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TAMU CSE

Program Summary​

TLDR: In one sentence -- a mini Georgia Tech MSCS

Georgia Tech can be extended to three years to graduate; TAMU CSE can do the same

GT offers co-op; TAMU CSE similarly allows fall internships

Georgia Tech offers TA/RA to cover tuition; TAMU CSE similarly offers TA/RA to cover tuition

Georgia Tech has low tuition; TAMU is also just $13,000 per semester

Texas A&M University CSE has several programs: MCS, MSCS, MEng CE, MSCE, MSAI. The biggest feature of these programs is their flexibility and affordability. You can freely switch between the sub-programs and freely take internships or adjust your program length.

  • Degree flexibility: Typical examples include MEng CE transferring to MCS, and MCS transferring to MSCS. Once you're in the CSE department, you can choose to do research and publish papers, or focus on job hunting. In practice, many students at the school choose to stop job hunting midway and switch to research and publishing, or switch from a thesis degree to a non-thesis degree after research doesn't work out, in order to start job hunting. There are also a small number of students who try to do both job hunting + research simultaneously (though it's hard to succeed).
  • Schedule flexibility: The program schedule is quite flexible -- you can graduate in 1.5 to 3 years, giving you one to two summers for internships. You can also do full-time co-op in spring/fall, or part-time off-campus internships.
  • Financial flexibility: Non-thesis degree tuition is about $13,000 per semester. Thesis degrees generally come with a half scholarship (with RA/TA, tuition can be fully covered). Beyond tuition, Texas has low cost of living and rent (rent is cheaper than what I paid while working at ByteDance in Beijing).

Coursework​

Due to Texas's local culture, TAMU's Master's students are fairly valued by the school -- they're not treated purely as cash cows, and their treatment is roughly on par with undergrads and PhDs. However, because of this, the department doesn't really offer courses tailored for job hunting. For example, courses like software development and cloud computing that help with job hunting are extremely rare. Instead, the research atmosphere is very strong, and many professors like to teach fairly hardcore research content. The department head also likes to have professors offer research-oriented challenging courses (though they're certainly not as intense as those at schools like CMU). This can be a potential downside, as coursework may take up too much time and affect job hunting. On the flip side, this can also be seen as an advantage, as it's very easy to find research opportunities through courses, and many professors are very willing to take on MS students and accept PhD transfers.

New Grad Job Outcomes:​

Although TAMU has many advantages and its engineering school is quite prestigious nationally, its CSE program specifically is not top-tier, and the school has an extremely large undergraduate population, so it provides no boost for job hunting -- you could even say it's somewhat disadvantageous. Here are some typical cases:

  • One MCS student with four internships in China (2 BAT + 2 foreign companies), completed two high-quality internships during the program (summer + fall), eventually landed at a FLAG company
  • One MCS student who worked three years in China (BAT), landed Amazon intern, then landed Uber
  • One MCS student with three internships in China (1 BAT + 2 foreign companies), landed Meta
  • One MCS student with three internships in China (1 small company + 1 foreign company + 1 BAT), landed a mid-tier company
  • One MCS student with one year of small company internship experience in China, landed TikTok
  • Indian undergrad, three years full-time at Qualcomm India, landed Qualcomm intern in the US
  • Indian undergrad, multiple web developer internships, landed small company DS

The above are some of the better cases. However, for students with bad luck and insufficient experience (not much industry experience), since TAMU itself provides no boost, there is a common problem of difficulty finding jobs (no interviews).