Gnijuohz---我的申请日记

最近比较迷茫，然后看到了两位前辈的申请日记很受鼓舞，于是开贴来记录自己的整个申请过程~迷茫在于除了PS，CV，RL之外，自己还必须拿到MS的全奖才能出去。
近一个月来通过咨询地里的筒子们得到了一致的回答：
相当的难。但也不是不可能：1point3acres.com 有的好学校MS也有奖，就看你背景了。
作为一Top15,GPA 87,毫无研究经验，论文的，果断不敢想那些牛校。。。AD都难。。。

一 选校(初步）
我这种情况的，选校反而不那么纠结了，Top50感觉可以直接略过~

为了筛选可能给MS offer的学校我每到一学校cs grad admission的页面就找Financial Aid这一项。
在这里记录下我找到的可能提供奖学金（RA/TA）的学校相关的信息：
1. Arizona State University #53


关于Assistship：

The School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering evaluates each applicant and determines the awards for teaching assistantships (TA). TA positions are awarded primarily to Ph.D. students. RA positions are offered to the highest caliber of students. RA offers are made to admitted students by an interested faculty member. Some faculty members do not offer RA positions to newly admitted students. Students can contact a specific faculty member or members in their research area of interest regarding open positions. Students will be contacted by the faculty member if they are interested in hiring the student as an RA, as there is no formal application for an RA position. Students are encouraged to submit a CV or resume with their application for review by the faculty in the student’s research area of interest.

感觉这个可能行并不大。。。

TA positions are awarded primarily to Ph.D. students. RA positions are offered to the highest caliber of students. RA offers are made to admitted students by an interested faculty member.

还不确定应不应该申请这个学校。欢迎知道具体情况的同学讲一讲具体情况。。。不行就不申请这个了。


2. University of Illinois at Chicago #58
这个学校是根据一剑终情提供的情况选的，下面是官网上关于FA的说法

1. UIC University Fellowship
[align="left"]The most prestigious and therefore the most competitive form of financial aid is the [/align]UIC University Fellowship[align="left"]. Nominations for University Fellowships are submitted by the Computer Science Department to the Graduate College in the first week of February, which implies that your application must be [/align]complete and ready for processing in December[align="left"]. A major consideration in these fellowships is GRE scores. The sum of two parts of GRE (verbal and quantitative) must be greater than 1400 for you to have any reasonable chance for a fellowship. You must have high GPA and TOEFL scores and three letters of recommendation. These are highly competitive financial awards and the department gets only few (one to three) fellowships each year. The stipend in these fellowships is $20,000, plus a tuition and fee waiver which is worth over $20,000 for state of Illinois residents and over $29,000 for non-residents.[/align]

这个只有1-3名。。。要求高GRE，高GPA，高TOEFL，三封推荐信。竞争激烈。。。感觉难度挺大的。。。

2. Teaching Assistants[align="left"] are responsible for grading and staffing laboratory sections of undergraduate Computer Science courses. Approximately 10 entering graduate students receive Teaching Assistantships each year. These positions are assigned on merit only. Generally you should have a minimum GPA of 3.6 on 4.0 scale and must be admitted with full standing. All applicants for financial aid must submit GRE scores. An applicant will have a much [/align]reduced[align="left"] chance of getting TA position with a total GRE score (verbal + quantitative) of less than 1300 and a TOEFL (for international applicants) of less than 90 iBT or 620 PBT or 260 CBT. All foreign applicants from non-English speaking countries are required to pass TSE (Test for Spoken English or an equivalent test known as SPEAK test). Your chance for TA position will improve if you submit TSE scores with your application. The minimum required score is 50. This requirement is not satisfied by the TOEFL examination. Teaching assistant wages for incoming graduate students in AY 2008-2009 is $16,395 for a 50% appointment (20 hours per week).[/align]

[align="left"]Decisions regarding Teaching Assistant positions for new students for the Fall semester are typically made during mid March. For full consideration for a Teaching Assistant position, your application must have been processed by the end of February. Application processing is delayed when academic credentials are not submitted directly to the UIC Office of Admissions. [/align]

TA，大约10个。

3. Research Assistants assist faculty in funded research projects. Research assistantships are awarded by individual faculty members based on their needs and available research funding. Generally these assistantships are awarded to continuing students whom faculty members have come to know through their courses and work on campus. However, a growing number of research assistantships are awarded to incoming students based on their prior work. If you are an especially strong candidate with research experience, you should email individual faculty (see Faculty on the menu to your left) and inform them of your interest and experience, but only after you have been admitted. (Prior to admission, faculty do not have access to your application materials and credentials.) Please be selective and email only the faculty whose research interests match your own; faculty are generally non-responsive to "broadcast" appeals for financial aid, particularly from students whose background and interests do not match the research of the faculty members. Please also be aware that our faculty receive a large volume of emails, please do not send repeat emails. Faculty will respond to your email request if they are interested in considering you for an RA position. Research assistant wages for incoming graduate students in AY 2008-2009 is $16,395 for a 50% appointment (20 hours per week).

RA，However, a growing number of research assistantships are awarded to incoming students based on their prior work.要联系教授才行。

[align="left"]
[/align]
[align="left"]我觉得这些应该绝大部分都会给PHD，所以希望也不大。[/align]
[align="left"]
[/align]
[align="left"]3. University of Oregon #63[/align]

The only financial awards offered by our department are Graduate Teaching Fellowships. These positions are competitive and are generally awarded to newly admitted students during February and March for the following fall. On occasion, a new student is offered research funding in the form of a research fellowship; but this comes directly from a faculty member's resources.

Students who do not initially receive such an award may still remain in what we call our GTF Pool, and be considered for future teaching or research fellowship positions in the Department. Also students admitted without support may apply for GTFs in other departments.

说实话，感觉这个说的可能性也不大。GTF，competitive。不过不像很多学校直接说：we don't offer any funding for MS student...有先例吗？有知情者吗？


4. brandeis #72

我在很多地方看到有人那这个学校的奖了。当我看到FA下面的 [align="left"]Generous financial aid is available; for more information please click 时都激动了一把。。。[/align]
brandeis.edu
这里说了几项，其中感觉可行的有Fellowships和Assistantships。感觉这个可以申请试试~

5. Colorado state university #79

从这里看可能性还好： cs.colostate.edu
地里有一篇介绍那里的帖子，说那里中国学生不是很多，环境也很好，于是想主申这个学校了~

6. Baylor
据说这个学校会给MS全奖。摘自其官网：

The Department of Computer Science is happy to offer the majority of its graduate students full tuition scholarships. The scholarships are based on undergraduate GPA and GRE scores. As long as a student maintains high academic performance, the scholarship will be good for two years. As a graduate student, all you will have to pay for is fees and books. You do not need to apply for the scholarship; each student is automatically considered when he/she applies to be accepted to the program. Once you apply to the program and are accepted, you will also receive a letter stating if you have been awarded a scholarship.

Along with a scholarship, stipends are also given to graduate students. The stipend amount varies from semester to semester, but is enough to cover living expenses so that the student can focus on earning his/her degree.

is happy to...感觉这学校也太好了。。。但是学校的排名不知道怎么样，将来好不好就业（虽然我觉得自己有能力才是最重要的）。地里知情的来说下吧。。。
Temple Uwake forest univ

7. 其他

看到有人拿到了Miami大学等的MS offer。

美国MS一般不给钱啊。。。于是我又看了看加拿大的学校，有兴趣的有下面的几所：
1.UT
2.Waterloo
3.UBC
4.Albert
5.SFU
6.Calgary

个人觉得我申请UT和Waterloo成功的可能性不大，主要就看UBC和UA了，其实觉得UBC也有些难。。。
SFU和Calgary也计划是主申，没有能保底的。

加拿大的学校陶瓷很必要，准备稍后好好研究各学校的主页，教授信息和研究方向。

现在的选校最终的还没有定下来，欢迎大家提供意见，比方说那些50-100的学校提供MS offer啊，我选的学校有哪些根本没有必要申请啊之类的~

明天就开学了，想跟一个教授开始混实验室了。。。
以后会继续记录我的申请过程，欢迎地里的筒子给我提出意见~