EE Grad Survey Responses
April 2003
EEGSA
Survey for 1st Year Grads
First Year Grads,
Since this is your first year in the EECS dept, you have the most relevant feedback on some issues. The EEGSA is giving a presentation at the faculty retreat (Apr 28th), and we would appreciate your comments. Feel free to answer as briefly or in-depth as you wish (but any kind of a response is better than none). Please respond to this email (gmc@eecs) and fill in the spaces below by Monday, 21 April. Thanks.
1) How satisfied are you with the following aspects of grad life (on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being most satisfied). Please feel free to comment.
a. Overall ______
b. Department administration ______
c. Faculty ______
d. Other students ______
e. Research opportunities ______
f. Social life ______
g. Admissions process ______
2) Do you think the department could/should do more to help you find an advisor? If so, what?
3) How did admissions, visit day, orientation week and existing services help make the transition and adjustment to grad school?
4) What other services could/should the department provide incoming students?
5) Is there enough diversity in the department? (race, gender, socio-economical etc.)?
6) What more would you like to see the student organizations do? (ie. Social events, etc.)
7) Comments on your adjustment to grad school?
8) Any other comments for the faculty (about anything)?
Survey for all other grad students:
The EEGSA is presenting at the faculty retreat (Apr 28) about concerns of the grad student body. Please help us by providing some feedback on the following issues. Please respond as briefly or as in-depth as you wish (but any kind of a response is better than none). Respond to this email (gmc@eecs) by Monday, 21 April. Thanks.
1) How satisfied are you with the following aspects of grad life (on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being most satisfied). Feel free to comment.
a. Overall ______
b. Department administration ______
c. Faculty ______
d. Other students ______
e. Research opportunities ______
f. Social life ______
2) Comments on the prelim, quals, dissertation Talks, etc. (i.e. fairness, format, etc.)?
3) Is there enough diversity in the department? (race, gender, socio-economical etc.)?
4) What other services could/should the department provide to students?
5) What more would you like to see the student organizations do? (ie. social events, etc.)
6) Do you make enough money (being realistic for a grad student, of course)?
7) Any other comments for the faculty (about anything)?
1) How satisfied are you with the following aspects of grad life (on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being most satisfied). Please feel free to comment.
Average answers:
•Overall 7.67
•Department Administration 8.11
•Faculty 7.70
•Other Students 8.11
•Research Opportunities 7.63
•Social Life 6.44
•Admissions Process (1st years only) 8.00
Individual responses:
a. Overall ____6_____
b. Department administration ____9_____
Department admin staff are extremely helpful in assisting with academic and personal matters
related to grad school and adjusting to Berkeley whenever possible. They are approachable and
an excellent resource for students.
c. Faculty ____8_____
Many faculty are friendly and approachable although difficult to locate.
d. Other students ____7_____
I generally find that other students are approachable but there aren't very many
situations where I would interact with them. This is partially due to personal circumstances.
e. Research opportunities ____8_____
f. Social life ____4_____
That rating is mainly due to my situation having to
take my courses from a distance. Even still, I've only interacted with a
few students outside of a research group or the ones that I met on the Visit day.
g. Admissions process ____6_____
I was provided information however I had found much more on my own before the
package had arrived. I was misled about housing however I found the visit day
and fall orientation activities beneficial.
a. Overall ___8______
b. Department administration ___9______
c. Faculty ___8______
d. Other students ___9______
e. Research opportunities ___7______
Several of my friends are having a hard time finding an advisor (or a
faculty member who is taking students).
f. Social life ___7______
Should consider some bonding events at the beginning of the year. Some
departments take students camping. Could at least organize a pizza
party or something right at the beginning.
g. Admissions process ___8______
It's very hard as a visiting student to determine the funding
possibilities.
> a. Overall _____8_____
> b. Department administration _____9_____
> c. Faculty _____8_____
> d. Other students ____9______
> e. Research opportunities ____7______
> f. Social life _____9_____
Ø g. Admissions process ____9______
a. Overall _____7_____
b. Department administration _____8_____
c. Faculty _____6_____
d. Other students _____9_____
e. Research opportunities _____7_____
f. Social life _____8_____
g. Admissions process _____9_____
> a. Overall 4
> b. Department administration 7
> c. Faculty 5
> d. Other students 8
> e. Research opportunities 6
> f. Social life 4
> g. Admissions process 5
> a. Overall ___6______
> b. Department administration ___7______
> c. Faculty ___7______
> d. Other students ___8______
> e. Research opportunities ___8______
> f. Social life ___1______
> g. Admissions process ___8______
> a. Overall ______10
> b. Department administration ______8
> c. Faculty ______10
> d. Other students ______8
> e. Research opportunities ______10
> f. Social life ______8
> g. Admissions process ______8
> a. Overall ______5
> b. Department administration ______10
> c. Faculty ______6
> d. Other students ______7
> e. Research opportunities ______4
> f. Social life ______4
Ø g. Admissions process ______10
> a. Overall _____9_____
> b. Department administration _____7_____
> c. Faculty ____10______
> d. Other students ____10______
> e. Research opportunities _____10_____
> f. Social life _____9_____
> g. Admissions process _____10_____
> a. Overall 9
> b. Department administration 9
> c. Faculty 10
> d. Other students 9
> e. Research opportunities 10
> f. Social life 9
> g. Admissions process 8
a. Overall __9______
b. Department administration __10______
c. Faculty ___9______
d. Other students ___9______
e. Research opportunities ___10______
f. Social life ___8______
g. Admissions process ___9______
> a. Overall ___8______
> b. Department administration ___9______
> c. Faculty ___8______
> d. Other students ___7______
> e. Research opportunities ___9______
> f. Social life ___6______
> g. Admissions process ___8______
a. Overall ___5______
b. Department administration ____10______
c. Faculty ____4______
d. Other students ____5______
e. Research opportunities _____1_____
f. Social life ____5______
g. Admissions process ____5______
> a. Overall _____8_____
> b. Department administration _____9_____
> c. Faculty _____8____
> d. Other students _____9_____
> e. Research opportunities _____7_____
> f. Social life _____8____
> g. Admissions process _____8____
>a. Overall _____7_____
>b. Department administration _____7_____
>c. Faculty _____6_____
>d. Other students ______8____
>e. Research opportunities _____4_____
>f. Social life _____5_____
>g. Admissions process _____7_____
2) Do you think the department could/should do more to help you find an advisor? If so, what?
All of the opportunities for finding an advisor were adequate. I'm unsure how
much the fall research fair (mid Sept) contributed to students finding advisors
since I did not attend.
I think that the process is a little slow. If nothing else, the
department should encourage students to find advisors a little more
quickly.
The thing I disliked the most was the few professors that I liked seemed
like they were not taking any students until next fall. I guess I didn't
like the idea that I had to choose a professor based on their availability
and not on what I wanted.
This issue didn't affect me too much, since I am not very certain of
what i want to work in, but if I had been, I would have had to wait till
next fall, for example, to work for Professor Ramcandran
Don't know what could be done. Maybe improve the professors' general
enthusiasm in taking on new students.
If professors are not taking students in a given year, they should
make the clear. The department should maintain a list of professors who
are taking students, and this should also be given to prospectives. It
is pretty lousy to show up and realize the people you want to work with
are not taking any more students.
Ø I came in with an adviser
Yes. Sone professors seem too busy to talk to students - no reply to
emails, and outdated
listings of office hours. Do professors' have general office hours, or only
office hours for classes?
Also, unclear about what research groups are around: everyone is locked away
in their
own research labs and offices (need card key access). This makes sense...
more security/less
things stolen this way, but also makes it more difficult to just walk into a
lab and talk to grad students
of a particular group/research area when getting situated. I look at
professors' web sites
for information about research group activities, but they are often
outdated.
Is there a centralized web site listing all research groups and areas like
MIT?
No, we should learn to how to find a advisor independently.
Probably, though I didnt have any major problems.
No
Push professors to respond to emails from new graduate students. There were a few professors I could not track down at all.
Don't admit students if there aren't sufficient funds.
I think the system is pretty much in place and it seems to work. I have
noticed that in some areas there seem to be more students than available
research positions. Of course it's difficult to predict how many
positions will be available so I'm not sure if anything can be done
about that.
>Yes, I think there are problems with the current process. At the very
>least, professors need to be more upfront about whether they can or cannot
>take on new students. Some faculty will happily talk to you about research
>and invite you to research meetings without giving a clear idea of whether
>they have space and funding for new graduate students. On the other hand,
>there are also faculty that repeatedly say they have no room for graduate
>students and then end up taking someone on. I know that faculty will
>select the graduate students they personally want in their group, but they
>need to be more upfront about this instead of stringing along students
>they're not interested in.
I don't know how much it would help, but it may be good to formalize the
process a bit. Perhaps each semester the professors who can take on
graduate students have to announce that. And then students can formally
meet with those professors who they are interested in. The faculty and
students can rank each other and professors can choose which students to
offer gsr positions to this way. If a student didn't accept a certain
professor's offer, the professor could offer the position to another
student. I just think that a more formal process could help remove some of
the ambiguity of the process.
3) How did admissions, visit day, orientation week and existing services help make the transition and adjustment to grad school?
did not partake in any of the general graduate student orientation activities.
The services were pretty good.
No specific comment except that the transition to grad. school was very
smooth.
It was very helpful
Orientation was pretty useless. I felt like I had to force myself
to get into contact with the department, and the admissions to getting
here process was not very clear AT ALL. It was only because I came to
visit over the summer and went in to talk to Ruth that I had any clue.
N/A : No time to attend
Ø helped a lot
Transition was less smooth than expected - a bit lost on how to start doing
research.
How do we find an advisor? Must we do research them first before asking to
become
a GSR? Seems a bit difficult to make real progress on research and TA and
take classes.
What are expectations of first year grad students... should we spend time
reading papers
in a research area first, or just jump straight into research? Should we
go to research retreats to find out latest developments in a research
group - and when,
only having officially joined a group or when we are still searching? Is
this different for each group?
Are these stupid questions even to ask? Meaning, will people think "of
course you can't come
to our research retreat if you're not currently doing research... we can't
afford to pay for
an extra person just so they can see if they're interested." When are
students expected to start
publishing papers? When do students typically start going to conferences?
Do you have to have
a paper to present to go? Will professors' get offended if you ask to go to
a conference and you
don't have a paper? What type of research (quality, amount) should a first
year graduate student
be doing to be deemed progressing at a satisfactory rate? What is
considered "original research"
and what is not research (how can we tell if something is worth spending our
time on)?
Are there any general advising sessions for these types of questions, or
should we just bother fellow
graduate students?
I guess a lot of these questions would be better answered by an advisor, but
as of now, I still don't have
one. Temporary advisors don't seem to be as willing to spend more time to
answer all these types of questions
(well, I also feel a bit intimidated about asking some of these questions,
especially since I haven't made much
progress on figuring out a specific research topic and doing research).
Maybe its just me.
Good visit day. Were there department activities during orientation week?
I appreciate the emails sent out to eecs-grads weekly... they make me feel
like
I'm at least somewhat in touch with what's going on in the department.
Having a room for all the first years is a very good idea. Otherwise, until