I'm retiring and no longer accepting new research or project students.
Before you apply, think carefully about which faculty members have interests that match yours.
Reading and
evaluating applications is a difficult, painful, and
time-consuming business; essentially no one will review
resumes ahead of time.
Repeat: No one will evaluate your
resume, CV, etc., ahead of time. It's not worth your while to send
these along.
Please note the department's admissions deadlines.
MS students are encouraged to participate in research.
This can be done directly on a faculty member's project, or it can be
done as an independent study project as COMS E6901.
Funding is more problematic. There are MS graduate research
assistants in the department; except under extremely unusual circumstances,
few will offer such a position to an incoming MS student.
There is an MS track in Computer Security; see
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/education/ms/computerSecurity. For admissions information,
see http://www.cs.columbia.edu/education/admissions#ms.
If you want to do independent research,
I strongly urge you to read Brian
Kernighan's excellent
advice on independent study projects before you approach
any faculty member.
Please note the following requirements from the W6901 description,
which I think should apply to any of these courses:
This
proposal is, in effect, a contract: faculty assign a grade
based on how well you accomplish your plan.
In other words, we want to know the scope of the project and
the deliverables: code, a written description, a draft research paper
suitable for submission, etc.
But there's another,
equally important role: it lets us judge the scope of the project,
and lets us point you to resources and prior work.
It is important to stay in regular touch with your research advisor.
For major projects, e.g., theses and ones where the goal is
a published paper, expect to provide a final draft about
three weeks before the end of the semester. This will give
time to provide you with feedback, and for you to make
appropriate revisions.
Per the above, I cannot predict anyone's odds of admission,
nor will I try. If you ask me that question, at best
you'll receive a pointer to this answer; more likely,
I'll delete your mail without bothering to reply.
(If I were nasty, I'd reply asking you why I should
bother admitting someone who doesn't take the trouble
to read my web page on the subject; fortunately, I'm
usually
not that nasty.)
y/p>
MS
Undergraduate or Graduate Independent Study
Before registering, the student must submit a written proposal to the
instructor for review. The proposal should give a brief outline of the
project, estimated schedule of completion, and computer resources needed.
Oral and written reports are required.
Admission Chances