MS in Computer Science, Statement of Purpose
| So this site isn't valuable then? This site's whole premise is advice from random people, but if advice from random people isn't valuable that makes this site useless :-/. |
Why are you still derailing this thread? The poster said that they had an engineering degree and was informed about a couple prep. courses.
If there's anything an engineering degree will do it'll get you ready to tackle bigger problems than having to study/review a few prerequisite topics...
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The thread didn't derail until cire's remark I made that comment to. All my advice has been on topic as well as questioning how legit the university was. All my posts before that were oriented toward the OP and his question or drawing attention to a concern that formed as I had never heard a college, until now, allowing the student now having to have a BS before going for a MS.
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| questioning how legit the university was |
NYU does require a BS or BA to get into their graduate program, but it doesn't need to be in CS.
I would think that a good statement of purpose would go into depth about the sub fields you have particular interests in, and would demonstrate your interest.
I think that the last thing a person should write about, is how they want to work for some ... / get a good job, or start their own company.
You should have knowledge and creative ideas of your subject, and you should have the desire to do research, make new discoveries, innovations etc.
I think you shouldn't lie though. If you just want to start your own company, then do that.
I would think that a good statement of purpose would go into depth about the sub fields you have particular interests in, and would demonstrate your interest.
I think that the last thing a person should write about, is how they want to work for some ... / get a good job, or start their own company.
You should have knowledge and creative ideas of your subject, and you should have the desire to do research, make new discoveries, innovations etc.
I think you shouldn't lie though. If you just want to start your own company, then do that.
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| Seriously, your questioning the legitimacy of NYU (New York University)? |
I question the legitimacy of all colleges especially after it coming out that too many colleges fall short for preparing students for the job or field they are supposed to be teaching them the skills for.
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NYU isn't one of those degree mills that claim that they will place you into a job after graduation, it's a real university.
| I question the legitimacy of all colleges especially after it coming out that too many colleges fall short for preparing students for the job or field they are supposed to be teaching them the skills for. |
You need to get into the habit of posting links that verify your claims; otherwise we have no idea what your talking about.
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| You need to get into the habit of posting links that verify your claims; otherwise we have no idea what your talking about. |
All my claims don't need links, unless a person has lived under a rock. Almost every newspaper I read and every news outlet had a segment every month it seemed about colleges falling short to properly prepare students for their career field of choice.
@naraku9333:
Indiana University is a real university, but they are even having problems with their IUPUI college in Indianapolis, Indiana being marked as not preparing students properly for the job market.
Maybe it's an issue specific to Indiana, here in Illinois I've seen no stories like that. IMO colleges and universities aren't really meant to prepare a student for a specific job market, they are meant to educate. That being said many schools, including my community college do offer certificate programs that are meant to train for the job market.
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I'm reluctant to post this statistic because I've yet to find if it is accurate, but one newspaper I read locally stated that out of the top 25 colleges/universities over half fell short in preparing students. K-12 is to educate you, college/universities are supposed to educate you and give you the skill sets needed to make it in your degree field of choice, but it has been revealed that the technology field has a huge problem with this due mainly to the fact that technology is still rapidly advancing. Advancing so fast in fact that most colleges can't keep up.
My point is, you say it is suppose to educate and not meant to prepare, let's take nursing as an example, their degree teaches them the skills and then requires them to get so many hours of actual hands on nursing done for their degree. Same with legal degrees if a person wanting to be a lawyer, you have to do mock trials to put the skills you are shown in the degree to work and get accustomed to a court room. Programming, falls short because it doesn't require anything like that from what I've heard (my degree was game programming degree so I can't speak 100% what they do, just what I've heard). Sure you get a few skill sets in the course, but you don't get any real world experience like lawyer students and nurses do. We just pump out a few programs and do a few tests in class then move to the next concept or problem.
My point is, you say it is suppose to educate and not meant to prepare, let's take nursing as an example, their degree teaches them the skills and then requires them to get so many hours of actual hands on nursing done for their degree. Same with legal degrees if a person wanting to be a lawyer, you have to do mock trials to put the skills you are shown in the degree to work and get accustomed to a court room. Programming, falls short because it doesn't require anything like that from what I've heard (my degree was game programming degree so I can't speak 100% what they do, just what I've heard). Sure you get a few skill sets in the course, but you don't get any real world experience like lawyer students and nurses do. We just pump out a few programs and do a few tests in class then move to the next concept or problem.
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| All my claims don't need links, unless a person has lived under a rock. Almost every newspaper I read and every news outlet had a segment every month it seemed about colleges falling short to properly prepare students for their career field of choice. |
I perceive that whatever truth there might be in your claims, is probably overshadowed by your bias, or exaggerations in attempt to be persuasive.
And I'm pretty sure that a person has lived under a rock.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/mexico-family-lives-rock-formation-home_n_2534837.html
So there you go; all of your claims do need sources.
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| BHXSpecter wrote: |
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| All my claims don't need links, unless a person has lived under a rock. Almost every newspaper I read and every news outlet had a segment every month it seemed about colleges falling short to properly prepare students for their career field of choice. |
This is seriously the stupidest thing I've heard in recent memory.
Here are some things this paragraph implies about you:
1. You trust newspapers to be 100% accurate
2. You trust your interpretation of what was said to be 100% accurate
3. You trust your memory of your interpretation to be 100% accurate
4. You expect other people to trust you and your memory and interpretation of data not in hand
These are very bad ideas.
Imagine if the newspaper was 80% accurate, your interpretation was 80% accurate and your memory was 80% accurate. 0.8*0.8*0.8 = 0.512, so nearly half of what you claim to be fact would actually be false.
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closed account (3qX21hU5)
| . Sure you get a few skill sets in the course, but you don't get any real world experience like lawyer students and nurses do |
It's called a internship... which a lot of college students do now days. Colleges are not meant to give job experience or experience to use in the workplace. Anyway that has a job knows that it is the employer that trains you to do your job and how to do it. Sure college teaches you the requirements that the job requires but it is the companies job to train you specifically how to do that job. There are also plenty of certificates and other courses out there (Some that are free) that also teach you work environment skills.
And the great thing about our field is that you can work just fine on your own or from your house. Getting involved in an open source community project can be almost as good looking as a solid internship.
Nursing students can't really just go out and start nursing random folks whenever they feel like it. And law students can't just go give legal advice. With CS, I think you're expected to work outside of what the university provides.
Nursing students can't really just go out and start nursing random folks whenever they feel like it. And law students can't just go give legal advice. With CS, I think you're expected to work outside of what the university provides.
| chrisname wrote: |
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| This is seriously the stupidest thing I've heard in recent memory. |
That line may be the stupidest thing I've read in recent memory. Seeing as you can't hear anything on this forum :P.
Joking aside, I would have replied a few days ago, but was in Riley Children's Hospital due to my son's health. That was a pain, had a mucus plug that was making his breathing difficult, then on top of that the local college ER put the wrong ID on him (which wasn't caught until he got to Riley's ER, apparently our local ER put the band ID of a 37 year old man on my son), when we got him to the 8th floor they had to code him three times (meaning he quit breathing, upon which me and my father-in-law had to do an emergency trach change so he had a open airway to work with..I honestly can't think of anything more stressful than having to do that while your son isn't breathing), after a day of medication and two days of observation they finally let us go home (that was my son's spring break basically as it happened Tuesday night Wednesday morning). We had been wanting his trach out, thinking we got forced into having it, but after the coding three times, it made us realize that if it wasn't for the trach we would be planning a funeral right now instead of having my son acting like himself again.
| chrisname wrote: |
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| Imagine if the newspaper was 80% accurate, your interpretation was 80% accurate and your memory was 80% accurate. 0.8*0.8*0.8 = 0.512, so nearly half of what you claim to be fact would actually be false. |
Half of what anyone says is false anyways due to interpretation and source.
Fact is that your post shows why I don't have to post anything for my claims. There could be a defacto site where everything is 100% accurate that had hundreds of stories supporting my claims and someone would still call me out as being false. If anyone truly cared about what my claims were they would do the search themselves to find if they were true or false using the sources they trust. I could post links from Huffington Post, CNN, Fox News, wikipedia, New York Times, etc and someone, as you did, would find fault in every single one of them as to why they are wrong and inaccurate.
| BHXSpecter wrote: |
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| That line may be the stupidest thing I've read in recent memory. Seeing as you can't hear anything on this forum :P. |
Touché.
| I could post links from Huffington Post, CNN, Fox News, wikipedia, New York Times, etc and someone, as you did, would find fault in every single one of them as to why they are wrong and inaccurate. |
If all your sources can be shown to be wrong, then wouldn't that be a good indication that your position is wrong?
I'm sorry to hear about your son. I hope he's okay.
| chrisname wrote: |
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| If all your sources can be shown to be wrong, then wouldn't that be a good indication that your position is wrong? |
You misunderstood. I meant, even if I gave links to sites that were 100% accurate saying exactly what I said, there will be someone that says they are wrong due to bias, false facts, etc. They will pull reasons out of the air as to why they are wrong. For example, iseeplusplus posted the living under a rock article from huffington post, but if I posted links from there stating my claims (which I did find one article saying colleges are failing low income students), iseeplusplus or someone else would suddenly attack huffington post claiming bias, misquoted facts, etc. No site can ever be 100% accurate and someone will come off with some reason why it is wrong (even if it isn't wrong).
| chrisname wrote: |
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| I'm sorry to hear about your son. I hope he's okay. |
Thank you. He is fine and acting himself again. Don't know what I would do if I lost him as him and his mother are my world.
| You misunderstood. I meant, even if I gave links to sites that were 100% accurate saying exactly what I said, there will be someone that says they are wrong due to bias, false facts, etc. They will pull reasons out of the air as to why they are wrong. For example, iseeplusplus posted the living under a rock article from huffington post, but if I posted links from there stating my claims (which I did find one article saying colleges are failing low income students), iseeplusplus or someone else would suddenly attack huffington post claiming bias, misquoted facts, etc. No site can ever be 100% accurate and someone will come off with some reason why it is wrong (even if it isn't wrong). |
I've been active in forums which give infractions for baseless claims. It's a real, critical thinking, skill builder taking part in discussions which are strictly based in reality. Sometimes you realize that your assumptions don't exactly match the evidence when you go searching for it. And sometimes you learn that you cannot take news reports or articles at face value. It forces you to re-evaluate your own assumptions, and to separate facts from arguments from opinions. These are the skills that you need in life, and that, if nothing else, college should build.
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Alright here are some links I got just from googling.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57517143/50-state-universities-with-best-worst-grad-rates/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/education/stagnant-college-graduation-rate-is-focus-of-2-new-reports.html?_r=0
http://collegecompletion.chronicle.com/ <= 3.4 million students joined in 2004 and only a little over 1 million even graduated in 2010 out of those students (sad really)
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/venturebiz/content/job-hunt-class-2010-college-graduates-confront-mean-employment-scene <= more of a job market issue than college
http://www.epi.org/publication/bp340-labor-market-young-graduates/ <= job market issue again
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-01-13/news/ct-oped-0113-page-20130113_1_barron-s-profiles-elite-colleges-elite-schools
Though I did say I was biased to begin with due to getting screwed by my college and pretty much every college before the one I finished. Because of this bias I take notice of every negative news article that has come out about colleges failing students. My assumptions won't change because I know too many people that have been screwed too.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57517143/50-state-universities-with-best-worst-grad-rates/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/education/stagnant-college-graduation-rate-is-focus-of-2-new-reports.html?_r=0
http://collegecompletion.chronicle.com/ <= 3.4 million students joined in 2004 and only a little over 1 million even graduated in 2010 out of those students (sad really)
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/venturebiz/content/job-hunt-class-2010-college-graduates-confront-mean-employment-scene <= more of a job market issue than college
http://www.epi.org/publication/bp340-labor-market-young-graduates/ <= job market issue again
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-01-13/news/ct-oped-0113-page-20130113_1_barron-s-profiles-elite-colleges-elite-schools
Though I did say I was biased to begin with due to getting screwed by my college and pretty much every college before the one I finished. Because of this bias I take notice of every negative news article that has come out about colleges failing students. My assumptions won't change because I know too many people that have been screwed too.
closed account (3qX21hU5)
I'm probably missing something but wasn't your argument that the colleges weren't teaching their students the skills they need to be successful in their field of study?
If so how does any of them links prove or advance your point? What I mean is you listed a whole bunch of links that either A) Show how students drop out of college or don't put effort into getting good grades, or B) It is a job market issue which is a job problem not a college education problem.
For A) I really don't see how you can blame that on the college's and even if you can you can't give them full blame or even half usually. The fact is if someone doesn't want to learn they won't. It's not the colleges job to go out and make the students study and do their work they aren't children. It's the students responsibility to do that. With your argument you are saying if student's drop out or get bad grades it means it is the colleges fault for not trying hard enough because the blame can't be put on the students themselves.
For B) Like you have stated it is a job market issue that has more to deal with our crap economy which is why many college graduates are finding it harder to get jobs because less companies are willing to hire at the moment.
What I got from almost every article you listed (I didn't read a few) was that you blame the colleges because students decide to drop out of college, because students get bad grades, or that you blame the colleges for the bad job market (Again since it is a job market issue not sure how this works), or some other reason.
I suggest instead of looking at it like it is always the colleges fault, instead look at it at it from different angles. Like for one maybe it is just how our society is now days. Where it is no longer focused on hard work to achieve what you want from life, instead the youth are taught that they are all winners and that you can get things without hard work (This is just my opinion and many might disagree).
Or that maybe we are in a bad economy and many businesses (That usually hire college grads) can't afford to hire new employees because of numerous reasons.
Or another way to look at it would be that it is up to the student to push for what he wants. Just because he goes to school doesn't mean he will have everything he needs to get his dream job.
He will have to do other things then just get a degree. Like get a internship, work at a very low level position to get a chance at the job he really wants, work at a crappy job while going through college so he can have some work experience, go to other classes to get certified in area's that he wants to work in (Microsoft Certificates, ECT.).
Them are all things that the college doesn't need to provide them because it should be up to THEM to put in the extra effort and hard work to better themselves. They can't expect just to go to college and once they graduate they automatically get their dream job...
If so how does any of them links prove or advance your point? What I mean is you listed a whole bunch of links that either A) Show how students drop out of college or don't put effort into getting good grades, or B) It is a job market issue which is a job problem not a college education problem.
For A) I really don't see how you can blame that on the college's and even if you can you can't give them full blame or even half usually. The fact is if someone doesn't want to learn they won't. It's not the colleges job to go out and make the students study and do their work they aren't children. It's the students responsibility to do that. With your argument you are saying if student's drop out or get bad grades it means it is the colleges fault for not trying hard enough because the blame can't be put on the students themselves.
For B) Like you have stated it is a job market issue that has more to deal with our crap economy which is why many college graduates are finding it harder to get jobs because less companies are willing to hire at the moment.
What I got from almost every article you listed (I didn't read a few) was that you blame the colleges because students decide to drop out of college, because students get bad grades, or that you blame the colleges for the bad job market (Again since it is a job market issue not sure how this works), or some other reason.
I suggest instead of looking at it like it is always the colleges fault, instead look at it at it from different angles. Like for one maybe it is just how our society is now days. Where it is no longer focused on hard work to achieve what you want from life, instead the youth are taught that they are all winners and that you can get things without hard work (This is just my opinion and many might disagree).
Or that maybe we are in a bad economy and many businesses (That usually hire college grads) can't afford to hire new employees because of numerous reasons.
Or another way to look at it would be that it is up to the student to push for what he wants. Just because he goes to school doesn't mean he will have everything he needs to get his dream job.
He will have to do other things then just get a degree. Like get a internship, work at a very low level position to get a chance at the job he really wants, work at a crappy job while going through college so he can have some work experience, go to other classes to get certified in area's that he wants to work in (Microsoft Certificates, ECT.).
Them are all things that the college doesn't need to provide them because it should be up to THEM to put in the extra effort and hard work to better themselves. They can't expect just to go to college and once they graduate they automatically get their dream job...
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