

Applying to graduate school, after working in industry for a few years.   - shaganappi

I'm currently in my last quarter of college at UCSD, studying computer science.  I've been thinking about pursuing a graduate education in computer science the past few quarters, but it was too late to apply for the next coming year.  Thus my plans are now to work a few years in industry before returning to graduate school.  The problem is, I don't have many connections with my current professors, so I can't exactly get letter of recommendations from them.  I was wondering how would I be able to have a strong graduate application later on, if I would even be able to apply at all.  I know they much prefer recommendations from people in academia versus industry.  How should I prepare?
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pathdependent
To some degree, it depends on luck. I know some professors who weight letters
of recommendation heavily, and others who consider them irrelevant. Figure out
what you are interested in academically, then do some work that can be
presented as part of your application.

CS is big. Do you have a narrower interest?

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shaganappi
I'm not exactly sure yet, but I do find interesting in computer networking or
computer security. I was under the impression that a graduate admission
committee would be looking at your applications instead of the actual
professors of the departments?

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pathdependent
I suppose it depends on the school. My experience is that academia handles the
_administrative_ issues with a lot of diversity. At the admission level, there
is a lot of noise. Undergrad is very different from graduate work.

Masters or Ph.D?

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shaganappi
Planning on a masters. I'm not sure if I want to pursue a Ph.D.

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pathdependent
I know less about the masters realm. Ironically, I think Ph.D. programs care
less because they can use the candidacy qualifying exams to weed people out
_after_ they've been in the program. I still believe your best bet is to do
something you can present to them, effectively starting your masters before
you get there.

