7/18    How can I get into grad school?
                - depressed undergrad going into last semester
        \_ you sick fuck.  why don't you to kossovo and have something
           REAL to be depressed about.  Fuck your angst.  Maybe you
           should have thought about this a year ago.
        \_ Why you wanna go there? Apply to some whack school in England.
           then come back here and people will be all like, wow, a Master's
           from some school in England.
           \_ ok, the above two posts are humorous, but I'm serious.
              \_ ok you weasel, are your parents rich?
                 \_ more than our friends in Kossovo... but not enough to
                    buy me into grad school. But I did have to pay my
                    own way through undergrad and even took a year off
                    to work full-time... does that count for anything?
                    \_ [ note to motd editors, the following is not
                         kinneydirvel(tm). please don't delete it. ]
                       Work doesn't count for much for grad school unless
                       If you really want to get into grad school try a
                       second tier school
                       you worked on something outstanding (ex you worked
                       on BGPv4 for Procket under the direction of Tony Li).
                       If you really want to get into grad school here
                       are somethings you might want to try:
                       1. Get a good score on the general GRE (2200+) and
                          subject GRE (700+).
                       3. If you are under 3.0 apply to state school,
                          otherwise apply to one of the less prestigious
                          public schools (rutgers, ut austin, uci, etc)
                          or private schools.
                       4. Assuming you haven't worked for a famous prof.
                          or other well known person in your field already,
                          consider going to work for such a person. If
                          you do a good job, you will get a good letter
                          of rec improving you chances.
                          A variation on this theme is to go to work at
                          a startup where a prof. works. If it goes
                          somewhere you are rich, otherwise you use the
                          prof. as you ticket to grad school.
                       5. Join a company like Sun, Cisco, IBM, HP,
                          Lockheed and go to the farm on the SITN program.
                          This is the cheapest way to get a degree since
                          the company pays for your classes, and the company
                          pays you to work, so by the time you finish your
                          degree you've gained valuable work experience at
                          a well known company, you have some cash/options
                          and you have a degree from a well known university
                          \_ For #5, is it easier to get in thru SITN than
                             thru regular admission?
                             \_ The farm maintains that it is just as hard
                                to get into SITN as with regular grad school
                                but in reality it is easier if you go the
                                SITN route. SITN is a big money maker, so
                                virtually no one is refused. (okay if you
                                were 2.0 at eastern wisconsin adjunct teachers
                                college and you try to go the SITN route
                                you won't get in, but if you are ~ 3.0 @ Cal
                                it shouldn't be too hard)
                          \_ I have done some "research" for a professor of
                             both IEOR and CS... do you think his letter will
                             count for much for a CS program? And I have one
                             semester left at Cal... how can I go about trying
                             to get more research experience?
                             \_ This all depends on what sort of "research"
                                and which IEOR prof. Unless the research is
                                unique or gets published/patented its not
                                going to help you that much, but if the prof.
                                likes you and you get a good letter of rec.
                                it will improve your chances of getting in.
                                The bad part is that you will need three
                                letters of rec so getting in good with one
                                prof. is only 1/6 of the battle.
                                Unless you are over 3.0 in Eng, SITN or
                                similar at SCU or USC is your best/cheapest
                                bet.
                \_ Hold on, the original poster did not specify which major he
                   wants to get in to. For MBA, work experience DO count, along
                   with your GRE/GMAT scores. I agree with the above poster
                   that you could try to get your company to pay for at least
                   half the cost. - jthoms