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Before you email me |
** As of February 2013, I am on a leave of absence with Microsoft in Redmond, WA. Therefore, I will not be accepting any new students for the foreseeable future. If you email me requesting to join my group, please do not be surprised if you do not receive a response. I wish you the best in finding a position elsewhere.**
In examining the emails that I receive, several patterns emerge. Before you email me, please check whether you fit one of the categories below. While I try my best to respond to emails, I have reached the point where I can no longer reply to those below.
If you are a prospective student, please do not email me asking if you can join my research group. I am always open to working with new students, but you have to physically come here first so that we can mutually decide that our research interests agree. Funding is tight, and there is no way that I can commit to funding a student whom I have never met. Graduate students in our department are funded primarily through one of three ways: Grading Assistantships (GAs), Teaching Assistantships (TAs), and Research Assistantships (RAs). All three provide a tuition waiver, if a certain number of minimum hours of work per week is performed. Unless you are one of those rare students who is offered funding by the department, you should expect to take the risk of coming with no guaranteed support. In the past, many graduate students who did so managed to receive an assistantship in their first semester or two -- which at least removed the burden of tuition. Unfortunately, the rules have changed, and now it is much more difficult for M.S. students to find such support. The department's focus is now upon supporting Ph.D. students.
If you have already applied and/or been accepted, and you would like to know more about what courses to take, etc., then you should talk to the staff in our department. They keep up to date on all the official rules and prerequisites, so your best bet is to ask them. If you still have questions, feel free to contact me and I'll do my best to answer them.
Also, I am happy to meet with any prospective student who is going to be in town and would like to drop by to visit the lab.
I receive a fairly large number of emails from undergraduates looking for a summer internship, particularly from countries that require this as part of the undergraduate curriculum. I do not have any extra money to support such activities, however worthwhile they might be. If you have another source of funding and would like to come here, then let me know and we can work something out.