Caltech
has a reputation as a world-class research university, and it
is no exaggeration to say that much of this reputation is based
on the quality of its graduate students. The Electrical Engineering
option (department) at Caltech is no exception: its bright and
motivated graduate students collaborate with its professors in
their research efforts and make it one of the top Electrical Engineering
departments in the country. The EE department enjoys vigorous
interactions with other departments around campus. These include
Applied Physics,
Computer Science,
Mathematics,
Computation
and Neural Systems, and Control
and Dynamical Systems. There are separate graduate programs
in all of these disciplines, and the Electrical Engineering department
offers joint courses and seminars with these departments, shares
resources, including students, and indeed many of our faculty
members hold joint appointments with one or more of these departments.
The
Electrical Engineering department, like Caltech itself, is small.
There are currently 16 full-time-equivalent faculty members, and
at any one time there will be about 80 graduate students in residence,
including about 20 first-year students chosen from a pool of over
500 applicants. Almost all of these students will be Ph.D. track
students, i.e., students whose ultimate goal at Caltech is a Ph.D.
in Electrical Engineering. We also have a small number of Master's
only students, most of whom will be on leave from industry or
government posts. Admission is highly competitive, and applicants
are evaluated on the basis of a number of criteria including transcripts,
letters of recommendation from former teachers, standardized test
scores (including, when appropriate, TOEFL scores), written statements
of purpose, appropriateness of research interests, and research
experience and promise.
Financial
aid is provided for virtually all Ph.D. students, either in the
form of a Teaching Assistantship (TA), a Research Assistantship
(RA), or a Fellowship. These awards provide full tuition-offsetting
scholarships. Teaching assistants are expected to grade papers
or provide laboratory instruction in selected classes. Research
assistants will be assigned to a specific professor's research
group.
Normally,
the Master's degree in Electrical Engineering (MSEE) is completed
in one academic year by taking five courses, as approved by the
student's adviser, in each of the three academic terms. Occasionally
(for example a student on a work-study program) will take two
years to complete the Master's degree. No Master's thesis is currently
required.
Applicants
who wish to obtain a Ph.D. are, as a rule, initially admitted
only to the MSEE program. (The most common exception to this rule
is that students who have already obtained a Master's degree from
an accredited U.S. university may be admitted directly to the
Ph.D. program.) During the MSEE year, a student who wishes to
be admitted to the Ph.D. program must identify one or more potential
Ph.D. advisers from the EE faculty, and inform those professors
of his/her interest in working in the group. All Ph.D. aspirants
are also required to pass a one-hour oral examination, normally
held in late January, which tests the student's undergraduate
background in EE. In late February, the entire Electrical Engineering
Faculty meets to discuss each Ph.D. aspirant individually, and,
based on classroom performance, the result of the oral examination,
appropriateness of research goals, and other criteria, decisions
are made as to which students will advance to the Ph.D. program,
and those students are assigned to research groups. From then
on, the student's advancement towards a Ph.D. is monitored closely
by the student's research professor. Before the end of the student's
second year of graduate study, the student is expected to take
a Ph.D. oral qualifying examination, during which the student
is expected to describe in detail the preliminary results of his/her
research, and to submit to questioning by professors who have
taught the student one or more classes.
In
summary, the Caltech Electrical Engineering department is a small
and friendly environment, which is home for its graduate students
for three to five years. While plainly not for everybody, our
program can provide priceless research apprenticeship for individuals
whose career goals include highly skilled professional posts in
academic, industrial, or government positions.
