Post Undergrad Comp. Graphics Studies in the U.S.?

AliParr asks: "Having just completed my first degree, BSc Hons Visualization at Teesside University in England, I am considering continuing on to Post-Graduate study. While courses in the United Kingdom are fine, I have always fancied studying abroad, or more specifically, in the states. Finding a course/university seems an overwhelming process however and I'm struggling to know where to start. My interests are Computer Science and Graphics based, with my first degree centering on C++/OpenGL/DirectX and general graphics algorithms. I was wondering if fellow Slashdot readers could give guide me as to the best places to look, and maybe shed some light on their experiences."

Comments

Narrow down your choices first maybe?

[Ankh]

Start by asking yourself what you expect to get out of studying in another country, and why that country in particular.

There are some Canadian universities that at least at one time were very good for post-graduate graphics work, for example, and I think one in Singapore.

Note also that a Masters in North America is treated like a BSc in the UK, so you'll probably have to do a Master's before you can do further studies, but the master's degree in the US might only be one year. So there are some differences in terminology.

One approach to help you decide might be to investigate authors of up-to-date graduate level text books, and people who are publishing interesting papers (e.g. ACM SIGGRAPH), see where they are teaching, and see what some of their past students have done.

Another obvious approach is to compare the Web sites of some of the schools (as they call them) that interest you, and see what the course looks like. If the Masters in Graphics requires a course in Adobe PhotoShop and another in Adobe Illustrator, it's probably not what you want! (and yes, there are courses with such requirements).

The level of teaching varies wildly, much more than you might expect, as does the cost. Canada tends to be cheapr than the US if that helps any.

If you are going abroad to get a different experience, you'll find Kentucky State University very different from the University of California, and that in turn is different from MIT (in Cambridge, MA, a conurbation with Boston). My husband did a degree in Fine Art in upstate New York (maybe 8 hours' drive from New York city) and the people in the town there are very conservative and "redneck", openly racist and homophobic (e.g. a pizza store that didn't serve blacks), but on the other hand a wonderful faculty and campus. Horrible weather though, with nine feet of snow in one or two weeks in the winter, and over 100F with high humidity in the summer.

In general the two coasts of the US tend to be more tolerant than the middle of the country. If you are not white, the North is a better bet than the South.

So, narrow down your choices by listing your priorities, and maybe post them here. Then go and do some research. You can also email people teaching computer graphics, or working in industry, and ask their opinion, but make sure you do some research first, so you don't just waste their time.

Liam

it IS an overwhelming process.

[lliiffee]

Applying and getting accepted to CS grad school in the US is an extremely drawn out and painful process, even for US citizens. The method I advise for you is this:

1) Find the US News and World Report rankings of the top 50 programs. (You can ignore the exact rankings, but this is a good list of 50 schools to look at.)

2) For each (yes!) school, go the the faculty, and find those (if any) who have interests in graphics. Read their web pages and papers. Make a list of all faculty that would be interesting to work with. (To a first approximation the shool you go to does not matter. What matters, TREMENDOUSLY, is who your advisor is.)

3) If possible, correspond with the above faculty.

4) Apply to each school (shoot for 10 or more- competition is extremely high these days) who has at least one faculty whose research is interesting. This will cost you, with application fees running around 50-100USD each. (But you are in England- treasure those exchange rates!)

5) (If you get in) Profit!

Also note that to get in, you principally need LETTERS OF RECOMENDATION FROM PROFESSORS WHO CAN VOUCH FOR YOUR ABILITY TO DO RESEARCH. Grades, test scores, etc are somewhat important, but the above trumps all.