Masters FAQ list

Lately, I have been receiving messages from prospective students about masters admit. So I decided to compile some of the most commonly asked questions and my thoughts on it as an article! Here we go!

Should I apply for masters?

Before thinking about masters, think what is something that you really want to learn and are interested in. Masters isn't like bachelors, it's a choice. You can easily start working right after your bachelors if you are not sure about masters and apply later. Work experience does not kill your prospects of masters contrary to popular opinion. It makes you a lot more productive, structured and informed on the other hand in my opinion. Also, it is easier to find jobs in foreign countries if you have professional work experience.

I am interested in AI and I want to do masters in it.

AI is huge! The question is what in AI. Deep learning, 90% of people reply. Again too broad. What in deep learning? Generative modelling, Reinforcement Learning, Active Learning, Forecasting, Computer Vision, Grasping, Control, NLP... what is the core problem that you want to work on. Think about it with a broad mind. You won't get the exact same problem in your masters, but you certainly want something of that flavour. 

Is it worth applying? 

Once you decided the field think about where can you find the resource and the teachers to learn this that you have decided? Is masters necessary, with schools turning online and almost everything available on MOOC's think through this. There are certain fields of study where having a mentor and being on campus helps a lot. Robotics is one of them. Also, the network that you will create at such a place would be amazing, but again all this is based on the finances available to you. Think about all these aspects and take a call. Sometimes working at labs and research startups also help in achieving similar goals.

Did you ever think about GATE? 

Yes, Gate and M.Tech are also good ideas if you are good at preparing and cracking competitive exams. I am pretty bad at preparing for specific exams in general. I think JEE also just worked for me, I wasn't very great at problem-solving given a limited time frame setting. I did think about joining a research institute in India as an RA and then eventually pursue a masters in US/Europe or maybe join a startup. 

How did you choose your colleges?

Which college is good comes after you have selected field of study, typically going through peoples list and papers published by the university in that field is a good indicator. Ther are some universities which are very comprehensive and pretty good in most fields like CMU, UCB and so on. So they are typically there in everyone's list. 

Preparing for application?

CGPA, References, SoP, GRE, TOEFL. The first three are the most important in my opinion and need efforts for a year or two. So focus more on that. Also, explore whatever you wish to study at masters. You want to get the best out of the place you are in. And like always time is limited so you really want to know what you are getting into and explore it in a lot more depth at the campus (deep learning?! :P). Also, this helps in making a more apt choice about which field you wanna pursue your masters in. 

Finances?

Finances are tough. I was lucky that my finances were handled by my professor. But that is usually not the case. Typically people take a loan and accordingly repay after getting employed in the US. Europe has some scholarships and also the fees is substantially less, with pretty amazing institutes! So you might wanna explore that if finances are a concern. (Just FYI -> I was almost sure of going to the University of Amsterdam as my finances for CMU got sanctioned pretty late.)

Hope these help :) 

Thanks and all the best!

Cheers

Harsh Agarwal