I have heard that the graduate courses are structured very differently from their undergraduate counterparts. In a MS Engineering Program are there traditional sit down exams, with proctors? Are students expected to complete homework assignments and/or readings? How does the degree of difficulty change from the undergraduate to graduate level?
I think the biggest difference is just that there is no set structure. Professors teaching graduate courses pretty much run them however they please. I’ve had traditional lecture/homework/exam classes, I’ve had classes where the grade was based 100% on projects and I’ve had classes where they were a series of student-presented lectures where each student took a topic in the course and taught the class. Generally the grading scales are less rigid and many students by that point aren’t as concerned with grades as much as they are with understanding.
I would say that the core courses ina graduate program are more formal like those for undergraduates, but with the elective or more specialized topics, it is all over the map. I teach a course about synchrotron radiation basics and techniques to students form many different science and engineering disciplines. I can’t give tests in a class like that so I rely on oral presentations, research proposals and homework that is graded more for effort than precision since the problems are somewhat open-ended.
Sometimes a graduate class will be the same exact thing as an undergraduate class (they meet in the same room at the same time) but the grad students will have a little extra HW or have to get a better numerical grade to get an A.
I know of a CS grad class where the students are working together with someone from a very well known computer company and getting cloud accounts with that company. The representative from that company will be involved with the projects.