I did my undergrad at U. of Michigan, and my master's at NYU. I would highly recommend both programs, although there are many great ones out there. I probably have a list of ~30 schools that I think would be excellent for a master's in CS with a focus on machine learning (although it is worth considering a master's in Data Science, as this makes sense if ML is your primary interest).
I am happy to give more targeted advice on grad school. Please send me an email at andrew [at] mrdrozdov.com.
On a general level, did you or your classmates general fund these masters degrees themselves? And what is the career path / expected compensation after completion of program? Asking as a web dev with only a few years experience but making ok startup-world money. I'm curious, being interested in such a route but also a little older and trying to catch up financially after a pre-tech career.
I believe it is similar compensation as a software engineer with a specialty (front end, data engineering, databases, etc.). I would not recommend this career path to anyone that is in it for the money, but rather to do it because they find machine learning personally fulfilling. These other specialties can be personally fulfilling as well, and many of my close friends have a specialty that is not machine learning and are very happy with their career.
I received a handful of emails specifically asking for the list of schools I was referring to. Here is a list of 31. There are certainly schools that I have missed, but I think that any of these programs offer a strong curriculum and community that would prepare a student for a career working in data science.
Edit: for the Master's degree.