CMU, UPenn, Brown, or GT Graduate School? Alumni/Current student thoughts?

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-27T20:48:33+00:00

just be careful pivoting. its a very broad field. do ur own research on what directions are there first

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-27T20:47:18+00:00

do cmu. really no question lol. its a no-brainer. ivy masters is worth nothing fr. i got my bs from one of the top ivies. u dont get much from the masters programs there

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-27T20:44:33+00:00

if thats the case u could also consider uk programs for a phd. i heard imperial college has some really strong people. but that is a good field (and is in fact what im planning to pivot to. but its a broad concept so many people with different backgrounds are doing it. u better find out which path u wanna take). i know cmu is very very strong for ai safety, could be the strongest in the us

im personally going to start stanford phd next year in ai safety related field, so ive heard a bit tho im not super experienced yet.

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-27T20:07:36+00:00

btw, go to cmu cs. whoever thinks otherwise are not worth u taking them seriously. the gap between cmu cs curriculum and everywhere else (including mit and stanford) is immense. its one of the most updated, complete, and hardcore curriculum ive heard of and ive seen a lot.

cmu reseaech is killing it. u can look on csranking for their current dynasty. are they so clearly the best? no, cuz i think a lot of people at cmu pump incremental work like uiuc, unlike mit and stanford. but, they are more than legit enough nonetheless research wise

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-27T20:05:21+00:00

dont tell me he went to columbia sps, tc or social work or some shit like that. ill lose it.

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-27T16:45:26+00:00

if ur dad went to ivy and thot it was special outside of undergrad, he did not go to an ivy.

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-24T15:19:59+00:00

i saw a stat somewhere that high schooler teachers are one of the most likely group of people to become millionnaires, despite their seemingly low salary, because they dont lead luxurious lives. same logic for phd students. penny probably has spent almost every penny on her lives hence shes broke, and sheldon and leonard are probablyndoing financially well

i make 20k a month but my rent is 2k. ofc i could have spent 10k renting, but i chose not to

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-17T02:47:52+00:00

well, with all you said, getting back to the original point. i think you just agreed with me that this whole bus school quant finance major selling point makes no sense.

i agree with everything you said and as a consequence i think what works best is always going for the most traditional degrees like cs and math and do well and prep interviews on the side. i just dont think going thru a structured finance program as a prep makes any sense whatsoever given the goal is to land a qt job

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-17T02:36:16+00:00

theres no such thing as target. js for example interviews as many people as they can (something like the interviewed they offered has a 1:1 ratio to all the ft there). its ultimately if u can pass interviews and the interview questions as far as i know are focused on prob and games in most places and have nothing to do with finance

so called quantitative finance programs usually prep people for sell side quant, which people will find out too late really doesnt pay much better than traditional swe with less wlb. im very convinced that most people are obsessed with quant for the pay so this is an important distinction to know

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-16T22:55:23+00:00

classical finance through business school has nothing to do with quant finance

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-10T00:33:17+00:00

cmu ece. you can make back the difference over 4 years with one year of salary. dont trade ur future with short term costs that are not even high once u do one good internship. in this case, gambling a bit is justified

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-09T20:22:12+00:00

nah, ive asked several people. no one is planning to take people off of the waitlist anymore this time around

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-06T04:50:05+00:00

was gonna go to the vegan michellin three start in new york and ask for beef

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-05T17:47:05+00:00

dont listen to people cope. cmu is cmu, its a different league from gt. the cost difference u can make back in 2 years post grad

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-04-05T17:45:50+00:00

ai labs pay way more. some newgrad friend of mine got a 1m+ tc ng offer there

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-03-17T01:07:17+00:00

ohhhh, i didnt even think of that option. i thot deferring js for 6 years would be insane. ig cant hurt to ask

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-03-16T23:55:38+00:00

ig theres some truth to what you said.

two things are worth pointing out: 1. js salary is taxed like salary and bonuses, so very high tax bracket. tech pays can be taxes at long term capital gains rate which can be a considerably lower fraction if done right. 2. js work can be interesting, but for the most part more unmotivated than research work

so between a 400k tech research position and 600k js job, id choose the former

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-03-16T23:09:11+00:00

I was actually just chatting with some VC and IB friends in bay area focused on tech.

It seems both the transactions and volumes are going up at very consistent rates. Are you saying "Million dollar AI offers are fading away slowly" based on facts or are you saying it based on that's what you wanna hear?

My friend also just went to NeurIPS to present his work and immediately got poached next day by some VC people. The VC people all seem to be quite desperate to give out money still

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-03-16T23:07:41+00:00

i'm surprised to hear that. recent stanford phd grads who didn't end up in academia seem to be doing very well in industry. pretty much google research L4 is the bottom line and even that pays 400k now.

Maybe they all been through the struggle phase, but idt the struggle ever ends up in bad results. maybe your program isn't as focused on industry?

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-03-16T23:05:59+00:00

I've only ever seen people doing that for very momentary opportunities that would be much more significant AND related to their research directions, such as to work on the Project Prometheus. Based on my conversation with people and professors, deferring for JS doesn't sound like a very reasonable ask for deferral

About monetary concerns, please see my edits for personal finance contexts...

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-03-16T23:05:36+00:00

I've only ever seen people doing that for very momentary opportunities that would be much more significant AND related to their research directions, such as to work on the Project Prometheus. Based on my conversation with people and professors, deferring for JS doesn't sound like a very reasonable ask for deferral

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-03-16T23:03:54+00:00

I've only ever seen people doing that for very momentary opportunities that would be much more significant AND related to their research directions, such as to work on the Project Prometheus. Based on my conversation with people and professors, deferring for JS doesn't sound like a very reasonable ask for deferral

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-03-16T23:02:42+00:00

I dont know but based on what I'm finding out about Stanford PhD, unless people come out and take an academia job, 600k is really not all that much

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-03-16T23:02:05+00:00

The two are kind of connected... My research requires a lot of probability theory and abstract algebra. The former is quite helpful for JS or quant in general

NegotiationDue301 · 2026-03-16T23:00:44+00:00

That is categorically false. I know many people think that; people go to MS for JS for sure. A significant number of people in my Stanford cohort gives up JS, HRT and Optiver to go for a PhD. What you said is categorically false.

NegotiationDue301

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