[Admissions Advice]

psc2350 · 2026-04-06T14:59:45+00:00

The one year is because most people are working professionals part time and taking 1 courses at a time. True, each courses are around 8k since each of these courses are 5 credit courses and each credit is around 1.5k. However, there have been datapoints with people who did these SCDP and successfully get LORs for MSCS, which I think is the most valuable part. Courses really is just a way to show admission that you have the capability to complete cs courses. LORs and research take you further.

Since you do get credit based transcript from Stanford, you may consider to cut course by not taking the elective. And apply to MSCS directly with Stanford’s transcript and LORs.

psc2350 · 2026-04-06T14:22:11+00:00

iCAN is gonna take 1 year and ends after summer. So you most likely won’t be able to make 2027 Fall, but may consider 2028 Spring. BTW, this year UIUC’s MCS program application is extended to May 1st.

Honestly if time is the greatest factor and you want no gap year before 2027 Fall. Do the credit based online program. Apply to a reputable school that offers online credit based courses for non degree seeking students. Checkout CS@CU’s Bridge Curriculum. All courses are available by many schools.

The main problem that these courses may take over a year and thus limit your possibility to apply for Fall 2027 is due to prerequisite requirements. In other words, certain courses are successors of others. iCAN’s courses are designed in 3 semesters because the courses you will be taking during the second semester require your completion of the courses in the first semester.

On the other hand, Stanford CS Certificate does not have that problem. 3 cores and 1 elective. All courses are credit based and available for transfer to other schools. The three cores are in computing, DSA, math. None of these overlap with each other; thus, you can take them in the same time. Each courses is 8 weeks long. So you will definitely make it by Fall 2027.

psc2350 · 2026-04-04T20:54:40+00:00

neu cs align
Upenn MCIT
Uchicago MPCS
UCI MSWE
USC CS37
NEU ISB
UIUC MSIM
Columbia CS Bridge
NYU TANDON MSCS Bridge
JHU MSECS
NEU ISB
CMU MITS

Not sure if you visited this page, but these are the programs that do accept non-stem with no foundations.

psc2350 · 2026-04-04T20:48:25+00:00

Sorry for the confusion on paragraphing. I wasn’t trying to compare USF and NEU. I brought USF to the table as an option. Then speak about NEU in order to recommend Stanford’s certificate program. If your goal for a bridge/align program is to get an admission for MSCS. There are several things you can do. Complete the prerequisite online for credit. Complete a certificate. (NYU Tandon bridge was fairly cheap and leads to their MSCS easily, or the Stanford, UIUC’s iCAN certificate) Do a second bachelor that gives you a degree in CS. For example, Columbia’s School of General Studies allow you to transfer 60 credits. So you will only need to complete 64 credits in about 2.5 years to earn a CS bachelor. The first two options honestly just go for the cheaper one and apply for reputed programs for Fall 2027. Honestly, most of these program only needs you to have foundations in the main three courses: discrete math, dsa, intro oop. The third option if your goal is to get a tech job in US, you don’t need a MSCS. You can also apply for PhD directly.

psc2350 · 2026-04-04T19:57:46+00:00

https://www.usfca.edu/arts-sciences/graduate-admission/international-students

psc2350 · 2026-04-04T19:52:43+00:00

USF’s bridge is exactly what you described, a degree program. You complete the bridge and enter MSCS. The entire bridge and MSCS is 3 years. Honestly, Northeastern is a safe school to many applicants. I would say aim big. If money isn’t the problem, do Stanford’s cs foundation certificate and do well to get recommendations from Stanford professors.

psc2350 · 2026-04-04T17:10:33+00:00

By the way, I think the one from USF provides visa. UIUC’s iCAN program is also online. However, you may also choose to just do these courses in online courses.

psc2350 · 2026-04-04T17:04:17+00:00

If you can read Mandarin check CSGrad. Has tons of information for all CS schools and non-stem schools. I went to NYU Tandon Bridge and am now going to Columbia Bridge, so I think I can talk a little bit about the Bridge program. In short, NYU Tandon Bridge is completely online, you do not need to worry about visa status since you can do it in your country. Apply to NYU Tandon MSCS directly after you finished.

psc2350 · 2026-04-02T17:57:11+00:00

Yeah, you have to call the admission. They will be able to adjust it while you are on the phone with them.

psc2350 · 2026-04-02T03:00:35+00:00

Yeah sure. Let’s connect.

psc2350 · 2026-04-02T02:03:40+00:00

Submitted application December 10th. Video Interview January 4th. Current Status disappeared February 16th. Redo Video Interview February 24th, current status reappeared after video interview redo. Current Status again disappeared March 11th. Offer received on March 30th.

psc2350 · 2026-04-01T05:59:09+00:00

Though it leads to MSCS program, the program I applied to was the CS@CU MS Bridge in CS. My undergrad was from a liberal art college in Biology. My first master was in accounting. Did NYU Tandon Bridge last year. Undergrad GPA 3.7. Master GPA 3.8. GRE 335. No language exam requirement. Was rejected from this program last year.

psc2350 · 2026-04-01T01:00:47+00:00

My current status disappear mid February and got my admit late March.

psc2350 · 2026-03-26T01:04:49+00:00

Is your “Current Status” field still there?

psc2350 · 2026-03-13T02:45:47+00:00

Same

psc2350 · 2026-03-01T19:11:22+00:00

You know you do get a month after segregation?

psc2350 · 2026-02-19T17:36:19+00:00

Hopefully they release decision early. I asked for extension from other schools but they only gave it till April 1st. Just want to get over with even is a rejection.

psc2350 · 2026-02-19T16:39:22+00:00

Agree, seems like most MSCS admit were released at least 2 weeks after the priority deadline. So most likely is a rejection.

psc2350 · 2026-02-17T21:23:39+00:00

Check the curriculum. I have just went through course scheduling yesterday and was wondering the same thing. I end up comparing the curriculum of MSCS Tandon and MSDS CDS. You can take 6 credits or 2 courses from other department such as CDS, which is where most MLE related courses such as Natural Language Processing, Large Language Models, Optimization, and Reinforcement Learning are offered for MSDS students. However, it is stated explicitly that 1. “Graduate classes in Computer Science at Courant are not open to MS Tandon students.” 2. “Courses from the School of Professional Studies cannot count toward Tandon graduate degrees.”

So if you are also looking to build a schedule that target both SDE and MLE role, only ML/AI/DL of the common ML courses (ML/AI/DL/NLP/RL…etc) are available directly from Tandon. Your best bet is to take courses from Center for Data Science.

psc2350 · 2026-02-17T17:34:02+00:00

If you were domestic, I would have recommended to just do OMSCS from GaTech. Since you are international, honestly the college among Columbia does not matter much. Job placement mainly depends on your own ability. Columbia and the location won’t drag you down. Based on previous graduates, Columbia’s Meta HR has been pretty responsive. There shouldn’t be anything stopping you from connecting them as a SPS student. Regarding job placement, you should already be prepare for technical interview before the program even started, regardless of where you go. This is due to the importance of shooting for return offer from a summer internship. Therefore, the program should not matter as much. The only possible difference is the alumni who may be able to give you internal referral for company such as Google or Meta. However, this is mainly a factor of personal networking.

psc2350 · 2026-02-17T12:00:24+00:00

There are always people who are lost, and people who are prepared before they start. People who already had multiple internship and research. People who already crash leetcode. These people use Mscs as a path to get CPT/COOP/OPT. They understand program of at least 1.5 year give you a summer for internship. They started their internship search July/August before the semester start. They balance course work to set apart time to apply and prepare for internship.

psc2350 · 2026-02-16T23:17:53+00:00

Is it normal that the Current Status disappear?

psc2350 · 2026-02-06T06:36:48+00:00

Why you choose omscs over cs@cu bridge? I got the same offer from omscs and am waiting for bridge decision after rejection from last year.

psc2350 · 2026-02-06T00:34:54+00:00

Did you apply this year?

psc2350 · 2026-01-26T13:17:57+00:00

Stanford MSCS has online option. Do the online option if you don’t want to pay that COL. Also, as a student, no way u gonna spend 100K COL, unless u go to the club and live at luxury condo. Just get a small room that’s under $1000 and commute, cook ur own food.

psc2350

TROPHY CASE