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Student Leaders Report
Graduate Students
in the
New Millennium
A new millennium with a constantly changing mindset. This is the challenge faced by undergraduate and graduate students alike. True.
In most respects, graduate students’ needs and ambitions, however, differ greatly from their undergraduate counterparts. The Graduate Student Council (GSC), the closest link for the bulk of 5,700 graduate students, identifies and brings to the fore most of these demands by identifying the needs and setting up the foundations to help graduate students achieve and satisfy those needs. With the assistance of the MIT administration, the GSC helps the Institute better guide graduate students.
However, given the rapidly evolving world, adapting to those needs has to be a collective effort. Along with the main administrative sections, faculty have a big role to play in helping and assisting the graduate students achieve those targets.
Sampling a set of graduate students reveals a series of common beliefs and ambitions: Coming to graduate school, especially to a highly prestigious one like MIT, is a means of enabling them to gain a greater thrust in propelling them in their future careers. Most of the students look for quick throughput, to enable them to begin their careers early.
A comparison of students graduating from grad school over the last decade indicates that what was generally termed alternative careers in the past, are now main stream career options for most graduate students. The reason is simple: With the New Economy (startups and venture capitalists) fueling growth across the world, there is an ever-increasing demand for talented individuals with a wide scope. Industries such as finance and consulting are in a constant hunt for such people. Given the high remuneration, it is no surprise that most graduates opt for the so-called “alternative” path.
Students keen to jump on the bandwagon look for ways to add value to themselves. This is evidenced by the large demand for places in Sloan School courses, increasing interest in the TPP (Technology and Policy Program), and demand for interdisciplinary research. Essentially, it is about learning other technical fields, participating in courses outside their departments, and learning about the business environment. The result is that increasingly students spend less time on their main research. Furthermore, students are looking to graduate quickly so that they can engage in the New Economy.
Student lifestyles have also evolved a great deal. Nowadays, graduate students are more extroverted, looking to engage in a host of extracurricular activities. These serve as networking and socializing sessions, also demanding time out of their labs.
Even selecting the appropriate school is no longer simply based on prestige. It is about a having a healthy stipend, convenient and comfortable accommodations, a vibrant social life, and the ability to network and interact with future trendsetters. Students who come to graduate school at MIT are fully aware of the other opportunities that are available to them. The choice of their preferred graduate school boils down to a few important issues. Quality of life, added value, work/study environment, intellectual stimulation, etc. Other universities with reputable graduate schools (such as Stanford and Northwestern) offer higher stipends and better standards of living. That is why these schools continue to attract more and more bright students. It also has to be remembered that students opt to attend graduate school at the expense of working in industry. It is easy for students to drop out, if things do not go their way in graduate school.
The announcement of the building of the new graduate dorm at Sidney/Pacific is a positive step in showing MIT’s commitment towards improving the housing situation faced by graduate students. However, a great deal of perseverance and collective effort will be required to see this project through to the end. Similarly, the quick completion of the new athletic facility will help improve MIT’s image of offering students more facilities outside of the laboratory.
Preparing students to face the outside world is one of the issues in which the GSC is directly involved. Through its committee on Academics, Research and Careers, the GSC organizes a series of Professional Development Seminars (PDS) aimed at highlighting the current career trends, identifying the career choices available, and discussing the skills required for various fields. In addition, the GSC organizes the annual graduate career fair at MIT in an effort to bring together employers and students under one roof. This has proven to be a great service for graduate students with last year’s event attracting over 2000 graduate students and 270 companies. This year’s career fair will take place on the 28th and 29th of September.
The need for the GSC to organize these events stems from the fact that there are no staff members at MIT fully dedicated to catering for graduate students and their career needs. This is a rather surprising and disappointing situation, given that graduate students constitute more than half the student population, yet lack administrative support in certain critical areas.
It has to be acknowledged that the Office of Career Services and Pre-professional Advising (OCSPA) had proposed changes to the existing setup in order to accommodate graduate student needs as well. This, however, failed to gain support from the MIT administration. In the meantime, OCSPA leadership has gone out of their way to redress this situation by providing the GSC advice on PDS and logistic support with the career fair. Unfortunately, this is by no means sufficient, and hopefully the current status can be rectified through the recommendation of the Presidential Career Working Group, instituted by President Vest and the GSC, to quantify, during fall 2000, the career needs of graduate students in terms of budget and staff.
The GSC has also been instrumental in initiating a seminar series aimed at incoming graduate students. Entitled Grad School 101 and moderated by Dr. Ike Colbert, dean for Graduate Students, and Professor Steve Lerman, chair of the faculty, the series of five sessions will address some of the critical issues facing incoming graduate students. We strongly recommend new graduate students attend these seminars and your assistance in informing them about them will be most appreciated.
It has to be understood that it is the graduate students who help the faculty to build the image of MIT. That is why attracting them is important. From the GSC’s perspective, attracting the best and the brightest graduate students to MIT will be a challenge in the coming years, if it’s not already. Graduate students now look for those details mentioned above in making their choice. One of the things that will help improve the standard of living is having decent and affordable housing options close to campus. Another is supplementing the stipend by subsidizing health and even dental insurance, similar to that offered to employees of MIT.
An issue that tingles in the mind of many continuing graduate students is their funding status. This determines if the student can continue with his/her work or requires additional sources of funding. Some sort of transparency whereby the students are aware well ahead of time about the availability of funding or lack thereof will be helpful. While some departments do have channels for identifying such positions well ahead of time, many do not. Lacking also is a clear Institute-wide policy of making the funding situation transparent. The GSC will look to working closely with the Dean for Graduate Students, the Chair of the Faculty, the Faculty Policy Committee (FPC) and the Committee on Graduate School Policy (CGSP) towards achieving some sort of transparency.
All in all, there is a fair bit of work to be done in order to make the graduate experience at MIT truly enjoyable and in line with some of the other competitor schools. Some courage on the part of the faculty in understanding the demands and needs of the new-generation graduate student will go a long way towards achieving that goal. I invite you to help MIT keep up with its tradition of being at the cutting edge!
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