The University of California at Irvine is one of the fastest growing UC campuses. It has some of the most renowned names in Computer Science on its faculty list. The machine learning group at the university has some of the most renowned names on its list. People like Pierre Baldi have been instrumental in UC Irvine’s rise as a top notch CS department. But now, another big wig in the world of computer science joins UC Irvine as faculty. Mike Carey, a National Academy of Engineering member, is acknowledged as one of the 50 most influential computer scientists in the world by a UCLA-maintained Web site that tracks research citations. He is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and was the 2005 recipient of the association’s SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award. More details here. A note here - I have been a student of Mike Carey, when he taught a course on Distributed Databases at Stanford (CS347) - and has been one of those courses that created in me a special interest in data-based projects, an interest which has lingered on till this day and will continue to hold me curious.

To give you an insider’s view of how things work at UC Irvine, especially matters related to admission, kaaledge spoke to Ajey Shah, a Master student at the Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences. Here is a crisp insight into how things work at this UC. In case you are thinking about a Masters at UC Irvine - this is definitely worth your time.

1) Personal Details

a. Name: Ajey Shah

b. University you are studying or studied: UC Irvine

c. Currently pursuing: Masters

d. Department/Program you are enrolled in: Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences

f. Undergraduate College: College of Engineering Pune

g. Undergraduate University: Pune University

2) General profile/background of majority of Indian students who get admitted to your program in UCI.

a. Academics - GPA range or % range: 3.3+

b. GRE score range (including minimum cutoff scores if you are aware of): 1350+ (Q-740+, V-600+)

3) Funding:

a. Percentage of students getting some sort of financial assistance in the first quarter/semester (whichever applicable)?: All PhD’s get funding

b. If one doesn’t get any funding in the first quarter, how good are the chances of getting funding in the subsequent quarters/semesters?: Very few

4) Current research scenario in your program,

a. Please enlist some of the research projects that are currently being undertaken in your program/department?: Please visit http://www.ics.uci.edu/faculty/area/

b. Please enlist any particular research area that has been a major focus in your program/department?: Database systems research/ AI/ SE

6) What job opportunities are available to students like you after their degree completion?: Software Development Engineer/ Software TEst Engineer/ Product Manager.