question for any engineering grad students

[Special K]

I have heard that if your undergrad. grades are fairly good then it isn't uncommon to be able to go to engineering grad. school for free. Is that true? Also what sort of things do you have to do to in exchange for the school paying for your tuition, living expenses, etc? Is it just being a TA for a class, doing research, etc? Also what about summers? Are you free to get a job/internship somewhere else or do professors expect/require you to stay at school and do research during the summer?

 

[HokieESM]

Originally posted by: SpecialK
I have heard that if your undergrad. grades are fairly good then it isn't uncommon to be able to go to engineering grad. school for free. Is that true? Also what sort of things do you have to do to in exchange for the school paying for your tuition, living expenses, etc? Is it just being a TA for a class, doing research, etc? Also what about summers? Are you free to get a job/internship somewhere else or do professors expect/require you to stay at school and do research during the summer?

Its actually pretty common. You work on an assistantship... either a TA (teaching assistantship) or an RA (research assistantship). In exchange for this assistantship, they wave tuition (although, sometimes you do have to pay fees) and give you a stipend. The "going" stipend right now is about $18K/year.... no matter where you are. Which is fine in a place with a low cost of living, but a pittance in SoCal.

What do you have to do? It depends. TAs frequently are required to grade papers and/or handle help sessions for the students. It can require quite a bit of time to grade 60 papers of statics homework (or circuits or whatever). RAs, on the other hand, are paid to do a research project. Which is GREAT, in that you're doing real research on a real project.... but, you are basically at the whims of your advisor (a professor in the dept). So, if he's a nice guy, you'll learn a lot, and you'll get a degree reasonably expediently. Some professors (be WARNED) treat their grad students as indentured servants however.... keeping them there for their own personal agendas... doing horrible amounts of tedious background work for the professor to publish. So if you decide to accept an RA--know you you're working for (I know this from PERSONAL experience at two different pretty respectable universities--NCSU and VT).

Summer--TAs are frequently unemployed in the summer. RAs, on the other hand, are frequently year round appointments.

Oh, and just so you know, you are frequently forbidden from holding a second job (by your contract)... that's how it has been at both of my universities (and at a lot of my friends).

Good luck... engineering grad school isn't for the faint of heart (or for those with a lack of motivation and the ability to delay gratification).

 

[rgwalt]

From what I understand, for many engineering grad schools, it is either all or nothing. Either you get in and are supported, or you aren't admitted. Some of the top schools will admit students without assistance though. Different schools do their assistanceships differently. Typically you are required to do TA work for some or all of your time in school, and you are also required to do research. You can do graduate work without doing research, but there isn't much point, and you can't get a PhD without research.

I'm in the chemical engineering graduate program at Notre Dame and I'm pursuing my PhD. In our program, all students that are accepted are funded. We receive a tuition scholarship as well as a stipend. Everyone receives the same stipend amount. We TA our first two years here, and everyone does research. So, in a way, everyone has a research assistanceship.

EDIT: With an undergrad engineering degree, I wouldn't go to graduate school unless I was getting paid. It isn't worth it.

Ryan

 

[HokieESM]

good info, rgwalt... I should have mentioned that it usually is all or nothing. ESM (engineering science and mechanics) is one of the more reputable depts here at VT... so admission is difficult. But all of the students are funded. Here at VT, PhD students typically TA for a year, and then are funded on research for the balance of their degree. Masters students typically TA the entire time--because their projects typically don't get quite the same funding level.

Also, keep in mind that the things you've heard about "good schools" are somewhat moot for graduate school. ALL that matters is who your research advisor was. Frequently, this is asked more often than where you went to school (i know in interviewing for professorships, its been asked of me so frequently that its now on my resume).

And as rgwalt mentioned: don't go to engineering grad school without funding. It doesn't buy you much extra money in the workplace. Go because you're interested in the material and learning it.

 

[Special K]

Are you forbidden from working elsewhere during the summer, as HokieESM mentioned?