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Nov 05, 2008

On choosing grad school

I came to grad school kicking and screaming. Who, you may ask, was forcing me to get this degree against my will? I was. Let me back up.

I started my undergrad thinking, “Great! Four more years of classes and then I’M DONE.” While I’m now a professional student, I’ll let you in on my little secret: I hate class and I hate problem sets. The idea of signing myself up for 5 - 6 more years of problem sets after my undergraduate degree was just awful. Why would I do that? I was going to have an engineering degree. An engineering degree is useful!

But a funny thing happened on my way to a job: I discovered that I liked research. I had a job during the summer after my junior year and I thought it was awesome. I was at HP Labs, characterizing a flexible dielectric material. What fun! But I paused and looked at the others in my group. They all had PhDs. That was a problem.

Slowly, over the course of the summer, I resigned myself to having to apply to graduate school. I started looking into taking the GREs. I thought about who could write me a recommendation letter. I thought I would be the most unsuccessful grad school applicant ever because I hadn’t been planning on it for years. I hadn’t sought out famous professors for the sake of recommendation letters. I hadn’t found the hot new field that would propel me into an assistant professorship by the time I hit 30. I sought relationships with professors whom I liked. I studied that which I found interesting.

Returning back to school in the fall, I hit the ground running and applied to schools. I applied to MIT only because I thought I couldn’t be a serious electrical engineer without applying to MIT. I didn’t think I’d get in.  And it’s not like my heart was set on it because I was still really unsure that I even wanted a PhD. Again, more classes and problem sets? Really?

So I applied to jobs. Consulting jobs, engineering jobs. I got offers. Consulting offers, engineering offers. I sat down to weigh my options and realized that I was applying to the best jobs I could, but they would all bore me in three months. This was key. They were all great jobs - paid well, good locations, what have you. And they would have made fine summer internships. But I saw myself getting frustrated in them at the end of the summer.

I bit the cliched, proverbial bullet and came to MIT, still thinking, “If I hate it, I can leave after my master’s. Ugh, classes. Problem sets.” Three plus years later, post-master’s degree, I’m still here. Quite simply, it’s still fun. And of course, life plays tricks on us. Every now and then, I get the urge to take a class.

The author has filed this entry under the "Uncategorized" category.

4 Responses To This Entry:

    Hi Nicole,
    Awesome blog. I have the same feelings. The thing is I’ve been working for almost one year. Same old… same old. I understand that I am more of a research person. Not the same thing everyday.
    I am applying for MIT too but… I keep my hopes high. :) Thumbs up!!!
    Any advice you can give me?
    I am geek but I do try to keep a social life going. Is that at all possible at MIT? :D Your comments are very welcome. :)
    Thank you, have fun with the classes.
    Selim

    Posted by: Selim on November 7th, 2008 at 12:33 am

    Hi Selim,

    Thanks for stopping by the blog and sorry this took me a bit to respond to.

    I think most grad students at MIT are “geeks with social lives.” There are tons of things to do in Boston and Cambridge and lots of young people around to hang out with. A lot of MIT grad students live on campus, so it’s easy to meet folks and make new friends. :-)

    As far as tips for getting in… cross your fingers and do a lucky dance. At this point, you can’t change your grades. Just make sure that you have someone write a recommendation that’s very positive.

    Good luck!
    Nicole

    Posted by: ndilello on November 14th, 2008 at 5:43 pm

    Hi Nicole,

    I guess we’ll see, if I’ll get an acceptance next february. :) Crossed the fingers and waiting… Anxious though. :D

    Thank you for your sincerity.
    Selim

    Posted by: Selim on November 23rd, 2008 at 8:16 pm

    MIT is my dream as well. As a Chinese students without a famous professor who can write a recommendation letter for me, i doubt if i can make it…

    Posted by: aaron huang on December 19th, 2008 at 9:15 am

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