newly formed departments?

[child of 2]

I'm wondering if there's people out there who know about newly developed departments, particularly in the engineering fields. I'm looking at a couple right now, and it's basically a collection of faculties from various departments encompassing EE, Ch E, Mat E, even Com E. Their research interest all contribute to the overall research motivation of the program.

 

 

What can you tell me about programs like these?

 

[AllThatJazz]

The answer is: it depends. Some newly formed departments are bad (unorganized, little funding, etc.) While others are excellent.

 

I am in a newly formed department Ph.D program (~5 years old) and it is still very unorganized. They still don't know what works the best for students and are basically "testing" different rules and regulations out each year. But more importantly, I would look into specific professors that you are interested in working with and contact them. Then based your decisions on that.

[Henry Hudson]

I was part of the third cohort in my MA program (in History). The original grad chair was also the prof for the core course, and every year there were still course corrections (and sometimes over-corrections) being made. It has gotten a bit smoother since then, with accumulation of experience, separation of grad chair and core course instructor, feedback from program participants, etc., and both completion rates and on-time completion rates have steadily improved. 

 

So basically, even though a different discipline, I would communicate in advance to your supervisor and the program chair your uncertainties, inquire as to receptiveness to remedying problems, and suggest a continual meaningful dialogue between grad students and faculty to discuss problems along the way, allowing room for reasonable correction. I also strongly recommend someone who has served as a program chair for a similar program at another school to serve as an outside reviewer at least once per year (maybe more often in the first year). Yes, this will take money, but in my opinion any new program should budget for something like this from the outset.