What Students Say
Likes
- The research is perfect here
- The classrooms are having the best equipments
- The professors are the most helpful
Dislikes
- The college itself is separated and it's huge [so for a few days navigations becomes hard]
- It's very cold, unless you are particularly equipped with good jackets,
- TA is not given in the first semester unlike other colleges [you need to earn it by getting 4 for the first 2 semesters]
Course Curriculum
10
- The intensity of the course curriculum changes depending on the level of the course at UIC. For example, 500-level courses are more intensive in terms of research and demand a lot of work. One of the courses required me to prepare a research novel as a final requirement. 400-level courses are more foundational and much easier, which is why I tended to pair a more rigorous 500-level course with a 400-level course to ease the burden. The curriculum as a whole provides a mix of practical and theoretical learning.
- The course features some positive aspects, including the freedom of choosing electives relevant to your own personal interests, such as AI, systems, and data science. Professors are very friendly and are usually happy to guide students/instructional researchers. A slight con is that some of the introductory passes may be too elementary for students with prior experience.
Admission Experience
- I applied to around 8 [accepted 3, UIC and Rochester Institute of Technology and Oregon state university] there could be many reasons for my rejections but I strongly believe that it is due to my GPA. I have a GPA of 8.75 in india but to get a good college I think it is necessary to get at atleast above 9.2 GPA in india and college really doesn't matter. I don't remember the list of colleges which I have applied for.
- This college had good research and at the time I came in, there were very good GA and TA programs, if you got a GA or TA, you were exempted from the college fees and you got a stipend of 2000 dollars per month, so my major motivation for taking this college was both the GA/TA programme and the good research and research which aligned with my focus of study.
- I have applied for the application from the college website and later I was accepted. it is all done on their college website.
Majorly, it is given on the college website, so GRE and TOEFL are what I gave and I got the bare minimum to be selected. My overall admission experience was good but it took a lot of time for me to be accepted. There were not particular challenges which I faced; it was almost easy to do the process. - I applied for the Fall 2023 intake for the graduate programme in Computer Science. The most notable factors which influenced my decisions were the robust research opportunities and the possibility of obtaining assistantships because they matched my professional and educational objectives.
- I applied in early November 2022 and included all components of my application, which consisted of a statement of purpose, several letters of recommendation, and GRE and TOEFL scores. A balance of weeks later, my application was considered complete and then changed to pending review, which I confirmed took approximately 3 months until I got the application confirmation.
Class Schedule
10
- As for the timetable, students usually have 1-2 classes scheduled a day that can last from 1.5 to 2 hours. Classes can start as early as 9 AM and can go as late as 6 PM, depending on the schedule.
- The average class size lies between 25 and 40 students, creating good interaction opportunities. In most of my classes, I had about 15-20 Indian students.
Faculty
10
- The Computer Science program at UIC has a reasonably good student-to-faculty ratio, around 30–40 students per class. This permits sufficient interaction during classes, office hours, and other discussions. Faculty can be easily reached, and although classes are not too small, students have some opportunities for personalised attention, particularly when they want academic advice or direction on research activities and this is how most of my friends have reached out to RA opportunities.
- Teaching is done using different approaches, but all have high expectations and are methodical. A lot of professors give equal weight to theoretical learning and practical work. And especially in higher-level courses, students are expected to master critical elements of mathematics, algorithmic reasoning, and other employable skills, in both theoretical and practical aspects, to be well-prepared for careers in industry and academia.
- Most faculty members do not provide support in the search for part-time or full-time jobs. The majority of students use the university's career services, job fairs, and social contacts. Some professors may notice and recommend some research assistantships to their students in the bits, but they do not participate in offering positions or endorsing students.
- One professor whom I especially appreciate is Professor Xinhua Zhang. I was lucky to attend both Introduction to Machine Learning and Advanced Machine Learning offered by him. His teaching was extremely clear and well-structured mathematically, illustrating the various theories behind machine learning. Because of his approach, I not only understood complex concepts, but I was also confident enough to delve into more advanced topics later on in my studies in the subject.
Campus Life
10
- The college has many campuses; our college in particular is widely spread and is not in one particular area, so sometimes you would have classes in two different campuses, but they are not extremely far away; they would all be in the same region, so they should be within walking distance.
- We have all the facilities like a library, sports facilities and medical services. In fact, we have the best medical service because our college also has a special medical campus for studies so we have very good support in terms of medical services and we also have the insurance covered by the UIC medical campus and hence the cost is much lower than what is provided outside.
- There are many campus clubs I am not particularly participating so I have minimal idea on that front. There would be some campus festivals, like the fall party at the start when the college begins, and some more. I am not particularly active in the festivals.
- You can participate in any of the extracurricular activities. Since I did not have the time to do that, I have not enquired about this aspect, but I can say that the gym facility here is outstanding. You would also have boxing classes, zumba classes, wall climbing and everything covered in our UIC sports fees.
Part Time Jobs
- For TA, in our university there is a criterion that we need to get 4.0 points for the first 2 semesters straight and hence there would be a lot of reduction of numbers, and RA is something the student has to approach the professor about, so there is not really a fixed number; it depends on the students and we also have a GA (graduate assistantship), which is with the department so I should assume that there are at least 100 jobs with all the departments, but even that you would have a lot of competition. and there are many other on-campus jobs which are available.
- The pay range for TA and RA is 30.5 per hour and for GA it should be from 30.5 to 32 per hour which depends on the department.
- There are many other on-campus jobs, like in the gym or usher service and there should be others as well, which I am not sure of.
- Maximum allowed hours of work are always 20 for any international student.
- it is definitely not easy since there is a lot of competition but in the right way, I am sure everyone will definitely get an internship for sure.
- Typically, if I have to make an average for earnings on an hourly basis, it should be around 20 dollars per hour for the part-time jobs. it is a bit difficult to get the job; mostly by applying on handshake postings are not guaranteed job, the students generally approach the departments for a position, be it part-time in departments, GA, or RA.
- Usually the process of applying for part-time jobs is applying through handshake and reaching out to the recruiters. The steps would typically involve applying for job postings from handshake, and for us mail from ben williams, and then submitting the resume. If the resume gets picked, we attend the interview.
Placement
8
- I would say typically it would depend on many factors, some of which should be the student's experience, the job market and how much relevant work he has worked on. For example, my friend has experience in network development and that's a very niche market so he got the job offer before he graduated—almost 3 months before graduation.
- And for generic roles like Software Engineer there is typically a lot of competition and it would take a lot of time to land a job. If you perfectly ask about the percentage based on the article which was published in the news, it said 80 per cent of the students from UIC were placed batch of 2024.
- I should say at least $80,000 would be the average salary range.
- It is the exact same way in which we do india, we apply through linkedin and from networking and reaching out to companies which are perfect for the resume the student has.
- My friends have been placed in Amazon, Google, Bectran, and some of the other companies which are not MAANG, but they are really good companies. and it all depends on the student and I could also say that there are the worst-case scenarios where the student has not landed a job even after 1 year of completion of graduation.
Accommodation
Off Campus
8
- I have majorly used Zillow for searching for my rooms, and there were whatsapp groups which you can find in discord or whatsapp which would be specific for the location of the college and chicago in general.
- The monthly rent for my room is 650. I have a private room and it's not that big, you get the basic facilities like a washing machine, stove, centralised heater and air conditioner, and it would be different for different houses.
- The major challenge was communicating with the landlords here since you have an indian number and it is difficult to communicate prior to coming here, that is 1 major challenge, but most landlords would be available in whatsapp and since the timings are different, calling them would mostly be in the night.
- I would say select good roommates; do not always go for a cheap room rent price by including a lot of people in the room; this will ultimately hinder the meaning of your masters. unless definitely necessary, I would suggest not having more than 4 persons in a room.
- I have intentionally taken my accommodation very close to my college; it is almost a 10 min walk, which is one of the reasons why the room rent is a bit on the higher side. and the choice I made to do this is, since chicago is very cold in winters and when you miss the bus, you should have the ability to go to the classrooms, and the indian students typically stay near the campus and not so far.
Exams
- I had to provide my GRE scores alongside either a TOEFL or IELTS certificate to demonstrate proficiency in English. A Statement of Purpose (SOP), Curriculum Vitae (CV), and Letters of Recommendation (LOR) also formed part of the application checklist.
- It was essential for the committee to understand my academic history, motivation, and experiences with the relevant documentation considering my SOP, LOR, and CV. I did not attend an interview for this application process. Everything was determined according to the documents and scores that were submitted.
- My application process was entirely online, and the admissions committee evaluated my application based on academic merit and alignment with the program.
Fees
- Out-of-state tuition for full-time (12+ credit hours) graduate students at UIC for the Computer Science program is set for a gross tuition of $13,163, a tuition differential of $2,357, mandatory graduate fees of nearly $1,697, and assessments of $623. This adds up to an estimated total semester cost of $17,840. but we do not exactly do 12 credits every semester so my first semester was 3 courses, which is 12 credits then I paid this amount. Later I only took 2 courses per semester since I took an advanced course; then it cost me around $13,000. my total cost through my entire master's was around $45,000.
- The fee is charged semester wise and you also have a scheme to pay it like an EMI in periods. Generally, students who get the GA or TA would prefer paying it themselves in the EMI method so the fee for the semester is breakdown into 4 months and should be paid monthly
- My monthly expense is around 1000 dollars: rent is 500 dollars for a very small private room; electricity and gas are 150 to 250; in winter, it is high due to the heater; and miscellaneous around 250 to 300, like groceries and food I eat outside.
Scholarship
- I got a TA assistantship for 2 semesters but I had to reject it since I got an offer to work outside in a company.
- I received a fee exemption to pay just the tuition differential of around $2,357 and get $2,000 in payment as a stipend.
- My friends got a GA and it was tuition exempt plus $2,800 per semester.
- Almost 60 per cent of the students would get a GA or TA. But that is all changed right now, since after the Trump administration, the grants to the college has reduced and they have cut down most of the GA programmes, so I would say around 20 per cent now would get a GA or TA. it is not really as good as before.
