u/Odd-Food-1699

Hey guys!

I’ve narrowed down my admits to just Rice MCS as the other schools I got admitted to did not seem like the best fit or were generally considered a worse option.

However, now I want to compare this choice with one of just staying here in India where I work as an SDE.

My profile:
3 years of workex here in India, earning a decent-ish amount (25LPA)

But there is a career gap of about one year, because of health stuff in my family, and I started working at my new job a year or so ago.

So, I figured a good way to get a sort of fresh start and also jump up career wise (if I get a job in the US) is a masters degree.

The MCS is a 1.5 year degree and 3 month internships are a requirement of the course. From my understanding, most students get internships at great places to work and places doing stuff I’d love to do - SysML and distributed systems.

Given the scholarship, the tuition comes down to somewhat reasonable I feel, I would need to take a loan for about half this amount with my savings.

Do you think it’s worth it to do this given the way the job market and immigration policy is in our dystopia today? 🥲

Thanks for reading!

Hey everyone!

Received two admits at the end of this admissions cycle, and I’m looking for advice on which one to choose.

From my understanding, Rice is far more prestigious and carries quite a bit of weight both in research and professionally.

However, UIC is a thesis based degree, and it has tuition remission alongside the stipend they provide for RA/TA roles.

I’m leaning towards UIC right now.

I’m okay taking a loan for Rice, but I was wondering if it was even close to worth it? the answer seems obvious to me, so I wanted to check if others felt the same way, or if Rice is actually a better choice?

Hey everyone. Please help me choose.

From my understanding, Rice has a very prestigious reputation, especially in industrial engineering. However, I’m not sure if that really translates and trickles all the way down to a professional CS degree.

The biggest pro for UIC is that it’s thesis based, 2 years (instead of the Rice 1.5 years) and is pretty well funded for RA/TA roles - and these roles offer tuition remission alongside a stipend.

My goal is to get a job in the US, hopefully more oriented towards a FAANG type role that I can eventually transition into a job in India by switching back here. But that’s like, much longer term.

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