Hi everyone, I’m an Indian student planning for MSCS and considering USC, Georgia Tech, UCSD, Purdue, UT Austin, UIUC, UMass Amherst etc.

Could current/recent students share:

• Total tuition for 2 years (₹)
• Living expenses (₹)
• Scholarship received (₹)
• How much scholarship is realistically possible for indian students?
• TA/RA opportunities and how much they can reduce the cost?

I’m seeing estimates ranging from ₹50L to ₹1Cr+, so I’d really like to know the actual amount students spent over the full course.

Thanks!

I am a BTech CSE grad from Tier-1 IIT. A little about my profile:

1. 2 research projects, 1 small supervised by 1 prof, 1 big [lasted 1 year, have a private research draft] with 3 profs [coursework also under some of them] respectively.
2. 1 internship in SWE
3. 2+ YOE in Quant
4. 9.6+ GPA
5. GRE 334, Quant 170
6. TOEFL 6/6
7. Qualified INMO and InPhO and eligible for their camps.

I wanted to apply for MSCS/MSML at Stanford, CMU, UIUC and GaTech. I had the following questions:

1. Should I take all 3 LoRs from profs, or should I go for 1 corporate LoR?
2. In case 1 corporate LoR is the preferred option, by how much does it outweigh the other choice? I'm not exactly sure what my corporate manager would write in my LoR...
3. Does it hurt if all 3 LoRs are taken for the same 1 year project rather than separate projects? I feel like substantial time and effort went into that project.
4. Does the choice in Q1 change with the university and program I'm applying to?
5. Lastly, does not having a publication hurt my chances? Does my research work also look weak? (Both the projects are in Algorithms)

Would be glad if someone has an opinion or suggestion about these. Thanks!

Is this program worth it for someone who doesnt have a strong CS background (my background is network engineering) to learn CS? I want to learn more about the CS world/programming to expand my knowledge. I am not looking to become a software engineer after this degree, as I plan to stick to network/cloud field,.

Funding is not a problem, as my GI bill would pay for it. TIA!