Wade Trappe
Yanyong Zhang

 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?

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

 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, Mac&Cheese !
 Other Factors
 Married life: Hard for non-student spouse to understand long hours
 New environment
 Personal Preference: Straight to industry

 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: Crossfertilization is desirable
 Apply your technical skills to a vastly different field:
 Masters in Business Administration (consulting, venture capitalism)
 Law School (patent law)

 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

 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

Masters
Duration 2 years
Program
Style
Course
Oriented
Ph.D.
5 years
Research
Oriented
Job
Prospects
Industry
Developm ent
Industry
Research,
Academia
 So how do you choose?
 Career goals
 Ready to make the time commitment?
 Capabilities to do out-of-thebox thinking

 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.?

 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 XYZ’s 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

 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!!!

 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/extramural
/bulletin/allfields.htm
 http://www.ksu.edu/grad/resources/fellowships/
 http://ogsr.ucsd.edu/fellowships/predoc_fellowship_listi ngs.asp
 http://www.gradsch.psu.edu/fellow/
 http://www.fis.ncsu.edu/grad_fellows/national.html

 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!

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