u/Diligent_Occasion_22

Wussup, party people. I was curious to know if ND ever covers health insurance. I'm currently receiving 83.3k in aid, but I don't really know what's covered and what isn't. How would I check?

I'm currently a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, majoring in Computer Engineering, and was looking for some advice about choosing the right MSCS program. My main aspirations are to found a start-up, work in big tech, or potentially break into quant. While Notre Dame is a good school, it's not especially renowned for its engineering department, and pursuing any of my main 3 aspirations would be exceedingly difficult. This is why I would like to earn a master's degree from a university with a much stronger computer science program. However, having scrolled through this sub for a bit, I noticed that a lot of MSCS programs that I was interested in were labeled as cash cows. Since I am only an undergrad with little industry experience, I would love it if some people who were more knowledgeable than I were to assess my list of MSCS programs. For reference, I regard a cash cow as an exceedingly expensive master's program with a large cohort size that is generally "looked down upon" in industry. Being a cash cow isn't synonymous with being bad, for reference. Here's my list with comments:

1. Stanford MSCS (Expensive, but worth the money. Highly selective, and well-respected in quant and big-tech alike. Huge start-up culture)

2. Princeton MSCS (Fully funded, with tiny cohort size)

3. CMU MSCS (Expensive, but highly selective and super prestigious. While I've never heard people refer to this specific program as a cash cow, I've heard that Carnegie does offer some much poorer quality adjacent programs, like their master's in Software Engineering)

4. Cornell MSCS (Similar to Princeton. I've heard that I should avoid their M.Eng. CS program?)

5. Berkeley MSCS (Relatively cheap, and a member of the big four cs schools. What's not to like?)

6. UIUC & G-tech MSCS (Similar to Berk, though not as prestigious)

These are the universities that I've heard mixed things about:

7. Columbia MSCS (Seemingly the most infamous cash-cow master's degree program, known for its large cohort size. While the teaching is top tier, it's absurdly expensive, and allegedly not well-respected)

8. Penn MSEICS (Similar to Columbia, but a much smaller cohort?)

9. Harvard MSCS (I've heard very mixed things)

10. Yale MSCS (I'm having trouble figuring out if this program is funded. Looks interesting, but I've never known Yale to be a CS school.)

While I'm aware that this sub tends to label almost all MSCS programs as cash cows (I figured that out after seeing someone call Stanford a cash cow), I'm also hesitant to dismiss their skepticism wholesale. I've consistently seen programs like Columbia get labelled as cash cows, which makes me reluctant to apply. Thoughts?

Wouldn't you be severely behind in terms of credits? Is it mostly students who took a bunch of AP classes who accomplish this?

I've been interested in becoming a quant dev since high school, and was wondering if I'm too stupid to break in, for lack of a better term. I'm currently a sophomore majoring in Comp E at a T20, but it's not exactly known for STEM, and we only send 1 or 2 kids to Jane Street or Citadel every year. Theoretically, if I worked really hard from now on, there's a slim chance that I may be working at an HFT firm after school, but more realistically, I would just end up speccing into skills like stochastic modelling or probability theory that I never actually get to use. I've heard that in order to break into quant, you need to be some child prodigy with multiple USACO or USAMO top placements, double major in CS and Math at a school like Stanford, Chicago, MIT, Columbia, Berkeley, or CMU, and graduate top of your class. Obviously, I'm sure they're being hyperbolic, but it makes me wonder if dudes like me, who are smart but not geniuses, have a place in quant finance?

After successfully transferring from a T500 school to 3 T20 schools and spending countless hours on this sub and its Discord, I need current transfer applicants to understand that transfer admissions are very different from first-year admissions. While the secondary school that you attended played a role in your first-year application, the university that you're transferring out of is arguably much more important for transfer admissions.

To back this up, I'm going to use information gathered from Penn's Transfer Student Organization board's website (https://www.tsopenn.org/). After sorting every TSO member into the following categories: T25, T50, T100, Below T100, LAC, CC, and Miami Dade (It's some 2-year transfer thing, I think?). I used US News's top university rankings to sort schools into each category, and I allowed each one 5 spots in wiggle room, since the rankings fluctuate so much. Basically, if somebody transferred from #28-ranked USC or #26-ranked UVA, I counted them in the T25 category.

Year	T25	T50	T100	Below T100	LAC	CC	Miami Dade	Total
2026	7	3	0	0	3	1	0	14
2025	5	3	2	0	2	0	1	13
2024	4	4	1	0	1	1	2	13
2023	5	8	0	1	1	1	0	16
2022	5	5	3	1	0	0	0	14
2021	5	7	1	0	1	0	0	14
2020	5	7	2	0	1	0	0	15
Total	36	37	9	2	9	3	3	99
Percentage	36.4	37.4	9.1	2	9.1	3	3

As you can see, more than a third of Penn TSO advisors come from similarly ranked institutions, with the vast majority (84%) coming from a T50 or a liberal Arts College. Admittedly, this data set isn't perfect. There's likely some sample bias at play, where Penn's TSO might favour lateral transfers to serve on their board. Even still, the results demonstrate that a large proportion of transfer students at Penn likely come from peer institutions.

Compare this to schools like Princeton or MIT, and the admissions data would look completely inverted. Those two schools basically don't admit any lateral transfers, preferring community college applicants and non-traditional students. All of this to say, choose the schools that you are applying to carefully. Applying to universities takes both time and money. At the end of the day, nobody can stop you from applying. Heck, I applied to Harvard, in spite of its >1% AR. But I think that it's worth considering how your current uni affects your transfer chances.

I'm completely new to ML, but I have a solid background in CS and math. I have enough money to pay for his actual ML cert, but I've heard from people on this sub that he dumbed down some of the math and the more complicated code on the online version to make it more accessible. On the other hand, the actual cert offers hands-on opportunities to program stuff using the concepts that you learn. Between the YouTube lectures and the paid course, which one would you say is more worth it? If you suggest the YouTube lectures, do you have any recommendations on how I would get hands-on practice with the stuff that I learn?

I'm a university student currently in my sophomore year, and I would appreciate pointers on how to learn ML as well as general career advice. For context, I know the major stuff like Calc 1-3, Linear Algebra, Python, and Java (if needed?). Unfortunately, I won't be able to take any classes in ML since I majored in Computer Engineering, and my university prohibits students from switching their major to CS. I was wondering if it would be realistic to land a job as an ML specialist with a degree in Computer Engineering. While I understand that Computer Engineering is the backbone of ML, I fear that I may lack the SWE/coding skills needed to pass technical interviews or perform on the job. Given the overlap between CS and CE, I'll still get to take core classes like data structures, operating systems, and systems programming. If my goal is feasible, do you have any recommendations for how I could learn the fundamentals of machine learning? I generally prefer learning from textbooks or online modules to video series. Please let me know your recommendations!

I'm extremely lucky to have received 86.6k in financial aid from ND, but I was wondering if that counts as a full ride. Currently, my family isn't in a position to pay anything towards my tuition, though I personally wouldn't mind going into a little bit of debt to attend.

I recently got into Notre Dame as a transfer student, and I was wondering about what kind of mental health services or therapy options the school offered. For context, I'm on full financial aid and I can't really afford to pay for anything out of pocket. Would it be possible for me to get therapy for free or would I have to pay? Thank you in advance and go Irish!

My particular flavor of NPD makes me prioritize getting validated for my intelligence above all else. This has primarily manifested in an obsession with college admissions and attending the most prestigious college possible. Unfortunately, when I applied to top colleges as a senior in highschool, I received a mixture of wailists and rejections. Luckily, as a college freshman, my admissions cycle has been much more successful, and I even managed to get a full-ish ride to a top 20 school as an international student.

When I opened up the acceptance, I was immediately overcome with that succulent buzzing euphoria that you get when you know that you're about to receive copious amounts of narcissistic supply. That feeling lasted all of 5 minutes before a deep sense of dissatisfaction set in. I got into a good school, but its not an ivy league, which undermined the accomplishment in my mind. Simultaneously, the transfer acceptance rate is a lot higher than the first year acceptance rate which reminded me that I wasn't good enough the first time around.

For context, I went to boarding school in the Northeast, and there was this really strong prestige oriented culture. Kids at my school made fun of one of my friends for being excited about going to the school where I'm transferring to. The thought of that happening to me drives me crazy, and I've opted to hide away this year because of it.

I guess the silver lining is that I'm starting to realize that because of my NPD, nothing that I do will ever really be good enough. If I got into an ivy, I would be upset about going to one of the low-tier ones as opposed to a high-tier one. If I somehow went to a school like Princeton or Harvard, I would be upset that I didn't graduate with highest honors. If I somehow graduated with highest honors, I would want to be Valedictorian, and so on, and so forth. I'm sure that once I've graduated, I'll manifest a new obsession with working at Goldman Sachs or Jane Street. But regardless of the outcome, I have a hunch that nothing I do will ever be good enough.

But hey my new university offers free mental health services, so I might actually be able to unfuck my brain. I guess my main question is can this constant need for validation ever be satisfied? And als, how do I get over the fact that there are some thing, like an ivy league education, that I just may never get?

I'm hoping to attend Notre Dame this fall as a transfer student, but I feel slightly behind on my coursework. Should I be admitted (I was on the extended waitlist last year, so I hopefully have a good shot), do any of you know if it would be possible to take summer courses there this year? I'm mainly concerned about the fact that the summer session classes begin on the 8th of June, but decisions are only released on the 20th of May, which would only allow 18 days to sign up and get housing done.

With the recent release of Duke, Rice, and Cornell decisions, I, like many of us, have been facing quite a bit of rejection. While I got into Vandy in the second wave, I'm international, which means that I would have to take out upwards of 300k in debt in order to attend (I don't really know what I was expecting when I applied). Worst of all, until very recently, I was prepared to do it. I don't know if it was my parents placing high standards on me growing up, or attending a feeder school that conflated one's intelligence with the college that they attend, but somewhere along the road, I've begun to live for external validation. It's gotten to the point where I would consider subjecting myself to financial ruin, so long as I can say that I went to Vanderbilt or whatever other prestigious school. Isn't the point of going to a school like Vanderbilt to improve your economic outcomes? The truth is that over the years, attending an a T20 university has become less about outperforming your peers in job outcomes, or receiving a top-tier education (though that is still the case, to some extent), and more about signalling your intelligence through the selectivity of your institution. That being said, I still want to transfer to a T25; partly for genuine reasons like seeking research opportunities, and pursuing a stronger program for my major, but also partly because I look forward to updating my Instagram bio with the name of my new school, or making a LinkedIn post with my acceptance letter attached. Looking back now, I'm beginning to realize that my main reason for wanting to transfer is out of a refusal to deconstruct this childish, prestige-oriented mindset. In my mind, it would literally be easier to get into Harvard or battle crippling debt for the rest of my life than to give up that external validation. I'm making this post because I've noticed that whenever someone is fearful about being rejected, we (me included) have a tendency to reassure them that they'll get into at least one top university. This tendency obviously comes from a good place, wanting to make someone feel better about something that's upset them, but I think that we could also benefit from affirming each other's value beyond where we go to school. Sorry to get a little preachy, but as decisions roll out, and the reality of my situation is setting in, I'm realizing that I can be whole, even if I don't transfer to a T25...