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Cornell MPS-IS

Program Overview​

Can be used for career change to CS; you can take CS department courses. Although course registration priority isn't as high as CS students, it's higher than other schools. You can use permission numbers to get into courses. You can defer to get CPT for internships. The IS school has quite a few easy courses, making it suitable to take some easy courses in the first semester and then go all in on job hunting.

If you are a US undergrad, you can defer one semester and start in the spring to get CPT. For detailed instructions, please refer to How to Get CPT with Spring Admission. Specific CPT approval details should be double-checked with the school.

Admission Threshold & Data Points​

Undergraduate majors are quite diverse -- students come from business, design, data, and CS backgrounds.

  1. Fudan University undergrad, Physics, GPA 3.5
  2. NYU undergrad, GPA 3.84, CS GPA 3.97, worked 9 months as SDE at Amazon Ireland
  3. Renmin University CS undergrad, GPA 3.6, TOEFL 102, had Meituan DS intern
  4. SCU Math undergrad, GPA 3.85, two years full-time SDE at Huawei

Job Outcomes​

Not very optimistic, mainly because many career-change-to-CS students are admitted. Some CS courses have heavy workloads, making it hard to free up much time for LeetCode grinding.