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Whether you want to teach is moot. The top tier schools are not about preparing you to teach, they are about preparing you to do research. There are many option

Whether you want to teach is moot. The top tier schools are not about preparing you to teach, they are about preparing you to do research. There are many options after a CS PhD and most of my classmates are not teaching now. Getting into a 'top tier grad school' is a crap shoot, much like a getting into a 'top tier' company. You should probably figure out whether you want to spend a lot of time doing research or not, and look into whether you like the sort of jobs CS PhDs wind up doing after a PhD, not phrase your queries narrowly in terms of which top tier option is better.

alexgartrell 16y ago
The only reason I said anything about teaching was to eliminate the "Well, if you want to teach, you have to go to grad school" argument. I kind of understand that and figured I'd trim that discussion. I understand what you mean by the crapshoot part, but, given the choice between a top tier company and a middle tier grad school, I'd go with the top tier company every time. Between top tier grad school and middle tier company, I'd choose the grad school. Maybe this is a little shallow of me, but it seems like a reasonable heuristic, all other things being equal.
- jefflinwood 16y ago
  Looking at your resume, you've got decent experience with both undergraduate research, TA'ing, small companies and a large company. I had similar experiences at CMU when I went there (for ChemE, not CS), and I decided that entering industry (in 99, a great year to get hired) was better. If I'd graduated in 2001 or 2002, I'd probably have stayed in grad school. How is recruiting looking at CMU this year? Do you have solid job offers already? Does the professor you've been doing research with have any suggestions about where to apply to grad school? A friend of mine graduated with a CS PhD last year, and he just took an interesting job working on the key algorithms behind one of the "big names" in tech today. But other opportunities he was offered were the same as he would have gotten with 10 years of software development experience. I'll also say this - if you don't get your PhD now, it's a lot harder to go back and do it when you have a mortgage and other commitments.

alexgartrell 16y ago

The only reason I said anything about teaching was to eliminate the "Well, if you want to teach, you have to go to grad school" argument. I kind of understand that and figured I'd trim that discussion. I understand what you mean by the crapshoot part, but, given the choice between a top tier company and a middle tier grad school, I'd go with the top tier company every time. Between top tier grad school and middle tier company, I'd choose the grad school. Maybe this is a little shallow of me, but it seems like a reasonable heuristic, all other things being equal.

jefflinwood 16y ago
Looking at your resume, you've got decent experience with both undergraduate research, TA'ing, small companies and a large company. I had similar experiences at CMU when I went there (for ChemE, not CS), and I decided that entering industry (in 99, a great year to get hired) was better. If I'd graduated in 2001 or 2002, I'd probably have stayed in grad school. How is recruiting looking at CMU this year? Do you have solid job offers already? Does the professor you've been doing research with have any suggestions about where to apply to grad school? A friend of mine graduated with a CS PhD last year, and he just took an interesting job working on the key algorithms behind one of the "big names" in tech today. But other opportunities he was offered were the same as he would have gotten with 10 years of software development experience. I'll also say this - if you don't get your PhD now, it's a lot harder to go back and do it when you have a mortgage and other commitments.