Applying to a department with all potential advisers outside the department

[babubot]

Hello all,

 

I am currently a mechanical engineering undergraduate looking at graduate schools with the intention of doing research in robotics. If you are not familiar, robotics research is usually balanced between three departments, mechanical engineering, computer science, and electrical engineering. At some of the schools I am interested in, all the potential advisers I am interested in working with are outside of mechanical engineering. Looking at their websites, however, they have many mechanical engineering students working with them.

 

I would prefer to apply to the mechanical engineering departments because I generally like the course offerings more, and I think I would have an easier time on the qualifying exam when that comes around. Is it acceptable to apply to a department and only mention interest in professors outside that department? Or in those cases, should I just apply to computer science or electrical engineering?

 

Thanks!

[zapster]

I presume you are applying for a phd not a masters? In which case I would think applying to a department without any of your POIs holding any position there (have you checked - some profs. hold a position in multiple depts. ?) would be difficult - both (a) for you to be admitted to the dept. as well as ( for you to get adequate traction  resources, funding, share of mind etc. even if you do get admitted.

 

caveat: not speaking from experience here though.

[babubot]

I presume you are applying for a phd not a masters? In which case I would think applying to a department without any of your POIs holding any position there (have you checked - some profs. hold a position in multiple depts. ?) would be difficult - both (a) for you to be admitted to the dept. as well as ( for you to get adequate traction resources, funding, share of mind etc. even if you do get admitted.

caveat: not speaking from experience here though.

Yes, this for PhD. I was initially of the same mind as you, but then I saw meche students doing their research under an EE professor and wasn't sure how that works with respect to admissions. Ill probably go the safe route and apply to whichever department has the professors I am interested in.

[St Andrews Lynx]

Do these Mech Eng grad students also have a joint Mech Eng advisor, in addition to their advisor from computer science/electrical engineering? I could imagine that's one (easy) way to join one Department but spend most of your time carrying out research in another.

 

If you apply to a Mech Eng PhD program then it will be the members of that Department who are assessing your application. From their perspective (that of hiring a researcher to carry out grunt work) the fact that you are applying to their program but not actually wanting to carry out research with them won't do much for your application. They don't care that you'll find the Mech Eng qualifying exam easier than in another Department. Remember that it's Research Fit you're trying to demonstrate to an AdComm. 

 

I doubt it would do any harm contacting these Departments/PIs to enquire how their inter-disciplinary research is conducted. 

[hikaru1221]

Is there any particular difficulty with applying to a department different from your undergrad major? At least, I think if there are professors working in robotics (dynamics or intelligence of robots) in Electrical Engineering, then they have the capability to make a fair judgement on your undergrad background. I'm unsure of CS people however.

[babubot]

Is there any particular difficulty with applying to a department different from your undergrad major? At least, I think if there are professors working in robotics (dynamics or intelligence of robots) in Electrical Engineering, then they have the capability to make a fair judgement on your undergrad background. I'm unsure of CS people however.

 

Not particularly difficult, I don't think. I suppose I am more uncertain of the situation where I am interested in professors who work in the same lab, but are from different departments.

[juilletmercredi]

This really depends on your targeted departments/schools.  Some departments are much more embracing of this than others.

I straddle two departments in my interdisciplinary program.  In one of my departments, having a PI outside of the department is a totally OK thing to do and actually a lot of students have PIs in management, political science and neuroscience.  Sometimes (usually) they have a co-PI in our department, but sometimes they don't.  However, if they had applied to the program specifying only people outside the department in their personal statement, I'm pretty sure we'd wonder why they want to study in our department instead of the other department(s) mentioned.  Liking our classes more and thinking the qualifying exams will be easier would not be good reasons.

As a matter of fact, don't worry about the qualifying exams.  The vast majority of the stuff you need to know to pass will be learned in grad school, so if you got a PhD in electrical engineering instead, I'm sure you'd be well-prepared for quals in year 3 (or 2 or 4, whenever they are).  And at most universities you can take courses in other departments, so you could always take some mech E classes for electives.

In my primary department, however, most advisers are within the department and having a main PI outside the department would be frowned upon.  You could definitely collaborate with other people, but there are all kinds of rules that constrain your choice to people of main PI to people within our department.  Also, your funding would likely have to come from a grant within our own department.

 

These two departments are in the same university, so you can see it just really depends on the departmental atmosphere.

Edited August 27, 2013 by juilletmercredi