Masters FAQ list- Part 2

I recently wrote a post on LinkedIn for prospective masters students to comment on the common doubts people have when they decide on pursuing masters. Here are the answers to some of them!

Question: Confusion on writing the content of the SoP

• If I am applying for research-based masters, should I write about the industrial experience??
• If I am applying for professional masters, should I write about my research experience??
• If I want to pursue research in field X and I have some decent experience in working on field Y but aspire to move to field X, should I focus on X or Y?

Your SoP is an honest document that indicates your intent on pursuing your masters. Write whatever is true to your heart.

In my opinion, writing briefly about any of your experiences never hurts (whether it be research or be it industry). An SoP helps you in building the flow of the applicant's life. It's like watching a film. Sometimes in a movie, the protagonist's childhood gets over in 5 minutes, and then the rest three hours are like his 6 months of journey, and sometimes there is an equal focus on each stage of life. What you want to ensure is your message goes through.?

• If you are looking for professional masters: Make sure you write that very clearly in your document and apply to programs that primarily focus on professional aspects of the curriculum. But talk about how well you were once a part of a research lab at College A maybe, and you realized you loved building more of end to end systems leading you to intern at XYZ Robotics the very next year. You found your true passion there and then explained your work in very detail at XYZ robotics.
• If you are applying for a research position: Tell how you have explored industry, learned industry standards of code writing and maintenance, but instead of working on the last mile of an ML algorithm that is needed to get these into the hands of the users, you want to solve the more fundamental and challenging problems in the sphere of let's say Motion Planning.
• If you are changing fields: You need to be very convincing. You need to clearly explain why you think the area you are currently pursuing is not meant for you, and you won't be repeating that mistake again. You need to assure your readers and the committee, you know what you are getting in and will come out with flying colours if given a chance. Your application should clearly indicate that you have tried filling in the knowledge gaps that might have been or would be created as you move from one field to another. Typically recommendations play the game here. As you switch fields from X to Y, a very famous Prof. from Y claims in the reference letter, you are outstanding in Y that rests your case.
• The other way to change fields which is more realistic in my opinion and is easy to work out is to find something at the intersection of X and Y, which has more of Y and less of X. Hence to solve that you want to pursue your masters' in Y
• If you don't have a lot of experience in Y, please explore it more, else you might end up coming back to square one again, frustrated studying Y with a lot more financial debt to cater to.

Question: Should I mention a professors name I would like to work with? It is very confusing primarily because of two reasons:?

• The uncertainty in the program execution: Sometimes, programs don't clearly state if they would allow you to work under a professor, and mentioning such an intent might hamper my acceptance.
• It's very unclear what kind of students a professor takes, typically which program student gets in, the course work or the stipend, etc.?

Well, it's almost always a good idea to mention professors you are aspiring to work with. The language here might matter. You do not want to be very fussy about working with a particular professor only. In my opinion, naming a professor shows that the candidate knows what he is coming after. Let's say Prof. X is not hiring, but Prof. Y, who is reading your application, thinks he might be a good fit as there is a good intersection of research between their work and prof. X's work, he might still call you. By naming the Prof., you have very clearly indicated the domain of problem-solving that interests you. Consider two statements:

1. I am interested in Computer Vision and Machine Learning, and the course in MS CV will help me in growing and expanding my wings in the same.
2. I am interested in Computer Vision and Machine Learning. More specifically, I am intrigued by the work done by Professor Martial Hebert, who is trying to incorporate strong geometry-based priors in the recent deep learning setups. I am possibly looking towards working under him, else I am keen on exploring research directions & projects where researchers are trying to include predefined mathematical priors to typical data-driven machine learning systems. As an MSCV student, I am looking forward to a capstone to use these ideas and explore courses like Geometry Based Computer Vision and SLAM, which will help me surge further in this domain.

Clearly, in the second one, although you have mentioned Prof. Martial, in no way you are saying I want to work under only his supervision. As a reader, I now have a clear understanding of what the candidate wants. Because I know the CMU ecosystem well, I might forward the application to Professor Michael Kaess, another fantastic professor to work with where you can do similar stuff!

Question:?Job Prospects in different countries.?

I am not very well versed in the demographics of jobs at different locations. Still, I think there are good enough opportunities to work if you pursue your masters in the latest computer science and robotics technologies almost ubiquitously available everywhere. People often say India does not have excellent places to work at if you want to pursue AI, well.. apply to rephrase.ai :P?

Bengaluru is one of the hubs in the country that has attracted some of the best minds and the best startups towards it, and I believe it is undergoing a revolution!

US everyone knows it is the land of opportunities! So no point in debating that.

Some friends say getting a work permit in Europe is slightly tricky. However, lately, I have seen Amsterdam becoming a mecca of technology and innovation, especially for AI, Ml and Applied robotics!

Question: Typical Payscale in the US

I think it is close to 80K USD to 120K USD in the US, where some brilliant folks fetch 160K USD with ESOPs and stocks.

I hope these answers help. Feel free to comment if you have some more concerns and doubts that you want me to take up in my next post! Ciao!

Written By,

Harsh Agarwal, ML/AI Research @ rephrase.ai