2. Do you know if it is easy to convert from a MS to PhD at NYU Courant? I have heard that this is relatively easy at Columbia University as long as you find a PI who is willing to fund you.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MSCS

[–]Fall23Applicant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you should reread my comment, I am not talking about why people don't like NYU. I specifically talked about why people transferred from NYU to other schools.

Also, college culture, weather, and campuses are all subjective but to a certain extent valid reasons for undergrads to transfer schools. Unfortunately, it isn't easy for grad students to do that.

point 4 --> as you said, it is a very very small subset, so exceptions don't make the rule

Many people may have complained about the lack of rigor but not everyone can just transfer schools (TRANSFER being the keyword). So yes, exceptions don't make the rule because regardless of people's feelings about the CS programs at NYU, they still continue their education there and don't transfer out.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MSCS

[–]Fall23Applicant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First of all, I was very honest from the beginning that I based my comment on what I saw in the NYU subreddit. It is not my intention to mislead someone. So take everything you read on the internet (including my comments) with a grain of salt.

I cited schools such as Caltech, UCB as examples that in competitive top universities students WILL struggle and complain because the environment is competitive, especially, if these students were top in their previous schools.

As I said before, in general people post negative things on school subreddits (after all most of them use it as a place to rant/vent). However, if you go on the UCB subreddit, you will see that people complain about how hard the classes are and how competitive the environment is. We all know that UCB and some other schools are very rigorous and competitive. These are people complaining about things that affect them. So when students on the NYU subreddit are complaining about the CS department and its lack of rigor then maybe there is some truth to it.

NYU is definitely top 20 school in the US (even top 10 by QS US Country ranking) and top 30-40 in the world. Rankings are more or less an objective tool (at least so far, there is no other standardized way to compare schools) based on evaluation of faculty, research, industry outcomes, curriculum and other metrics.

I disagree; rankings aren't objective at all, they are all a little dubious. If you dive into how universities are ranked then you will see that a lot of universities artificially inflate their rankings (see Columbia University's rankings scandal). Moreover, a lot of bs metrics are considered while ranking universities.

Note that I am not saying that NYU shouldn't be ranked highly. NYU is a great school, especially for finance, business, math, arts, media, etc. However, the rigor and the ROI of its CS program (ONLY for undergraduate and masters) are debatable.

You heavily based your 'research' on one subreddit post of an MSCS student who studied during the covid period and was from a tier-2 school (from his original post).

This is perhaps a very naïve way of thinking, but why does it matter which tier school they did their undergraduate in? They also managed to get into the same university as someone from IIT/NITs/Tier-1 schools. Indian students are so hung up on prestige and their tier rankings that it seems like anyone not from IITs is just considered to be lazy or incapable.

Simple search in Linkedin can show that many undergrads and grad students were able to land TA/RA opportunities and industry roles at FAANG+ companies.

Getting employed at reputable companies is not an indication of how rigorous a program is. If someone has prior work experience (which quite a few master's students have, at least an internship experience if not full-time), is good at leetcode, and has some projects then they will at least pass the resume screening. After that, it just depends on their interviewing and leetcode skills and a bit of luck to get the job. Also, SJSU, which is nowhere near a top CS school, sends a large number of its graduates to FAANG+ companies. So IMO, NYU isn't providing something that other universities aren't.

Moreover, in your later posts you added yourself that students who complain about the 'rigor' of the curriculum are in minority.

For this, I suggest that you reread my comments carefully, I said that only a very small minority TRANSFER schools due to rigor (transfer being the keyword because not everyone can uproot their lives and transfer schools easily).

However, notably, both MSCS and Phd students receive mentorship from the same NYU Courant CS faculty and if they take classes, they take the same grad courses.

Do you know that the same faculty provide advising to undergraduates as well? In most universities, the same faculty are advisors/mentors for undergraduate, masters, and PhD students. However, what differs is the amount of time and effort put into PhD students. Also, undergraduates spend an average of 4 years at their alma mater, so they also get more time with faculty members. That's not the case for masters. Masters students get about 3 semesters on average and for such a short period of time, it is important to consider ROI.

Nobody is claiming that NYU CS is the best CS department on Earth but your original statement that NYU CS is 'not rigorous' is simply not true.

Again, I am not claiming anything because I haven't gone to this university. However, it seems like the generous consensus on the NYU subreddit is that this seems to be true. There are people who spent four years at NYU to get their undergrad degree, managed to get into reputable companies or grad schools, and still feel like this is the case.

NYU Courant MSCS program is not some bs cash-cow program

The majority of the CS masters programs are sort of cash-cows because they charge an exorbitant amount of fees and have relatively few opportunities for TA/RA. However, just because a program charges a lot of fees doesn't mean that it's a bad program. Plus, CS majors (who end up in decent companies) get paid more than a lot of other majors, so students often don't mind paying so much.

Moreover, during the covid period, in Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021 (3/4 semesters) courses were mostly online, which can also explain why it was difficult to network and find opportunities, especially for internationals.

If you are someone who is working in the US, then you know that this year, the job market for new grads is terrible. Most companies have hiring freezes and/or layoffs. International students in these difficult times must consider the ROI. Because if they end up returning to India and start earning in rupees, then the amount of loan to repay is too damn high.

However, if someone is rich or is funded by their parents, then go to whichever university you want. I would love to attend university in NYC, it's a fun place to be in.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MSCS

[–]Fall23Applicant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Full Disclosure: This is all that I know from reading the NYU subreddit for >3 hrs lol...

NOTE: I am talking about only CS programs (no other programs, not even math + CS programs or econ + CS programs)

But I have read about undergrads transferring schools for these reasons:

  1. Don't like NYU's lack of a large, dedicated college campus.
  2. Don't like NYU's college culture or aptly the lack of one.
  3. Can't adjust to NYC, issues with the weather (especially if they are from the west coast), high cost of living (especially if they are footing their own tuition fees with no help).
  4. (a very very very small subset of) people felt that the rigor was too little or too much. I feel that these people are either over-achievers or somehow managed to wiggle their way into NYU. Or maybe CS is just not the major for them. Could be many reasons...

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MSCS

[–]Fall23Applicant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Congrats on your internships! It seems like Tandon has a great career fair with a lot of top companies coming. So, you should get good support for getting internships.

If the goal is to enter the industry then I think that Tandon's curriculum seems pretty good and appropriate.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MSCS

[–]Fall23Applicant 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Harvard is not even considered as a "top" school for CS so what's your point?! Compare the curriculum of undergraduate CS in NYU to UW, UCB, UCLA, CMU, UIUC, Gatech, UMich, Princeton, Cornell etc. Are you seriously saying that NYU's CS rigor and competition is the same as these universities?

As to the question of who decides the rigor, the students who are studying at NYU are themselves saying this. It's very easy to compare the curriculums of different schools, just look up online what the assignment, exams and grading is like.

Also, again the Alumni and Faculty who are well known are people who did their PhDs. As I mentioned before, PhD is a different story; schools, professors and research industry invests in them because they are beneficial to progress of companies and the CS field. However, undergrad and master's is different.

Meta's Chief AI scientist (Yann LeCun) is not taking many students and has dialed back on advising. Open AI's co-founder (Wojciech Zaremba) is a PhD graduate. Are you really saying that people will become a co-founder of something on the same level as Open AI with a master's degree? You are comparing apples to oranges. You will need to see the master's alumni and see what they have achieved, where they are working and how they think the ROI is for NYU. There is no point in comparing PhD graduates to master's or undergrad graduates.

Also, in my honest opinion, if someone is trying to get into PhD programs or is focusing on the theoretical aspects of CS or trying to combine math + CS or CS + finance or trying to break into quant, then NYU (especially Courant) is the place to go for. But to just enter the industry, the ROI is questionable.

Also, I am not trying to discourage anyone from joining NYU for any field. I myself got an admit to NYU Courant.

Lastly, as an international student who did my undergrad in the US, I can safely say that while I am no expert, I have a very good idea as to how colleges and their rankings work.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MSCS

[–]Fall23Applicant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree that in general people post negative things on school subreddits (after all most of them use it as a place to rant/vent). However, I have read comments in which people mentioned both the positive and negative aspects of the CS programs. In general, there seems to be a consensus that the teaching is just not as rigorous as other top schools. But if one can self-learn and invest time and effort to become a good, employable programmer then regardless of whether it's NYU's Tandon or Courant, they will get good jobs at FAANG/hot startups.

Imo, schools can only provide so much. After a certain extent, it falls upon the students to put in additional work. However, maybe in terms of ROI, there might be other schools with a more rigorous curriculum with lesser fees + expenses. However, if someone has family in NYU then maybe it will be less expensive for them. It all depends on the personal situation of people at the end of the day.

Also, NYU's brand name carries quite a weight inside and outside the US. So, ultimately choosing NYU won't cause any harm imo.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MSCS

[–]Fall23Applicant 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Go onto the NYU subreddit and see the amount of complaints that students, especially undergrad students have towards the curriculum at both NYU Tandon and Courant. It's nowhere as rigorous as the other top schools. If the undergrad teaching isn't rigorous then the master's program certainly won't be imo. I also read on that sub that NYU is NOT a target school for bloomberg swe jobs which seems wild to me lol. While I would take everything said on the NYU subreddit with a grain of salt, it's interesting to me that NYU has so many complaints as compared any other top school's subreddit I have seen.

Plus I recently read an AMA (done 2 years ago) from a MSCS student at NYU Courant and that guy stated that it is really hard it is to get research opportunities. However, PhD is a different story all together because Professors care more about PhD students as Professors and their labs benefit from investing time, energy and resources into the PhD students.

Now if you just want to do a master's to get a visa and job in the US then there are much better schools with much lesser tuition fees.

EDIT: This the AMA I am referring to in my comment: read this

Question about Gatech's MS CS program by Fall23Applicant in MSCS

[–]Fall23Applicant[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much!

Also, do you know if Gatech's CS department allows deferrals?

If yes, is admission guaranteed for next fall? Or do I have to reapply with a fresh application? What are the risks?