<p>With the free tuition, is the grad student free to take ANY course available at the university (even undegraduate)? or is he/she restricted to pre-approved graduate courses only?</p>
<p>You don’t actually get free tuition. Your advisor or fellowship will cover the tuition charged by your institution for your attendance.</p>
<p>Generally the classes you’re allowed to take depend most strongly on both your research advisor and your option’s/department’s academic advisor. If you want to take something pretty far removed from your research, say, underwater basket weaving, you might have a bit of convincing to do. If it’s something related, like you’re in chemistry and want to take a crystallography class, it might be a bit easier.</p>
<p>Ahh that’s too bad… I am applying for immuno and always wondered if I could take some astronomy classes… :(</p>
<p>Good to know though, thank you!</p>
<p>You should talk to your school, or since you are about to be interviewing maybe this is a question you should bring up at the schools.</p>
<p>I know a few biologists that had no problems taking music classes (voice, piano, etc), however the school did catch on and put a stop to the two students trying to sneak a free MBA. ;)</p>
<p>This is really up to your PI. I knew a math grad student who took fencing and french literature. This was the semester immediately preceding his expulsion from the program. If your PI is accommodating you could definitely get away with taking more relevant coursework eg. one of my friends in Micro is taking a writing course. I will be in micro and I hope to take public health courses after the first year. I don’t think that “sneaking” an extra degree is a possibility but you can certainly knock out the bulk of the coursework for something like an MPH or if you sell it to your PI, the management part of an MBA. On a side note, given that some portion of us will end up managing a lab, budget and personnel, I think its an atrocious oversight that we don’t have any training in those aspects.</p>
<p>In the course of a Poly Sci PhD, I took classes in history, sociology, and several languages, as well as a couple of business school classes. In all, I took 22 courses (12 required for degree) and nobody at my university objected to the fact that the tuition for all of them was covered.</p>
<p>I interviewed at Columbia last weekend and they made a point of telling us that we could take whatever classes we wanted (pottery was the example they kept using), as long as our PI didn’t mind. They also said that most advisors there don’t mind, and that a lot of students take business courses. So I guess it depends on where you go.</p>
<p>The problem with the MBA was that those classes were part of a completely different graduate school and are normally very expensive, that is, students who come here for an MBA pay for it, and those costs aren’t covered by “The Graduate School” tuition. The graduate school that handles the MBA were the people objecting in this example, not the biology side.</p>
<p>We’re free to sign up for any graduate level courses we feel like. Undergrad courses are a bit trickier because we have to get permits and nobody likes to fill out extra paperwork. All assistantship holders have to take 21 hours anyway, so if you don’t sign up for classes you sign up for placeholder credits to get to 21. I’m taking classes in robotics even though my major is in something completely unrelated and my advisor doesn’t really care.</p>
<p>At some point, I plan on taking a writing-intensive course like 20th century literature to keep my skills strong, and maybe a language also. I definitely will not get credit toward my PhD for those classes, so that’s the only stipulation really.</p>
<p>lajkfgi, that’s certainly the case in my experience. I’m at Columbia and not only are we allowed to take any classes across the university, we’re encouraged to. Most PIs are pretty open about that. So many students take business courses that they forward a list of courses open for cross-registration and have a very meditated way of allowing people to sign up because they fill up so quickly! :)</p>
<p>Your first priority should of course be any required courses, and secondly courses that will help your dissertation and future endeavors in your field. But after that…I have a colleague in my cohort taking an African dance class this semester.</p>
<p>If I signed up for a class outside my department, I’m not sure my PI would notice – he signs my course selection card every semester, but I cannot say I am sure he looks at it. ;)</p>
<p>Like so many questions on this forum, the answer is it entirely depends on one’s field and school and program and advisor (BTW, only some fields use the term “PIs”-- it seems to have taken on a life of its own on CC). No one can answer that for you definitely. </p>
<p>In my field, in the PhD programs I’m most familiar with, you have course requirements and usually some room for electives but usually those are geared toward one’s research interests so there is a professional reason to take them. Students find it difficult to maintain their required courses AND engage in substantial research, that there is little time for fun courses. If it was just about coursework, no problem. Trying to give ones highest priority to publishing, while maintaining a full courseload, is a big challenge in and of itself.</p>
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<p>As a professor in business, who teaches and develops MBA curriculums and runs a lab and at times a department, I assure you, I don’t think it would help much. I say that to make you feel better.</p>
<p>I concur with Starbright. Successful completion of a graduate program requires substantial dedication with little time for extraneous coursework. This become very apparent in doctorate programs. Do remember, you will need to complete a substantial body of research to obtain a doctorate degree AND you need recommendations from your graduate faculty who oversaw the dissertation research. Recommendations from graduate faculty who only engaged with a student in courses, is fairly meaningless for the next important job searching stage!</p>
<p>I’m at Columbia and taking French this semester – my PI has no clue, but since it’s an early-morning class, it’s actually getting me into lab EARLIER than usual … so he can’t really complain. 
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<p>RE: the situation at Columbia – all the fun/non-sciencey classes are offered at the downtown undergraduate campus, accessible via a 15-minute subway ride ($2) or a sporadically-managed intercampus shuttle (free). almost all of the biomedical labs are hosted on the uptown medical campus, so bear in mind that scheduling in extras can be somewhat difficult, especially if they fall during the middle of the day – ie, prime lab time.</p>