taking courses not related to focus in grad school

[TecHNooB]

What's your opinion on this? I like embedded hardware, signal processing, and computational E&M. I would like to delve into at least 2 of the 3 topics. How would an advisor react to this?

 

[CycloWizard]

It depends on your advisor. I'd recommend auditing (unofficially if necessary, as at most universities you can actually fail an audit if you stop going). Just ask your advisor and he'll probably be ok with an audit, as then the time lost will be very limited, then ask the professor teaching the course if he minds if you sit in on it. I did this a number of times and never had anyone say no. I also had an absentee advisor who didn't know I was missing, so YMMV.

 

[superccs]

get finished as fast as you can.

 

[iCyborg]

My grad program had a 'breadth requirement' for courses, you had to take them from diverse groups (all Comp Sci though), their idea was to get breadth from courses, and specialize via thesis research. Makes sense, although it made me miss some good courses as auditing a course can quickly lose priority to other stuff. Similarly here, I think taking some other courses makes sense to make you more complete, but only if you're not going to delve into them too deeply, most m.sc/ph.d. oriented grad programs don't place much significance on courses anyway, at least that was the case with me.

 

[CycloWizard]

My grad program had a 'breadth requirement' for courses, you had to take them from diverse groups (all Comp Sci though), their idea was to get breadth from courses, and specialize via thesis research. Makes sense, although it made me miss some good courses as auditing a course can quickly lose priority to other stuff. Similarly here, I think taking some other courses makes sense to make you more complete, but only if you're not going to delve into them too deeply, most m.sc/ph.d. oriented grad programs don't place much significance on courses anyway, at least that was the case with me.

Yep. A wise emeritus professor once told me that grad school is a time to learn how to learn. It's a good idea to get as broad a base there as you can so that you're "conversant" in a subject, enabling you to read up on it quickly to get acquainted with it in more depth in the future as your research/teaching requires. This has really paid off for me and I highly recommend it, even if it means you'll graduate a semester later (which is effectively what I did by unofficially auditing 4-5 courses).

 

[CP5670]

Auditing or sitting in is a good idea. It's always good to expand your horizons into any related fields, and I think most advisors would like that too, but at the same time you don't want to get bogged down in coursework after you have started your thesis work.

Of course, you can also just get some books and read up on various topics on your own, without bothering with courses (which often don't exist in advanced fields anyway). This is basically what I've been doing.

 

[CycloWizard]

Auditing or sitting in is a good idea. It's always good to expand your horizons into any related fields, and I think most advisors would like that too, but at the same time you don't want to get bogged down in coursework after you have started your thesis work.

Of course, you can also just get some books and read up on various topics on your own, without bothering with courses (which often don't exist in advanced fields anyway). This is basically what I've been doing.

Yep, depends on your learning style. I get a lot out of being lectured to, whereas others can do just as well reading a textbook on a subject. I can usually get the same information out of a book, but I pick it up a lot quicker during a lecture, then can get the details later on from the literature as necessary.

 

[CP5670]

Yep, depends on your learning style. I get a lot out of being lectured to, whereas others can do just as well reading a textbook on a subject. I can usually get the same information out of a book, but I pick it up a lot quicker during a lecture, then can get the details later on from the literature as necessary.

I'm the opposite. I tend to lose the professor and fall asleep during lectures, and pick up the stuff a lot more quickly and thoroughly by working through books on my own. There are no course requirements here (and few non-seminar courses for that matter), so I haven't actually done any courses in most of the fields I work in.

 

[esun]

Adviser will likely not care. And if s/he does, get a new adviser.

Take whatever you want in grad school. It really is your choice. If you're interested in learning about multiple subjects don't let anyone stop you.

 

[ModestGamer]

What's your opinion on this? I like embedded hardware, signal processing, and computational E&M. I would like to delve into at least 2 of the 3 topics. How would an advisor react to this?

fun stuff. Alot of the auto manufacturers are looking for people in these fields and offer internship/carreer paths and paid tuition plus a paying job both during and after schooling.

might wanna look into it.

 

[Born2bwire]

My grad program had a 'breadth requirement' for courses, you had to take them from diverse groups (all Comp Sci though), their idea was to get breadth from courses, and specialize via thesis research. Makes sense, although it made me miss some good courses as auditing a course can quickly lose priority to other stuff. Similarly here, I think taking some other courses makes sense to make you more complete, but only if you're not going to delve into them too deeply, most m.sc/ph.d. oriented grad programs don't place much significance on courses anyway, at least that was the case with me.

His university has recently expanded the "breadth requirements" for PhD. I do not recall such requirements for a Master's, he certainly can legitimately take a few subjects outside of his focus of study. My own advisor has been advocating cross-disclipinary research the past few years and has encouraged us to take classes dealing with quantum mechanics and optics for example.

I would only suggest having an idea as to why you are taking these courses and if you can incorporate the knowledge into your own research. Signall processing is very useful because the ideas of sampling, interpolation, Fourier analysis are useful to many subjects (like CEM). Hardware design requires knowledge of computational electromagnetics as the high frequency signals on (relatively) large chips require wave theory to adequately model their behavior. So by all means take courses outside of your specific area to get a broader base of knowledge. But also try to think about how you can apply this knowledge to take the most advantage of your time and energy.