what is there in electronics engineering(EC)?

Answer 1

Many people have difficulty asking for advice about such things, especially from professors, because they are embarrassed at not already knowing all the answers. But you should understand that a large part of what professors do all day is to give people advice. And professors know a great deal about graduate school. In particular, a professor who does research in a given area will probably know a large proportion of the other people who do research in that area. Indeed, he or she will probably have visited most of the departments that have good graduate programs in the area. On the other hand, professors (like everyone else) see things from their own personal angle, so you should expect to get different advice from different people. That's life. You can also talk to the graduate students in your department, for example the ones who have served as teaching assistants in your classes.

The first step is the hardest. Start by making a guess at the field or topic that you might want to study in graduate school. Then pick a professor who seems approachable and might know something about that topic, perhaps because he or she teaches a course in that area. Show up in that person's office during scheduled office hours and say, "Hello. I'd like to ask your advice. I am thinking I might want to go to graduate school, but I'm still uncertain about where I would go or what exactly I would study. I do know that I'm pretty interested in such-and-such. How would I find out about graduate schools in that area?" Some common responses to this are as follows:

(1) "I don't actually know much about that area, but you should talk to so-and-so who is really the expert on that." Go talk to so-and-so.

(2) "I think you're going to have to define your interests a little better before I can help you." Ask for help in defining your interests better.

(3) The response you're looking for, namely a list of all the good graduate programs in that area, with as much detailed description of them as you can possibly digest.

What next? Well, let's back up and talk about research.


RESEARCH

Graduate school, as I said, is training in research. When a graduate school looks at your application, their principal question is, "Is this person going to be good at research?" Indeed, that should be one of your own principal questions as well. How can you tell if you're going to be good at research? Getting good grades in your undergraduate classes is important, but it's not really the main thing. The main thing is this: if you want to go to graduate school, you should start getting involved in research as an undergraduate. This fact is usually kept secret, but it's true. And in retrospect it's obvious why. Graduate school is a big commitment, both for you and for the department that accepts you into its graduate program. You should try your hand at research first so that everyone can make a well-informed decision. (On the other hand, if you don't manage to get involved in research as an undergraduate, you should go ahead and apply to graduate school anyway, and consider including your best undergraduate term paper with your application.)

How can an undergraduate get involved in research? This question has two answers, the official answer and the real answer. The official answer will take the form of administrative mechanisms (independent study courses, faculty mentor programs, and so forth) that provide formal structures around a project that you might be involved in. Go talk to your department's undergraduate coordinator, find out what these mechanisms are, and read the necessary paperwork. Then forget about them for a while, because the real answer to the question lies in your professional relationship to the faculty member who will supervise your research. But who will this person be? That's the hard part.