%20-%20Pallavi%20Pandey.jpeg)
Reviewed on Apr 10, 2025(Enrolled 2024)
What Students Say
Likes
- Great array of courses: There are lots of interesting computer science as well as data science courses to choose from. The courses are extremely in depth with lots of projects to get your hands dirty with.
- Professors are extremely knowledgeable: Victor Adamchik, Mohammad Reza Rajati.
- Campus is beautiful, with a great mix of historic buildings as well as modern architecture. A regular trip to Trader Joe's, is an absolute must when taking a walk through the USC Village.
Dislikes
- The cohort size for certain classes is large making a one-on-one interaction with certain professors a little less common
- Being a CS student i couldn't explore more than 1 course outside my domain
- Limited on-campus jobs making it much more competitive
Course Curriculum
8
- All courses are very different from each other. However, all of them have a very practical approach towards teaching. There is a lot of assignment work that gives you alot of hands-on experience in terms of the applications of the concepts.
- Even the most theoretical courses like Analysis of Algorithms have assignments that really make you apply your knowledge. It's a very fun and different way to learn compared to education back in india.
- The Exams are also on similar lines where its important to have a very solid foundational understanding of concepts, so that we can apply those concepts in the questions presented.
Admission Experience
-
I applied to 5 Universities: Columbia(rejected) , NYU courant(rejected) , North Carolina State University(Admitted) , Northeastern(Admitted), University of Southern California(Admitted)
- I got admits from the universities mentioned above.
- I believe that Columbia was more likely to admit a student who has a stronger academic background with good research papers backing them as compared to someone with work experience. But this is my personal guess. Admissions are quite unpredictable and depend on variety of factors.
- I chose to go with the University of Southern California because of its prestigious Computer Science department. I also felt that being in LA could be advantageous in terms of landing an internship/job.
- USC puts heavy focus on your Bachelors CGPA. So in my opinion: only those who had a cgpa above 9 were being considered. Apart from that, a good portfolio, with substantial work experience/ academic research is definitely something that helps with the process. GRE score varies for every year. In 2024, alot of universities were not taking GRE score into consideration. However, i did take the GRE and got a score of 321. It is also compulsory to take one of the language exams like IELTS, TOEFL etc. I took the IELTS and had an overall band score of 8.
- Fall intake. I got my admit sometime in March. The early Fall deadline is somewhere in the mid of December. It is wise to be ready with all exams by Aug (if you're applying for the fall intake), because alot of applications open in September, and most of the deadlines close by December/January. The decision process is time taking, the admits start rolling out in january, but most people receive admits in March/ April. The admits are rolled out till June.
Faculty
10
- For some courses the cohort size is large, with a class size going upto 300. But other classes are much smaller with 80 students. You can choose whichever professor you want to take a course with and accordingly opt which class size suits you best.There are grader positions available for students to apply to.
- There are also several on-campus jobs available for students to take up which can enhance their development, organizational etc skills. The Professors are extremely knowledgeable and have tons of experience both in teaching as well ask research, making them really great mentors. The lectures are knowledge packed and enough to prep you well for the exams. For Jobs you do have to do your own studying outside of the classroom, but the courses definitely help.
Campus Life
10
- There are alot of events happening throughout the campus every single week. USC is a very cultural university, with alot of focus on sports. You will find yourself in Movie nights, Trivia nights, sports events and all kinds of crafty experiences.
- There are clubs for treks, running, dining. As soon as you join campus a series of Late Nigh SC events begin to welcome the new cohort, which was my favourite. Lots of photo booths and dance nights, especially the Viterbi ball!
Part Time Jobs
- TAs are only open to PHD students but masters students have alot of research opportunities. There are also many on-campus jobs in software development, event organization and so on. There are also several front-desk roles in the housing/management sector where students can work upto 20 hours a week with a base pay starting at 17USD per hour, but it can be more than that too.
- Students typically make somewhere in between 17-20 USD per hour, for 20 hours a week. As soon as you arrive on campus you can start looking for jobs on the handshake portal. You will be provided with all resources on how to apply for part-time jobs and the timeline for them during your orientation. It's competitive to land a job but most people are able to land one by their second semester.
Placement
8
- The pay range as well as the employment rates completely depend on the kind of job role you're applying to. For an SDE the market has been a little on the dull side this year, however much better than the previous year.
- While I don't have the numbers with me, a good chunk of students were able to land an internship this time with an average pay of 30USD per hour which goes upto 55 USD for big techs. The pay range is similar for Full time opportunities.
Accommodation
Off Campus
8
- I chose an off-campus housing. There were several whatsapp groups that are shared with us well before time as soon as we get our offer letters. Through those groups I connected with some people and got a flat together.
- I was lucky enough to connect with someone from the Spring intake, so i was able to join them as soon as I landed in the states. So the house was very well set-up for me beforehand because they were already living in it.
- The rent is 1000USD for a private room. My house is a 15 min walk from campus and 5 min walk from the grocery store as well as the indian store. You don't have to worry about housing, you will be provided with resources to get in touch with the right people for everything from a house to even the furniture!
Exams
- Exams important to take are one of the language exams: IELTS/ TOEFL. GRE varies for every year.
- You will need your official transcripts, a well written Statement of purpose, and 3 credible LORs from your professors as well as your work colleagues.
- There were no interviews for the admission at USC for an MSCS however that can vary from course to course.
Fees
- The fee is to be paid every semester which amount to 20k USD appx.
- The monthly expense which includes the rent as well as other expenses like electricity, wifi, gas, groceries can amount to 1500 USD.
- The university is at a walkable distance so you won't have to spend much on transportation. After 6pm USC provides free Lyft until 2am for any place in a 2 mile radius, making it very easy for us as students to go to any place for any errands.
- There are also shuttles running through the day which helps if you're not a fan of walking. The public transport is also available to USC students for free using the U-pass which will be issued upon your arrival.
Scholarship
- No I didn't receive any scholarship nor do I know much about it.
