<p>Sakky, I don’t want to really list out all the classes, but in BioE more than half of the upper-div classes are cross-registered for graduate level classes so I’ve had to put out journal spec publications.In fact, one such final project was published in a top journal. This may be different in EECS where I do concede it is more exam based, however, my microfab. class had a final paper writeup, IEEE form.</p>
<p>Either way its somewhat of representative of both research fields–EECS is slightly more analytical/quantitative which explains the exams while BioE is slightly more experimental. In a sense, a BioE, can get by with diligence and less aptitude because you can look up PubMed for reference material, say the mechanism of anaerobic metabolism in <insert organism=“”>, or the success rate of gene therapy in african males aged 18-30, or whatever. In EECS, looking at many of the technical papers is not going to help much, unless you really understand the math/physics side of it. If you walk into a research facility for both fields here is what you’ll see:</insert></p>
<p>EECS students will have a lot of textbooks on their desk to help with their work. Papers won’t typically have the full mathematical basis and may only have a snippet or simplified equation form.</p>
<p>BioE’s will typically have tons of papers/journals each documenting highly specific scenarios, often clinical. You typically won’t see textbooks on a BioE’s desk.</p>
<p>Now, with regards to our lab tech. A lab tech getting 2 first author publications in 3 years is actually doing a very good job, especially if they are in amazing journals. To deny that implies you don’t have too much experience in research. More than anything, somebody who takes a lab tech job, clearly shows great commitment to research since he is forgoing higher salaries elsewhere as well as professional programs. He’s not going to be one of those PhD’s that master out. In engineering, I feel that its this commitment that’s more important than intelligence. So by that logic, our labtech should have been admitted elsewhere besides his backdoor institution, Berkeley. For comparison, he got rejected from very low-tier programs. </p>
<p>This backdoor works great at top research institutions like Berkeley or MIT, but what if you go to a lesser known school as an undergrad and maybe even get cozy with faculty there? Its unlikely to help that much for mid-tier or high-tier programs since the faculty there typically only have pull at that institution. And lets not forget those departments like Berkeley ChemE that don’t even allow their own undergrads in the program. </p>
<p>Undergrads getting publications is not as uncommon as you think. Nowadays, I feel that more and more engineers are prepping for graduate school rather than the work environment. From my completely anecdotal evidence of the undergrads who I have done research with over 4 years, I would say that 20% got a publication. This is including students who are kind of just doing the motions in lab, not even expecting a publication, but doing it to get letters of reference. If you want a publication as an undergrad, you can get one, but it will take about 1-2 years for manuscript submission.</p>