The Geekess

This morning I talked to Cindy Brown, the head of the CS department, about getting a CS master's degree. She was very excited about my decision to go to grad school, which is flattering to me. (I have the bad habit of underestimating my worth, and finding out that people think I'm interesting and cool is always surprising.)

I've taken a lot of CS courses for my ECE degree, but I would still need to complete CS311, CS321, CS322, and CS350 before I could be admitted to the CS graduate program. Because of the way those classes are scheduled, I would be working on them until Winter 2008:

Spring 2007
* ECE486
* CS311

Fall 2007
* CS321

Winter 2008
* CS322
* CS350

There's funding for CS graduate students (TAs, RAs, and fellowships). The faculty controls the Research Assistant positions, but the CS council and the department control the Teacher Assistant positions. Cindy said if I make myself useful on a research project, it's more likely that I'll get a TA position.

However, there's not much funding for post-bac students, so I'd have to pay for the pre-graduate CS courses on my own. I'll find the money somewhere. Jamey will probably still be working for Andrew, and he can support us while I take a break from school. I supported him while he took a break from school, so it's only fair. ;)

I'm looking forward to only taking a couple classes and having some free time. I'll have time to work on some cool projects and catch up on my bookshelf. I miss reading.

Of course, if the right job comes along (e.g. working as a Linux kernel hacker) I may abandon this plan. Either path would be really cool, and aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.