Do I pick a thesis adviser now or will I get assigned one after being admit?

xraymancs
Tue, 11 Aug 2015 04:24:10 +0000

It really depends. If this is a program that expects you to self-fund, then they will probably admit you if you meet their academic criteria. If it is a program that funds its Masters students, then they will judge you competitively and decide who to fund based on the application and fit with the department research. My guess, knowing UIUC as I do is that they put their resources into Ph.D. applicants and Masters students are expected to self-fund what is more or less a professional Masters degree. So making contact with faculty is not particularly important.

it is also likely that you are not necessarily guaranteed a thesis and you will have to convince a faculty member to take you on. I am speaking from my perspective as professor of physics in a research oriented technical university, where we tend to offer assistantships to Ph.D. students and Masters students are overwhelmingly in a professional, course-work only program. This is certainly also the case at UIUC in physics and I expect it to be the same in the ECE program.