Grad WiCS resources



Although labeled as WiCS resources, the information below is relevant to most grads.
Please note, there's plenty of grad advice on the web. But if the internet were to disappear tomorrow, this is the grad info we'd try to save.

Admission to grad school:
Getting In: An Applicant's Guide to Graduate School Admissions, by Dave Burrell. You'll notice some chunks of the book are not available online; but if you find it useful, the WiCS coordinator owns a hard-copy and she will gladly lend it to you. :-)


First years in grad school:

Marie desJardin's paper on why you shd go to grad school (or not) and what to expect.
David Chapman's famous paper on How to do research at the MIT AI lab, good reading for all first-year grads.


Thesis structure:

John Chinneck's short guide to How to Organize your Thesis, excellent resource on masters/phD thesis structure.


What kind of procrastinator are you?:

Kate Lorenz's tips for fighting procrastination.


Conference networking:

Dan Horn's collection of conference networking advice.


Publishing your research:

Tamara Munzner's publishing pitfalls (including advice on how to *not* interpret reviews).


Improving writing / presentation skills:

Pitt and online resources.


Proposal and defense talks:

John Hughes's suggestions for CS proposals and defenses.


Career paths:

Industry
Industry or academia? Tamara Munzner's (UBC) view (academia wins) and Erik Meijer's (Microsoft) view (industry wins). [slides pending]


Academia
CRA's 2004 workshop on life as a research-university professor, including a talk on balancing career and family life (check out the workshop slides).

AIP's guide to Hunting for jobs at liberal arts colleges. The term "liberal arts college" stands for any institution focusing primarily on undergraduate rather than graduate education and research; this category also includes some smaller state universities as well as a few colleges with small graduate programs.

Gabriela Montell's How to Write a Statement of Teaching Philosophy.

Peter Feibelman's booklet tells how to choose a postdoc appointment: A PhD is not enough -- there's a copy in my office, if you're curious; it won't take you longer than half an hour.


Wait, there's more:
Science and public policy (NSF may hire you)

Intellectual property law (Morgan Finnegan may hire you)

Federal government (think NIH, FDA, the EU etc.)

Entrepreneurship (i.e., start your own company; Peter Drucker's Innovation and entrepreneurship and Guy Kawasaki's The art of the start come highly recommended)

Technology transfer (try the Association of University Technology Managers)

Non-profit international services (the UN, UNESCO, IMF?)

Consulting (McKinsey and others)

and so on.




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Compiled by Liz Marai (Brown'07).