citrin@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (Wayne Citrin) (09/25/86)
A number of us here have been having our periodic discussions about the state of graduate computer science education here at Berkeley, and I would like to know how things are done in other departments. If you have some time, please fill this out and send it back to me. NOTE: Please answer this only if you are in a computer science department (or some differently-named department which is really a computer science department). Unless otherwise noted, please confine your remarks to PhD programs only. 0) School and department name 1) Department Size a) How many students are in your department? b) How many faculty? c) What percentage of the faculty are tenured? 2) Admission a) What percentage of the applicants are offered admission? b) What percentage of those accepted accept the offer? 3) Time to graduation a) What is the typical time from admission to graduation? b) That is the longest time it took a student in your department to get a degree? c) The shortest time? (no apocryphal stories here, just people you actually know/knew) d) How long before the faculty gets tired of you and asks you to leave? 4) Courses a) Is your school on the semester or quarter system? b) How many semesters (quarters) do students spend taking classes? c) Do you feel this is too much, too little, or just right? d) Are there any specific course requirements? e) Are there any breadth or distribution requirements? f) Is there a major requirement? g) Is there a minor requirement? 5) Prelims Many departments require an exam early in the student's career testing the breadth of his or her knowledge of computer science. At Berkeley these are called Prelims. a) Are there prelims in your department? b) Are they oral or written? c) Do you have a choice of topics? d) Is it a single exam or a set of exams? e) In what semester or quarter are they usually taken? f) What is the passing rate? g) Do you get more than one chance to take them? h) Who decides who passes? 6) Quals Many departments require an exam later in the student's career testing depth of knowledge in a student's research area. At Berkeley these are called quals. a) Are there quals in your department? b) Are they oral or written? c) Do you have a choice of topics? d) Is it a single exam or a set of exams? e) In what semester or quarter are they usually taken? f) What is the passing rate? g) Do you get more than one chance to take them? h) Who decides who passes? 7) Research a) When do students typically find an advisor for their PhD research? (what semester or quarter) b) Do students do their PhD research with the same advisor with whom they do their Masters' research? c) Does the department assign entering students to a research group? d) Does the department have special research orientations for new students? 8) Teaching a) Is there a teaching requirement for grad students in your department? b) If so, how many semesters? c) Are teaching assistantships generally given to new grad students or to senior grad students? d) Are TAships considered more desirable, or less desirable, than RAships in your department? 9) Funding a) What percentage of the students in your department receive support? b) What percentage of new students receive support? c) Is availability of funding considered a problem in your department? What is being done to address the problem? d) Do graduate students in your department supplement their incomes with outside consulting? 10) Office space a) What percentage of students in your department receive their own desk? What percentage of new students? b) What percentage of students in your department receive their own terminal or workstation? What percentage of new students? c) Is availability of office space for students considered a problem in your department? What is being done to address the problem? 11) Affirmative action a) Is there an affirmative action program in your department's admissions policy? b) Is minority recruiting considered a problem in your department? If so, what is being done about it? 12) Unionization a) Are graduate student employees in your department unionized? b) If not, are they considering unionization? 13) Other comments a) Please make any additional comments here. Wayne Citrin (ucbvax!citrin)