A guide to Masters in CS at Brown University

If you're reading this, there's a good chance that you just got accepted into Brown University. Congrats! This is a huge achievement and you should be proud of yourself! If so, you can skip the next section :)

Warning

I am an international student from India and most of my experience and the thoughts expressed here are from that perspective. Although most things remain the same, I thought you should know that.

Why Brown?

Here are a few pros and cons of Brown. This is my own personal opinion. My goal here is to give a starting point into your decision making process. Not help you make the final decision.

Pros

• Open curriculum: You can take almost any course you want to. No mandatory data structures/algorithms courses
• Zero racism: You will meet the nicest people on the planet. The college is very liberal so you will be accepted without facing any racism.
• Top education: You will meet people who are legends in the industry. From top professors to incredible TAs the learning opportunity is limitless. I've met some of the smartest people so far at Brown.
• TA/RA/Part time: All it takes to find a position is interest. Email professors before coming here and you can be an RA easily. And TA positions and part time positions are easy to find too. If you are planning to get a part time position, check out Sharpe Refactory, you'll get free food :)
• Research: This might be redundant but if you're coming to Brown in search of research experience, you're in luck. If you have interest and express it properly, you can get into a group easily. Check out Atlas research group for more information.

Cons

• Tuition: I will talk about this part later too but for now, just know it's a lot. You will not be able to get a non-collateral loan in India for the entire amount in most cases.
• Job support: The program will help you only with resume/CVs. DO NOT expect Indian job placement situation. You will have to do most of the heavy lifting yourself by applying outside. The job fairs are for marketing purposes only.

The program structure

This is a lot of information so I will not waste your time. Here are a bunch of bullet points. You should get the whole picture.

• You will be taking 6/8 courses.
• No credit system
• You will follow pathways. Check out Pathways (This might change in the future)
• You will sign a contract. For the requirements, check out the same website above.
• You can choose either a research pathway or a course pathway.
• For the research pathway you will have to write a thesis paper. (6 courses + thesis)
• If you choose the course pathway, you will take 2 additional courses (8 courses)

Cost

I come from median wealth in India so my calculations are for that. You can decide accordingly. Here is a breakdown of the cost:

Expenses

• Tuition: $9800/course for 8 courses
• Rent: $700-1000 for a room. Check out Brown Housing website to search for a house. Don't get scammed with Zillow
• Cost of living: $100-300. This includes groceries (Trader Joe's is the nearest), and vices :D
• Transport: ~$20. Buses are free for Brown students. You will also have an on campus shuttle to travel within a certain distance. The railway options are Amtrak and MBTA both costing about $10

Gains

As an international student you can work at most 20 hours. All calculations are for the same.

• TA: A TA position pays $20/hr. You can work for 10 hours. The restriction is put by the department.
• Part time job: You can work for the full 20 hours. Most jobs pay you $15/hr

In short, you can easily make your rent and living expenses. You will pay tax but you will get it back when you file your taxes. For the overall expenses you would need 80k to 100k depending on how well you manage your finances.

Job/Internship

I will try to write a detailed post on what you need to do to find a job in the US (once I get it lol) but for now here are the things Brown can help you with:

• Resume/CV help: Use the career services to make sure your resume is perfect.
• Networking: Use Brown alumni for advice. Even if you're talking to a random person, an ivy league degree will get you a reply.
• Handshake: Every university in the US has their own portal for jobs. Use it.
• Apply, apply, apply: If you're brute forcing into the industry, apply to 1000 internships and about 3000 jobs. This number gets lower if you're networking and talking to people/recruiters.

Conclusions

Remember to have fun, learn and most importantly be kind to yourself. Be ready to push yourself to the absolute limits, cuz trust me you'll get there. But in spite of all this, you'll fall in love with Computer Science. You'll see it not just as a job, but as something you'd want to do till you die.

Thanks for reading and all the best! Go Bruno!