jj2270 Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Hi All, So the other day I received a very nice offer for a Princeton MSE. I was hoping I could get some information generally about graduate student life there. I didn't have much of a social life as an undergrad (commuted all four years), so I'm definitely looking to meet some new people and have some fun. Princeton kind of seems like more of an undergrad school than an undergraduate school to me. Does anybody know if these groups mix? What's the social scene like for a masters student at Princeton?? jj2270, Ezzy and richardthethird 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tarrman Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Hooray for Princeton engineering! I'm leaning towards committing to the ece dept. there (Ph.D.). I talked to one of my mentors who did his Ph.D. there, and he said the grad students are pretty separate from the undergrads, but it's something the school is trying to improve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezzy Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 I visited recently (admitted EE PhD, can't make standard visiting day). It sounds like living in the graduate college (basically dorm living, on meal plan) is really conducive to forming friendships with the other graduate students, even with people outside your discipline. I was told this by a couple of people. As for with undergrads-- meh, not so much, as TAing isn't universal. Within engineering, all labs have a common key, the idea being that you can always just go visit other groups and see what they're up to. This is supposed to encourage socializing and collaboration. Also, there's a big grad-student cubicle area that I assume lends itself well to meeting new people. Anyway, people are people everywhere. If you want to make friends, you'll make them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jj2270 Posted March 2, 2013 Author Share Posted March 2, 2013 Whoops, I mean "Princeton kind of seems like more of an undergrad school than a graduate school to me." Thanks for the posts. I'm definitely trying to meet some people outside of engineering, so the graduate college sounds nice. It looks like an incredible place to live too. Also, I read that one of those eating clubs takes grad students, in case that's something I might be interested in. Any other info is definitely appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tarrman Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 (edited) @Ezzy What did you think of the ECE dept. when you visited and what track are you going for? I'm planning on doing information science (I really like math). @jj2270 I've heard (from my mentor) that the professor's are pretty flexible with what you work on. Also, the endowment at Princeton is MASSIVE, and I think it has the highest endowment-to-student ratio in the country, so funding is guaranteed for all students for the full duration of their Ph.D. Edited March 3, 2013 by tarrman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jj2270 Posted March 3, 2013 Author Share Posted March 3, 2013 Sorry, I was really talking about meeting people outside of engineering socially. I'm generally inquiring about the student life outside of the classroom/lab. As far as work goes, I'd actually probably prefer someone out of CS. You're definitely right about the funding though, my MSE acceptance offer included full tuition reimbursement and a nice stipend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezzy Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 @Ezzy What did you think of the ECE dept. when you visited and what track are you going for? I'm planning on doing information science (I really like math). The department in general looked great. I'll be doing solid-state, so, for example, the clean room is very important to me, and that was REALLY impressive! They have a cool system where rather than paying per use of a machine, each research group just plays a flat fee for the year-- this is supposed to encourage experimentation, and that makes sense to me. Of course you'll be loath to try something new if your use of the e-beam and aligner will cost you hundreds of dollars per attempt... Also for the clean room, each piece of equipment has a few "super-users," who are just grad students who use the machine a lot and are particularly knowledgable about it. They're charged with some maintenance, with training new users, etc. Seems like a great way to pick up useful experience. But if you're doing information science, I assume you'll just be needing a pencil and paper, right? Besides that... engineering-wide cookies every Friday... "everyone in EE gets a job".... idk, what can I say, it's a great department! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tarrman Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 The department in general looked great. I'll be doing solid-state, so, for example, the clean room is very important to me, and that was REALLY impressive! They have a cool system where rather than paying per use of a machine, each research group just plays a flat fee for the year-- this is supposed to encourage experimentation, and that makes sense to me. Of course you'll be loath to try something new if your use of the e-beam and aligner will cost you hundreds of dollars per attempt... Also for the clean room, each piece of equipment has a few "super-users," who are just grad students who use the machine a lot and are particularly knowledgable about it. They're charged with some maintenance, with training new users, etc. Seems like a great way to pick up useful experience. But if you're doing information science, I assume you'll just be needing a pencil and paper, right? Besides that... engineering-wide cookies every Friday... "everyone in EE gets a job".... idk, what can I say, it's a great department! Yeah I'm trying to avoid experiments and laboratories as much as possible! All I need is a blackboard/whiteboard and Matlab. Are you going to accept? The prospect of taking some classes through the math dept. is extremely tantalizing to me, and the school seems like a perfect fit academically (and I love the northeast). I can hardly hold out to the visit weekend at the end of March! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardthethird Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 I am considering Princeton as well, for a PhD in physics. I haven't heard many good things about the graduate social life there however, and would love to hear more about whether it's easy to meet people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ak48 Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 Hope to see some of y'all during the March (29?) Visit day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tarrman Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 Hope to see some of y'all during the March (29?) Visit day! For sure! What field are you going for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ak48 Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 For sure! What field are you going for? Maybe it's better to go to the Princeton thread in "Meet and Greet" but Electrical Engineering PHD also! I was hoping for IC/fab but I don't have that much background in it, so that 1st year of classes will be crucial! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now