Graduate School

CALESS supports all our members who interested in attending Graduate School. We aim to provide the tools and resources that are necessary for our members to get into a STEM-related Graduate Program.

What is Graduate School?

• Graduate school is about taking your “broad” educational experience and becoming more specialized.

What is a Master's Degree?

• A master's degree gives you training that is a bit more rigorous than you are used to and tends to be more specialize, i.e. if you are a mechanical engineer pursuing their masters you might be taking courses to help you understand the difference processes and properties of thermofluids.
• Timeline: 1-2 years to complete, mostly coursework and either a thesis or project need to complete.

What is a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) ?

• Earning a PhD means you are an expert in a particular field able to conduct individual research.
• Time to completion: 5-7 years assuming you are coming straight from a bachelor's degree.
• 3-5 with a master’s degree. Graduate Engineering degrees tend to be earned faster than one’s in the sciences but is not always the case.

Why should someone attend Graduate School?

• Below is a link from Peterson's that explains why or why not to go to graduate school, financial costs of graduate school, how to balance graduate school, and how to fund graduate school.

Peterson's A Guide for Potential Grad Students: Should You Go To Graduate School?

Advice from CALESS Alumni

• The largest component of graduate school revolves around research at least for the PhD. If you don’t like to conduct research, than a PhD is NOT for you. That being said, don’t let poor research experiences deter you from pursuing a PhD, you could have just had a poor advisor or tried working in a field that didn’t suit you. That’s why you should try out different fields of research before choosing one.

Who is providing the advice and information listed above?

• All information on this Page was written by Everardo Olide.
  • Currently a Graduate student at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor earning his PhD in Applied Physics.
  • He graduated from the University of California, Davis in Spring 2015 with a B.S. degree in Mathematics and a minor in Physics.
  • He established the Academic Committee in Fall 2014.