spec789

If your focus is power systems, then you may want to consider CU Boulder, UIUC and Virginia Tech. These universities all have strong Power Electronics programs. However you should be aware that the deadline for the Spring 2015 semester is September 1 for all three universities, if you want to be fully considered for funding. Are you are worried about your legal status after you finish your Master's after the 2014 Fall semester? Is that why you are focusing on the schools that have Spring admissions? Have you also looked into Optional Practice Training (OPT)?

Many Masters programs are set up with breadth and depth requirements. That is, while you have to take a certain number of your courses in a specific area of EE (sometimes referred to as your "concentration"), your other coursework can come from other areas. For example, at Stanford's Masters program, a few (I believe 3) of your courses MUST be areas that are different from your concentration. However, from your profile, it sounds like you might be interested in either "embedded systems" or even "computer engineering". If you really aren't sure of which area of EE you would like to concentrate in, it might be better to work first at a company. Some companies may even sponsor your Masters degree. As for funding, I second everything Edge said above. PhD students will usually get priority over Master's students for funding because it a better investment from the perspective of the university and professor (the PhD student is at the university longer). This is also true for RA's. RA's typically come straight from the professor, so the norm is for the student to volunteer for the professor (usually supported by a fellowship or a TA in the meantime) for a semester/quarter before being funded (during which the professor evaluates the student and decides if the student is worth funding). If tuition is a problem, and you are already in Greece, have you considered a Masters in other European countries? At least in Germany, most of the Masters programs are in English, and the tuition is usually much cheaper than the programs in the US.

I'm also a huge fan of the Aeropress. My old lab had a water dispenser that could also dispense hot water, so the Aeropress was even more convenient! In the mornings, I may turn to the Italian Moka system though. At my internship, my group has one and every day someone uses it to make coffee for the whole group. I have never had better coffee, and it is turning me into a bit of a coffee snob. The clean up is a bit of a pain, but the coffee is worth it.

Firstly, please calm down. I want to believe that you are genuinely who you say you are, but frankly, your *RAGE*RAGE*RAGE* attitude has me half believing that you are just a troll. Secondly, why are you so concerned about the GRE's? You claim in your post that you are so accomplished and have all these contacts at many prestigious American universities who practically begging to work with you. In graduate admissions in the US, even if admissions is done at the departmental level, professors can and do bypass the committee, and tell them to overlook the GRE if the professors are particularly keen on working with a specific applicant. This is why one of the first pieces of advice you will see on practically any forum about the graduate applications process, is to contact professors with whom you would like to work with. Thirdly, your attitude has me concerned in general for your future if you carry this attitude with you to the US. Do you notice how many of the posters on this thread are taking issue you with your attitude? It will be the same at any American university you end up in. No matter how brilliant you are or how long and accomplished your CV is, no one wants to work with an ass.

I would just approach them either one by one or when the two are together, and just say something very casually along the lines of "Hey, I was thinking of doing a bit of reorganizing the kitchen/bathroom, and so in the bathroom I would like to get a bigger trashcan (for example).... You don't mind, do you?" The key is to be casual and positive Do not be outright critical of the place, and phrase your suggestions as "improvements". If there is a valid reason for the organization (or lack thereof) on the part of your roommates, this conversation would give them a chance to voice it. Two years ago I moved into a new apartment with three other people. After a month or two, one of them thought the fridge was too messy and just unexpectedly cleaned it out. The rest of us didn't care enough to initiate a complete cleaning of the fridge, but we all appreciated the noticeable improvement and were really happy. If I were in your roommates' shoes, and a new roommate thought the apartment was too messy and volunteered to reorganize and do a clean-up by himself/herself, I'd be ecstatic.

The form is issued electronically now. You have to go online to retrieve the number: https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1696/~/how-to-retrieve-the-i-94-online

Unfortunately, barring ranking and research, and if you cannot sort by ties to industry, the only criteria I can see that you have left are factors such location and cost.

You need to search with professors who are currently working with companies, i.e. they are currently working on (or have students who are) projects sponsored by a company, e.g. Google. If you have the chance during your Master's to do a project with a professor with strong (and current) industry contacts, then you can leverage those contacts to find a job after you finish the Master's. Unfortunately I have no CS-related examples examples of groups being sponsored by companies, but I can give an EE related example (my field is in EE). Virginia Tech has a very strong power electronics program, and they have their own research centre devoted to this field, called CPES. This research institute boasts very strong industry ties, which they refer to here: http://www.cpes.vt.edu/partners.php As for events, sometimes the universities have competitions that receive many industry sponsors, such as MIT's annual AI programming competition 6.370, aka Battlecode (at the moment the site seems to be down), or the autonomous robotics competition, 6.270 (https://scripts.mit.edu/~6.270/sponsors/). Maybe it is the case the CS-departments generally do not work very closely with industry. In that case, the best advice to follow is this (due to the prestige factor): Be aware that some of the universities on this list, such as MIT, do not offer terminal CS Master's degrees to incoming graduate students (i.e. their M.Eng program is only open to their undergrads).

The suggestion of "looking at the research" is for students who going to graduate school primarily to pursue research. It sounds like you may be more interested in a coursework based Master's. You can start narrowing down your list of schools by first talking to any CS professors you know, even if you only know them from having taken a class with them. Additionally, if you are only interested in pursuing the CS Master's so that you can redfine yourself as a CS person and get a job in that field quickly after you finish, then I would narrow down your list by looking at programs that have strong industry ties. Look for programs that have many events or classes that receive heavy industry support, or programs that have a large portion of their professors who are supported by industry grants or frequently collaborate with external companies (their websites should have a list of sponsors if they do).

At my school, I have to be registered for 8-10 units to receive my fellowship. While most classes are 3 units each, with 3 units equal to at least 9 hours/week of work, the recommendation given was that I register for 2 3-unit courses, and 3 units under the rotation program. This slightly lighter than normal load is because of the quals in January, as well as to give myself time to adjust to the new university environment.

Don't forget that in a sense, you are also interviewing the professor to see if he would be a good mentor/adviser for you. If the RA position is starting to appear like a sure thing during the conversation, you should ask questions about his expectations of you. I just had an interview with a professor about starting in his lab for my first rotation and some questions I asked were: - expected work hours/schedule - how often does he meet with his students - how often does he go on sabbatical/travel - suggested coursework (if any) The last thing you want is a case where you work long but strange hours, and so the professor who never sees you, thinks you are doing no work and tells you that you need to work more, and you who are actually working insane hours, thinks he's being an unreasonable asshole. If you want to go even further with this, you might even want to ask if you can meet his grad students. The surest indicator that the professor you are meeting with is not as great of a mentor as he appears, is that he has a tense unhappy lab environment.

Hi immun0! If you received a subsidy for your insurance, it should be stated in the funding letter from your department. Also, see the following link for details on who qualifies for a subsidy: http://gap.stanford.edu/7-1.html

Born in Canada, but raised in Kingston, Jamaica! Going to Stanford for the EE PhD program!

You are correct. Canada has a special agreement with the US in which Canadians do not require a visa prior to entering. You are issued F-1 status when you are at the border. The I-20 is the only document that needs to be presented (besides your passport of course).

I felt this way, even though the choice I made was pretty clearly the correct choice. The admissions office was incredibly nice and personable throughout the whole process. The POI during the interview was very flattering, and the grad students I talked to the POI's groups were extemely friendly (I insisted on talking to his older grad students). Another part of me kept asking "what if". The road not taken etc etc. Eventually my sibling (currently a first year grad student), had to knock some sense into me before the feeling would go away. If you truly made the best decision you could, given the information made available to you, then there is nothing truly to feel guilty about, and the feeling will pass. Congrats on your offers (and having options)!