FAQ page for Professional MSc. programme at Mila
I receive a lot of messages on Linkedin from applicants to professional masters program at Mila. The majority of these curious applicants are fresh graduates who want to evaluate the pros and cons of this program. As this program is run by Université de Montréal, a predominantly francophone institution, they also want to know how hard it is to navigate this foreign landscape. This article is an attempt to construct an FAQ page for this program to help new applicants make an informed decision.
Please keep in mind that I am sharing my own experience here and yours can be quite different from mine as we live in an ever-changing world. I will try to be as objective as possible for questions that ask my opinion but it’s a good idea to keep in mind that my answers will be biased.
On y va?
Q. What is Mila?
A. Ok, no one asks this question. However, I think it’s important to know this so as to set your expectations right and avoid future frustration.
You can think of Mila as a collaborative research group comprising of researchers from Université de Montréal and McGill University. That’s it. It’s not a university. It’s not a corporate entity. It’s not a business unit. It’s just a group of people doing research, and other staff to help this group work efficiently. Mila staff will help you work efficiently but any other stuff — immigration, housing, integration is beyond its purview.
Q. Is it possible to take all the courses for the Professional MSc in Machine Learning in English?
A. Yes, it is possible to take all your courses in English. UdeM has a policy where you can request all evaluations (exams, assignments, etc) in either language (eng/fr). This is true for all graduate-level courses. The language of instruction depends on the instructor. It is somewhat guaranteed that the mandatory courses mentioned on this program’s website would be in English. This is not true for additional courses (for ex. algorithms) that the department might instruct you to register for.
Q. How is Mila involved in the professional MSc programme ?
A. Mila runs the majority of the mandatory courses and the rest of the interesting optional courses. This means Mila professors manage the course, classes are held in the Mila space, TAs are Mila Ph.D./Masters students.
Mila is also kind enough to help you find your internship. It has an elaborate process that ensures that you do have an internship to complete your program. This process may take time but it works. It also organizes career and internship fairs.
Q. Do you get to take classes offered at other universities affiliated with Mila?
A. Yes! However, this is not specific to Mila. Students of one Quebéc university can enroll for courses in other Quebéc universities under a program named CREPUQ. To complete your 2 open electives, you can utilize this option to enroll in McGill/Concordia/Poly courses.
Q. Is it feasible for a non-francophone to find internships in Montréal?
A. Yes! A lot of anglophone prof. MSc. students do their internship in Montréal. You will encounter French in your workplace but I saw it as the perfect opportunity to improve my French and learn a little bit about the culture. As with most things in life, your experience will be a function of your perspective. Most of the ML research and programming is done in English anyway, so even if you don’t know French, you will get by just fine.
Q. What are the funding opportunities available to Professional MSc student at UdeM+MILA?
A. Honestly, my answer is not going to be always correct as this particular detail keeps on changing and is highly case dependent.
As per the latest information, UdeM offers a partial international student fee waiver. International students have to pay an “international student” fee in Quebéc. This waiver will waive some of that fees. Please consult the official UdeM page here.
There might be some other scholarships available but in my experience, most of them are reserved for research students. There used to be a diversity scholarship at Mila but I am unable to find its link.
It is also possible to become a TA for some courses. TAships are a great way to gain some teaching experience and Mila compensates you well for your work. For some courses, it’s okay if you don’t know French.
Apart from all this, keep in mind that your programme internship is a paid internship that will compensate you well enough to pay at least half of your programme fees. Though, it’s always a good idea to search for funding opportunities.
Q. How long is the Professional MSc programme?
A. The programme is supposed to last for three semesters along with a six-months internship. Officially, that comes out to be about two years. Considering that you enjoy your first summer in Montréal by taking a break (which you should IMHO). But if you want to make it challenging and complete it without taking a break, you can combine your last semester with your internship. I’ll explain. Let’s say you join in Fall 2020 and proceed to complete your four mandatory courses in Fall 2020 and Winter 2021. After completing your four mandatory courses, you can start your internship in Summer 2021. Thus, you can get four months — May, June, July, August — counted towards your internship. For the remaining two months of your required six-months internship, you can work part-time during the Fall 2021 semester. Parallelly, you can register for two courses and complete all the requirements by December 2021. However, you will have to register for another semester under correction status to get your internship report evaluated.
Q. In your estimation what is the cost of living per month in Montreal?
A. In my experience, one can live a comfortable life without worrying about the budget ~ C$1100 here. The majority of your expense would be housing expenses. If you want to reduce that then you should live in a colocation or student residence at UdeM. I would recommend living in colocation as it always has been a learning experience for me. There are a lot of options if you want to reduce your food expenses too — Food banks, community kitchens, Aid organizations etc. You can even sign up to be a volunteer and help the community and in return for your effort, some of these organizations provide you with food.
Q. Is it possible to take other non-ML courses?
A. I am unable to comprehend why would you want to do that. If you are highly interested you can probably audit such courses.
Q. At the end of the programme do we earn an MS in CS or ML?
A. I honestly don’t think this is a question worth answering. But, since it’s so prevalent, I’ll answer. At the end of the programme it’s an MS in CS. I haven’t gotten my degree yet (#COVID-19) but the letter of graduation says that it’s indeed an MS in CS.
Q. I have done <insert a mandatory course> as part of my undergraduate programme. Do I have to repeat it again?
A. No, if you can prove to the programme director that the course content matches, then you can avail an exception. However, you will have to do another course in its place. At the end of the programme, you should have done six courses in total. I availed such an exception and I submitted my transcript along with the course content pdf as proofs.
Q. Is it possible to take three courses in one semester?
A. Yes, it is! Would I recommend it? No. It would be quite demanding. It’s not the difficulty, it’s the sheer amount of work some courses demand. I would strongly advise against this as I think you’ll have less to enjoy and understand these courses. If you think you’ll have too much time to kill, you can always collaborate with one of the researchers, attend reading groups, pursue a hobby. What’s the hurry?
Q. How do I find housing?
A. There are a lot of Facebook groups and Kijiji for this purpose. Message and schedule visits in advance. Make sure to visit the place before fixing anything. It’s very easy to be fooled by pictures. I would advise against fixing something before landing here although I think it’s not too uncommon a practice. Links: https://www.facebook.com/groups/roommatesmontreal/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/colocationmontreal/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/335425193549035/
Q. I got an admit in Prof. MSc. at Mila. Now I applied for MS in CS at UdeM as recommended by the Mila admission team. Will I definitely get in or is it still uncertain?
A. As mentioned earlier, Mila is not a university. I̶n̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶o̶p̶i̶n̶i̶o̶n̶,̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶d̶m̶i̶t̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶P̶r̶o̶f̶.̶ ̶M̶S̶c̶.̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶i̶n̶-̶p̶r̶i̶n̶c̶i̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶a̶d̶m̶i̶t̶t̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶U̶d̶e̶M̶ ̶M̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶m̶e̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶u̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶l̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶f̶o̶l̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶U̶d̶e̶M̶’̶s̶ ̶a̶p̶p̶l̶i̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶c̶e̶d̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶r̶r̶e̶c̶t̶l̶y̶,̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶a̶d̶m̶i̶t̶t̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶U̶d̶e̶M̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶c̶e̶r̶t̶a̶i̶n̶ . [Many thanks to Prof. Neil Stewart for this correction]. An admission to the Mila program is not a guarantee of admission to UdeM. Mila has its own criteria for selection, while the UdeM admissions committee must be sure that basic requirements in core Computer Science have been satisfied. It is certainly true that the success rate for admission to UdeM is very high if the applicant has already been accepted by MILA, but it’s not a sure thing.
Q. Can I shift from Prof Masters to research masters? If yes, what's the procedure?
A. Yes, it is possible to do so. The first step in this process is to find a supervisor who would be ready to take you as a research masters student. After this, you need to begin the administrative process by filling out some forms. There is a deadline for this. Please reach out to DIRO’s TGDE for the complete process.
Q. Does Mila help to find internships? Can we also look for internships outside Mila partners?
A. Yes, Mila will help you a lot to find your internship. But, of course, it’s your internship and it’s better if you play a more proactive role.
Yes, you can intern at a company that’s not a Mila partner. In this scenario, you will need to get your project approved by Mila.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Aditya Joshi, Harmanpreet Singh, and Vicki Anand for their suggestions and inputs.