The article is primarily an attempt to fulfil my persuasive mother's desire to briefly describe my graduate school experience in the United States, specifically in the Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) department at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).
When I started considering higher education four years ago after a bachelor's degree at Madras Institute of Technology and two years of working at IBM Systems & Technology Group, I was faced with the same set of questions which you might face today: a) Should I stay technical or pursue a business specialisation? b) What would be the countries and the universities I should apply to? c) If it is technical should it be a master's or a Ph.D? The answer to these important questions lies in thorough and honest introspection. One simple strategy I followed to help make this crucial decision was to justify my instinct with rationale — by interacting with people who shared my background, skills and interests. People who had been there, done that.
A natural drive for research and learning made me choose the Ph.D programme at Carnegie Mellon. I am constantly told by fellow graduate students here that while an aspiring Ph.D student should look for research opportunities, a master's student should explore the quality, depth and breadth of courses at a university. When it comes to courses at CMU, every course requires the student to live by Andrew Carnegie's (founder of CMU) philosophy, “My heart is in the work,” and very few would disagree with that.
Projects, home work, case-studies and paper presentations form the cornerstone of the courses, as opposed to conventional examinations. CMU is a pioneer in creating highly skilled talent for the industry.
The courses are designed to emulate highly challenging work environments where a student is required to not just learn but also apply his/her knowledge in solving real problems by working in a team.
The next aspect of CMU is its truly interdisciplinary and specialised research. Unlike other universities in the U.S. top 10 list, the engineering departments in CMU do not take pride in their breadth of having hundreds of faculty, but in the truly world-class research geared towards solving crucial real-world problems. The evidence lies in the scores of start-ups which spin off from CMU every year and many of which make the transition to corporations.
The Pittsburgh community definitely provides an extremely favourable eco-system to nurture creativity, making it an ideal university city. Specifically, the Indian community in the city is one of the oldest in the United States and graduate student associations like the Indian Graduate Student Association (IGSA), one of the most active.
Pittsburgh is as much a city of universities as it is of bridges, and offers affordable and decent living for international students. The city is consistently rated as the most liveable city in the U.S. owing to its low crime rates and an active art and science centric culture, giving Carnegie Mellon the much needed edge over its counterparts.
In the past two and half years, the ambience of the university and more importantly the smart people it attracts has humbled me every single day. If you think you have the passion to learn to solve real world problems then Carnegie Mellon will offer you more opportunities than what your mind can fathom.
Graduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and can be reached at kvaidya1@andrew.cmu.edu
