I recently got admitted to MS+PhD in Cornell University Electrical and Computer Engineering department for Fall'09. I am planning to attend their ECE Visit Weekend on March 27^th and 28^th to discuss possible funding opportunities among others. In the mean time, I am just wondering if anybody out there willing to share their experience at Cornell. How’s the ECE graduate program? How’re the faculties like? And most importantly, about assistantship opportunities – which is indispensable for me to pursue my graduate studies. Thanks everyone for your valuable input.

I am not the student at Cornell. Currently I am a PhD student in some reputed university in USA. Based on my experience, it is hard to get funding for MS program. The reason is that ECE program at Cornell is competitive and many good students from India and China (from IIT and Tshingua) apply for PhD program. I am not trying to discourage you, but let you know what I experienced. I managed to get funding for my MS program with some really hard work.

If you decide to join Cornell without funding, let me advice you. Professors want free students. Find out a professor with good funding history and volunteer for free. Work hard and they will fund you if you perform well. Since you got admitted to Cornell, you must be a smart guy. Good luck!!

Some programs require that you complete your PhD, you won't get an MS degree but a joint MS and PhD at the end. I think yours is such a program and if so, you are very likely to get funded. Cornell is one of the best graduate schools for electrical engineering.

First Congratulations for getting into Cornell's PhD program. I know their ECE department is very strong, probably among the top 20 if not 10 in the nation. And I am quite sure they will give you funding if you are going to do MS+PhD. You might have to be a TA or RA for some professor, but funding for PhD is almost guaranteed.

Now, I don't go to  Cornell,  but  I know  someone who  graduated from Cornell's  ECE program.  His  name is Pukar Malla.  Send him  an email at:  pukar.malla@cornell.edu. Good luck!

Thank you guys for your valuable inputs. Yes, mine is MS and PhD combined degree. I would appreciate if you guys can share more information if you have experience with Cornell or other reputed university’s ECE program. Thanks much.

I didn’t go to Cornell, nor do I know much about their ECE program other than the fact that they are ranked with in top 10 US graduate engineering universities. Stopped by just to say congratulations.

it's funny..the person got into Cornell and these fellas keeps saying it's ranked in the top ten or twenty....

i wonder i would need people telling me where my school is ranked...especially if it happens be one of the ivies! :o)

wit's end,
looks like you have run out of wits. I think you know that graduate programs are ranked  differently than undergraduate programs. Just because you go into an ivy league doesn't mean your program will be strong. Take example of Harvard. It's engineering school is ranked lower than some state universities.
Second, the point of mentioning its rank is to correlate the funding opportunities the person was curious about. Good programs will give you funding no matter what. That's why they are ranked best.
Next time you have no valuable input in the thread, do not litter it with your dying wit.

Since you are visiting Cornell University, I assume that you will be meeting with couple of professors working in your area. If not, please ask the graduate student co-ordinator to arrange meetings with few professosr you would like to work with. I did the following and was able to impress 2 professors.

(a) If you have publications (i.e. conference paper or journal paper), make a folder for each professor with your academic resume (not industry resume) and publications. Put your name and contact information on each folder.

(b) Research about the professors you will be meeting with. Discuss intelligently with them about their research and correlate how your interests match with their research agenda. This is very very important to get funding from them. Keep one thing in mind. Graduate students are mostly funded by research grants. TA is one option, but doesn't work in private schools since private schools are very expensive. Cornell is one of them.

(c) Dress and act professionally. Don't call professors by first names. In my school, we call professors by their first names. You will be meeting with students. Get information from them (funding history, professor nature). You don't want to work with crazy professor. You have to deal with them day in and day out once you work with him.

Good luck!!

ProudXaverian,
Which one do you suggest? Getting loan to study in USC or UPenn OR getting assistanship in some school, lets say Villanova, for the MS in CS?

fortune, jumpy aren't we?

I would not think s/he just pick a school from Thompson's or US news and applied. S/he must have done some research. Where the school or the department is ranked has/and will be always be on applicant's mind

I have no useful information as i know nothing about Cornell's Engg program..i will butt out ...

On more serious note...I hope the original poster will get some useful information, vis a vis some one with personal ties to the university.....not where he's department is ranked.

One last thing...even some dimwit from a third tier school will know where his graduate program is ranked.

He might say, dude..like my department is ranked among top 360 in the US.

Amen

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Maverick,

USC has really a good computer science program. I am not sure about UPenn except Wharton Business school :). If you want to do PhD in top-tier school like MIT, CMU and Stanford in CS, you need to have at least one publication in good conferences such as VLDB (database), ICML (machine learning), etc.

I think good schools provide you good exposure and make you work hard to get publication even in MS program. USC is very expensive. If you are a US citizen or permanent resident and can secure loans, I will go for USC. But make sure to get one good publication if you want to pursue PhD later from top-tier schools. Keep in mind that you are competing with top Chinese, Indian and American students, who are very motivated, hardworking and intelligent. It's lots of hard work, but you will feel proud about what you have learned. This is my opinion.

Good Luck.

Waooo!!! Cornell University? All I know is, it is one of the top universities in US.
CONGRATULATION!!!!

I am well aware of Cornell's reputation and ranking. I was looking for more personal experience from people who are/were at Cornell or other similarly ranked university. Thanks all.

Yo hellkite, I guess people weren't writing about Cornell's ranking because they felt that you were not aware of the rankings. It was a way to congratulate you and I guess people were being happy that an additional Nepali has received this opportunity to study in a prestigious university. Good luck with your studies.

I agree with Commando!!!

Also, I can give you some tips, University life will be the best if you have some dearest friends.......But on the other hand, don't just think about it. Try to do good and enjoy at the same time.

You won't get this chance again.

All the best!!!

Does anybody know professor(s) in Cornell ECE with good funding history and not bad to work with? Appreciate your comments.

You may get an email from a professor or from the dept. about the funding, keep ur fingers crossed. At the meantime, U should communicate with professors and current ECE grad students, grad students can be a very good source for information about funding.Good luck....