For those who are following my progress with grad school, you are already aware that I was invited out to Illinois (specifically, the University of Illinois) to tour their graduate program in Atmospheric Science. I indicated that I had a few concerns, chiefly whether or not the program was ultimately for me.
I chose to go over the first few days of spring break. Namely, Monday through Wednesday. This wasn't optimal (due to senior project commitments), but it worked for the best all things considered as I would not have to work around classes.
From here on, I'm going to give fair warning that my writing may be fairly train-of-thought. The day that I spent with the department was filled with a LOT of information, and I am admittedly still processing a lot of it. That said, I think writing it out will help me to that end, and provide for some new reading for anyone who is interested.
My first day there (Monday), I arrived around 7:30 at night. The professor who picked me up from the airport took me to dinner (a nice italian restaurant - quite good!) and then to the hotel. Interestingly, the hotel is actually located within their student union - a concept that I found to be actually quite interesting. That said, I had been travelling for about 12 hours by that point, and also had an early morning on Tuesday, so I quickly fell asleep.
Tuesday was the really busy day. From breakfast onwards, I met with professors in the department to discuss their work, as well as the grad students of those professors to see what life as a grad student is like. It was this part of the trip that really surprised me, and not in a bad way.
Two themes really recurred during the entire trip. The first was that we (there was 3 of us) were constantly being asked if we had any questions - about the program, expectations, the school, or even the city/life in general there. The second was the very very obvious commitment to their grad students. Not just in the 'cheap labor' sense, but it was very clear that the success and happiness of their grad students was a priority there. You weren't just there to work for 2 or 3 years for a degree - you also were expected to publish, to go to conferences, and to really establish yourself as a research scientist.
Also worth noting is that the entire department is very informal. Professors preferred to be called by their first name instead of "doctor ...". This was the case with us, and with their undergraduates and grad students. I recognize that that sort of informal attitude isn't for everyone, but a relaxed atmosphere was a definite plus for me.
Also interesting to note is that, provided your advisor is okay with it, you were not expected to appear in the office every day if you did not need to (This was the grad students saying this, not the professors). If your work could be done remotely, you were more than welcome to be outside or even at home working. Once again, the flexibility in the department is such a great thing - something I definitely valued.
Of course, so far I have talked only about the campus and the personal side of it - interactions, mentality, etc. To that end, I absolutely loved the campus and the department. The other side of the coin is the work that I'd be doing, and that is where things get a little more blurry.
Every professor I met with talked about the work that they were doing. This ranged from forecasting to climate modeling. A big recurring theme in the work is the use of numerics to simulate the atmosphere - something which is a core interest of mine even now. To that end, there is no shortage of work in modeling, numerics, and programming.
By the same token, however, this isn't all a good thing. While yes, there are opportunities to gain 'in the field' experience - something which the department strongly encourages - those opportunities are not incredibly common, on the order of once or twice per year. This of course brings to light the question of what I'd be doing the other weeks of the year, and that is where the question mark (for me) comes in.
Something I've always enjoyed about my major now is the hands on aspect - yes, I'll spend time working, simulating, and modeling - but at the end of it I ultimately go and build the thing and then test it. Based on the impression I got in speaking with professors, far more time is spent in the former rather than the latter part of this.
Then again - that is to be expected. Engineering is about developing and deploying new technologies. In research, that simply means you're on the cutting edge. For the sciences, it's about developing a better understanding of the world around us - once again on the cutting edge in the case of research - even though you may not get anything immediately useful out of it. But it's that dichotomy that has me worried.
The hands-on aspect of Engineering is what I love. The fact that you get to hold your work. I won't mince words and say that it's that lack of hands-on work that makes a decision difficult. The people are awesome and the campus is gorgeous... but if I'm going to be bored, then what is that ultimately worth? I also hold a lot of pride in my title as an Engineer - I've worked hard to get it, and I admit I'd have a hard time walking way from that. A scientist is also a prestigious title, and one that I am sure someone who's spent as much time working on it would hold equally valuable.
At the end of it, I guess that is what the ultimate question for me is. Is this the right choice for me? I will have the opportunity to use some of the most powerful computing resources in the world (I learned that Deep Blue, soon to be the world's most powerful supercomputer, will be built on that campus) and develop models that explain our world. But the final goal of my degree would not be those models - it would be interpreting what those models say. While it's definitely exciting, I find the idea of a new technology a bit more so.
There is little doubt that I will be admitted. I will not be making a decision until I hear back from the other schools to which I've applied (which should be any day now), but this trip has made a big impression on me. I loved the campus and the people, but I admit that the work has me concerned. It would be challenging, and I will get to work with some of the most powerful computers in the world working on things no one else has ever done (quoting the professors - 'Your thesis will not be on something that's been investigated before'), but is the result ultimately interesting to me? That is a question I still do not know how to answer, and something I will have to think long and hard on when it comes time to make my decision in the coming weeks.
Naturally, I will keep updating here as things progress. I suspect my next entry on the subject will be once I hear from another school - and again when I make a final decision. It may be to try working for a year, or maybe I will find the answer in grad school and go from there. At this point, I can't honestly say I know for sure.
Until then.
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