<p>My school seems to be heading into the area that anyone that can full pay will be accepted into the Master's program (for Engineering school). It seems to be 80%+ internationals that can afford this and want to as they get a visa..which makes sense.</p>
<p>It just seems strange to me. The electrical engineering department went from about 50 masters students last year, to around 200 this year. </p>
<p>I go to a good school which I also did my undergrad at (Wash U), although not necessarily highly ranked at the graduate engineering level - although it still has quality academics.</p>
<p>Is this happening at a lot of schools in order to get more money in tough economic times?</p>
<p>I'm kind of worried about the reputation with respect to getting jobs after I finish.</p>
<p>It’s been happening.</p>
<p>You have to realize that college is a business. On top of that, some of those applicants may have prior engineering experience. How can a school say that one applicant is more qualified that another if one of the applicants already has experience? </p>
<p>On top of that, the applicants could be admitted as provisional students where they must get a 3.5+ GPA in their first 2 or 3 courses before being fully admitted. While there are GRE’s and GPA’s are used to evaluate applicants, what is the BEST way to prove that one can do graduate coursework??..DO graduate coursework.</p>
<p>I definitely benefited from this as I didn’t have a 3.0+ GPA as an undergrad but I had 9 years engineering experience when I applied at U-Wisconsin. I aced my first 3 courses (hey, what math major cannot ace Stats, Linear Algebra and Operations Research if given a 2nd try at all of them?) and I was fully admitted. I also aced the grad-level computer science courses since I was already an experienced software engineer (sometimes correcting the professors).</p>
<p>As for jobs, many times the degree is just a “check off the box” as for as evaluation.</p>
<p>MS are available through online now at several university, more so now then before. If youre talking about UW, combine with close proximity to Boeing which offer tuition reimbursement. No longer is there a physical limitation as to how many students can be admitted, available classroom limit. So yes, with online grad programs, I can image more students would be admitted as long as they are able to pay for the tuition, which by the way easily doubles that of on campus. Granted, company such as Boeing would pick up the tab so that would not deter anyone from applying.</p>
<p>I have personally worked for Boeing in the past and that company has one of the better tuition-reimbursement benefits. You don’t have to get supervisor’s approval and the money is paid from the Boeing headquarters…not your specific office.</p>
<p>I worked at the Annapolis Junction, MD office and took a Stochastic Processes course (in preparation for a upcoming contract) and the process was so easy.</p>
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<p>Marc - not sure where you’re getting that from? The department as a whole only lists 60-70 MS students. And a good solid chunk of them are Systems.</p>
<p>In terms of class enrollment, I think you’re seeing more a boom in Systems rather than EE. That, and it’s ridiculously common for Systems undergrads to take 500 levels (whereas EE undergrads don’t as often).</p>
<p>But yeah, it does seem like the dept has grown and the classes are FILLED with international students.</p>
<p>(I was under the impression that that is how grad school in the US has been for many years though).</p>
<p>Edit: if I’m wrong about the # of students and you’re right, I’ll actually be quite happy if it forces the dept to offer more classes. I have no clue what I’ll be taking next semester to finish up my reqs.</p>
<p>@Johnson: Check the list of MS students at <a href=“http://ese.wustl.edu/people/Pages/masters-students.aspx[/url]”>http://ese.wustl.edu/people/Pages/masters-students.aspx</a>. It’s somewhere around 150 total students this year (and i realize im lumping systems with electrical) (compared to say 60 last year). </p>
<p>Anyways…
I had a class on probability today. The professor spent ten minutes telling everyone to write their names carefully because there were and this is close to a direct quote “5 Zhangs, 5 Wangs, 6 Lus, 4 Lis, and 4 Luos or at least that’s how I think you pronounce it”</p>
<p>It’s a new practice at this school (Wash U) and faculty are aware of it. The funny part was the professor has a Germanaccent, and 65 out of 75 people approximately were internationals that couldn’t understand a word he said. I was helping people seated around me spell the words the professor was saying. </p>
<p>A similar practice backfired on the CSE department when there was a severe gap between the ability of some of the students (many weren’t cut out for the courses) . They cut down dramatically on the number of masters students accepted this year (partly due to overcrowding from last couple years and from faculty loss, but also reviewing their acceptance plan). </p>
<p>If the students are qualified (and Im sure most are) i have no problem. I just don’t see how a program can accept 100ish additional graduate students (going from 60ish to 150ish) without lowering standards. One professor suggested it was because the school was gaining on its reputation worldwide. This is likely part of the case, but probably not the significant reason.</p>
<p>It seems to be all about the money. College should be about the education, not a extra couple hundred thousand for a department that causes class sizes to triple over the year before.</p>
<p>Still not seeing where you’re getting 200 from? That’s the same page I was looking at, and the number is only in the 80’s. That is indeed a huge jump from where it was last year, so I think we’re arguing semantics, really.</p>
<p>But I totally see the general increase that you’re talking about. I had a 400 level (but a lot of grad students enrolled) today that was surprisingly full of international students. Again, not a bad thing, but they all looked shocked at the Prof’s accent (he is another prof with a European accent - I could understand him crystal clear, but it looked like they couldn’t).</p>
<p>Just compared Fall 12 enrollment with Fall 11 for my classes. 2 classes tripled, 1 quadrupled in size. DANG. My 400 levels all remained the same (the one discussed above is a new course). </p>
<p>I really hope this is adressed for the Spring.</p>
<p>I have since realized i can’t count and think 80 is the same as 200. Oh well. All I know is my class size doubled/tripled versus their size from last year. i was attracted to the department because of the smaller class sizes. </p>
<p>Still wondering how common this is. Has graduate enrollment doubled at a lot of schools in the past two-three years? Anyone know?</p>
<p>It is very common these days. The numbers of upper and middle class Chinese have been increasing as China’s economy grows. They want to leave China for America ASAP for freedom and safety. As a result, they attend universities in America, with the intention of working in America afterwards.</p>
<p>In return, universities have taken full advantage by increasing enrollment since they want students who can fully fund their education.</p>