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Rice MCS

Program Overview​

The MCS program has grown in size over recent years. During COVID, 21 Fall enrollment surged to 300 students, then dropped back to under 100 for 22 Fall. Degree requirements are 30 credits + 2 concentration courses + a mandatory internship (specific requirements may change annually). Tuition is moderate at $26,000+ per semester. The last semester can be part-time with per-credit billing. To save money, you can do a 4+4+1 model and graduate in three semesters (~$61,000), or do 3+3+3+1 over four semesters. You could even speed-run it in two semesters, but nobody really does that. Rice also offers free English courses, like 601 or the free English courses offered by OISS.

Graduate students can reserve their own seats and lockers (yes, reserved for you for the entire year). The first floor of the library also has computers available for use -- no shortage of seats. First-year graduate students are provided housing, including RGA, RVA, and RVT options, and most people can get a spot. Free shuttles run between campus and housing. Houston is currently the 5th largest city in the US, with plenty of food and entertainment, including NBA Rockets games. Chinese food is abundant, affordable, and there's a large Chinatown spanning several blocks -- mostly Sichuan cuisine, plus lots of Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese food. Chinese food delivery is available daily (~$11-12 per meal).

Rice MCS is frequently compared with USC CS28, UCI MCS/MSWE, Duke MECE, NYU Tandon MSCS, and NEU MSCS-General -- all relatively good for job hunting. Paycom recruits quite a few Texas-based students (Rice included). Some call it a safety-net employer, and they have indeed hired a number of students.

Admission Threshold & Data Points​

Mostly mainland China 985/211 undergrads (GPA around 88), US undergrads with GPA 3.6+.

  1. UESTC Software Engineering undergrad, GPA 3.83

Job Outcomes​

For 25 Summer, statistically about 40% of students around me landed internships. Paycom is a safety-net employer that only hires Texas-based students (last year they hired 15 Rice MCS students). With good preparation, the chances of landing are high -- all interview algorithm questions are recycled problems. Paycom recruited over a dozen people for 25 Summer. In 2022 Fall, about 90% of Taiwanese students found internships.

For 25 Summer, 4 people landed Meta, and approximately 10 people landed Amazon.

  1. UESTC Software Engineering undergrad, had Tencent and DJI internships, landed Texas small company (not Paycom)
  2. SUSTech CS undergrad, had Tencent and small company internships, landed small company new grad
  3. NTU Information Management undergrad, one year full-time experience, landed HP intern, new grad landed TikTok
  4. Rice Cognitive Science undergrad, had Texas small company internship, landed Texas small company new grad
  5. Art background career change to CS, had product manager full-time experience in China, landed America Data Science
  6. University of Missouri-Columbia CS + Linguistics undergrad, multiple SDE internships during undergrad, landed CVS MLE position
  7. Indian student, one year full-time experience, landed Goldman Sachs SWE