What Students Say
Likes
- Great systems courses
- Good learning opportunity for research
- The RTP triangle area is very good at providing job opportunities for tech people
Dislikes
- High tuition cost
- No co-op for Ms.c students
- The RTP area prefers people with atleast 2 years work experience if possible
Course Curriculum
- Difficulty is course-dependent. There are courses with practically 0 workload, and courses which are the hardest take 30hours a week.
- The curriculum was very practical. The positive aspects are that I got to do a lot of projects, and these had solid test cases designed so that we can reflect on our mistakes and fix our coding mistakes.
Admission Experience
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I have applied to 5 colleges for masters in CS
1. Rutgers, New Brunswick - admit
2. North Carolina State University - admit
3. Stony Brook University - admit
4. University of California, Irvine, LA - rejected due to < 320 GRE and no research experience.
I confirmed admission to NCSU because in my opinion it was the best college of the 4 admissions I got. -
I chose this particular college because of good systems research prospects. The college had emphasis and bigger Computer engineering crowd that made it easier to upskill on systems software engineerig. The preferences to do Leetcode and solving assignments are minimal. The best OS course I have ever seen. Eligibility criteria is GRE (313-318) and high CGPA (8.7+), TOEFL.
The admission experience was super smooth and comfortable. -
I applied to the Fall 2022 timeline. The major factor was that it is a public university and the housing in the area was somewhat cheap. Moreover, the systems software engineering courses in this university, especially operating systems is very good. The course prepares you for the software industry. The admission process took 4 months, the university is very prompt at sending acceptances by March or April. The admission was over by June.
Class Schedule
- There are 6 classes scheduled in a week, with around 1/2 classes per day except fridays.
- There is no fixed timeline.
- There are a high number of Indian students in the course (300+).
Faculty
- The faculty to student ratio varies from course to course. The biggest courses have one faculty and 7 TAs handling a class of strength 200. This might be bad, but the quality of material is enough to pass the exams.
- The job security is completely put on the student's hands, the university does not provide a lot of opportunities in terms of career buildup. Although, almost all the students have secured a job with alumni support.
- The faculty members help the students by providing them TA jobs in the second semester. But, this is difficult to get. The Algorithms faculty Stefen Heber is an awesome math based professor who emphasises on proofs.
Campus Life
- We have 4 campuses for my college. The main ones are the main campus and centennial for engineering students.
- Both of these have library, main campus has sports, medical, music services. The gym is one of the biggest I have ever seen across USA.
- The college provides good awareness of wellness and recreation. The main campus festivals are packapalooza, which is a shopping fest, moonlight howl and run, which is a midnight running fest, and a lot more are there.
Part Time Jobs
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Usually 20-30 students secure a TA, RA position. If research is being pursued, everyone gets an RA job and TA job. The pay range varies from 16$-25$ an hour. The other on campus jobs are library assistants, gym maintainers, and bookstore workers and dining. The hourly wages are 10$/hr. The maximum hours are 20 per week. Securing an on campus job on the first semester is very easy.
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Students typically earn anywhere from 300-500$ a month in their part time jobs. It is very easy to secure part time employment while studying. There is a job portal for part time jobs, and you can also visit any on-campus business and inquire for better chances. You must have a cover letter for some jobs. No prior experience is required for doing these jobs.
Placement
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Almost 80% of the students secure employment within 6 months of completion of their course. The average salary range for my course is 90,000$ minimum.
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The students usually have to search on their own, go through networking via linkedin to get their jobs. The quality of the students is good, so they don't have a big problem securing employment.
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Common methods include the career fair, and linkedin job hunt. Major companies that hire from NCSU are networking companies like Cisco, Arista Networks, etc.
Accommodation
- I searched on facebook for accommodation. The monthly rent was 500$ and the utilities costed around 300$ including food for one month.
- This was for a private room and bathroom, which I consider to be very cheap comparatively. I encountered no challenges while securing accommodation.
- The house is pretty far from college (30 minutes by bus, but 10 minutes by car, but I don't own a car). Most indian students stay in Avery Close, which is still 10 minutes by bus, but the rents there are higher.
Exams
- The university requires TOEFL/IELTS, GRE. The documents required for admission are 1 SOP and 3 LORs and 1 CV.
- There was no interview as part of the application.
- The GRE scores of 313+ is necessary, and CGPA is given a good weightage.
- The 3 LORs have to be sent from the professor's email id. Furthermore, we should also show proof of funds for admission into the college.
Fees
- It is credit based and 10+ credit means same fees for all. For all masters student the fee structure is 20k USD per semester excluding housing. There are no other charges. Insurance isn't mandatory.
- The fee was semester wise, and in last semester it was 7k USD. Monthly expenses around 700 USD if private else 500 if shared inclusive of food, water electricity, rent. Free transportation.
Scholarship
- No, there are no scholarships except for PhD students. I personally don't know anyone with a scholarship.
- It might be worth checking with the OIS team of NCSU or even admissions team so that we can get a better picture of how the scholarship programme works.
- That said, the PhD students get their entire fee waived off. This is also for graduate TAs.
