Tweet
So it was in the middle of February and I had no free time at all as it was all occupied by homework. I even cancelled my weekly roleplaying game for 2 months.
I realized I have no time whatsoever for a jobhunt and this is it my last semester.
I get an email from one of my teachers asking if I would like to apply to the masters program at my school, enrollment is a little low so they've extended the deadline and are approaching students they think will be a good choice. I figure what the hell it's a good backup plan so I get references from a couple teachers and throw together an application.
A couple days later I get an email from who think must be the only Computer Science teacher I've never met asking if I'd be interested in working with her for research. I say I'm definitely interested (note at this time I have no idea what the research she has in mind will be). A couple days later I get an official offer from the school outlining the numbers, tuition is 8000, I've been offered 19000 year one and 17000 year two. 3000 per year dependant on working with this specific teacher. I spoke to the head of the program a bit casually and I learn a couple interesting things:
- This offer was sent because it was the one with the most guaranteed funding but there are others interested in working with me
- I can officially accept this offer for now and switch supervisors later once I've decided but accepting now guarantees my spot and starts the ball rolling
So I accept the offer and once exams are out of the way I set up appointments to meet up with the different supervisors to discuss different project options. See basically how it works for a grad student is you are a TA and get paid about 10000 a year and then there is separate funding on top of got grants and scholarships. During this study period you complete a project/paper as well as classes this project can be on whatever you want as long as it is appropriate. Your supervisor may already have a project in mind. So after chatting with the teacher I find out there are three different supervisors with projects already in mind.
So I schedule meetings with all three.
First meeting is with a teacher I really like and she actually has a few different possible projects, three of which sound really interesting to me.
I schedule the next two meetings on the same day. a couple days before the teacher who first contacted me reschedule to next week, no big. I go to the other meeting in the morning. Now this project involves two teachers as the one with the project is in the geography department and the other teacher will co supervise to help keep the requirements reasonable as those not in comp sci don't always realize what is feasible. So while the comp sci teacher shows up and we chat a bit the other teacher is a no show altogether. I leave and midnight that night he emails me apologizing and saying he double booked (he picked the time). He also sent a description of the project.
The third meeting goes really well we talk about the project she's interested in doing but I also mention talking with the other supervisors about projects as well and she was suprised, not offended or anything just surprised. I tell her basically the project sounds very interesting and I'll read up on it and let her know soon. I get an email the next day saying that another student is doing the project that we discussed but if I have another project idea I can still have her as a supervisor.
The money difference is not a big deal as the other supervisors may have funding they just don't have specific numbers yet.
So the choice boils down to
Teacher A: teacher I know and like with projects that sound interesting
one is benchmarking java for high performance computing on supercomputers (I did a theoritical paper on this for this teacher that did well)
a second one is testing and working with Field Programmable Gate arrays
the third project is (I don't know how much I can say here) is developing a very specialized program for something that sounds really cool but may is very narrow for what I'd learn
Teacher B and C: B who is my favourite teacher and C who I have not really met, and honestly while it sucked scheduling mixups do happen
Developing a software package that works with different environmental stuff (again I don't want to say too much) but it will be more similar to stuff I would probably be doing in industry.
Teacher D: Who I've only met once and kind of pulled the rug out from under me.
I'm eliminating teacher D because honestly why come up with my own project when I can choose one of four and work with people I know.
The choice comes down to whether or not I want to do the project with Teacher B and C or go with one of Teacher A's projects.
It's not just what I want to do for the project but I need to pick something that will be good experience for my future career.
I realized I have no time whatsoever for a jobhunt and this is it my last semester.
I get an email from one of my teachers asking if I would like to apply to the masters program at my school, enrollment is a little low so they've extended the deadline and are approaching students they think will be a good choice. I figure what the hell it's a good backup plan so I get references from a couple teachers and throw together an application.
A couple days later I get an email from who think must be the only Computer Science teacher I've never met asking if I'd be interested in working with her for research. I say I'm definitely interested (note at this time I have no idea what the research she has in mind will be). A couple days later I get an official offer from the school outlining the numbers, tuition is 8000, I've been offered 19000 year one and 17000 year two. 3000 per year dependant on working with this specific teacher. I spoke to the head of the program a bit casually and I learn a couple interesting things:
- This offer was sent because it was the one with the most guaranteed funding but there are others interested in working with me
- I can officially accept this offer for now and switch supervisors later once I've decided but accepting now guarantees my spot and starts the ball rolling
So I accept the offer and once exams are out of the way I set up appointments to meet up with the different supervisors to discuss different project options. See basically how it works for a grad student is you are a TA and get paid about 10000 a year and then there is separate funding on top of got grants and scholarships. During this study period you complete a project/paper as well as classes this project can be on whatever you want as long as it is appropriate. Your supervisor may already have a project in mind. So after chatting with the teacher I find out there are three different supervisors with projects already in mind.
So I schedule meetings with all three.
First meeting is with a teacher I really like and she actually has a few different possible projects, three of which sound really interesting to me.
I schedule the next two meetings on the same day. a couple days before the teacher who first contacted me reschedule to next week, no big. I go to the other meeting in the morning. Now this project involves two teachers as the one with the project is in the geography department and the other teacher will co supervise to help keep the requirements reasonable as those not in comp sci don't always realize what is feasible. So while the comp sci teacher shows up and we chat a bit the other teacher is a no show altogether. I leave and midnight that night he emails me apologizing and saying he double booked (he picked the time). He also sent a description of the project.
The third meeting goes really well we talk about the project she's interested in doing but I also mention talking with the other supervisors about projects as well and she was suprised, not offended or anything just surprised. I tell her basically the project sounds very interesting and I'll read up on it and let her know soon. I get an email the next day saying that another student is doing the project that we discussed but if I have another project idea I can still have her as a supervisor.
The money difference is not a big deal as the other supervisors may have funding they just don't have specific numbers yet.
So the choice boils down to
Teacher A: teacher I know and like with projects that sound interesting
one is benchmarking java for high performance computing on supercomputers (I did a theoritical paper on this for this teacher that did well)
a second one is testing and working with Field Programmable Gate arrays
the third project is (I don't know how much I can say here) is developing a very specialized program for something that sounds really cool but may is very narrow for what I'd learn
Teacher B and C: B who is my favourite teacher and C who I have not really met, and honestly while it sucked scheduling mixups do happen
Developing a software package that works with different environmental stuff (again I don't want to say too much) but it will be more similar to stuff I would probably be doing in industry.
Teacher D: Who I've only met once and kind of pulled the rug out from under me.
I'm eliminating teacher D because honestly why come up with my own project when I can choose one of four and work with people I know.
The choice comes down to whether or not I want to do the project with Teacher B and C or go with one of Teacher A's projects.
It's not just what I want to do for the project but I need to pick something that will be good experience for my future career.