Undergraduate Research at IIT?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Illinois Institute of Technology
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am a newly admitted student from India. There are a few questions I have and I hope someone can answer me. My choice of major is Electrical Engineering.</p>

<p>1) Besides IPRO, are there any other opportunities for international students to participate in research? on campus with professors? or off campus somewhere? or maybe internships? And I'm talking about Electrical Engineering students.</p>

<p>2) How are the undergraduate professors with their students? I mean, are the faculty-student relationships at IIT as strong as at a small liberal arts college?</p>

<p>3) How hard is it to double major in an engineering department and a science department like Electrical Engineering and Physics? Does this cost extra money to double major in EE and Physics? (The tuition bears a maximum of 24 credits per semester)</p>

<p>4) I read online reviews regarding IIT. I found a good number of reviews talking about bad Physics professors. Is that true? Or are those review by students who don't study well? I don't know. I'm confused.</p>

<p>5) This is not related to academics. How about the girls? The male to female ratio is insane at IIT. Will it be a problem to find a girl friend? Or will the proximity to Chicago and University of Chicago save the boys? I am not a girl-oholic but these four years are the time to enjoy life, isn't it?</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

2

<p>Let me answer your questions one by one:</p>

<p>1) Yes, lots of students do research with faculty members in the summer and during the academic year as well. I usually have 2 in my lab at any on time. IPRO is NOT research though, it is a team project which is definitely valuable experience but the purpose is not research.</p>

<p>2) We have about 2,600 undergraduate students so the student faculty ratio is quite good on average. In some majors it is easier to forge relationships with faculty because there are fewer students but if you make an effort it is pretty easy. In my department, physics, the students all know the faculty and vice-versa. If a student wants to talk to me it is pretty easy to just walk into my office and start a conversation. The same holds for many other faculty.</p>

<p>3) It is pretty easy to do that but doing a double major in just 4 years may be a bit harder if you are starting without AP credit in hand. Taking 18 credits hours is probably the practical limit per semester as the course load gets very technical in the third and fourth years. The good thing is that if you choose to do it, the financial aid is usually extended to a 5th year with no problem. There are alternative routes, however. The first is the Applied Physics program which gives more or less a double major in physics and engineering. The disadvantage is that it is not an engineering degree in title. The other option is to take one of our co-terminal B.S. M.S. combinations with Engineering as the M.S. and Applied Physics as the B.S. or the opposite.</p>

<p>4) What reviews are you referring to? Remember that the open sites are usually where the more disgruntled students go to complain. The university does course evaluations each semester and the departments and administration take the results very seriously. For physics courses in particular, the majority of students taking physics are engineering majors taking the first two basic physics courses. It is pretty much standard to see poorer survey results in these classes than in the physics major courses. I know that the physics majors are given an exit interview when they graduate and usually they are happy with the quality of faculty.</p>

<p>5) There are about 30% women students at IIT. This is typical for a Tech school in the United States. The number of women has been growing recently and the administration is attempting to increase it further, however, there are inherent limitations due to the types of majors we have. The good news is that we are in the city of Chicago with 2 elevated train lines going through campus so it is easy to hop on the train and go anywhere in the city. Besides University of Chicago, which is not so easy to get to by train, there is the University of Illinois Chicago which has over 20,000 students, Loyola university which is about 10,000 and DePaul University which is the largest Catholic university in the country. Lots of women at those other schools.</p>

3

<p>Thank you very much, sir. I will probably discuss my major with my academic advisor once I arrive on campus. The BS/MS thing definitely sounds good. I can easily change majors before my sophomore year, right? I’m still pretty confused between EE and MechE.</p>

4

<p>Yes, the first year is pretty much the same for all Engineers and it is possible to change majors in the second year without losing time to degree.</p>

5

<p>I’m a senior at IIT, majoring in chemical engineering, and I did a semester of undergraduate research last year.</p>

<p>1) Most professors are willing to take on undergrad students, but some aren’t. Most will take you on for class credit until you’ve proven that you can commit the time and do the work, and then they will pay you if they have the budget for it. If you’re interested in research, just find a few professors who are researching things you’re interested in, and email them asking if they take undergrads.</p>

<p>2) I can only speak for the chem e department, but I can say that our department is a very tight-knit group. All the professors are friends, and get along very well with students and other faculty. All my professors know my name and how I’m doing in the class, even without me going to office hours. </p>

<p>3) You should be able to double major and stay under 24 credits a semester, but you might need to take summer classes. If you have scholarships, they also apply 95% to summer tuition.</p>

<p>4) I am not a Physics major, but I took Physics I and II at IIT. There are some good and some bad professors, but the people ranting about their bad professors are all non-physics majors who just dislike physics. Physics is tough, and most people hate having to take it as a general ed. requirement, so they blame their difficulties on the professor rather than their lack of interest in the material. The professors won’t dumb down the class for the non-physics majors.</p>

<p>5) I am a girl, so my opinion doesn’t directly apply, but I will say that the incoming classes have been a much more even ratio than when I entered 3 years ago. The girls are more normal (slightly less nerdy and antisocial) and there are more of them in general. There are other schools nearby, and all of downtown Chicago, but if you want to meet them you’d be best off joining things off campus, like sports leagues, clubs, classes, etc.
Also, although there are many more guys than girls on campus, it seems like the girls are more involved than the guys, so in the “active” population of campus, its more like a 60-40 ratio, if that makes sense.</p>