Grad School 101

What is graduate school like? Should you pursue it? What does it take to get in? Listen in as faculty share their insights and advice. Guests include Professors Angela Demke Brown, Chris Maddison, Carolina Nobre, Gennady Pekhimenko, Nandita Vijaykumar, and Ningning Xie.

(1:34) - What is graduate school? Professor Angela Demke Brown, Associate Chair of Graduate Operations, talks about different grad programs.

(5:21) - What's it like to be a graduate student? What grad students do and how the experience is different from undergrad.

(9:18) - What is the role of your graduate school advisor? Professors Nandita Vijaykumar, Carolina Nobre, Chris Maddison, and Ninging Xie, reflect on their experience with their own advisor when they were grad students.

(14:00) - What's wonderful about the grad school experience? Our faculty panel share what they enjoyed most as grad students.

(18:08) - What makes graduate school challenging? The panel talk about what they struggled with in graduate school.

(21:53) - How can you make sure you have a good graduate school experience? Our faculty panel share their insights.

(26:20) - What does it take to get in to graduate school? Professor Demke Brown and Professor Gennady Pekhimenko talk about grades, letters of reference, and the importance of undergraduate research experience.

(30:15) - Mario and Diane wrap up.

• Are you a second year CS student? Check out our department's Preparation for Research through Immersion, Skills, and Mentorship (PRISM)
• Are you going into second or third year? Check out the Faculty of Arts and Science's Research Opportunities Program and get course credit for research.
• Check out our department's Undergraduate Summer Research Program
• Consider pursuing a CSC494H1 project with a faculty member.

• Check out our department's guide for Applying to graduate school
• Check out our department's guide for Asking for reference letters
• Check out our student ambassadors' guide for Research in CS

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