What Happens the Summer Before Grad School?

In about a week, I’ll be heading over to Berkeley to begin my graduate career.¹ Consequently, I thought I’d take some time to reflect on what’s been going on this summer, particularly with regards to preparation for graduate school. Perhaps this will be useful to future generations of Berkeley EECS Ph.D. students.

Once students confirm that they are going to Berkeley, then they’ll be put on a mailing list (or more accurately, a “Google Group”) that includes all incoming EECS students, a few existing EECS students, and a few staff members. Important emails will be flying around by early May, so technically one’s preparation for Berkeley should start even before the summer begins.

Of the emails that are being sent, by far the most important ones to read are those about housing.

For people like me who don’t have any connections in the Bay Area, contacting other incoming students about housing opportunities is extremely important, unless you want to hedge your bets on living by yourself or with non-EECS students. Fortunately — at least during the summer of 2014 — there seemed to be enough people in my situation that finding a group to live with wasn’t too difficult. I did have to go through several failed attempts at forming a group, as well as one rejected housing application (that really hurt), but by the start of July, I had secured a place to live. One key tip is to keep in touch with the incoming students who are already around the Bay Area; they’ll be the ones conducting most of the house visits to make sure that the house you found on craigslist isn’t terrible. That reminds me: if you have no experience with craigslist, I suggest learning how to use it. And another tip about housing: I think it’s easier to get housing if you can find a nice place to rent and then advertise it to the group, rather than if you form a group first and then find a house.

Of course, there are other emails to read as well. Most of the non-housing emails fall into the category of incoming students asking current students questions. But worry about those after housing.

The Berkeley Graduate Division also sends out monthly emails. Those emails are short but have links to a bunch of detailed PDFs and websites. There’s too much information to absorb at once, but read as much as you can. You’ll also want to read a little more about the department’s Ph.D. requirements. Here’s a refresher.

At the start of July, you’ll also be assigned a temporary advisor. Send him or her a few emails (but not too many … see the Email Event Horizon for why). You may ask advice on what courses to enroll in, but the class schedule is online and most students have a good idea of what to take anyway. You can sign up for classes starting in August, but be careful not to take more than two a semester.

Finally, if you were to ask me advice on what to do during the summer before graduate school, I would recommend either a research or software engineering internship to keep your skills sharp, but it’s OK to use this time to travel or pursue other interests. While you can pursue them at Berkeley, the 167-hour work week makes things a little time-intensive.