Saket Vora

Yesterday the EE department had their incoming grad student orientation. They had breakfast for us after check-in, and sat with two guys named Doug and Lei, from Florida State and Ohio State, respectively. Great guys, and we ended up spending the rest of the orientation together and had a great conversation over lunch. All 210 of us incoming EE grad students sat in a large auditorium and various people came and presented to us. The chair of the department, the student coordinators, the vice-chair, followed by professors from the five different labs the EE department is comprised of.

A few points were especially emphasized:

• The five labs were constructed for administrative purposes only — not to put up boundaries for research. The EE department is the largest entity on campus. The only school larger is the medical school.
• The most important thing you will take away from your time here is not the research, not the grades, not the quals, not the classes, but instead the friends you make.
• The chair and vice-chair were lighthearted, and tried their best to lower the anxiety about the notorious Stanford EE Quals. They say that the format of the quals (ten 10 minute oral exams, each with different professor) is designed to measure ’something’ that is both useful in determining whether you are a good candidate and that is orthogonal to what they can glean from GPA scores, test scores, etc. They said that when you consider both attempts + the appeals process, 88% of the people pass.
• The single most important thing for an aspiring Ph.D. candidate is not to worry about the Quals, not to worry about getting straight A+ in classes — you must find a research advisor and do good work for them. If you have a research advisor that likes you and wants you in their group, then you have nothing to worry about the Quals.
• They emphasized that the “Master’s Degree Program Guidelines” were just that — guidelines, not law. It was encouraged to find a path through the program that fits us, not the rules they necessarily think students should follow. All you have to do is convince your advisor.

My academic advisor is Dr. Bruce Wooley, chair of the department and professor in the Integrated Circuits Lab. I’m happy with the choice.

After the orientation (which got out a little too late for me to make it to President Hennessy’s reception on-time) I spent several hours looking at the Stanford Bulletin and charting the next six quarters of classes. I’ve got all my required credits mapped out, and will have something serious to show Dr. Wooley when I meet with him next week.

Today I’m going to check out the bookstore for my class books and run some errands. Might try going down to the driving range later tonight too.