Hi good morning I want to welcome
everybody to the international students
webinar for the University of Illinois
Master of Computer Science and Master of
Computer Science and Data Science
admission webinar my name is Diana
Sunshine and I work at Coursera and I'm
excited to be on chatting with everybody
today. The first thing I wanted everyone
to do is to get used to Zoom if you go
into zoom you can see that you can go
into the chat function and you can type
into all the panelists and participants
where you're from so I'm gonna right in
I'm signing in from Silicon Valley and
hopefully we can see everybody else um
saying where they're coming from as well
there we go
Maisie Cirrage from Belgium wonderful
and and then the other thing is that
when we start doing the questions you'll
see that there is a QA button at the
bottom as well and that's where we
prefer you to put your questions if you
do put questions in the chat I'll try to
keep my eyes up and for those but it's
much better if you go into the QA and
that will make sure that we answer all
of your questions so um without further
ado, I'm gonna be turning this over to
John and Viveka to walk us through all
the amazing things about this program
Great welcome everybody, I'm John Hart
I'm the director of online and
professional programs in computer
science and I'm Viveka the coordinator for CS
graduate programs and we're going to walk
through some of the basics of the the
MCS program that we offer online through
the Coursera platform and and talk about
some of the admissions issues especially
for international students if you have
any questions about that so why don't we
go ahead and start with some slides. Okay
so let me share the screen and select
the slides there so hopefully everybody
can see the slides. If you cannot see the slides, please do let us know in the chat space. So we're going to be looking for in admissions to the MC
SMC SDS program that we offer on the
Coursera platform through the University
of Illinois we're looking for students
interested in a Master's Degree in
Computer Science and we're finding an
increasing number of those students are
multidisciplinary. Before we launched this
on the Coursera platform a large number
of the students that would apply were
coming to us with actual degrees in
computer science now we're seeing
students with bachelor's degrees in
other sciences and humanities and the
arts and the life sciences in a wide
variety of areas and people seem the one
to add an MCS degree to show their
expertise in computer science or data
science on top of some disciplinary
degree so we've we've set the program up
to be able to provide a Master's Degree
in Computer Science for both computing
professionals of the computing
undergraduate as well as other
disciplinary expertise is that want to
show expertise in computer science and
data science with that said we do need
some programming in the in the
undergraduate or prior coursework in
programming because all of our students
need to be able to get through the
graduate coursework in computer science
and that coursework begins at the 400
level at the senior undergraduate and
first-year graduate level so we have
some important prerequisites for the
program: things like data structures
algorithms an object-oriented design we
expect all of our incoming students to
have three courses in computer science
already you know a course in programming
of course in data structures and some
coursework in in object-oriented design
algorithms and so on so we really look
for that even if you have a bachelor's
degree in some other field you need to
have that coursework as well in order to
make it through our
or computer science course work. The
University of Illinois is a Top-5
computer science program the coursework
is very difficult we want to make sure
that everybody has the tools necessary
to be able to succeed to the courses
some other requirements are everybody
that is admitted has to have a
bachelor's degree and so we can't use
corresponding work experience or other
experience the substitutes of that
bachelor's degree you have to have a
bachelor's degree to get a master's
degree
the bachelor's degree as I said before
doesn't need to be in computer science
it can be in another field also we have
a baseline GPA expectation of 3.2 and up
Typically what we do is we sort
everybody that has the corresponding
pre-requisites and has the corresponding
necessary bachelor's degree and then we
start looking at GPA and grades in key
courses like data structures and
programming and so on and we went to we
want to see you know A's and those in
those key courses and an average of 3.2
or higher as a baseline for admissions
we do use holistic admissions criteria
so we look at the entire application we
want to make sure that we give everybody
a good luck for admissions and every
consideration for admissions if you're
delinquent in one area sometimes that
can be made up in another area we also
look for linear algebra and basic
statistics and probability so you know a
math course in linear algebra working
with matrices and and you know a stat
score some kind of stats probability
course for the programming as I
mentioned before data structures course
and a programming course and it's it's
also I like to see a third course that's
beyond that typically we like to see at
least one course after data structures
that we look for it to see how you're
going to do in a you know in a core
computer science course so that will
help strengthen your application it also
most
students know Python or R or other
scripting languages it's good to know a
production programming language like C++
or Java something geared towards
performance as opposed to a scripting
language so it'll help your application
will make it stronger if you can show
some evidence of knowing C++ or Java
some of our courses if you're going to
do cloud computing the core libraries
for cloud computing are written in Java
you can you can give through that using
Python but you're really shortchanging
yourself on being able to use the the
features that you know that professional
cloud computing programmers use and
those are in Java we use C++ for other
courses including data mining and a few
others and at the graduate level we
expect students to be able to pick up
languages so applied machine learning
course uses R and our stats 420 of
stats programming course uses R and so
if you haven't had R before you you'll
be able to pick it up at this stage you
should be comfortable learning a new
language while you're while you're
taking a course and we factor that into
the another course okay once you take
this like that so in terms of what the
application involves the first link
gives you a lot of information on our
website about what's needed so as you
prepare to submit your application we
highly recommend that you go take a look
at that website it gives it has an FAQ
page attached because there are some
details that you might look at the
original information and still have
questions so please to make a note of
that URL and so the application is and
it's an all online application that is
launched through our graduate college
website fees since this is for the
international applicants
it's a $90 fee for the application and
at the end of your at the end of
completing your application you will be
asked to make the payments
payment is included in the application
being complete so please pay attention
to that part as well yeah we cannot
consider an application until those
fees are paid those fees cover the
processing of the application that are
necessary part of a consideration so
what are they in the elements of the
application that you would submit vary
there is option to provide three letters
of recommendation do you want it sure
sure yeah absolutely so as I mentioned
before we use a holistic approach our
primary consideration is going to be
that bachelor's degree the appropriate
pre-requisites data structures algorithms
and high levels and higher, higher level
CS course if you've got one so we'll
look at your CS coursework to make sure
you can get through the courses and see
us at the graduate level and then the
third is GPA to make sure that the GPA
and typically it's the GPA of your last
two years of your bachelor's degree or
your most most recent degree but we'll
look at the GPA in making that
determination and beyond that if if
there are some concerns we get many
students that are kind of on the bubble
of borderline students will look for
things like letters of recommendation
for example you don't have a course in
C++ or Java if you have a letter of
recommendation that addresses that
you're you know you've done specific
programs and it's always good to have
the letter of recommendation come from
somebody that can speak specifically
about your programming ability then they
can talk about your ability to program
at the C++ or Java or do some of their
tests that can we'll look to a letter of
recommendation for that if you don't
have a letter of recommendation if
everything else is fine then we don't
need the letter of recommendation but
it's not as good to have those there if
any deficiencies need to be addressed
same with the statement of purpose and
same with the curriculum vita or resume
we'll look to those if there's some
question about the materials in the
transcript
in terms of your degree your GPA and
your prior coursework so the primary
concerns are you have to make sure you
have all of your transcript material
uploaded because that the main thing
we'll be looking for in this
consideration but we will refer to the
letters of recommendation statement of
purpose and resume if there are some
questions let me back on that in your
resume we do ask when you least for
example if you're employed please let us
know where you are physically located
because that helps us in establishing
whether we will require your TOEFL IELTS
course so instead of saying for example
let's say Microsoft Research is also say
where you are would you be here in the
US would you be in India or China into
the location one of the questions we get
is in for example in your statement of
purpose or even in letters of
recommendation is there a formatting
requirement is there a length requirement
and there are no requirements in terms
of what that length should be or what
the formatting should be so that is
that's a fairly flexible option you have
let me get to the transcripts which as
John said is one of the very important
parts of your application at the time of
application we only need your unofficial
transcripts so you can scan it in from
the transcripts you have and in some
countries this would be mark sheets and
those are fine what we do need is to see
all the classes that you have taken the
grades that you have received and then
if the grading scale that your
institution uses usually this can be
found in the back of the transcript page
or sometimes they are the last page of
your transcripts or mark sheets so
please make sure that you include at
least one page of that grading scale
that is to help us
formalize the GPAs or the grades to a
4.0 scale that we have to look at here
at this end this is one of the things
that we see a lot of applicants not
submitting very correct or the complete
documents this is why I'm just wanting
to re-emphasize this the full and complete
and legible transcript once you scan it
and save it to take another look and see
if you can read all the information
we do see applications that have
illegible transcripts and we have to
then check to see we have to either
follow up with the applicants and that
takes time so it's in your best interest
to submit a clean transcript copy if you
are admitted at that point then the
university would require you to send
official transcripts and a copy of your
degree certificate that is it that is
sent directly from the University so if
you immediately at that point we can
have another conversation about what
needs to be sent but for now it's just
the unofficial transcripts and then the
quote then the standardized tests it's a
very common question do we need GRE or
GMAT scores we do not require those
course if you have taken the tests and
you have the schools available you can
again scan it into a PDF copy the exact
report and just attach it to your
application if you do not need to send
the officials course through ETS but
just include it in your application as a
as an attachment I'm going to reshare
the slides
hang on one moment
the next common question is whether you
have to submit TOEFL or IELTS course so
on the screen you can see the
necessaries course the TOEFL scores are
the total total scores and these are for
what we call full status admissions so
the online students do need to meet full
status scores to be admitted into the
program so please make a note
of this if you haven't taken the exams
yet please do plan to take the exams
it's without the schools unless you need
a waiver condition the Graduate College
and the Department will not be able to
admit you to a grad program there are a
couple of exemptions that international
students are eligible to it's not on the
slide but you can go into their website
and see the requirements and I can just
briefly mention those one is is in the
past five years if you have received a
degree from an institution in an
eligible country so those eligible
countries can also be found on the
Graduate College website this is based
on the on the country and not based on
the medium of instruction that you
completed your degree programs in
Brussels I come from a place where my
undergraduate degree was all completed
in English but it is not on the list of
eligible countries so I would therefore
not be eligible to have them waiver the
second exemption is if you have been
working in a country that that is on
that list of exempted countries and if
you have had two years of work
experience or more that would also get
you
exemption and you can see all the
information if you go to our website and
also at the Graduate College website and
if you have questions we'd be happy to
answer that on email if you have
specific questions so for example we are
seeing some questions from up on the Q&A
for example for international students
who have been pursuing for PhD degree in
the US right now can I can't
TOEFL be waived the requirement is that
you need to have two years of education
in the u.s. to be eligible for this
waiver so if you have just started your
PhD degree then you would not be
eligible but you had two years then yes
Okay so tuition for the program we
charge by the credit hour and that's a
feature that we're able to give to our
students through the Coursera platform
that's not available to some of our
other online programs or to our students
on campus there the unit range tuition
and you even have to pay tuition if
you're enrolled in a program and you
don't take any courses the this program
offered on the Coursera platform the MCS
program is offered it's a pays you go so
you you only pay for the courses you
take now you have to take eight courses
to complete the degree so you'll be
paying for eight courses only even if
you need to take a semester off
certainly you know life events career
family and so on can pop up and you'll
need to take a semester off and that's
fine you won't be charged anything all
we ask is that you let us know in those
cases so that we can make sure that
you're still engaged in the material we
like to hear back from all of our
students even the ones that are taking a
class that particular semester so $600
per credit hour the program requires 32
credit hours each course is 4 credit
hours so that's 8 courses 8 for credit
hour courses so that comes to $2,400 per
course and that means the entire program
the entire degree the tuition is $19,200
so it's under $20,000 in tuition which
is a real bargain for a master's degree
especially in computer science
especially from from this computer
science department and it's its ranking
but also because of that because of that
pay-as-you-go matter in addition to that
there are going to be some additional
fees there's always fees our on-campus
students have to pay fees for healthcare
and many other things we've eliminated
those fees for our online students in
this program but there still are fees
that you will need to pay for as an
online student to cover the additional
costs one is that our courses are
offered on the Coursera platform through
MOOCs and each one of our courses
consists of two MOOCs worth of lectures
so these MOOCs are the same videos that
students will see on the MOOC platform
but there's a big difference between the
the course delivered as an open
enrollment MOOC and the course delivered
to our enrolled students for credit so
taking if you sign up for any of the two
MOOCs that are used for any of our
courses it's similar to being on campus
and sitting in on a class you can audit
a class you can just show up for a class
not register for the class and you get
the benefit of the lectures and if
students are taking a quiz and then the
quiz is graded by the neighboring
student you can you can take part in
that in the class that's called auditing
of course and you don't get a grade you
don't get credit you don't pay tuition
for it it's just sitting in on a course
to kind of learn the material that's
similar to going to the Coursera
platform and taking one of the MOOCs
from our courses you would Coursera the
the fee to handle the assignments the
peer graded and auto graded assignments
but you would be basically getting the
benefit of the lectures only when you
sign up for one of our courses you get
not only the benefit of those lectures
that you get additional material that we
require in order for you to get
scripted credit and a degree for this
material and and so that transcripted
credit requires for example assessments
so we have we have complete the exams on
the material that are proctored and so
one of the fees that you would have to
pay for it is is Proctor you it's a
proctoring service to make sure that
that the examination is being taken
properly and nobody's getting an unfair
advantage we want to make sure all the
students in this program are treated
fairly and so we require that proctoring
for all students for this exam if you
study hard for your exam we want to make
sure that you get proper credit for that
and somebody else's isn't getting
through the exam easier without knowing
the material so you have to pay for
proctoring you have to pay in Coursera
for the MOOCs that form the lecture part
of the course and that's typically a
hundred and sixty one hundred and fifty
eight dollars per course for the two
MOOCs that are used for the lecture
complement and there may be some
additional fees for cloud computing
platform Amazon Web service fees we have
a deal with Amazon where students get
credit on their cloud platform some
students want to explore further and if
you explore further you may need to buy
additional credits on Amazon or other
cloud services and other they do that
exploration so those are the costs of
tuition I'm gonna talk about financially
yeah so if you are and let me just skim
through this because if you put domestic
students the audible programs are
accredited by the Higher Learning
Commission so if you apply to this
program and if you are a domestic
student it is if students would be
eligible to receive federal funding
financial aid and they would apply
through the FAFSA process but since we
are speaking mostly to an international
group of applicants you may still be
able to look into options that are
available to you through for example
your employer to see they have a tuition
reimbursement program or if you have
other types of scholarship programs
available to you
what is important is that the MCS
program is awkward online but it is the
same accredited degree program that we
offer on campus and there is no
difference in terms of the accreditation
processes the department is not able to
provide funding for any of our online
students this most of our graduate
students hold research or teaching
assistantships and it is not a feasible
remote option at this point another
question we get is could third party for
example if your employer is employer
participates in a reimbursement program
could they directly pay make the
payments on your behalf and that is
there is an option available for that
there's a it's a it's a sponsor billing
process where the student would sign up
and the employee would provide some
documentation and you get all set
another point to consider which is not
on this slide is that if you are paying
let's say out-of-pocket you can sign up
for a payment plan and each semester
students are built only for the classes
they take each semester as John mentioned
before so you do not need to pay upfront
for all thirty to thirty dollars if you
take one plus a semester then that's
going to be $2,400 for that semester and
you can sign up to pay the $2,400 in a
in several installments so it could be
three four or five installments the
number of installments depends on how
far ahead you sign up so that is an
option to keep in mind if that is a
concern take we can go to the next let
me mention a couple more things about
financial aid it's an accredited program
it's approved program for financial aid
from from your country it's our students
get in this program offered through the
Coursera platform you get your degree
from the University of Illinois the
degree won't speak Coursera I won't say
online
our admitted under the same criteria
that we admit students to our on-campus
programs you're getting the same degree
as everybody else your transcripts in
your GPA and your physical degree won't
have any indication of getting an online
or on-campus we don't make a difference
in that we invent an online education
here back in the 70s we've offered this
degree online since the 90s and we're
utilizing Coursera now as a way of being
able to offer it to a much wider
audience but we know how to offer these
things online and so they have the
appropriate approvals for things like
financial aid with that said the
department does not offer any financial
aid for this degree we don't have any
assistantships available for these
students part of our ability to expand
this degree and the opportunity it
presents to a wide audience is that we
have to depend on the tuition dollars
coming in in order to be able to fund
the program so this this program isn't
eligible for assistantships it's not
from from the cs department we don't
have any CS scholarships or anything for
this program but if there are programs
available in your home country or other
programs that are available
you're certainly encouraged to explore
those and this is a fully accredited
degree program eligible for for
financial aid perhaps through your
country but we don't have any financial
aid available here in computer science
for students in this program ok these
are in some important links those are
the important things you can the first
link takes you to our general online
Master of Computer Science program
Thanks you may have seen through these
articles that we are expanding our broad
online program to live through the
Coursera platform we have been offering
a data science track for the since of
since Fall of 2016
on the Coursera platform so it's now
that Master of Computer Science program is
being expanded so the first link will
take you to the general page and if you
are interested move in the Master of
Computer Science track there is a
link in that program is to take a look
on these on that website because it
gives you the type of classes that would
be available what the requirements are
there is some information about some
course descriptions there are some
syllabi that are available there's a lot
of information out there the second one
is where you would apply it through the
Graduate College portal it will take you
directly to the application portal you
would have to make create an account if
you already do not have an account it's
a very simple process doesn't take a lot
of time to create the account but then
you would be submitting all your
material through there the third link is
to our campus website about financial
aid it gives it keeps all the
information about what's being assessed
how the billing is done how you can sign
up for payment plans and sponsor feeling
all that information is there one thing
if you let's say you are admitted and if
you have for example questions about
your tuition bill that is not something
that the department would handle and we
would we would point you to the right
place which would be this financial aid
office for students to contact the right
right and Campus office to get their
questions answered let's see so let's go
actually let me just and sharing there
it is okay
so as with the convention the we have a
data science focus in our in our Master
of Computer Science that means you can
apply for the Master of Computer Science
and you can focus on any of a number of
areas of computer science you can take
coursework and software engineering in
parallel programming in artificial
intelligence or you can focus on data
sciences and if you focus on data
Sciences then we've got a set of four
core courses that we recommend for
students in data science and so it's a
departmental track in data science that
focuses on data mining data
visualization cloud computing and
machine learning specifically for data
Sciences now the degree will still be
the same master of computer science that
students focusing in software
engineering or parallel computing would
get but the there's no distinction on
the degree but you know on your resume
on LinkedIn on anything else you can say
that you completed the data sciences
portion the data Sciences focus of that
MCS and and we call that MCS-DS the MCS
- DS but it's the same MCS degree and
the admissions criteria are the same for
students we don't have an admin a
separate application for MC SDS than MCS
is just an MCS program application and
once you join the program you can decide
if you want to focus on the data
sciences or some other area of computer
science perfect on do we want to go into
doing question and answer now yeah okay
so the very first question we have is
that somebody says my major is not CS so
what does need to include data
structures mean and will a Coursera data
structure certificate be meaningful okay
so so data structures is a key course in
computer science education here at the
University of Illinois the course number
of CS 225 two two five so if you look at
CS 225 you can see what the data
structures course includes you know even
before students take that in our one two
five course on programming will teach
things like sorting and searching
algorithms and recursion
data structures course talks about other
data structures like heaps and and C++
and class structures and object-oriented
programming and how to implement B trees
another and graph data structure sparse
data structures ways of implementing
these data structures in a production
language like C++ so take a look at at
CS 225 at the University of Illinois
that's our course on data structures and
the reason is is all of our graduate
level courses require that one key
course and so if a student doesn't have
that one key course they wouldn't be
able to register for any of our graduate
level computer science courses they
wouldn't be able to complete the degree
so that's a real hard requirement for
students to be admitted into the program
your best option is to take a course on
data structures it can be at a local
Community College many students have
taken that course and others in their
undergraduate degree even if a major
than some other course if you don't have
it already then let's see if a local
Community College or some other local
educational institution offers that
course you can also take that course
online for credit from other
universities I think we don't think we
offer it online yet but we're working on
that but you can take that course I've
got another student that's taking that
course currently at Berkeley and I think
there's other online options available
for that course but that's a key
prerequisite you can complete that
course through a Coursera specialization
sequence their specialization sequences
at Stanford at San Diego
I think Johns Hopkins there's a couple
other places that have data so it's Duke
Duke as a data structures sequence so
you can do a specialization sequence if
you do that make sure you include the
name of the sequence
and the URL that that lists the
certificate that you get so you have to
pay for this specialization sequence and
you have to include that certificate
that tells us that you completed that
sequence that's an option it's not a
strong an option as taking it for credit
because that that make sure that you
have all the additional four credit
their requirements including a grade
because we also look at the grades for
that but that's one way you can you can
address that deficiency if you don't
have data structures already one other
thing I want to add since we're talking
about filling out the application and
making sure that you list a yellow
Coursera or other MOOC course work as a
specialization sequence for one of those
key classes like data structures or
object-oriented programming or
algorithms if you have coursework make
sure you list the specific name of the
course and a name and the course number
and when you took it in the application
there's a little fill in box about that
make sure you list all of that
information you want to make your
application as clear as possible so that
we have every opportunity to understand
the way you've met each of these
prerequisites so it's a little bit of
advice to improve your chances of
getting admitted excellent so there are
a lot of questions about TOEFL and I am
going to kind of pepper you with these
because I think everyone feels like
their situations slightly different and
so does it apply this way or that way so
the first one is I'm an international
student I'm pursuing my PhD in the
United States right now can TOEFL be
waived if you have been in the program
for two years plus there is a basal
waiver that can be requested if you had
just started that saying is past fall
anything is not enough time Okay next
for example the next person says they've
been working in the United States for
ten years does that qualify if you have
been working in the United States for
more than two years with that qualify is
for a whale but we do require that you
send send the department documentation
from your employer that you have been
employed in the US, based in the US, and
that information is you know on our
website you can see specifically there's
information for online students to seek
the waiver got it and then another
person it sounds the same he has a
master's degree in engineering from an
accredited US University it would be
waived if that master's degree was more
than two years and he was in residence
for those two years yes so if there is a
if it's an awarded degree that degree
can be awarded in the past five years
and the five years is counted from the
expected enrollment in the degree
program so for someone since these are
most of the participants are looking to
apply for fall term for 2018 if your
degree was awarded anytime for thirteen
on that would fill up your waiver so if
your degree was let's say if your degree
was awarded ten years back and let's say
you've been working in the US since then
you're did decree does not make you
eligible but your employment history
will make you eligible so there are two
options and you can pick the one that is
most relevant excellent and then delete
asks I've been working for a year and a
half in Silicon Valley does that work
and the answer would be no because it's
two years of work experience okay
excellent and I'm gonna just quickly
scroll through to see if there's any
more around here so it looks like I'm
gonna move away from the TOEFL and ask a
little bit about some transcripts it
looks like there's some transcripts so
somebody says my official transcript is
in Greek literally in Greek right so um
do they have to translate it or to get
it translated how does that work for you
guys yes they do need a trend of
translated copy so what you would do is
attach a copy of the original
plus a translation if you could and
there are there are approved translators
or translating agencies if you go to our
Grand College website which is
www.grad.illinois.edu
it will give you the requirements for a
specific country and that includes what
the approved translations are now for
the initial review process we can take
an informal translation translation but
if a student is admittedly paying the
submission of the transcripts with
include formal approve translations we
wish we wish we be spoke a lot
of different languages but we are
somewhat limited so we do need the
english translations to reveal the
applications excellent Okay so then I'm
there's a question around what does what
exactly means unofficial transcripts or
official transcripts can you give a
definition of what those two are okay
let's say that you have a copy of your
transcript in the sense that it shows
for each term or semester that you are
enrolling here are the classes YouTube
here are the grades you received and if
you make a copy of it this is a document
that you have at hand you make a copy of
it it isn't an official transcript for
us because it came from the applicant if
you had for example many of the
institutions in India would have mock
shapes and that's if those smart shapes
would show again by term by the number
private by the class including last
class title and the grades and the
scores received so if you make a copy of
that that would be an unofficial score
sheet for us which we can use for
evaluating the application you want to
make sure that unofficial copy includes
the grading scale for example
some institutions would say a 3.0 is a
b-grade so what we are looking what the
Graduate College looks for is a 3.0
minimum GPA which means a B average if
you are translating it into a different
grading scale so this is why we need the
grading scales that are used by your
institution so let me get to what an
official transcript is an official
transcript is something that if think
you should directly by the home
institution so there are two ways that
this can come one you can ask your home
institution to send it directly to our
graduate college and they will ship it
out you will not get it in your hands if
you continuously to the Graduate College
or what you can also do is as a stem
home institution to send the transcripts
to you but in that case they had to be
in envelopes that are signed and sealed
and if you do if you go this route do
not open those envelopes you would just
want to put it in another envelope and
send it to the University of Illinois
graduate college because then maybe you
see that this is an I know but document
that came from the University I hope
that answers the question I think it
does and then and there's another
question from someone saying that they
don't have transcripts since 1985 right
I think graduated a while ago now I
assume all universities keep transcripts
forever right so they can go to that
institution and ask for one. Yes. So there's no
issue they don't have to come up with
any other alternative they just get
their transcripts from the university
graduated from even if it was 30 years
ago that is good it could take a little
bit more time if the documents are still
in table form but this is something that
the applicants will have to plan for so
let me just add a little bit so let's
say I'm admitted to the program it's
going to take me some time to get these
official transcripts you can enroll in
the first semester until you get your
official transcripts in but then let's
say I starting
four terms somewhere I have to submit
bills official transcript somewhere
around September of that fall turn for
me to be able to register for the next
Spring term so there is you can register
for the system you're admitted even make
the official transcripts are not sent
but then you will not be able to
register for semesters beyond that it
gives it gives applicants a little bit
extra time to get these documents in to
tell any to the Graduate College
perfection looks like we got most of the
transcripts and this one I think you
probably get this question a lot is on Gee
if I take you know I'm working in the US
and if I take this program will it
extend my i-20 for international
students we do get this question it does
not because it's an online program which
doesn't require any campus recess so for
any of our online students the
university do not issue I-20s for
students on f1 visas so you students
have to be international students have
to be on a visa that allows them to be
students so it cannot be for example on
a tourist visa because students because
do not allow through allowed study but
if your for example if you are in the US
on an h-1b visa with your employers
approval you can you can be in a
graduate program so when we get this
question we do get this question say I
am I am in the u.s. under visa type
with a X can I study and that you would
we would first refer you to go back and
check with your HR and your manager that
you can actually study and our graduate
college would require a copy of your
current visa status but no I-20 and no
I-20 is to be extended with you on a
current I-20
okay somebody asked if it's can students
still pursuing a bachelor's degree apply
so this is sounds like somebody who's
like maybe a senior and they want to
apply for next year you certainly can
apply it's we do get a lot of applicants
in our general graduate student programs
we do have a lot of current
undergraduate students who apply what is
required is let's say you're applying
for fall term this year you need to have your
undergraduate degree awarded by the end
of summer so there is a time gap between
applying and starting the program you need
to have that degree awarded by the time
it starts with that for the master's
program excellent now we have a bunch of
people who are asking questions about
like am I eligible right and they're
very specific things like somebody has
back three years bachelor's in computer
science to three years bachelors qualify
for you guys a three-year bachelor's is
generally not eligible again this is
country specific for example I'm putting
out some examples that we have from our
experience three-year through your
bachelors for example India will not be
eligible if you have a three year degree
for example from India that you would
leave another one here post graduate
diploma that comes from an accredited
institution so it could not be a diploma
that comes from from let's say a private
agency it has to be an accredited
institutions diploma there are some
other countries that where the
three-year degrees are eligible so again
the best best source is to go to the
Graduate College search for your country
and then see which the please I'll even
if you have any questions about this if
you have a four-year degree then those
are eligible not in this person into
specifics and say but three years
bachelors and then at three years
master's and they're both from
University grants in India so there is I
think I saw that question and I think
that was a computing masters and then
this is another I just answered the
question on that if you have if you
already have a master's degree in
computing we can't give you a second
master's degree in computing for those
students if you apply what we'll do is
recommend you for a certificate in data
science which means you can take the
coursework and we can't give you a
master's degree but we can give you a
department of computer science at the
University of Illinois certificate in
data science that shows that you have
the same skills and abilities of
students completing the MCS-DS Okay
I'm trying to see what other types of
questions there's been a couple of
questions about like when is the
curriculum gonna be available online to
see what's coming there's some stuff
that says coming soon um do you have any
thoughts on that just wondering when the
curriculum will be available online I
see it is still okay sure yeah we we
recently announced we had we're
completing we're just now completing all
of the coursework for the data science
program so if you want to get your
Master's of Computer Science focusing on
Data Science that coursework has just
completed we'll be introducing new
courses and in the coming year starting
in the fall of course work on parallel
computing coursework on scientific
computing course work on software
engineering in many other areas of
computer science beyond the data
sciences and because that coursework is
just coming online some of the details
of those courses haven't been announced
yet and someone asked specifically are
there any courses related to electronics
and embedded I don't quite understand
what systems and then it's not presently
the the cloud computing course is a
distributed systems course and that
overlaps a little bit with embedded
computing but just on the networking
aspects of it we are we're looking at
you know in the future having an
Internet of Things course which would
also overlap a little bit with embedded
systems but that's as close as we plan
on getting to embedded systems in the
next several years ok another course
question was and are the courses from
the scientific computing specialization
part of the MCS program yeah those are
coming online so we've got the course
coming from Mike Heath. Professor Heath
wrote the book on scientific computing
that everybody uses and he's is
currently working on a course on
scientific computing a very popular
course we have on campus we're putting
that on the platform that should be
available I think in the spring is yeah
yeah I think I think I think we're
planning on rolling that out next spring
semester in January so that will be
coming online along with scientific
computing high-performance computing
typically when you're doing scientific
computing you what you want performance
and performance these days means
parallel programming we we've had a
number of high impact works on parallel
programming we've got blue waters which
is the you know the fastest
supercomputer on any college campus and
we've been doing parallel programming
here you know for decades in fact some
Berkeley professors a sudden that we
invented parallel programming back neck
in the 70s but the hour-long programming
course becoming online and leave also
next year in the spring it's coming
together now and so rolling these
courses that we want to make sure
don't roll it out until the course is
ready and so we're still looking at what
net course is going to be released but
that's of course my son Jai Kali and
he's a worldwide recognized leader in
parallel programming develop the term
plus plus system that's the platform
that they use for some of the recent
science publications on recent results
revealing more detail about the HIV
virus and other things so that will be
coming online too so we're excited about
that you just have to stay tuned because
we'll be rolling those courses out in
the next year and so we're really
excited about them but we don't have the
details for them yet because they're
just being developed this year keep you
informed perfect well I have two more
questions basically at time so I'm gonna
have you answer two more and then we
will be sharing this recording the
webinar with everyone who's in
attendance so on people can view it
again and so the one question is is it
practical to complete the entire program
of 32 credits within 12 months for non
working professionals yes absolutely
okay and four courses are offered at
least once per year and if you're a
full-time student basically devoting all
of your time yes each each of these
courses should take between 10 and 12
hours to complete on average per week
and so you'd be taking say three courses
in the fall three courses in the spring
and two in the summer and that would be
you know between 30 and 36 hours during
the fall and spring semesters great so
then kind of that person was interested
in how fast can you complete it the next
person is wondering well how long it's
like what's the maximum duration
afforded to complete if you take one
class a semester a very leisurely pace
you'll finish in a little less than
three years and that's our expectation
we don't we recommend students that take
longer than five years you can you know
if you need to skip semesters if there's
things you needle you know the ten to
from time to time
you know every other semester and so on
some students can take as long as five
semesters but we usually don't recommend
taking excellent I think we're done
so for everybody who came thank you so
much um like I said we will be sending
out this recording and then if you have
other questions please refer to the
website can you repeat the web address
again for the Grad College, Viveka? Sure
the Grad College is just grad.illinois.edu you and then you can go to
the Department of Computer Science
Department for more details on the the
program that's just CS.Illinois.edu
Excellent. Okay, bye everybody
