Looking for grad schools

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Farmer
I agree with Rumpltzer: the professors go over your app, and if you are admitted, you will be working under that professor more or less.

It depends. If they really like you, they might take you in under a fellowship or research assistantship from the very beginning. Graduate student funding is really competitive, especially at the top schools, so you might not be able to immediately start working with a professor. The first two years are usually spent taking classes anyway. The grad students who do not get an RA their first year will have to get to know faculty members and just see who is accepting new students, and try to get in with them. I started as a TA and met a professor who was looking for students for the summer, and got in with his group. This coming fall I may have the option to either work as a TA again or stay in the research group.

 

[Farmer]

Good to know Special K. I'm not a grad student myself and never have been, so I only know from what I hear.

On another note, some top grad schools give special preference to graduates of their own undergraduate college; these students know their professors, and the institutions themselves, I guess, do not want their students going off to competing research schools.

 

[asearchforreason]

Originally posted by: Farmer
On another note, some top grad schools give special preference to graduates of their own undergraduate college; these students know their professors, and the institutions themselves, I guess, do not want their students going off to competing research schools.

On the other hand, some schools have the philosophy that it is better for the students to go somewhere else for their graduate work. I believe Berkeley won't even allow you to apply to their graduate school if you got your undergraduate degree there.

 

[bobsmith1492]

It's been recommended to me by my professors to go to a different school to get different views on things since I've had most of the profs here already.

 

[krotchy]

Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
Krotchy: Do you know how long these professors have been around and if they're still active in research or if they're old geezers now, ready to retire?

AS far as I can tell, neither of them is close to retiring. Bob Erikson is the head of the EE department at CU, and my guess would put him at 55 years old maybe more. However I doubt he will be retiring anytime in even the next 10 years or more as he is very enthusiastic about his work. Macsimovic is a bit younger, maybe 50 if I had to guess, and Regan Zane is the youngest of them, but none of them look to be retiring any time soon.

 

[imported_pratz]

No..Berkeley allows them..but it is significantly harder than going to other universities..they are only taking the cream of the crops..that's why most of my friend who finished their undergrad there are taking grad at stanford..only one out of four of my friends are accepted to Berkeley EECS grad school..

 

[asearchforreason]

Originally posted by: pratz
No..Berkeley allows them..but it is significantly harder than going to other universities..they are only taking the cream of the crops..that's why most of my friend who finished their undergrad there are taking grad at stanford..only one out of four of my friends are accepted to Berkeley EECS grad school..

Sorry, you're right. It's the Chem E department at Berkeley that doesn't allow undergrads to continue at Berkeley in grad school.

 

[theslickvik]

I went to UCAL Berkeley and felt right at home. People are eccentric and food is great. Quality education for cheap (compared to MIT and Harvard). If you need help PM me

 

[bobsmith1492]

I'm not so sure about going to school in the bastion of liberalism that I hear is the majority of California. Plus, when you say "eccentric," the first thing that comes to mind is hippies and drugs, and I'd rather not go there. Besides that, I've heard it is a good school, though.

So, I talked to one of my professors about grad school; here are some of his points:

- always start by going for a PH'd; otherwise they'll never pay for you to go there, and you can quit with an MS if you want
- never pay for graduate school
- go to a reputable school
- go to a school with a lot of resources, especially a lot of professors in your area of interest since one of them will end up being your advisor
- your advisor is the most important aspect of grad school
- go to a school far from home for a different view on the world and personal growth
- do not go to a school that doesn't offer to bring you out to show you around and interview you; likely they either won't want you or won't pay you

 

[theslickvik]

My friend Bob its not only good its the number one public school in the nation.

Numero Uno

 

[bobsmith1492]

Well, that depends on the source you look at.... http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/eng/brief/engrank_brief.php
I'm sure it is a great school, but that's not the ONLY factor to look at.

 

[postmortemIA]

[sarcasm] Poor us that go to regular state grad school when I look at these brilliant minds on this forum [/sarcasm]

Last time I checked, about 10-20% people applied get addmited to any grad school.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Hey man, you have to shoot for the top. How do you know how brilliant anyone on here is just by their forum posts?

 

[postmortemIA]

Let's say I understand statistic. If grade A grad school takes about 1% of total grad students, same is distribution among the people here. Everybody is welcome to shot for best, but you better apply to more than one school.

 

[theslickvik]

Cali-FORN-IA rocks!

 

[theslickvik]

 

[joe360]

Do you have to write the SAT tests if you're going to a US school for grad studies, espesically if you're coming from a Canadian school?

 

[bobsmith1492]

No, the SATs are for undergrad, and no one even uses them anyway (just ACTs). The GREs are the tests most schools are looking for.

 

[ottothecow]

I thought I would just throw in that U of M can also represent university of Minnesota (and umass is usually umass not u of m) which while they have some very very good programs across the board (from econ to low temp physics) I cant say how they rate in terms of EE. I know that their IT school has built up a massive amount of infrastructure in recent times and the school has a massive ammount of resources being one of the largest schools in the country. I've been in a few of the machine shops as well as their brand new (well, it was a couple years ago) chip fabrication facility--wore the clean suit and everything. Certainly a lot of resources available to you there.

Not that I am really allowed to talk about engineering...I go to the university of chicago which makes me one of the few top tier institutions that does not offer engineering at all...gonna have to go for physics if you want to go down that path...(physics is where I started although I am now onto econ)

 

[Eris23007]

I went to U of CO at Boulder. Great place to live and go to school.

I had Bob Erickson for undergrad Circuits 2, and I found him to be a very good teacher. He's now the dept chair. I had Fuchs (another Power guy) for Circuits 3, and though he has a bit of an accent, I still found him to be a good teacher as well. Maskimovic has an excellent reputation.

http://ece-www.colorado.edu/research/groupsareas/Power_Pwr_Electronics.html


Boulder's a great place to live - seriously. Doesn't matter what you're looking for, it's there, except ocean activities. Outdoors stuff is great (climbing, biking, hiking, rafting, skiing/boarding, camping/backpacking, running, and plenty of stuff you've never heard of). Engineering school is excellent. Norlin is a good library. Decent football team. TONS of hot chicks in the undergrad population. Denver isn't too far (about 30 mins from CU to downtown Denver) and has plenty of "city" attractions. DIA (airport) is about 45 mins and is convenient to pretty much anywhere in the country. It's a United hub so lots of direct flights, plus hosts a low-rate airline, "Frontier". But then there's this:

http://www.go-colorado.com/CO/images/detail/intro-boulder-JW.jpg

...pretty much the view I used to enjoy every morning when I walked out my front door, but taken from in the air...

Edit: This one is from the deck of the ITLL at the Engineering center, which is partly shown in the picture (with all the concrete and funky sloped tops). The building in the middle of the image is the Business school (which I understand is now undergoing renovations).

A big one of the Flatirons - 1600x1200

http://www.hillhaus.com/photos/2006.03.11.Flatirons/Flatirons03.jpg


Heh... I miss CO. I really need to go visit!

-Full disclosure: My father is a Prof of Applied Math at CU-Boulder.

 

[bobsmith1492]

That's a beautiful place... I have a big picture of the Flatirons that I love, but didn't realize they were right there! Hmm.... big plus.

 

[pradeep1]

Georgia Tech in Atlanta has a strong power research program in their EE school:

http://www.apec-conf.org/2006/APEC_2006_SP3_5.pdf

I am biased, since I am a chemical engineer from there.

Pradeep

 

[bobsmith1492]

Huh, that's some interesting stuff... I'll have to add it to the list of places to apply to!

I just visited Carnegie Mellon in (near?) Pittsburgh this week. Apparently, they're on the list of "new ivy" schools along with the University of Michigan. Sounds good...

So far, the list of schools is: MIT, Carnegie Mellon, U of M(ichigan), U of Colorado, Purdue, and I think I'll add Georgia Tech.

Oh, also, that DC-DC converter is exactly what that other post here on HT was asking about: the 100A, 1V power supply. Heh!

 

[erub]

I'm a new grad student at GT in ECE, and I've met quite a few people that are going into Power. I'm planning to study Telecommunications and Circuit Design though, just doing a non-thesis masters. Got full funding for that too, am going to be a TA for them though, I've heard that its not that uncommon. Like someone else said, GT has the largest EE grad department in the nation, so there are tons of class offerings

Go here:
http://www.ece.gatech.edu/academics/courses/course_menu.php

Type 6000 to 9999 and take a look at the many syllabi for grad classes

 

[bobsmith1492]

Yay, I just took the GREs...

So, do those really mean anything, even? I mean, do EGR grad schools even look at them? They seem really inconsequential.

The math part was stressful but not that bad apparently (got 800/800), but according to the stats I looked up, that's only like the 86th percentile of all engineers in doctorate programs... so basically everyone gets 800. I got 640 on the verbal; anyone know what that means, even? It looked like a little above average, but averages usually suck anyway.

Oh, and I started a few applications; MIT wants to know freakin' everything about your education background... I dunno if I'd really want to go there even if, by some stray chance, I could...