Alhad Palkar has just recently graduated with an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from CMU. He holds a Bachelors in Computer Engineering from KJ Somaiya College of Engineering ( Mumbai University). Alhad has had a good stint with the industry as well while at CMU - doing his summer internship at Oracle and then now coming to work for Cisco full time. Here he shares his views on what, how and when of getting into CMU, in an interview with kaaledge.com . He talks about how a Masters in CMU is a big value addition to his career.

kaaledge: Can you tell us a bit about your background?
AP: Bachelor in Computer Engg from KJ Somaiya College of Engineering ( Mumbai University)
Worked as a Software Programmer at TCS for 9 months.

kaaledge: What value addition did you think a Masters would get you?
AP: As a Master’s student you focus on a few areas that form the core of your expertise. As an ECE student you can focus on one of the following areas.

a. Logic/Circuit Design
b. Computer Architecture
c. Embedded Systems
d. Signal Processing
e. System Software
f. Networking

My area of focus was b, c and d. The infrastructure, resources and hands-on experience that you get in these fields here is something that is still lacking at universities in India ( at least where I studied )

kaaledge: What sort of jobs await graduates from this program?
AP: The kind of job profile that you get is completely dependent on your expertise. But one thing that stood out was being a CMU graduate certainly helps you in your job search. This is true of all well known universities like Stanford, MIT to name a few. It also depends on where your university is located; for example Columbia, NY an Ivy league university attracts more financial companies. CMU is attracts Tech companies more than companies in the financial sector.

kaaledge: What kind of profile is the admission committee looking for when giving admits to students for this program?
AP: A couple of years ago ( a year before I started ) CMU ECE was more selective in admitting foreign students. Since they came out with the Professional Masters Pgm ( no thesis ) they have lowered their bar a little bit. I don’t think they would be looking for anything spectacular unless you are applying for any of their Phd programs. A decent BS aggregate ( I would say around 65+ for Mumbai University - this might have changed over the past couple years ), a good enough GRE score ( around 1300 - this is with the old format that was in existence before Oct 2008). I don’t think they give much importance to your TOEFL score, so this shouldn’t matter unless it is drastically low. Recos from the Head of Department or some person from the industry will certainly strengthen your case.

kaaledge: What would you say about your experience while you were here?
AP: Academically its a different experience to what you would have experienced during your BS in India. Don’t expect to make up during the last month before exams; the curriculum is such that you need to study throughout the semester. For me it was a good experience to stay away from home. Overall it has been fun so far, to stay in a foreign land and get to know their culture.