u/Help-me37

Posting for a friend

**Programs to apply to**: Stanford MSCS, CMU MSCS, CMU MSML

**Education**:
University of Chicago, BS in computer science, GPA 3.88

If at matters: International Mathematics Olympiad Team Canada finalist back in high school.

**Experiences**:

2x AI research engineer at well-known big tech

1x SWE at FAANG+

1x AI engineer at FAANG+

**Research/Publications:**

Listed as an equal contributor for a paper published at atop conference for an industry paper.

Did research with prof at school . Also listed as an equal contributor but not at a top conference.

Are there actually any difference in image quality and color? Or are you really just getting a bigger aperture for like $800 and 200g more weight?

Is that even possible for junior transfer? Should I just take Berkeley off the list if I plan to apply for CS?

In general are high demand major reserved entirely for CA residents/ community college transfers?

Does anyone know any alumni that went to Stanford/CMU for MSCS? Would like to add LinkedIn and connect/ ask for some tips on Reddit

Let’s say that you want to get a top tier CS job/internship, is school brand name or major more important?

For example would you rather go with Berkeley math/ds or UChicago/Northwestern CS?

Let’s say that you want to get a top tier CS job/internship, is school brand name or major more important?

For example would you rather go with Berkeley math/ds or UChicago/Northwestern CS?

Which one would be better if you consider industry placement, startup culture/reputation in startups, and top masters (Stanford/CMU)/ PhD feeder as the top 3 criteria (in that order)?

Studying at UofT (main campus), got transfer offer to UChicago and UBC (not UC Berkeley, but University of British Columbia)

It seems—even for transfer entering third year—no matter prior courseworks, one would need to take 3 placement exams, and could at best end up at CMSC 14400? So the software development course, compilers course, and advanced algorithm and data structures course I have taken previously just gets into trash?

I actually miraculously got a lot of fin aid at Uchicago that it’s much cheaper than intl tuition at UWaterloo.

Overall I was doing great at loo. Had a 3.9+ GPA, well known Canadian company for coop 1 and 2, FAANG for this summer (yes I had 3 academic and 3 coop terms in first two years). I also made many friends (though we kinda got separated regrouped very often).

Idk. Talked to some friends and made some research. I originally wanted to leave UWaterloo cuz… let’s just say that the campus is horrible and the city has a lot of problems. And I feel like UChicago’s lack of technical prestige can be fixed by a masters (I can get a masters with just 8 more months than my original Waterloo co-op degree because normal degrees are four years and Waterloo coop is 4 years and 8 months).

However, the more I think about it, the more I think it might not be worth it. First of all I might not get into a top masters program like MSCS/Meng CS at Stanford, Berkeley, and CMU. Totally possible for my best offer to be something like Columbia or Cornell. Second of all it seems that the AI recruitment at Waterloo is insane compared to UChicago. I have met many people at Waterloo who interned at OpenAI and xAI and they said they’ve never met a UChicago intern. I know UChicago might be better for QR/QT but I’m not smart enough for that nor I’m I interested. The last straw being that almost half of my courses at UChicago would have to be humanities due to needing to start fresh for core. I guess taking those classes would be beneficial in long term, but they might make me more unemployed in short term.

Any opinions?

Transferred from UWaterloo to Uchicago after two years because I’m paying intl tuition at UWaterloo but as a domestic student I was fortunate to receive basically a full ride at UChi.

Should I put both schools on my r-word (the word is banned by this sub, but it has 6 letters, starts with r, ends with e)? Especially if I want to aim for top firms like OpenAI, Citadel, xAI, etc? (I will be doing a FAANG internship this summer if that helps).

So you have to restart all your hum, art, society, and social science courses? I also never took any bio courses, so that implies basically 12/24 courses in my last two years of college is just core?