Graduate School It ain’t no thing!

1. Graduate SchoolIt ain’t no thing! Demystifying the trip to the “Other Side”

2. The Basics: What do you need? • Three recommendations • Mission statement • General & Subject GREs* Woot! This is so much easier than those millions of pointless essays written for undergraduate applications!

3. The Basics: What you don’t need • Taken all the hardest Cornell courses • Independent research • Publications to your name • A perfect GPA (Jeff will explain) • A perfect GRE score (Haakon will explain) • Charm and wit

4. Hints & Tips • Have a reasonable spread in schools • Graduate school is about the department • 1 and 2 imply you need help from a Prof • Good recommendations are key • Write a concise mission statement

5. Once you get in • You party hard • Talk to your current professors • Visit the schools you are considering • Party some more

6. Common Misconceptions

7. Common Misconceptions • Original independent research from start • You must commit to a specific branch • Graduate students are foreign geniuses from IIT or China • Graduate school will ruin your social life • Ph.D. students are one-dimensional

8. Beginning Grad School • Graduate school is about the research (not courses) • Start working with a professor early

9. The Bottom Line: Personal Growth • You will be intellectually challenged • Your friends and peers will challenge you • Hour-long dinners spent debating philosophy, sociology, gender roles, psychology, politics (essentially anything but your field!) • If you think you are the smartest one out there, your ego might be bruised

10. Thank You • ACSU and Cornell Engineering Career Services for sending out emails • Prof. Benjamin Pierce paid for Jeff’s food • Princeton paid for everything else • Jeff: vaughan2@seas.upenn.edu • Haakon: hlarsen@cs.princeton.edu