[OT] graduate school

[Brian Hawkins]

On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 2:05 PM, Andrew McNabb <amcnabb at mcnabbs.org> wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 01:19:56PM -0600, Derek Davis wrote:
> > I have applied to graduate school, and been accepted to my top two
> > choices, University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech.  However, I don't
> > know how to choose between the two.
>
> My opinion is that the advisor is everything.  I would recommend making
> a list of all faculty from both universities whose research interests
> you.  Then contact each of them and ask them if they're taking students
> and basically try to get them to sell you on what they're doing.
> Scratch the ones that aren't taking students or who are rude.  Then,
> with any advisors left over, contact a graduate student of theirs, and
> find out what they like or dislike about their advisor.
>

This is the best advice.  It is a lot of work up front but is is better to
do it before you get to graduate school then after you are attending and
your adviser turns out to be a jerk and you are running out of time.

Brian



>
> --
> Andrew McNabb
> http://www.mcnabbs.org/andrew/
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