Graduate%20School:%20What%20to%20do%20next?

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Graduate School What to do next?

• Wade Trappe
• Yanyong Zhang

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Prepare for the Maze
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Overview

• Why graduate school?
• What are the options?
• What must you do to apply?
• How do you pay for it?
• How does one do graduate school?

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Why Graduate School

• In the old days
• Intellectual stimulation
• Modern reasons
• Economy Seek refuge from the ailing job market
• Lifetime Income
• Masters Degree 335K more than bachelors
• Ph.D. 890K more than bachelors
• Caveats
• For jobs Not all degrees are created equal!
• Technical skills are desirable

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Why NOT Graduate School

• Graduate school requires
• Intellectual preciseness
• Not cookbook thinking!
• Must learn why something happens
• Endurance and emotional strength
• Competitive
• 2-5 years is a long time to devote to a single
  thing
• Financial sacrifice
• Salary is small or none
• Ramen noodles, Spaghetti, MacCheese !
• Other Factors
• Married life Hard for non-student spouse to
  understand long hours
• New environment
• Personal Preference Straight to industry

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Options

• Straight-forward approach
• ECE students apply to ECE graduate schools
• CS students apply to CS graduate schools
• Students with technical degrees do not have to
  stay in technical fields!
• Change to a new technical field
  Cross-fertilization is desirable
• Apply your technical skills to a vastly different
  field
• Masters in Business Administration (consulting,
  venture capitalism)
• Law School (patent law)

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Some Grad Schools

• ECE
• Private Schools
• Stanford, MIT, Cornell, Princeton, CMU, CalTech
• State Schools
• Berkeley, Michigan, Penn. State, Maryland, Texas,
  UIUC, Wisconsin, UCSD, UCLA
• MBA
• U. Penn, Northwestern, Harvard, Stanford, U.
  Chicago, MIT
• Staying at Rutgers University
• Pros
• Already know the system
• Connections with professors and research
• In state tuition
• Cons
• Less personal growth
• Academic in-breeding

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Tests

• Graduate Record Exam (GRE)
• www.gre.com
• General and Subject Tests
• General Analytical Writing, Verbal,
  Quantitiative (cost 115 domestic)
• Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT)
• www.gmat.com
• Essentially the same as GRE General
• Cost 200 domestic
• Law School Admission Test (LSAT)
• www.lsat.com
• Verbal and Analytical
• Analytical is not writing-based!
• Cost 108 domestic

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The GRE
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Masters or Ph.D.?

• So how do you choose?
• Career goals
• Ready to make the time commitment?
• Capabilities to do out-of-the-box thinking

Masters Ph.D.
Duration 2 years 5 years
Program Style Course Oriented Research Oriented
Job Prospects Industry Development Industry Research, Academia
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Application Package

• Required
• Letters of Recommendation (3)
• Personal Statement
• Transcripts
• GRE/GMAT/LSAT scores
• Optional
• CV Summarize accomplishments
• Copies of research articles
• Other Issues
• Must specify if you want financial aid
• Masters or Ph.D.?

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Personal Statement

• Example Essay Topic
• Please give your reasons for wishing to do
  graduate work in the field you have chosen and
  show how your background and XYZs program
  supports your interests.
• Important document
• Particularly the beginning!
• Should display your ability to write
• Should tell about your personal vision for
  yourself
• Explain your research interests

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Paying for it all

• Fellowships
• Teaching Assistantship (TA)
• Covers tuition, health insurance, and salary
• You work every week (20 hours)
• Grading, Recitation, Office Hours
• Given by the department
• Research Assistantship (GA, RA)
• Covers tuition, health insurance, and salary
• Responsible for doing research at least 20
  hours/week
• Usually Ph.D. students
• Given by the research advisor
• Hourly
• Only pays for salary, up to 20 hours/week
• No health benefits!!!
• No tuition!!!

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Fellowship Opportunities

• Two classes Internal and External
• Internal
• Graduate School Fellowships
• Departmental Fellowships
• External
• NSF, DoD, Women/Minority, Sloan
• http//cuinfo.cornell.edu/Student/GRFN/
• http//web.missouri.edu/gradschl/financial/extram
  ural/bulletin/allfields.htm
• http//www.ksu.edu/grad/resources/fellowships/
• http//ogsr.ucsd.edu/fellowships/predoc_fellowship
  _listings.asp
• http//www.gradsch.psu.edu/fellow/
• http//www.fis.ncsu.edu/grad_fellows/national.html

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How to survive

• Competitive Best students from the state, from
  the country, and from the rest of the world
• Studying is critical (long hours)
• GPA is important
• Qualifies you to take Ph.D. exams
• Important for job applications
• Many courses are required
• 3 per semester at the beginning
• Compete against students in their own field!
• Exams
• Masters Thesis or Qualifying Exam Options
• Know your strength
• Ph.D.
• Candidacy Exam Often passing rate is 30-50.
• Proposal Oral exam over your proposed research
• Final Defense Oral exam over your research
• Have an exit strategy!

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Research Life

• How to read a paper?
• How to identify problems?
• How to solve to problem?
• How to evaluate your solutions?
• Where to present your results?