Successfully Completing Your Graduate Degree(s) In Civil and
Environmental Engineering (Transportation) at UC Berkeley: The
Student's Perspective
This is a living document, begun by Kara
Kockelman in 1997, updated by Robert Bertini in 1998), and maintained
by TRANSOC, the
Transportation Graduate
Students Organizing Committee. Special thanks to Mari Mordecai for reviewing
and updating the document to reflect changing department requirements. As
such, it is an unofficial document, and
does not reflect the official views or policies of the University of California,
the Graduate Division, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
or the Transportation Group. We welcome all comments and additions!
INTRODUCTION
There tend to be a lot of subtle deadlines and paperwork that
accompany graduate work at Cal -- especially if you hope to get credit
for your work in the form of a degree (or two). Since it can be easy to
lose track, the following may be of some aid.
MASTER OF SCIENCE (M.S.)
Many engineering graduate schools require two
years
of graduate coursework and a thesis to get an M.S. degree. However,
Berkeley requires one year of coursework with either a 1) thesis
(and one fewer course) or 2) passing a one-hour
oral examination. In practice, many people opt for the oral
exam.
Advancement to Candidacy
If you plan to get any degree at the end of a semester, you
must file an Advancement to Candidacy Form at the beginning of the
semester
in which you expect to earn the degree. Sometimes you will be reminded,
e.g., via e-mails from the group assistant, but sometimes you won't. Go
to 750 Davis Hall and get this form and fill it out as soon as is
possible. Your degree will be delayed 1+ semesters if you do this too late.
Thesis Option
Students often have opportunities to write papers in different
courses, so
a thesis is not necessarily required in order to create something
publishable or significant.
However, there are good reasons for considering
the thesis option: if you plan to spend 3 semesters (or more) earning
your M.S., if you have identified a topic that very
much interests you, or if you plan to pursue a Ph.D. in a different
program or at a different school. A professor has commented that other
universities (and
perhaps employers) may view the thesis as "evidence of academic ability."
Inquire into the criteria that other
programs use to judge you if you are thinking about such a move.
Oral Exam Option
The M.S. Oral Exam puts you, at the
end of your final semester, before 3 transportation
faculty members who will quiz you on material covered during your first
year of graduate work, maybe even asking you subjective questions about
transportation policy. They rarely expect you to compute
numeric answers, and can be quite forgiving about the uniqueness of the
setting (i.e., having you present orally without knowing the questions
and topics
in advance). They will tell you right away if you have passed (after having
you leave the room for several minutes), and they will sign a form to give
to the group assistant (in 215 McLaughlin) which gets noted in your file
and passed to 750 Davis and then to Sproul Hall, so that your degree is
validated and noted to your transcript (your diploma is available
approximately 5 months after conferral). Note: The examining
faculty could be anyone in the transportation group. You usually indicate
a preference for certain days and then are placed with whoever is conducting
exams that day.
If you are just thinking about or definitely hope to pursue a Ph.D. in
Civil and Environmental Engineering (Transportation), your
M.S. Oral Exam will also serve as your entrance examination to the
Ph.D.
program, referred to as the Prelim, so it will likely be a bit more
rigorous and the standards for advancing will definitely be higher than
for simply getting your M.S. However, the space of time (1 hour) should be
the same, and the faculty present
shouldn't be any different than those present for the M.S. exams. Once
you have passed your Prelim and if you plan to continue working
immediately toward a Ph.D., you must complete a "Petition for Change of
Degree Goal" and a "Tentative Program of Study" to be officially admitted
to the Ph.D. program, because your new degree goal is now that of Ph.D.
If you want to take some time off, your passage of the entrance exam is
typically honored for approximately three years; so, if you return to the
program within that time, you are usually assured of being admitted directly
into Berkeley's Ph.D. in transportation engineering program. Communicate
your intents to your advisor, and make certain he/she agrees ahead
of time. Mari Mordecai suggests the following: "For your own protection,
talk with your advisor before you withdraw, and let them know of your
intent to return within the next however many years. Ask the advisor to
put a memo in the student file to this effect. That way, when you start
the readmission process, there will be something in writing to jog the
faculty's memory."
MASTER OF ENGINEERING (M.Eng.)
Students wanting an M.Eng. do not get an M.S. and they must
file a "report". This report is a lot like an M.S. thesis (see above for
additional details), but probably a bit more theoretical, because you will
have completed more coursework and, typically, more involved research under
a professor. You will need to take 40 units, 4 to 8 units of which "must
be" in CEE 299 (i.e., independent study) and during which you work on your
report.
Similar to students pursuing a Ph.D., you will need to file a "Program
of Study for Master of Engineering Candidates" to officially enter
this program; a good time to do this is at the very beginning of your
third semester, since you'll have a very good idea by then of what
4 semesters' worth of courses you will take to complete the program.
On this form you will need to list all courses, units, and your grades
(that you've received so far), and get signatures. You must get a
signature from your "Major Field Advisor", which is the faculty member
assigned to advise you when you entered the transportation program.
There is also a spot for the "Graduate Advisor Chair" to sign; this
person signs everyone in the Department of CEE's form, so the Graduate
Assistant (or anyone else in 750 Davis) will take the form from you
and send it to him/her for you. If you need to make changes to this
Program of Study card, you must get your academic advisors' initials
next to the changes on the card.
Additionally, you must complete a "Petition for Change of Degree Goal"
sheet to be officially admitted to the Masters of Engineering program,
because you are no longer pursuing an M.S. but an M.Eng.
PURSUING A PH.D.
The Ph.D. requires essentially two years of full-time coursework,
several passed examinations, and a dissertation. Most people take 5 years
total for this, so their final coursework may be much more than 24 units.
You will need at least 8 units from each of two minors (at least 4 units
in each minor at the graduate level). Your
minors must come from a "technical" and "non-technical" field; many people
choose Industrial Engineering/Operations Research or Statistics as their
technical field and Economics
or City Planning as their non-technical field.
Program of Study
You will need to file a Tentative Program of Study for Ph.D.
Candidates (Blue Card) to officially enter this program. This is to
be filed
during your first semester in the Ph.D. program. In your final semester
of coursework (which may be as early
as your fourth semester -- even though you may keep on taking "extra" units
after this), you must file a final version of this form, called a Program
of Study for Ph.D. Candidates (White Card). This form is to be filed
at least
one month before the qualifying exam is taken.
On these forms you will need to list all courses, units, and your grades,
and get signatures. The tentative program form asks for signatures from
your "guidance committee" (which is typically the three persons on your
thesis committee but can really be any faculty who know you). The final
version requires 5 names (but not signatures) for a "suggested examination
committee"; these
are the expected members of your Oral Exam committee and must include a
person from each of your minor fields. Your Oral Exam committee also should
be made up of your advisor and the two people on your written exam committee
who are not from your field.
You must also get a signature from your "Major Field Advisor", which is
the faculty member assigned to advise you when you entered
the transportation program. Finally, there's a spot for the
"Graduate Advisor
Chair" to sign; take the form to 750 Davis to obtain this signature (it
is a certain faculty member for the entire Department of CEE). If you later
need to make changes to this Program of Study card, you must get your academic
advisors' initials next to the changes on the card.
Written Exam
Once your Program of Study has been filed one month before
your qualifying exam date (which means you've
met all coursework requirements and have your grades), you're clear to
take your Written Exam. This is a 5-day exam (from 8:00 am Monday to 5:00
pm Friday afternoon) consisting of one question from each of 4
transportation faculty members. Two
of
these faculty will be in your area of interest (e.g., policy, logistics,
or traffic), while the other two will not. Your advisor will be one of
those in your area of interest. You will need to coordinate with
several other students to take the exam at the same time, if possible. and
you need to relay all this to your advisor so he/she can set up the group.
One faculty will be assigned to chair the exam committee, but he/she will
not typically be your advisor.
You may have typically a second opportunity to take this exam if you
do not pass the first time.
Oral Qualifying Exam
This exam is often referred to as your "Quals." It is supposed
to be taken within 6 months of your written exam, in order to keep
people moving toward their degree in a timely fashion. Note that this
exam effectively is the oral defense of your proposed thesis
topic.
The CEE department at Berkeley does not require an out-going defense of
dissertation,
unlike other universities and some other departments on campus. The three
signatures
of your dissertation committee, after you write it, will be your final
hurdle. (You must also present your dissertation in the one-hour weekly
seminar that the transportation group hosts every Friday, from 4 to 5 pm.)
[Note that the oral exam may be different in other departments. According
to Graduate Division rules, the oral exam is to cover general preparation
as well as the dissertation prospectus, although in CEE, in practice, the
prospectus is usually the main focus.]
Five people will participate, most likely those whom you listed on your
Program of Study as "Suggested Exam Committee" members. The chair of this
committee will be the person who chaired your Written Examination if they
are a member of the Academic Senate. Otherwise another person on the
committee (not your advisor) will serve as chair. Your
advisor and the two persons who wrote written-exam questions for you that
are not in your area of focus will also likely be on this committee. You
get to choose the two outside members (usually one from each of your
minors).
You must set up the date for this examination well in advance, since faculty
tend to have a lot of outside commitments which take them away from campus.
The most important to schedule are those three in the transportation group;
the two outside committee members can be asked somewhat later, since you
have a choice of these two.
You must also reserve the examination room (typically 214 McLaughlin,
through Gilbert Rocha, who works in 750 Davis) for approximately 3
hours. You will need to present your Prospectus (which all committee
members should have been given roughly 1+ weeks in advance) in the
first 15-20 minutes, and you will be asked a lot of questions on your
topic. Some questions will come during your presentation, but most
will follow it. As examples, these questions may focus on assumptions
your models are implicitly making and may suggest other directions
to pursue in attacking the question at hand. They may also be in regards
to specific analytical tools you will need, to make sure you are equipped
and ready. You should be far more prepared than you can possibly show
in the 15-20 minutes of your presentation; your 15+-page prospectus
will give them many details that your presentation cannot. It is also
of great use to you if you have started working with some of the data
you propose to use in your work (if you will be using data) and if
you already have something concrete to demonstrate the methodology
you will be using.
The exam probably will not take much longer than 2 to 2 1/2 hours at which
time you'll be asked to leave the room and the committee will talk among
itself to see if any issues/questions remain. They will then ask you back
in and either ask their remaining questions or tell you whether you have
passed.
After the examination, the chair of the exam committee will have all 5
members note their decision (i.e., pass or not pass) and sign their names.
The chair will also have the original of your Program of Study and your
advisor must note whether you passed or not on this form. These two forms
must then go to the group assistant (in 215 McLaughlin) to be photocopied
(and
the copies placed in your file) and passed on to 750 Davis. The staff
in 750 Davis then pass it on to Graduate Degrees.
If you pass, the Graduate Assistant will mail a "Plan B: Application
for Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy" form to your
home address. In order to get Normative Time Fee Offsets (i.e., reduced
tuition payments during the remaining semesters of your "normal" time
= 5 years for Ph.D.), you must hand this in to Graduate Degrees in
302 Sproul -- after getting your Advisor and Dissertation Chair to
sign (who may be the same person) and getting the Graduate Advisor
Chair (via those helpful people in 750 Davis) to sign. This form just
indicates details about your dissertation, such as the subject (or
title) and the members of the committee, and some information regarding
your past, written exam. You will need three dissertation committee
members, one of whom must come from one of your minors' departments.
You can have up to five members if you wish, but three is typical.
There is a $50 fee to file this form, check payable to the U.C. Regents,
of course.
Filing Your Dissertation
Your dissertation will often consist of an introduction, a literature
review, a methodology section, and perhaps an empirical analysis, and definitely
a conclusion. The Graduate Degrees group offers workshops on writing a
dissertation, but it is also of great use to take a look at those completed
by others in your area, to get an idea of possible organization.
There are some very specific details the Graduate Degrees office will look
for and will require in order for you to file your dissertation. There
are specific paper types, and specific structures for your title page,
signatures page, appendix, margins, etc. The Graduate Degrees office has a
pamphlet detailing all these requirements, and it is also on their web
site (http://amber.berkeley.edu:5900/publications/GUIDELINES/)
in the form of a document entitled Guidelines for Submitting a Doctoral
Dissertation or a Master's Thesis. Be sure you get it right;
otherwise, you will be turned away when you try to hand it in. (By the
way, the Graduate Division has several doctoral exit surveys it wants you
to
fill out before departing Berkeley, so you may wish to get these ahead
of
your filing.)
Additionally, the Department needs a copy of your dissertation.
You
should make a plain-paper copy for the people in 750 Davis Hall and
get it
to them, unbound.
Note: If you will be on filing fee status, about one month before
you
hand in your dissertation you should have your filing fee form handed
in
and your filing fee paid for (as described below).
OTHER INFORMATION
Normative Time Fee Offsets
As an incentive for doctoral students to graduate on time (i.e.,
five years) or before, the University reduces your tuition by about $500/semester
during the period following your passage of the oral exam but before your
five years "run out". Thus, be sure to hand in your PLAN B form (referred
to in the section on the oral exam) as soon as possible after your passage
of the oral exam. Note also that some fellowships (particularly those given
out through the University, such as the Berkeley Fellowship in its third,
and final, academic year) will expect you to have done this and may require
this form to be filed before allowing you to continue receiving the (final
year of the) fellowship. Also note that if you have an outside
fellowship paying your fees (the Eisenhower Fellowship, for example) your
fees will not
be reduced.
Filing Fee Status
If you're planning to file your dissertation during a
particular
semester and will not be taking classes during that semester, rather than
pay a semester's full tuition you should apply for Filing Fee Status,
which
is a lot cheaper ($178.25 in the Fall of 1998). However, you only get to
do this once, so if you're late
with your dissertation, you'll have to a pay an entire semester's tuition
when you finally do get around to filing it.
The form you must fill out can be picked up in 750 Davis, and it
should be complete and in the offices of the Graduate Division one
month
before you intend to file your dissertation. Thus, even if you
plan to
file your dissertation in the summer, and have your doctorate noted
on
your transcript in the Fall, you should hand in the Fall semester's
filing
fee form in the springtime or early summer. This form must be signed
in
the upper right corner, by your dissertation/academic advisor, and
then
below, by the Head Academic Advisor (who is the same person for the
entire
Department of CEE). After the form is complete, either you or the
administrators in 750 Davis Hall need to take it to 302 Sproul Hall,
the
Graduate Division Offices. If you will be appointed as a GSR during
your time on Filing Fee Status, the completed Filing Fee Application
must be submitted to the Graduate Division no later than the end of
the third week of classes.
Fellowship Provisions
Some fellowships provide you with funding regardless of what
you're
up to on campus. But most require something of you, such as "full-time
student" status (see "CEE 299 units"). Some won't allow you to work more
than 25% time over the entire year, on average (such as the NSF). Some
won't pay you during the summer. And some will require you to have advanced
to certain levels before they pay you everything (such as the Berkeley
Fellowship requiring full advancement to candidacy for the Ph.D. before
paying out its final year). Almost all will require that you yourself
notify the IRS of the funds and pay income tax on your total income.
Make sure you understand the provisions of your fellowship.
TRB Annual Meeting
The largest conference for transportation academicians
and professionals is held for 4 days in mid-January in Washington, D.C.
It is organized by the Transportation Research Board, and is very
inexpensive for students to attend. The conference seems to grow every
year; in 1997 it had roughly 7,000 participants.
Since it is so large, it is held in three hotels, all along Connecticut
Avenue (about 1 1/2 miles north of the Capitol). The Marriott
Wardman Park (formerly Sheraton Washington)
and Omni Shoreham host mainly infrastructure and operations topics, while
the Washington Hilton (about 3 blocks away) hosts planning and
modeling topics. There are convenient shuttles which transport
participants
between hotels.
The primary means of support for Berkeley students should be research
projects, and students are encouraged to speak to their advisors and
supervisors about this as early as possible. Berkeley
students also usually try to share hotel rooms to reduce costs, and
ITS/UCTC usually
provide
a small amount of funding for students who are not working on funded
research projects. Presenters at numbered session are usually given
funding priority.
Places and People to Know
The Graduate Assistant and Gilbert Rocha (CEE Academic Affairs Office)-- 750 Davis
Graduate Division (general fellowships and grants) -- 318 Sproul
Graduate Degrees -- 302 Sproul
299 Units
"Full-time" students must register for 12 units every semester
so that the College gets paid the full amount for having you in its program.
Whatever units you are lacking, you need to sign up for CEE 299, which
is Independent Study. All forms are up at 750 Davis. Your Advisor will
need to sign this, and then the people in 750 Davis will give you a course
control number so you can call up TeleBears and register after the
beginning
of the semester. Don't wait very long because there are deadlines for adding
new courses, etc. And note that you will need to be doing something to
"pass" your CEE 299 units; in other words, you should be doing research
and/or paid work so that the faculty know you're on track to complete your
degree(s).
Signatures
Major Field Advisor: Faculty member in Transportation assigned
to advise you when you entered the graduate program. You can change your
advisor at almost any time; just inquire with 750 Davis and do it officially.
Graduate Advisor Chair: A faculty person from the Dept. of CEE who the
people in 750 Davis will tell you about. This person signs all such documents
for everyone in the entire department during his/her tenure in this position.
Graduate Student Researchers (GSRs)
Most students have to work 25% to 50% time as GSRs (or as GSInstructors)
in order to pay for school. While there are many positions available, you
need to track these down yourself. The transportation group will pass out
lists of open positions during Orientation (which occurs several days before
classes begin), and it is your responsibility to contact those hiring and
leading the research effort. There will be competition for some of the
slots, so you may not get your first choice. Also, since first-year graduate
students are often new to the field, you may not get into very involved
research until later in the year. If you hope to do a Ph.D., perhaps think
about pursuing a GSR position which offers promise in an area that you
may want to investigate for your dissertation -- and with a faculty member
who could mentor you.
Note that GSI positions are generally harder to find, since few transportation
courses are offered to undergraduates. Moreover, GSIs are typically chosen
from among third- and fourth-year graduate students in transportation,
since these students have the most experience. However, you may be able
to be a GSI for Engineering 77 (Fortran and/or Matlab programming), since
a transportation faculty member typically teaches this course, or for some
other course on campus; look around, if you have a background in a certain
area. Additionally, you can probably be a grader of homeworks for a graduate
class in transportation as early as your second year.
California Residency
If you are not a California resident and think there's any possibility
you may stay at UC Berkeley for more than one year, you should establish
residency as soon as possible. In fact, most fellowships will require it
(so they can get off with reduced tuition payments in your second and later
years). You must file for a Driver's License by the end of your first week
of school (and take care of some other business that administrators and
fellow students can detail for you), so that you're eligible for resident
tuition status at the beginning of the following academic year. The
official (100% unbending) rules can be obtained in the Residency
Office, Room 39 Sproul Hall.
Related and Joint Programs
CEE has a joint program with transportation engineering
in transportation planning (in the Dept. of City and Regional Planning,
in the College of Environmental Design). It will take a student at least
2 1/2 years to graduate from such a program, and the student will have
to write a thesis or professional report (PR) for the Master's of City
Planning degree.
Other spots to consider on campus for a class or
two include the Schools of Public Policy and Business, the Departments
of Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research,
Statistics, and Economics, and the environmental engineering group. UC
Berkeley has an incredible wealth of faculty and courses; its overall set
of graduate programs dominates any other university by a fantastic margin.
If you get a chance, be sure to take advantage of subjects and courses
related to transportation in other areas on campus.
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