Graduate Student Handbook

You got accepted to live and study in sunny San Diego! Now what? Do you have questions regarding how to interact with your advisor or to develop a course/research plan? Are you unsure of the financial requirements for moving to California or ways to get funding? 

MAE P2P presents the Graduate Student Handbook! Written for graduate students by graduate students.

Handbook summary:

This handbook is meant to supplement the Graduate Student Handbook and MAE Website. Remember that you can reach out to student advisors at any point to clarify specific situations when these resources are insufficient. We will mention the department website and student advising as resources repeatedly so bear with us on that front and internalize that those are the go-to resources. 

We focus on presenting knowledge from personal experience and bringing attention to important points rather than giving an exact guidebook that gives ALL information that you could potentially need. Please think of this as a long conversation with a friend. There may be information in here that's new, some that you already know or don't need, and some that may be dated because your friend was in your position a year ago or is in a slightly different field or has a different financial status. You take the information that most applies to you and go search for other friends or resources to inform your choices. We try our best to keep information up to date, but it's possible that our recommendations are built on five-year-plus-ago experiences. So, as always, you decide what is best for you!

Handbook content includes:

• Advisors (How/when to seek help)

• Finance (Funding, Residency, Taxes, Insurance...)

• Coursework (PhD and Masters)

• Exams (PhD and Masters)

• Resources for UCSD

• Living in San Diego Tips