Grad School, Oh My
July 11, 2011It still feels a little strange how this happened. Not a year ago, I was pretty sure I was going to do the Masters of Engineering program at MIT, to make up for a “missed year” that was spent abroad (four years at MIT plus one at Cambridge, not a bad deal.)
But a combination of conversations with various researchers whom I greatly respect, nagging from my Dad, and an inability to really figure out who I would actually do my Master’s thesis under while at MIT meant that at some point about a month and a half ago, I decided to go for the graduate school admissions cycle this fall. Oh my. It feels like undergraduate admissions all over again (which was not really a pleasant experience), though this time around, what I need to write is the “Research Statement.”
One of the reasons I blogged recently about Mendeley was because I was hoping that Mendeley would give me some insights about the kinds of papers I found interesting, and would let me easily figure out the affiliations of those researchers. (Oops, not quite there yet.) Actually, a conversation with Simon Marlow was much more fruitful: I’m currently actively looking into Ramsey (Tufts), Morrisett (Harvard), Harper (CMU), Pierce/Weirich (UPenn) and Mazieres (Stanford). Of course, I can’t help but think that I’ve missed some key players around topics that I regularly discuss on my blog, so if any of you have some ideas, please do shout out.
The process (well, what little of it I’ve started) has been quite bipolar. I frequently switch between thinking, “Oh, look at this grad student, he didn’t start having any publications till he started grad school—so I’m OK for not having any either” to “Wow, this person had multiple papers out while an undergraduate, solved multiple open problems with his thesis, and won an NSF fellowship—what am I supposed to do!” I’m still uncertain as to whether or not I’m cut out to do research—it’s certainly not for everyone. But I do know I greatly enjoyed the two times I worked at industrial research shops, and I do know that I love teaching, and I definitely know I do not want a conventional industry job. Grad school it is.
One key player who plays well with those you’ve mentioned is Amal Ahmed here at IU. I can vouch for her awesomeness as a teacher as well as researcher. You should definitely check out her work if you’re interested in Morrisett and Weirich. Like David, she’s younger and so open to unconventional things; but she’s also well established in the field, which is very important when looking at younger advisors. (Not to suggest that David isn’t, just, it’s something to beware of when looking at younger advisors.)
Other folks here you may be interested in are Larry Moss (e.g., cf. Vicious Circles), Amr Sabry, and of course there are the Schemers (Dan Friedman, Kent Dybvig,…) if you’re interested in untyped stuff. I’m not actually in the CS department here, so I can’t speak to the bureaucratic side of the department; but I have friends who are, and I can send them your email if you like.
Other folks you might be interested in checking out are Tim Sheard, Mark Jones, and Andrew Tolmach, all at PSU. Another thing PSU has going for it is the CAT: by far the best organized IT support I’ve seen in academia, and also an excellent place to get hands-on experience and learn all the computer science they don’t teach you in academia. I was in the department there so I can field questions about the bureaucratic side of things (as of ~4years ago), and I have some friends currently there if you want more recent info.