9/30 My friend says Berkeley CS MS is reserved for Berkeley CS PhD
rejects-- in another word if you kick ass and applied PhD but
got rejected, they'll offer you the MS with the possibility of
going into PhD. Is that a rumor or is that true? Any UCB grad
student wanna confirm this?
\_ The question is about Cal, but I believe this policy tends to
be true for all schools.
\_ It is true for Texas aerospace eng. and Cal math at a minimum.
The master's is a consolation prize. This probably varies
by dept. as well. Public policy has a thriving master's program.
--dim
\_ don't have an answer, but if it were true then isn't it better
to apply to PhD and hope you'll get deferred to the MS program
rather than applying to MS directly?
\_ no, no, it's if you get IN to the PhD program, pass your classes
and quals (if applicable) but either a) choose to leave the
program at that point or b) are asked to leave before you finish
your defence. Thus "consolation prize" -- you're trying to get
a PhD, you don't make it for one reason or another. This
sort of thing is confined to things where you tend to go for
a PhD stright from undergrad, like CS. Exception: Stanford-style
pay-throught-the-nose-support-the-PhD-students terminal
masters, and some speciality programs (HCI at CMU) -chialea
\_ There are two ways to get a masters. One way is you get in on a
masters program and you do your time and you get the degree and
alls well. When you do that you tend to take a very different
course load than the first 2 years of a PhD program because well,
you know you are only going to be there for 2 years. The other
way is you start out as a PhD, and after a few years there you get
a masters somewhere (depends on the program, but at some milestone
most PhD programs give a masters) and then realize you really don't
have what it is going to take to get a PhD, drop out and voila,
you have a masters. |
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