EECS Graduate Handbook

From GradBook

The EECS Graduate Handbook is a resource for EECS graduate students to share information about the department, MIT, and Boston. Feel free to browse through the wiki or add content by clicking "log in" in the upper right corner, which will prompt you for MIT certificates, and then using the "edit" tab at the top of any wiki page after logging in. This wiki is for students by students so please share your wisdom!

Disclaimer: Please note there is only light moderation of the content found on the wiki so there may be inaccuracies or out-of-date information. Be sure to verify anything you read with outside sources. Also, feel free to post advice on the Gradbook but make sure the information is factual and can be supported with documentation (especially related to departmental policies). Interpretations, opinions and hearsay will be removed from the Gradbook.

Vision Statement (pdf) (ps)

Editors' Overview and Wiki Users' Guide

Contents 1 For New Students 2 General Resources 3 Academics 4 Research 5 Teaching 6 Finance 7 Administration 8 Student Groups 9 MIT Life 10 Humor 11 Guestbook

For New Students

• EECS Orientation
• MIT Orientation
• CSAIL New Student Info
• Web Resources for New Students
• Previous orientations

General Resources

• The Graduate Students' Office | Graduate Policies and Procedures | GSO FAQ
• EECS Department website
• The ATIC Lab: resources for ergonomic office environment and repetitive strain injury (RSI) mitigation

Academics

• student.mit.edu: records 6.8* course listings calendar
• lecture notes for MIT classes from previous years on MIT OpenCourseWare
• Role of an Academic Advisor
• Underground Guide to Course VI - Fall 2004 Edition (has grad courses too)
• Letters and the Petition process
• Degrees Offered:
  • Official Requirements and timeline for a PhD.
  • The MEng program
  • The SM program
  • The Technical Qualifying Examination (TQE)
  • The Research Qualifying Examination (RQE)
• Joint Programs with Other Institutions
  • MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography / Applied Science and Engineering
  • Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology
• Libraries and Resources within EECS
• Graduate Areas of Study

Research

• Description of the Graduate Program
• Description of RA
• Websites by Research Area
  • Area I
  • Area II
  • Area III
  • Area IV
  • Area VII
• Advisor-Advisee Relationships
  • Who can be my research advisor?
  • Role of a Research Advisor
  • Selecting: styles, students, accepting?
  • Surviving: common problems, how to talk, how to get help
  • Multiple Advisors
  • Switching Advisors
• Thesis advice
  • MEng Thesis Guide
  • Thesis and Thesis Proposal Guide
• Other resouces
  • Research FAQ
  • Mayfield Handbook of Technical & Scientific Writing
  • NSF statistics on grad school
  • Nationwide median times until graduation EE 6.9 years, CS 7.7 years
  • MIT OpenLabWare
• General advice from others
  • Professor Ernst's advice
  • Inside Higher Ed tips
  • wisdom in brief from Attila Kondacs (pdf)
  • How to do Research at the MIT AI Lab (ps) 1988
  • Technology and Courage (pdf) by Ivan Sutherland
  • grad how-to bib
  • Grem's adviceBrary
  • Embrace Procrastination!
  • Feynman on Cargo Cult Science

Teaching

• Official TA Description
• Teaching Assistants
• EECS TA Guide - Please help contribute to this growing guidebook!
• The Teaching and Learning Lab
• The Torch or the Firehose (I hope to be allowed to put a pdf of that here once we require MIT certs.)
• McKeachie's Teaching Tips

Finance

• types of support
• RA vs. TA vs. Fellowships
• Finding fellowships
  • Advice for NSF, NDSEG, Hertz fellowships
  • non-citizen/resident fellowships
• Tax advice

Administration

• EECS main web page
• People in EECS
• Role of an Academic vs. a Research Advisor
• Office space, resources, how to get them
• Social activities, funding, how to start a group, seminar, sport, etc.
• EECS rooms

Student Groups

• EECS Student Organizations
• MIT Student Organizations

MIT Life

• How to Get Around MIT Guide
• Useful Email Lists
• Cambridge and Boston Restaurants
• Grocery Stores
• Transportation
• MIT Discounts

Humor

• PhD Comics: Piled Higher and Deeper -- A comic strip about graduate student life (of the lack thereof)
• Random paper generator

Guestbook

You can leave a note in this section by clicking "edit" near the right hand margin. If you have questions or problems, don't hesitate to email eecs-gsa@mit.edu.

• this site is great, please contribute to it if you can! -nina, eecs area vi, ntandon-at-mit-dot-edu