I'll start by saying I hesitated to call this blog post an advice piece because I'm not sure it will be structured that way. I wanted to write this blog because I feel the M.Eng in EECS at MIT still has a lot of uncertainty floating around it. I think a lot of juniors/seniors wonder if they should do the program at all, how they'll find funding, how to make sure it's worth it etc. There's a lot of general advice out there (the course 6 piazza is a great place to doomscroll if you're looking for this kind of thing), but I also found it helpful to hear anecdotal experiences from peers. Therefore I mostly plan to recount my experience and add some reflections that I think would be helpful if I had to do it all over again.

Deciding To Do an M.Eng

I entered my senior year pretty unsure of what I wanted to do after I graduated but feeling more-than-ready to graduate. Like most Course 6 seniors I applied to a variety of entry-level engineer positions at tech companies (I was 6-2, so some of these were SWE positions, others firmware/controls systems/electrical engineering). In February of 2022 I accepted the first job offer I got.

I think I tend to operate under a leave-my-options-open paradigm, which is why I applied to the M.Eng program in the Spring despite my job offer. I personally didn't know if I would come back at all, but with the option to defer thought that I might as well.

Aside: Deferring is a great option if you don't have funding yet and you're at all on the fence.

After about 3 months of working I felt I wanted to quit my job. There was a combination of things that contributed to this, but mainly I just didn't like what I was doing every day and started to get a clearer picture of my interests and career goals. I ended up being glad that I deferred because 1) it gave me a route out of my first job which I really disliked and 2) it gave me time to build a significant amount of savings, which eventually made going back to school easier from a financial perspective. I started applying both to new jobs and TAships/RAships, thinking I would take whichever got me out of my current job first.

Finding Funding

I knew I would not do an M.Eng if I could not secure a first semester of funding (either through TAship or RAship). Some people know they want to M.Eng as early as sophomore year, and do a good job at making sure they have the funding lined up by the time their senior year rolls around. I did not, and deferring gave me 2 years - or four TA/RA application cycles - to find one. I ended up needing 3 out of those 4 cycles to eventually secure a TAship.

My strategy was to email people who could get me funding. I applied to advertised RAships, cold-emailed for RAships, and cold-emailed for TAships. Across the 3 cycles I applied, I had one interview from an advertised RAship, two from cold-emails for RAships, and none from cold-emails for TAships (even for a class which I LA'd every semester since my Sophomore year). In the end none of these actually secured me funding for my first semester. One faculty reached out to me via my application from the TA portal for a grad class I had never taken before, gave me an interview, and then gave me an offer a day later (< 3 weeks before the start of the semester).

Aside: Getting funding is part luck part preparation. An M.Eng costs faculty or the department ~100k for the entire year - when you are given an interview, try to think about what someone who might get paid to do this work ought to know and invest time into making sure you know it.

With my first semester of funding secured, I notified the department of my intention to return and began looking for a faculty advisor.

Aside: I should also say that I knew I would need at least two semesters to complete my M.Eng and felt uneasy about securing the second semester of funding given it was so difficult to secure the first. Ultimately I decided to cross that bridge when I came to it (and I did come very close to it). I told myself that if I was going to start the program then I needed to be prepared to either drop out or pay out of pocket (via my own savings and loans) if I could not get funding for the second semester.

Finding an Advisor

I imagine if you start your M.Eng in an RAship this is not exactly a separate pursuit from finding funding. In my case I spent pretty much the whole of my first semester carefully looking for a lab to do my M.Eng with. I initially went about this in two ways 1) filtering faculty by research area, reading recent publications, and cold emailing them expressing interest in working on a related project and 2) Stalking the elx urop postings, and emailing the grad student in charge of postings I felt could reasonably be spun into an M.Eng thesis while cc'ing their faculty advisor.

2 ended up being the most fruitful in terms of actually getting meetings with faculty. I think this is because by going about it this way you usually first meet with a grad student who already has a relationship with that faculty and can vouch to them for you. It's sort of a win-win situation as the faculty and grad student get your focus as an M.Eng student and you get to work on a research question that already has some sort of shape (and that hopefully interests you). I also liked this approach because it was much less intimidating to meet with the grad student first, and noticed they often gave an honest representation of what working with their (aka your future) advisor is like.

About a month out from the end of my first semester I had narrowed my search down to two potential faculty who had agreed to advise me. It was also around this time that I decided I liked being in an academic environment and wanted to apply to PhD programs in the Fall. Looking at the two potential projects and my goals, I came up with a set of criteria to evaluate them against each other (like actually made a spreadsheet and gave each a score out of 5). The criteria was:

• Embeddedness: Will I be working on an actual embedded system, doing things embedded engineers do (C++, Wireless Comms, Interfacing with ICs etc.)
• Paper Prospects: How likely is it that I can get my name on a published paper doing this work?
• Mentorship: Am I likely to get support in the ways that count? Do my direct supervisors (the grad students I met with) seem very knowledgeable about the particular project I would work on? Are they able to teach me? Will I be able to have a relationship with the PI and lab at large?
• Funding: How likely am I to get funding for the summer or fall?
• Reputation: How often does the lab publish, where do they publish, and what do people who graduate the lab go on to do?
• Project Coolness: How cool is the project? Does it feel novel?
• Project Definition: Does the project have a clearly defined scope? Do I think it's achievable in the next 9 months or so?

Looking back I don't think that all of this criteria is equally important and I did end up weighing some things like funding and mentorship more than the others. Ultimately I decided to do my thesis with the Computational Design and Fabrication Group studying tactile sensing and I'm happy with how this decision turned out.

Using your M.Eng year to Get Into a PhD Program

If you know you want to pursue a PhD I think there is a lot you can do during your time as an M.Eng to make it possible. I had never published a paper by the time I applied to grad school and managed to get accepted at all three schools I applied to (including MIT).

Tip 1: Talk to faculty

Much much easier said than done, but the best way to secure a spot in a PhD program is to have a working relationship with a professor who is hiring themselves or who knows a professor who is hiring. You have the advantage of physically being at MIT - go to office hours, seminars, thesis defenses. Welcome opportunities to collaborate with other labs (as long as you have the bandwidth to be a good collaborator! See tip 2)

Tip 2: Do what you say you'll do

A good way to get great rec letters is to show people you can manage your time effectively. Getting in the habit of mentally committing to doing whatever you tell people you'll do - time frames you'll follow, deliverables you'll implement, contacts you'll reach out to - is a really good way to show potential rec writers you're dependable. Personally, this mindset also helped me learn the limits of my capabilites, set boundaries, and say no to things I don't have time for.

Tip 3: Tell your advisor and direct supervisors you want to publish a paper

Probably self explanatory but this shows people you're serious about doing research, which I think makes them more likely to invest quality time in mentoring you. This is one of the first things I mentioned to a senior PhD student (now my advisor :0) before joining CDFG, and she spent a significant amount of time helping me plan and draft a paper.

Enjoying Perks of Being a Grad Student at MIT

In my opinion there's a lot to like about being at MIT, and I think it's easy to take some things for granted when you've been on campus for so long. Some things I found new enjoyment in as a grad student (and wish I took more advantage of) include:

Using the Athletic Facilities

Swimming is so goddamn fun and I wish I hadn't waited until the last month or two of my M.Eng to go at the Z again. I think this is super underutilized by grad students and the pool is open quite often. I later learned some affiliates pay a pretty penny monthly to use these facilities and it made me more grateful to have access to them.

I also eventually signed up for locker and towel service at the Wang (inside CSAIL) which was super convenient and helped me have a much more regular exercise routine than I ever had throughout my undergrad years.

I know the Wang and the Z also have group exercise classes. I thought about going to a spin class but never made it, I think it's something I would try to make time for if I had more of it at MIT.

Going to the Muddy

MIT's bar in Walker Memorial! Very reasonably priced, lots of board games to play, and they even occasionally have surprise guests (one time that I went a Harvard professor showed up and read a poem).

Going to Grad Student Socials

There are so so many of these! The EECS department hosts an M.Eng social (I think bi-weekly?). They usually have coffee and pastries from flour - every time I went there were leftovers by the end of the hour so plenty to go around. Was nice to meet other M.Eng's and hear about their research. As a student returning from deferral I also saw some familiar faces through this event which was great.

There are usually lab/department specific things worth going to as well, GSB at CSAIL and 99Fridays or MLTea at the Media Lab come to mind.

Using the T Subsidy

If you are on a full RA or TA and take the T round trip anywhere more than 5 times a month it is an absolute no brainer to get the Student T Pass. I lived off campus and took the bus to campus every day - I ended up saving a lot of money on rent/commute this way.

Final Thoughts

Overall I'm really happy with how my M.Eng played out. It was a stressful year in some ways but I think these are the growing pains of figuring out what exactly it is you want to do with your life. Ultimately I was glad to be figuring it out at MIT.

Feel free to reach out with any questions! devinmur@uw.edu