Welcome New students to UCLA!!

 

The reason I had to put up this web-page was simply because I was over whelmed by the number of emails you guys had been sending me.

Here are some tips and answers

v      Does A Professor have funds?

The Best way to ascertain if a professor has funds or not is to go thru his project list. If he/she has a lot of projects, he/she probably might have funds to support you. You could check recent publications from his/her group to see if they are DARPA/Naval Dept sponsored. If worst comes to worst email his students. (this should be the last ditch effort, no one likes SPAM)

 

v      Your Professor does not reply to your e-mails

Professor are usually very busy, there are hundreds of students like you, who want to know if he can support them. When you write to him, try being unconventional.  A friend on mine, used to write really down to earth Sub lines like: “Yet another Graduate Student seeking Your opinion” and invariably he used to get responses.  Try mentioning your strongest points in the first few lines, which he actually might read, once you lose him--à here comes the “Del” key and your mail is trashed. Don’t SPAM him, you might lose all chances of financial aid, instead be persuasive and patient.

 

v      You don’t have aid and want to know the expense of living in LA

LA is expensive and please don’t have any doubts about that. IF you are really good, you might get a TA/RA once you come to UCLA, esp. by the end of the first quarter, but then there is a BIG “IF”.  How much would the expense be? Read thru this link and it will give you a rough idea.

 

v      You have aid and want to know when and where to come

Again I would direct you to the link above, though this link is from the Indian Graduate Student’s web-site, a lot of things pertain to every graduate student at UCLA.

 

v      You want to know what courses to take (believe me, one of the new students even asked me this!!)

UCLA is a wonderful place, take my word. The weather in LA is fabulous and the campus is really nice and clean, So relax… you don’t have to kill your self in tension already. Come and enjoy the place, learn all the languages, try out the dance classes and use all the facilities in the campus. This is a once in a life time opportunity, and you wouldn’t like to miss it!!!

 

Buena Suerte! ( that is Good luck in Spanish)

                    Adiós

Mayank Gupta

 

PS: Before you send a mail to any one, asking him stuff, Just remember, that there are 3billion pages on Google search and the answers you are looking for  are out there. Don’t make someone else do your job... E-mail should be the last resort.

  

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