Reviewed on Apr 23, 2025(Enrolled 2024)
What Students Say
Likes
- Culturally and Economically Diverse environment
- Big and Beautiful Campus
- Research Opportunities are great
Dislikes
- Career fairs are unhelpful
- Campus Safety is a concern for girls
- Buses are always overcrowded and you cannot walk because of how huge the campus is
Course Curriculum
10
- The course curriculum is difficult; it is very theory-based. The faculty members are very research-focused, which means they don't pay much attention to the course curriculum. Classes are generally 3 hours long (one class per week) or 1 and a half hours long (2 classes per week). They can be there from 8:30 am to 11:30 am or in the afternoon from 12:10 pm to 3:10 pm or 2 pm to 5 pm.
- The number of students varies from class to class; if it's an undergrad + grad class, then there can be around 100 students. Or else general class size is 30 students. Indian students are around half of the class size.
Admission Experience
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I applied for the following universities:
- Purdue – Rejected
- TAMU – Rejected
- UF – Rejected
- ASU – Accepted but for MSSE
- Rutgers – Accepted
- NEU – Accepted for MSCS but Silicon valley campus, MSIS for Boston and MS AI for boston campus
- Umass Amherst – Accepted
- SJSU – Rejected
- I think I was rejected from some colleges due to my GRE/TOEFL scores or maybe my LORs weren't that powerful. For TAMU, I heard they generally admit IITians. Didnt get accepted to SJSU and ASU (MSCS) or NEU (MSCS) because I heard I was too late for the application
- I was accepted to 2 colleges: Rutgers and Umass Amherst. I selected Rutgers due to the location; it's in the Tri-state area and near New York city. Also, I received an admit from Umass Amherst pretty late (like 2 days before my Visa appointment; I tried requesting the i20 from umass earlier, but couldn't get it).
- Following link can tell you about the eligibility criteria: https://www.cs.rutgers.edu/academics/graduate/m-s-program/ms-program-concentrations/admission-requirements
- My overall rutgers admission experience was pretty straightforward; the academic advisors were prompt in response and even sent me a revised I-20 since my name was misprinted.
- I applied to the spring 2024 intake. Applied on July 31, paid $70 for the application fee and received admission on September 16. Had to give a decision by September 26th. Had to submit financial documents like Loan sanction letters, bank account statements, etc., to get the I-20. Once I received my I-20, I noticed my spelling was incorrect. Received the corrected I-20 on October 3.
Faculty
8
- In my CS program at Rutgers, class sizes vary—core classes can be big, but electives and grad courses are smaller. Teaching styles differ: some are theory-heavy, while others are more hands-on. The coursework gives a good foundation, but getting a job still requires extra effort, like practicing LeetCode and doing side projects.
- I really admire Prof. Wes Cowan for being approachable and engaging, and Prof. Dimitris Metaxas is also super chill and easy to talk to. Prof. Antonia Miranda taught us databases using the traditional chalkboard method—it was a very comprehensive and well-structured class. Prof. Srinivas Narayana’s Computer Networks course was packed with projects, which made it great for practical learning.
Campus Life
10
- Rutgers university has 4 campuses. It's in New Jersey, nearby towns. Campuses are Cook Douglass and College Ave in New Brunswick city and Busch and Livingston campus in Piscataway city. Each campus has its own library, sports recreation area, and health centre. There are many fests mainly cultural fests, rutgers day, hotdog day, etc.
- There are many clubs at Rutgers, like cultural clubs, the cloud computing club, and the graduate students club. I am part of the Rutgers Mobile App development club. Rutgers also has many hackathons, like HackRU and HackHers.
Part Time Jobs
- In rutgers, graduate students do not get an opportunity to be a TA. Here, they call it Part-Time lecturers (PTL); it's a stipend-based position. Tuition pay is not waived. Students can get RAs under professors or in labs. Most of them are volunteer-based positions; some RBHS (Rutgers Medical School)-based RAs generally have $30 per hour pay. Other on-campus jobs include working as Accommodation assistants, web developers at Rutgers Access and Disability resources. There are job opportunities at the Office of disability (ODS) to work as a proctor. People also work as app developers or support specialists at Rutgers OIT, or people work in Rutgers Makerspace as well. Pay ranges between $15 and $20. Students can also work in dining, rutgers cinema, or work as swimming instructors at the Recreation Centre or even library assistants. Maximum hours allowed for on-campus jobs are $20. It's not very easy to secure on-campus jobs; you have to mail professors to get grader or PTL positions. Have to get referrals from seniors for other positions or you can apply at rutgers job portal/handshake.
- Students earn up to 20 dollars per hour. It's not very easy to secure on-campus jobs; you have to mail professors to get grader or PTL positions. Have to get referrals from seniors for other positions or you can apply at rutgers job portal/handshake. Asking referrals from seniors, emailing professors and keeping an eye on emails from the dept can help you get part-time opportunities.
Placement
6
- From what I’ve seen in my batch and from talking to seniors, I'd say around 70–80% of students in the MSCS program at Rutgers find jobs within 6 months of graduating. The average salary range is usually between $90K and $120K, depending on the role and previous experience. Most of us don’t rely on campus placements since Rutgers doesn’t have a very strong setup for that, so people usually get jobs through internships, LinkedIn, referrals, or just cold applying online.
- A lot of my batchmates got roles like Software Engineer, Data Engineer, or Cloud Engineer at companies like Amazon, Bloomberg, JP Morgan, Meta (mostly internships), and even a few startups. Some bigger names like Google, Microsoft, and IBM have hired Rutgers grads too, but it really depends on your own effort, networking, and how well you’ve prepared.
Accommodation
Off Campus
10
- Found accommodation by asking seniors, and we also found reviews from Apartments.com and Zillow.com. Monthly base rent for our flat is 3175, trash is 20, the admin fee is $35, and the sewer fee and water fee are around 60 dollars, respectively. My share is around 640-650, depending on other utilities. Facilities include, Concierge Service, Package Management, Dry Cleaning Partnership & Groceries Refrigeration, Onsite Management & Maintenance Team, Workspace Lounge, Printer Access and Starbucks Coffee Self-Serve, 24-Hour Fitness Center & Tonal, Dry-Saunas, Yoga Studio & Cycling Studio with Peloton, Resort-Style Pool, Outdoor Grills, Dog Run, Expansive Resident Lounge w/ Media Room, Work from Home Lounge & Private Events Space, EV Charging Stations, Private Parking Garage w/ Assigned Parking, Butterfly MX Video Intercom & Controlled Access.
- I didn't face any issues while finding the accommodation. I highly recommend Renaissance Plaza Square apartments to future students. The nearest bus stop is a 5-minute walk from the apartment building. It's like a 15-minute drive to the college campus. Indian students generally live here because it's near downtown.
Exams
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Requirements as mentioned on the official MSCS admission website:
- High score on all the GRE examinations is recommended, as well as the TOEFL exam or IELTS in the case of foreign students. (The average GRE scores for Fall 2020 incoming students were the following: Verbal 150, Quantitative 160; the mean TOEFL score was 92; the mean for IELTS was 7.0. My GRE score was 308.
- Strong letters of recommendation (at least three).
- A clear statement, about one page in length, outlining the reasons why the applicant wishes to pursue graduate study in computer science. A CV was also required. There was no interview.
Fees
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Fees for each semester are around 15k dollars. if i give the breakdown of my spring 2025 fee structure:
- Technology fee – $250
- Health insurance fee – $1709
- Student fee – $891
- Course/Other fees – $250
- School fee – $216
- Tuition fee – $13149
- Total – $16420.50
- The fee is charged credit-wise; one course is 3 credits. So for each subject in spring, I paid $4383. In summer, I took up one course, and my fees were around 4,215.00 for tuition and the other was around $162.
- Monthly expenses can vary, but my rent is around 650 (excluding electricity), my Electricity bill is around $40, groceries are around $100, and Wi-Fi and home insurance are around $15, and additional miscellaneous expenses for parties, eating out, and travel can be around an additional $100-150.
Scholarship
- No, I didn't receive any scholarship. None of my friends in my Masters in Computer Science course received any scholarship either, but people from ECE department (some pai family scholarship which was around 2000 dollars) and Business school (a friend of mine is doing masters in healthcare analysis and she received scholarship for academic excellence around 4000 dollars)
