Considering Graduate School at Purdue?
If you are considering graduate school at Purdue, here are some incentives to apply.
Considering Grad School at Purdue CS? If so, this blog post is just for you.
A little bit about me(or why should you listen to me…). My name is Pinaki. I am a second-semester Master’s student in the CS+STAT Joint Masters at Purdue. I graduated from Purdue in May 2021 with a Bachelor in Computer Science with specializations in Machine Intelligence, Database and Information Systems, and Theory. I also minored in Math and Statistics. During my undergraduate years at Purdue, I have been a part of Association of Multicultural Computer Scientists(AMCS), Reach Out for Computer Science(ROCS), Global Science Partners(GSP), and of course Undergraduate Student Board for Computer Science(USB). I have been a part of USB, actively and passively, for more than three years. I have contributed to initiatives like TA Training and Virtual Office Hours. Advocating on behalf of students is something I enjoy doing and that is why I am here to help! A key concern amongst undergrads, often echoed via student forums, here at Purdue is the lack of knowledge about grad school. I am here to advocate why you should consider Purdue CS for an MS degree, especially if you are finishing/finished your undergrad at Purdue. What prompted me to go for an MS? I wanted to learn about topics whose discussion was beyond the scope of the classroom; I wanted to augment my knowledge. Also, I enjoyed school in general and wanted to explore research. I started applying for master’s programs sometime around September 2020. I had all my decisions in by February-March 2021. Despite some really competitive offers, I decided to pursue my MS at Purdue owing to the following reasons.
- Cost of Living for some locations was 2-3x more than that of West Lafayette
- Teaching Assistantship: This was a big one because often MS programs do not offer assistantships. At Purdue, my tuition was covered, and I got a stipend once in two weeks. Taking a wide variety of courses at Purdue equips you with the knowledge of ‘how to run the course’. This also ensures constituency and quality. Keep in mind, being a GTA comes with a lot of responsibilities; you are in charge of the quality of the fabric of the curriculum. Also, my medical insurance was covered. I was essentially staff now.
- Familiarity with the department was another one. Purdue has been my home for 4 years. Saying goodbye can be hard :’)
- Influx of New Faculty (especially in AI, ML) made me stay at Purdue with the prospect of research collaboration
- Purdue’s CS MS Program offers MS Degrees in many flavors: General/Vanilla, CSE (Computational Sciences and Engineering), CLS (Computational Life Sciences), and CS+STAT.
This factor made me strongly consider Purdue as this kind of flexibility was not available everywhere. Other than that, there is the 5 Year BS+MS combined degree program, which can help you save a year. This does not apply to me as I took 4 sweet years to complete my BS and then separately applied for an MS. If you are at the junction of deciding on grad school, I hope these pointers would make Purdue look like an attractive option. I also serve as the Undergraduate Committee Representative at the Graduate Student Board for Computer Science (GSB). If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. Boiler Up!
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