录取后--如何选科系/老板? (编者注:这个问题及以下回答也是经典,不管是读那个科系都该看看)
问:我是ECE Ph.D.今年秋天要入学的新生,目前有一个疑问要请教各位学长姐,就是找Advisor的事.要在台湾就找好,还是去到学校修过那个老师的课之后再找他谈会较有利?我是怕有些老师的opening很快就满了,或者是他愿意收你,但没有funding.若现在就联络老师, e-mail中该说些什么呢?没有与该老师及他的学生谈过就决定跟他,风险会很大吗?想听听学长姐过来人的意见!
答:(BY炎龙)
如果你是来念博士的,老师不用很多啦,有你指导教授就好了。如果是来念硕士的,大牌教授很多也没用,因为你可能也碰不到。
所以呢,可能是要集中注意力看是不是有觉得不错的老师,可以当指导教授的。看来你自己的方向很清楚,所以应该不难决定。如果实在没有,可以在考虑。我只知道我们老学长Vincent是走VLSI的……
研究所不像大学,我们不能期望学校开足够的课,像是职业训练班一样,把你训练的好好的,然后去找好工作。拿到硕士或博士,重点不是你修了多少课,而是有没有陪养出一些更好的独立思考,解决问题的能力。
(BY加蕙)
对PHD学生来说,是一个很重要的决定,简直跟选择终身伴侣没时么两样。
首先,两人兴趣要相符。否则起码不能差太多。鱼跟鸟就是不可能幸福的相处的。
其次,要相信其他人的评语。如果所有人都觉得他是个很难相处的人,那通常是真的。如果十个人都说河的对岸有妖怪,那河的对岸有仙女的机率是非常非常小的。所以一定要问到以前学生的评语。
再来,要勇敢的分。就算选错郎,嫁错人,也都可以反悔。在美国,在不同实验室ROTATE是很正常的,所以不要认为自己今天选了老板,就一辈子换不掉;同理,也不要觉得自己选了老板,就不会被老板FIRE掉。市面上的鞋子这么多,没必要坚持穿一双磨脚的鞋。
最后,要找到ADVISOR,最容易的方法是让他/她没有理由不要你。提出你的各种丰富研究经验,发表/未发表的文章,详述你的强烈学习动机,甚至提出一个研究计画!让自己的VALUE显现出来。大部分的人如果遇到了自己相信错过就很难再遇到的好东西,多半就算先预借现金也会想要买下来的。所以就算老板FUNDING不够,如果他觉得你潜力十足,也会用尽心思替你找钱。
真的应该兼差当代办报导
(BY秘密客)
你如果想先投石问路的话,可以写个email给你中意的老师,问问看他们想不想收博士班学生,他的实验室在做什么,目前感兴趣的方向,或已有计画正想找个有潜力的博士班学生来做.
问:大家好,我也是今年度要去ECE念Ph.D.的学生.学校在给我的admission上面,清楚地写着only admission, without financial aid.还说我必须提出financial statement才能发给我I-20,并要我support自己第一年所有的花费.请问这种情形是我在到了学校之后,就要赶快找好老板,他会帮我出学费和生活费是吗?像我这种只有admission,却无financial aid的Ph.D.学生,是学校为了多收学生赚取学费的一种方式吗?如果是这样,那我宁可再多准备一年,把GRE考高,申请更好的学校,或着先去念,第二年再转学.我觉得ECE好像给Ph.D. admission给得太浮滥了, qualitycontrol似乎不是很佳,个人意见.
答:(BY加蕙)
我真心的建议你,如果你真的觉得UCI不是你理想的学校,那真的不必因为只是想出国留学而到UCI入学。再多花一年准备,进入你心目中的理想学校,获得你想要受的教育才是比较实在的。
美国的博士班课程,目的是在培养基础科学的研究人才,所以大部分的科系都尽可能的希望减低博士班学生的经济压力,不希望博士班学生因为经济的因素而中途中断,所以多少都有各种奖学金的设置。
但是因为粥多僧少,所以不得不有一些"quality control",所以这些奖学金都是给他们认为最有潜力的学生,但是他们也怕失去一些也许过去经历不怎么有竞争力,但是有强烈动机而且也很优秀学生,所以也会开放一些admission的名额,但是需要自费就读。目的是希望如果真的有很优秀的学生没有一开始被发现,那等他们入学之后,也许可以由他们的表现获得系上的认可。
我所认识的UCI ECE的PHD同学,都很认真的在求学,我也都很敬佩他们的求学态度,我不知道你是不是有认识什么你觉得条件比你差很多的人,在UCI就读,所以造成你有『ECE好像给Ph.D. admission给得太浮滥了, quality control似乎不是很佳』的感想。
不过本来美国的研究所,就没有在给admission之后还必须要给fellowship的『义务』,当然不同学校不同科系有不同的政策,但是据我所知,UCI ECE的确没有『保证』每个博士班学生都有奖学金的政策,但是他们的确很努力的替那些进入就读,而且表现优良的博士班学生,寻找各种减轻经济压力的管道。
建议你由你将来想研究的领域决定你想就读的学校,因为不同学校有不同专长的领域。另外博士班学生如何找FUNDING的问题,前面几页已经有很多有经验的学长姐提供很多意见,建议您不妨在留言版上往上翻几页,相信会有个更清楚的概念。
祝您求学之路顺利。
答二:(BY愤怒的人)
若您觉得UCI不符您的期望,请您再考虑申请其他较理想的学校,我们这里不欢迎像您这样优秀的人.(不过我想您若是真的优秀的话,该不致于完全没有financial aid吧!了解我的意思吧.)
答三:(BY SIMON)
Hey, don't feel angry about others' comment of UCI. I believe myself and my decision. They have the right to judge all the schools but should not ruin our school especially asking for our help. I feel a little bit uncomfortable also. I don't know if I am good enough. In my case, I was graduated from National Taiwan University, ECE department in 1998. I got the admissions from Cornell U. (ME program), U. of Maryland, U. of Minnesota , and NCSU, etc. I decided to come to UCI finally because my advisor write me E-mail very often and would like to give me full scholarship (tuition+fee+salary). I felt so surprised 'cause I just look for my master's degree only. Anyway, my point is no matter how they judge our school, we know what we have. Their considerations are right, ranking is a big issue. I would like to share my experience here for the prospective students, but I won 't strongly recommend them to come without funding. They have to worry about the money so I don't want to let them feel regretful. Some of the questions we can answer like "the policy of the school", "the environment here" ,etc. Some of the questions are really hard to response on the board like " Is Prof. xxx a good guy "? " Is the xxx field strong"? These kind of questions shoulded be discussed via E-mail or telephone. People may think why nobody answer me on the board , especially ECE dept. In fact, I already answered 4 people by e-mail or phone. I don't know how can they know me and get my e-mail address. I think we already try our best to help them out. We know we are good, don't feel uncomfortable any more.
答四:(BY Gary)
我觉得选学校就像选鞋子一样,不是光听别人的意见就可以知道何不合适。别人穿了合脚的鞋我们穿起来不一定合适。一双再漂亮,再多功能的鞋,不亲自试穿一下是不可能知道合不合脚,舒不舒服的。我们在这儿所能提供的也只是我们自己穿鞋的经验,让新生们可以多一些参考,来决定UCI这双鞋到底合不合他们的脚。
但是每个人选择学校时的条件并不尽相同,有人可能以附近有没有亲友为主,或是经济能力,或是学校周遭的环境,或是学校的名声以及排名等。当然最重要的还是要从已被录取的学校里面做选择!从被录取时到得做最后决定的时间事实上非常短,在这么短的时间里得做出将影响一生的决定是非常的不容易,相信AGST里面的每一位都经历过这种难以做抉择的时刻。或许这位新生的措词有些不当,但换个角度想想,回想一下当初选
学校时的心情,尤其是一年下来的学费加上生活费将花去万把两美国银子,经济上的压力实在不小,相信大家都可以体谅他的焦虑。
我是从大学就开始在UCI念的,当初选择来UCI就读时是以周遭的环境为主。运气比较好,有家人全力支持我继续升学,没有太多经济上的负担,所以在选研究所时很任性的把东岸的学校全部排除考虑范围(我嫌那边天气不好),然而在西岸的众多学校里我放弃了Stanford,UCLA,UC Berleley这些比UCI还要有名气的学校,选择了继续留在UCI。原因(除了天气跟环境以外)只有一个,想尽一份力好让UCI变得更好。数一数,在UCI也已渡过了六个年头,也到了我该离开的时候了。在这六年内我亲眼看到UCI越变越好,名气越来越高。心里的感触实在不少。当然我也不是说UCI就是最好的,这一所庞大的公立机构也是免不了沾些官僚之气。但我相信这在其他任何一所学校,公立的也好,私立的也好,都是难免的,只是程度上的差异罢了。
最后在这里祝福各位新生,无论你最后是否决定选择来UCI,都能找到一所合适你的学校,展开你求学旅程中的下一章。
(怎样各位?有没有变得更佩服我只有小学程度的中文能力啊?真是越想越佩服我自己,要不要印一份带回去新生座谈会里发一发呀?)
问:Could anyone exaplain more physically how an advisor affects his students' future? I just don't understand. In my case, my advisor in Taiwan make no influence on my career.
答:(by Vincent)For example, it is very difficult to find a teaching job in university today, not mention top-universities. All the Gajski's students seeking academic career went to top-rating schools once graduated. Last four I know, Allen Wu to Tsing-Hua University, Frank Vahid to UC Riverside, Smita Bakshi to UC Davis, and Jianwen Zhu to University of Torrondo.
I didn't apply for any academic jobs. I apply only industrial jobs (because I hate teaching). However, in all the job interview of mine, nobody has really interviewed my technical capability and I got offers from all of them. Actually I curiously asked one of the interviewer why is that. He told me "well, Gajski's students must be good" and he even asked me for other Gajski's students phone numbers. He would like to offer them more to get them to work for him. I guess even I knew nothing, I can still get all the offers since none has ever asked me any serious questions.
问:请问,MBGB据我所知第一年是3个rotation,我应该先找好老板,还是等迎新完再『现场』找?
答:(by Linda)
ㄟ ....欧....这个学弟呀....你也不必太紧张说,你所提的事项都是可做可不做的,当然多花点时间了解一下这个graduate program的情况,例如什么老师做什么方向是你未来比较有兴趣研究的,是必要的homework for now
录取后--要带什么课本过去?
问:请问,MBGB要带什么课本过去?
答:我认为带几本『圣经级』的经典或是你自己认为很有参考价值的就可以了,若要连textbook准备齐全,这似乎是不大可能,因为课程的instructor每年都有变动,谁又能预测今年要用哪一本咧? (不过这里书是真的很贵呦....)
录取后--如何转系
问:请问有没有可能从ECE转到ICS?因为对我真正有兴趣的教授是ICS的Dr.Gajski。
答:(BY不愿具名的好心人)
Something about Gajski :
He like students with independant research capability and good presentation ability, and he despites GPA at all.
He has great influence around as well as in VLSI CAD field. For example, before 1995, ICS did not recognize MS degree at all. I have a MS from Taiwan and started working for him in 1994. He didn't want to me to spent time in taking courses and qualify exam instead of doing research, so he pushed ICS passed a new administration rule: ICS Ph.D. students with US top 50 and "famous foreign university" MS can become candidate directly. (But, too bad , by the rule passed, I was candidate for awhile.) However, couples of Taiwan ICS students did benefit from the rule and got Ph.D. real quick.
I am not the only case. Several other ICS administration rules changed due to similar situation of my coleaques there. For example, "qualify(prelim) failed twice kick-out rule" was removed for Allen Wu, "non-UC-professor commitee member rule" was created for Erica Juan, etc.
Most ICS Ph.D. students have financial aid. I guess that's one major reason ICS got higher rank.
答:(BY Katherine)
不知道你有没有考虑co-advisor的方式?就我所听说,可以找ICS的老师共同指导,让他当你的co-advisor,当然,在ECE本系要有一个正式的advisor.不过ECE的advisor只是挂名而已.真正的研究都是跟ICS的老师做.
我个人猜想,(这就是说,不一定对啦),ICS的排名相当不错,所以要转的话,成绩表现也许要够优秀,不过要是找到指导教授愿意收你,他愿意帮你转,那也许就容易很多吧...
要不要放弃的问题,真的很难决定.其实我觉得进来以后,要想办法拿到financial aid并不是太难,找到老师后,老师通常至少会帮忙把学费出掉,再给多少不一的RA薪水.不过要是你有锁定目标一定非某些老师不跟,那风险也许大一点.我也有一些同学也陆续在申请学校,我的感觉是,要在入学前拿到奖学金也是看运气.有些同学成绩
表现非常优秀,得到很多Top 20学校的Admission,也不一定拿得到奖学金.要是教授对你的研究能力有兴趣,要延揽你进入他实验室的话,拿到奖学金的机会就比较大.我有同学就是还在审查时就收到教授的interview电话,他答得不错,就奖学金跟admission一起得到了.
(BYGary)
我们group里就有一位是ECE转过来的。他本已在ECE念了一年,后来遇到我的advisor,两人谈得很投缘,所以转过来。基本上是我的advisor要收他,重新帮他办理申请手续等等。然后在帮他出学费,RA等。所以建议你与想跟的教授连络看看他们怎么说。
(by Chia-huei)
It's good that you know exactly what you want to do and what you don't want to. Not every single PhD student knows their interest when they apply the programs.
But since you know exactly what you like, and you are not interested in any of the 2 professors at UCI ECE in VLSI area, I really can't see any good reason for you to come here -- I can't agree with you more that it's a waste of time and money to spend in a graduate program that you are not interestsed in.
And if you are so sure Professor Daniel D. Gajski at ICS is the only one that you are pursuing to work for, you should write him an email DIRECTLY to ask about the possibility to work with him. No one here can speak for Professor Daniel D. Gajski or promise to give you any financial aids.
If you don't hear any good news from him, then probably you should consider to apply for other programs that fit your interest better. It really doesn't make sense to me that you apply for a program that doesn't fit your interest and then criticize about it or its admission policy here.
问:I got PhD admission from ECE with full felowship and TAship for the first year. Is it possible to transfer admission directly from ECE to ICS? I like doing research more than taking courses.
答:(By Chia-huei)
If you want to transfer from Phd to Phd, usually you need sufficient reason and at least an advisor in the target department who will back you up claiming that he/she wants you to be his/her students. With his/her words, it's more likely you can transfer to another department.
问:请问我可以在入学前直接从ECE转ICS吗?
答:你也斑斑蛮,你自己觉得这有可能吗? .....『转系』的意思已经有某系学生身份,然后要转换到其他系所,你要在注册以前转ICS,那我看你唯一的选择是放弃所有ECE的奖学金,然后ECE会请你自己去跟ICS谈。然后ICS会告诉你,请你明年尽早申请。
录取后--TA&RA
问:UCI的研究生当RA或TA的机会大不大?除了每个月的生活费,学费可不可以减免?
答:(by幕后黑手)
当TA时学费没有全免,但是有比较少。少多少我不太清楚。不过在UCI要当TA不容易,请参考我们刚刚更新的那个网页。
http://www.ags.uci.edu/~agst/information/new_student/TSE.htm
(by GARY)
我们系上(ICS)有两种TA的补助,一种就是普通TA,每学期可省大概一千多的fees,这是由Office of Graduate Studies出的补助费(如果是resident的话,就等于是免学费了)外州跟国际学生还要得自费剩下将近四千的tuition。另外一种是TAship,据说这种是你当TA然后系上出钱帮你出剩下的tuition(我没拿过,所以不太清楚细节)
当然要是你的Advisor愿意补助剩下的tuition,也是可以的,我室友就是这样子由他的advisor补助tuition(不过最近他的advisor钱用完了,所以暑假开始得自费tuition)
我想ECE应该也差不多吧
(BY加蕙)
除了全额奖学金之外,外国学生在UCI比较常拿的financial aid是『RA』或『TA』。
RA指的是研究助理(reserach assistant), TA指的是教学助理(teaching assistant)。两者领的薪水差不多(若是每周工作20小时,薪水约$1200上下),但是工作内容不同。 RA需要协助出钱的教授研究上的工作,TA则是需要到开给大学部的课程中当助教。 TAship GARY已经说的很清楚了。关于RAship,学校的规定是,如果老师聘用学生当RA每周超过25% (含25%,就是每周工作10小时),那他就必须得替该学生出学费跟其他的FEES。
录取后--ECE的qualify
问:请问一下,有没有哪个网页是关于ECE Ph.D.的Qualify要考哪些科目?用哪本课本?我在ECE的网页似乎找不到.我想在去美国之前的空闲时就开始准备Qualify ,才不会浪费时间.
答:(BY另一个新生)
相当于台湾的qualifying exam叫preliminary exam,有的学校叫screening exam,只能考两次。如果你是Computer Engineering,其实不用准备,来(去)修课成绩就是其中两项考试成绩,第三项口试考paper,恐怕要跟了教授作研究了才有办法准备如是其他组,自己查http ://www.ece.uci.edu/prelim.html然后另外有qualifying exam,是在论文题目提出时考的,看你是否了解你要作的题目,过了才是candidate。
(BY Katherine)
啪啪啪!鼓鼓掌!两位新生真是有备而来,前途不可限量啊! ECE的prelim分为两大部分:Breadth requirement跟Depth requirement。
Breadth requirement:要完成这部分有两种方法可以选,一个是考过某些特定科目的GRE Subject,达到标准以上,一个是修三门minor的课,GPA 3.5以上,详情请见网站。所以要是你考过了GRE Subject,就可以少修三门跟你的主修关联小一点的课。
Depth requirement:分笔试跟口试。各组情形也不太相同。 Computer Engineering的笔试是用修课达成,EE的笔试就是找一天一次考个够。 (详情也请见网站)如果是针对考试而言,这部分来了再准备比较好。因为每年每年情况不同,网站上列的书目只是参考而已,真正要考的课本是哪一本要视当年的出题老师而定。所以把出国前基本科目先准备一下是很好的,不过不用特地去买网站上列出来的书了。
嗯...回答得真是详细啊!为什么我会这么清楚呢?唉...不要明说好了。免得增加压力。不过大家五月二十九号到六月一号要记得帮我祈祷,祝我好运。
录取后--ECE的课程
问:(1) ECE fall quter 2001的课程已经公布了,在analog circuit方面完全没有开课,请问Michael Green已经退休了? ECE完全没有其他人可以开相关的课?那么主修Analog/mixed signal的人怎么办?
(2) ICS的Center of Embedded Computer System在fall quarter 2001也都没有开任何的课,是还没决定好课程,还是不开?
答:
(一)
I believe every professor in ECE will be happy if there are more Ph.D students under him, except Michael Green. The reason I said Prof. Green may not is that he's kind of retired. This is what I've heard about him. If you're one of his students, you may not get much from him yet he's a guru w/o questions. As to funding, as long as the professor is willing to do so, you can always have it. So it depends on who's asking for it...
(二)
Maybe we won't have analog circuit design classes next quater, but we probably will have them in the winter or spring quarter. I know we had analog circuit design class (ECE210A) last fall quarter. The instructor is Walker, PD (I don 't think he is the faculty of ECE department ) Because ECE210A is not a core course, so it's hard to say when we will have it.
(三)
To tell the truth, now the analog/RF circuit field in UCI may not be the same as what you expect. We still have analog/RF circult courses every quarter. The course 212 (Topics in electronics research) in fall quarter recently is RF CMOS circuit design offered by Prof. GP Li. It's talking about LNA, Mixer, LO application in wireless comm by using CMOS technology. Last quarter the topic of 212 is " Circuit Design for Broadband/Optical Communications" offered by Prof. Michael Green. Usually we have 1-2 times 210 (Advanced Analog circuit design) offered every year. If you are interested in Microwave/RF circuit, Prof. Deflavis is planning to offer a course very soon. He also teaches two useful undergraduate courses now. One is 178 "MMIC design", which is talking about microwave transistor amplifier design,and MMIC technology. Another is anttena design,which is coved by
anttena patterm, baseband application, the anttena in mobile network,etc. By the way, Prof. Green is not retired, he just needs to take care his business so cannot spend too much time in school. I think the analog/RF circuit field in UCI is like this now. If you already have very strong background in this area, maybe you don't need to come here. Our strongest (considering NUMBER
of courses and faculties ONLY) field probably are computer science, computer engineering, signal & systems , solid state electronics, and mems.
(四)
因为其实Signal & System是一个很大的范围,所以以目前做signal & system的老师人数来说,没办法每个signal & system的领域都面面俱到.不过在一些有老师在做的领域,我个人觉得表现还不错.不过我们的课开得并不是非常多跟细,加上有很少数不把心思放在教课上的老师,要是好不容易有了想修的课却不幸被不认真的老师教到,真
的是很...DO RUN...我想这是让人感到失望的地方.其实ICS也许也有一些相关的课程,可以考虑.不过我个人对signal & system的研究表现,觉得还蛮乐观的.一些老师的研究成果应该都不错.对学生也很nice.建议可以跟老师们谈谈,要是有喜欢的领域的话,可以先跟老师修一些individual research的研究课程.要是认真的话,应该可以学到东西,也比较能确认自己喜欢的领域在哪里
(五)
BY Hwa Puu
Well, no offense, but I don't think UCI ECE is so strong in the field of "signals & systems". Myself wanted to concentrate on this subject, but so far it's not like what I had expected! Just my personal opinion!
But solid state electronics is a pretty good choice here at UCI.