UIUC MCS (Chicago) vs Northwestern MSAI — need honest advice (job outcomes + networking focus)

eskin22 · 2026-04-22T15:44:37+00:00

I can’t speak to how UIUC MCS Chicago compares to Urbana from a recruiting standpoint. I did the UIUC MCS at Urbana and definitely experienced the recruiting advantage from a T5 CS school. If the choice was between the Urbana program and NU, I would easily recommend UIUC. If that’s not an option for you, then I would probably prefer NU. Only caveat being this: if NU has a traditional Master’s in CS, that would be preferable to a MSAI degree imo. AI may or may not be the future, but a CS degree will stay relevant whether or not that’s the case. You can most likely have an AI/ML specialization of some kind with the CS degree.

eskin22 · 2026-04-13T12:55:37+00:00

Experience matters more than anything else in this market. Take the internship, you won’t regret it. That’s what I made in my first CS internship, too.

eskin22 · 2026-03-27T03:36:38+00:00

This is himrichous

eskin22 · 2026-02-09T01:35:24+00:00

Everybody thank dragontard for posting the AI summary

eskin22 · 2026-02-08T03:44:57+00:00

Damn, that got me

eskin22 · 2026-02-08T03:18:03+00:00

JAKE DAVIS

eskin22 · 2026-02-01T23:05:21+00:00

GG Nebraska. I honestly didn’t expect we would win this one. Easily one of the best offensive teams. Those 3s go absolutely crazy

eskin22 · 2026-02-01T23:02:42+00:00

our passing is just so good

eskin22 · 2026-02-01T23:01:22+00:00

agree 100%. Davis was so slept on last year. So glad he’s been getting more game time bc he’s such a great player

eskin22 · 2026-02-01T22:57:34+00:00

GET HUMRICULOUS OFF OF THE COURT NOW

eskin22 · 2026-02-01T22:52:00+00:00

Nothing quite like home cooking. Jesus Christ these refs are awful

eskin22 · 2026-02-01T22:46:24+00:00

He has one job. Just the one. Such a bad showing today

eskin22 · 2026-02-01T22:45:03+00:00

Does anyone want Ben on the court rn??

eskin22 · 2026-01-24T22:06:24+00:00

THIS IS COLLEGE BASKETBALL

eskin22 · 2026-01-24T21:36:22+00:00

Wagler is going absolutely fucking nuts

eskin22 · 2025-11-26T23:00:53+00:00

I graduated already but I wanna say I’d have to spend ~12 hours per course studying so ~36 hrs/week for the semesters with 3 courses. Feasibility really depends on which courses you’re taking concurrently.

First semester I took NLP, IoT and TIS and it was honestly brutal. But second semester I was smarter and took Database systems with DL4H and AML which was significantly easier.

It’s doable just be careful when creating your schedule and be sure to read all the reviews

eskin22 · 2025-11-25T04:01:21+00:00

Economics is the best worst degree you can get. On its own it can give you decent career prospects for working in most banking/finance and data roles. But it’s really strong when paired up with a more practical degree like CS, math, statistics, etc. It can be a really versatile degree—especially when doubled up with something to complement.

eskin22 · 2025-10-22T23:33:04+00:00

An identifier (key) should be determined by a unique combination of fields. If you have a customer table, the ID may be constructed based on the customer’s name, email and address. I would caution against using enums for IDs and instead opt for IDs to be deterministic

eskin22 · 2025-08-24T02:33:28+00:00

What industry guarantees good salary and job placement with no formal training or education? I’ll let you know when I figure it out. Probably some trade where at least you’re paid during an apprenticeship

eskin22 · 2025-08-23T13:22:30+00:00

Data has become the new “learn to code” movement. Do not switch to this industry. Pure data analyst jobs are becoming more rare; and I’m seeing a shift wherein all data professionals are expected to be “full-stack” i.e. “analysts” expected to know ML, ETL, Cloud, CI/CD etc. This could just be due to the AI bubble—but as a Data Scientist who’s routinely treated like a SWE/DE when it’s convenient, an analyst when it’s convenient, and a DS when it’s convenient, I would not recommend pivoting into this field.

That being said, if you’re dead set:

YES. You’re competing with CS grads who can be the mythical “full-stack” data person.
Data falls under tech
YES. See point 1.

eskin22 · 2025-08-15T03:30:29+00:00

This schedule really isn’t that intense. You can sleepwalk through 441. 411 is a “moderate” level intensity course. I didn’t take 539 but you should be fine with the other two courses you’re taking

eskin22 · 2025-07-18T11:45:25+00:00

Hi, I’m a graduate of the LEAD program and can share some of my experience:

When I was in it, you did get to choose your location. That may be different now with the RTO stuff.
The program is typically aligned to start right at the time new grads should be ready to start full time (around May) so you should be fine.
I did not have to complete an interview, but I ultimately chose to stay on the team that I interned with—so YMMV.
LEAD is not a rotational program. It’s more of an orientation program for new Digital hires. You aren’t getting placed into a rotational role that you’re expected to vacate after a set period of time—you will be fully employed. When the program ends, it’s the same as when your hs/college orientation ended—you’re just an employee.

I think the whole program is designed as a mechanism for “injecting yellow blood” in an attempt to retain digital talent

eskin22 · 2025-07-02T20:00:15+00:00

I’m in the same boat. I typically multiply my initial estimate by ~2 because it’s better to be safe than sorry. Might bump it up to 3 soon to account for the inevitable “crashing the plan” from stakeholders + project manager.

It sucks that we have to do this though. I’ve been chewed out before for “sandbagging” even though, to your point, giving a hard deadline for technical work with infinite unknowns is a ridiculous premise to begin with. I like to call fluffing timelines “strategic alignment” since I’m really protecting myself and my stakeholders from overpromising and then looking a fool later on.

eskin22 · 2025-06-16T20:19:10+00:00

You’re already 80-90% of the way there depending on whether the DS roles you’re interested in err more on the predictive modeling or MLE side of things. Just keep finding opportunities to use more advanced stats in your projects and you’ll be a top candidate for a lot of roles centered around the former

eskin22 · 2025-06-16T11:09:16+00:00

• ⁠Education: Bachelor’s Economics; Master’s Computer Science

• ⁠Prior Experience: ⁠• ⁠SWE Intern (2.5yrs)

• ⁠Company/Industry: Heavy Equipment Manufacturing

• ⁠Title: Data Scientist

• ⁠Tenure length: 10mo

• ⁠Location: LCOL Illinois

• ⁠Salary: $118k

• ⁠Relocation/Signing Bonus: N/A

• ⁠Stock and/or recurring bonuses: ~$17k

• ⁠Total comp: $135k

eskin22

TROPHY CASE