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Wisc CS PMP

Program Overview​

Wisc MSCS shares the same applicant pool as the Ph.D program, making it extremely competitive. The PMP program is essentially equivalent to MCS programs at other schools.

Tuition is cheap -- $13k/semester for full-time. The last semester can be part-time and charged per credit, bringing total costs to about $35k, which is a great deal.

Two internship opportunities (fall and spring internships allowed), 1.5-2 year program length (extending to 2.5 years is also possible), very similar to Gatech MSCS.

You can apply to the online PCP program and then transfer to PMP (mainly based on GPA).

Admission Threshold & Data Points​

Enrollment has been increasing each year. 22Fall: approximately 900 applicants 23Fall: over 1,000 applicants

Full-time work experience is essentially mandatory -- internship experience doesn't count. When I applied, CS PMP directly emailed all applicants telling them not to list internship experience as work experience; only "post-graduation employment" counts as full-time work experience. Based on results from forums and social media at the time, this was enforced very strictly. With SDE full-time experience, the admission probability is around 85%. Without it, the probability drops to about 0.5%.

In 24 Fall, only one international undergrad had no full-time experience; everyone else basically had several years of experience at major Chinese tech companies.

  1. UCI CS undergrad, GPA 3.76
  2. Indian undergrad, US master's, seven years work experience in New York
  3. IIT undergrad, two years at AWS, previously interned at Microsoft
  4. Indian undergrad, GPA 8.3, two years full-time at Samsung

Job Outcomes & Data Points​

There's no intra-school peer pressure, and admitted students almost all have full-time work experience, so the landing rate is naturally high.

Big Tech Internship & Full-time Offers:

  1. Amazon (Internship + Return Offer)
  2. Pinterest (Internship + Return Offer)
  3. Facebook (Internship + Return Offer)
  4. Dell EMC (Internship + Return Offer)
  5. IIT undergrad, two years at AWS, previously interned at Microsoft, landed SF small company
  6. Indian undergrad, GPA 8.3, two years full-time at Samsung, landed Amazon