The goal of our graduate program is to provide our students with the necessary knowledge and skills to achieve successful careers in research in academia and industry. In order to achieve this goal, the Department has endeavored to
· recruit highly qualified students of diverse backgrounds
· provide these students with a diverse curriculum and program structure that encourages both a broad understanding of Computer Science as well as depth of knowledge in their areas of specialization
· provide training, mentoring and guidance for students in the skills needed to teach and conduct research
· provide students with the necessary resources to achieve these goals, including financial support, access to computational facilities, adequate office space and equipment
· provide a supportive, stimulating and diverse intellectual environment
· provide clear and regular assessment of their progress
In this section, we will provide a factual overview of the graduate program, and present the ways in which the Department has attempted to achieve our goal of quality graduate education. Later, we will present an assessment the strengths and weaknesses of the graduate program, and suggest some ideas and possible directions for improvement.
Our graduate program
enrolls roughly 200 full time graduate students. The majority of these students
are Ph.D. students. (The department does not really distinguish between M.S.
and Ph.D. students. Virtually all graduate students are treated as potential
Ph.D. students, even though a number leave with their M.S. degrees.) Over
recent years we graduate on average around 25 M.S. degrees per year and around
18 Ph.D.’s per year.
We receive roughly 500-1000 applications per year. Each year we make around 150 offers of which roughly 30-40% are accepted. We have observed a recent increase in the number of applicants from 400 to more than 1200 over the last four years. This increase is due in part to the fact that the economic downturn makes graduate school more attractive.
We feel that the overall quality of the graduate students is
very high. Applicants who refuse our offer of admission typically go to
stronger departments, such as
|
Summary of Graduate Admissions |
||||||||
|
Year |
Offers |
GRE |
GPA |
Acceptances |
||||
|
Total |
Int’l |
V |
Q |
A |
Total |
Int’l |
||
|
1999 |
-- |
-- |
553 |
781 |
724 |
3.5 |
30 |
19 |
|
2000 |
160 |
109 |
535 |
788 |
730 |
3.6 |
64 |
55 |
|
2001 |
120 |
81 |
543 |
775 |
728 |
3.6 |
38 |
27 |
|
2002 |
127 |
63 |
578 |
775 |
761 |
3.6 |
47 |
30 |
Currently we have 206 full-time and 34 part-time students.
Of these around 15-20% are women, 60-65% are international students. Around
3-5% of our
For students entering with a B.S. degree, the average time
to graduation with an M.S. degree is around 2 to 2.5 years and, the average
time to obtain a Ph.D. ranges from
Students who are admitted with aid are guaranteed funding for two years, but as a practical matter, no full-time student in good standing goes unfunded. Students who are working under advisors in poorly funded areas are usually provided with teaching assistantships to make up for any lack of funding. Among full-time students, roughly 60% are funded a graduate research assistants, 10% are funded (totally or partially) by fellowships, and around 30% are funded as teaching assistants. Graduate stipends are listed below.
|
Graduate Stipends |
|||
|
|
Teaching Assistants |
Research Assistants |
|
|
|
9.5 Month |
9.5 Month |
12 Month |
|
Step I |
$14,522 |
$15,081 |
$21,030 |
|
Step II |
$14,801 |
$15,639 |
$21,809 |
|
Step III |
$15,081 |
$16,198 |
$22,588 |
The vast majority of teaching assistants are paid at the Step I and II
levels. Most work for 9.5 months, but roughly a quarter are employed over the
summer, where they may earn an additional amount per course ranging from $2500
to $3000.
In a study from the University of Pennsylvania on graduate stipends from
2000-2001 at the 20 top computer science departments, Maryland was ranked in
the lowest third. Even though stipend levels have increased marginally over
recent years, our stipend levels have lagged behind many of our peer
departments. In order to make our admission offers more competitive, we have a
practice of distributing our University fellowship funds over many offers in
order to provide “fellowship bonuses” to a number of the stronger applicants. Nonetheless,
given the relatively high cost of housing in the area combined with poor
management of graduate housing on campus, our low stipend levels continue to be
a source of dissatisfaction with our graduate students.
Our graduate program strives to provide students with a breadth of understanding of computer science, while encouraging their early entry into research. We will focus here on discussion of the Ph.D. program, as the requirements for a M.S. (without thesis) is largely a subset of these.
Courses: Courses offered in the department are organized around seven different areas (with some courses overlapping multiple areas).
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Systems
Database Systems
Software Engineering/Programming Languages
Scientific Computing
Algorithms and Computation Theory
Visual and Geometric Computing
Our 400-level courses are primarily senior undergraduate courses, which can also count for graduate credit. They are offered every semester. The intention is that graduate students should take them only to acquire needed background. The 600-700 level courses form the core, long-standing graduate curriculum. They are offered on a rotating basis, each roughly every three or four semesters.
Since computer science is a rapidly changing field, we use 800-level advanced topics courses as a mechanism for introducing new graduate courses into our curriculum. These courses are offered in many forms, including pure seminar structure, pure lecture structure, and various combinations of these. Often these courses are offered multiple times, and may subsequently become part of the permanent curriculum. Some of these courses have been quite successful. For example, CMSC 818L, Network Centric Systems by Prof. Liviu Iftode was featured in the educational column of IEEE Pervasive Computing magazine.
Because of the size and diversity of our faculty, we have been able to offer quite a number of special topics courses on a regular basis. For example, in the three-year period from Fall 2000 to Spring 2003 we offered 35 such courses, or roughly six per semester. By in large, the topics of these courses reflect the research interests of the faculty. There are some areas where we would like to offer more such courses. For example, because of the recent loss of two faculty members in the database area and the need for the remaining database faculty to cover the core database courses, we have not been able to offer as many advanced database courses as we would like.
Ph.D. Qualifying Courses: In order to prepare students for their transition into research, the department has a course-based system for providing students with the necessary breadth of knowledge of computer science. Our requirements have changed very recently. Under the existing system, sometime within their first five semesters, each Ph.D. student must complete a 10-course sequence with two courses in each of five different areas. At least one the two courses in any area must be at the 600 level or higher. Students are required to get an A in at least 7 of the 10 courses and no less than a B in the remaining courses. Courses from other departments may be applied after approval from the graduate director.
Although this system achieved the desired goal of providing breadth, a number of deficiencies have been observed over time. For example, the requirement of taking 10 courses was seen as a burden to students entering the program with stronger backgrounds, since they may have already completed many of these courses at other universities. Further, the grade requirement tended to encourage students to focus exclusively on their course work for up to five semesters, thus delaying their entry to research. It also encouraged students to pad their course selection with 400-level courses in order to get more A’s.
For these reasons, the faculty has recently approved a proposal to amend the Ph.D. qualifying course requirements as follows.
Within the first five semesters, each Ph.D. student shall take 7 graduate courses at the 600 level or higher, spread over at least 5 areas, with no more than 2 courses in any one area. (See Graduate Course Offerings for courses and areas.) Students must obtain at least 5 A’s and no less than a B in the remaining courses. A student may take a 400-level course for background, but this course will not count towards the core course requirements.
To provide depth, students are required to take two additional courses at the 600 level or higher, with the approval of their advisor. They must receive a grade of B or higher. There is no time limit on taking these courses. The courses may be seminar courses including those offered outside of the CS Department.
The new system reduces both the breadth and time requirements somewhat, while encouraging students to focus on graduate-level courses and courses within their area of specialization. There will also be a requirement that new students take a 1-credit course that will introduce them to various approaches and issues that arise in doing research.
Preliminary Exam and Defense: After successfully
completing the qualifying coursework, the next step is the Ph.D. Preliminary
Examination. This is an oral examination to review and appraise a student’s
proposed dissertation research, to test how well the student is prepared for
the research. The student in conjunction with his or her advisor prepares a
dissertation proposal that describes the proposed research, surveys relevant
literature, and includes reading lists for three areas of knowledge related to
the proposal. The preliminary exam consists of a student’s presentation of the
proposal, and an oral examination on the content of the proposal and the student’s
three reading lists. After passing the preliminary exam, the student proceeds
to work on his or her Ph.D. dissertation. The Ph.D. is granted on the
successful completion and oral defense of a Ph.D. dissertation.
Generally, we feel that there are enough faculty members to meet the advising needs and interests of our students. One notable exception is that we have no one in computer architecture, but students can work with affiliate faculty from the ECE department in this area. All new students are assigned an initial advisor when admitted and meet with this advisor prior to starting their course work. Students may remain with this advisor or switch to accommodate their research interests.
The department has not kept complete and detailed records of
placement of our PhD graduates. However, from the incomplete information
currently available to us, we would estimate that our PhD graduates during the
two most recent years (2001, 2002) took positions mostly in academics or
industry (roughly in equal amounts), with a minority accepting research
positions (e.g., ARL, Lincoln Labs, postdoctoral positions). Students
graduating during this period took faculty positions at
Although the department feels that, on the whole, our program does a very good job in preparing students for careers in academia and industry, we continually strive to improve the quality of the program and tune it to the needs of our graduate students.
In order to better gauge the effectiveness of our program, we asked all of the graduate students in the program to participate in a survey. The survey consisted of around 75 questions, including both multiple choice and written responses. A summary of the results of the multiple-choice questions can be found in an appendix. We received 91 responses to the survey. Below, we summarize a number of the findings of this survey.
Courses and Curriculum: Overall there is wide agreement that our
curriculum is very diverse and provides students with valuable knowledge for
their future career goals. Some survey respondents expressed a desire to see
more course offerings in some areas, including computer architecture and
databases. Although the faculty agrees with this assessment, our ability to
offer courses in these areas has been hampered either by a lack of or recent
loss of faculty in these areas. Some respondents also expressed a feeling that
there is too heavy an emphasis on course work, and that alternatives leading
towards research (projects or research papers) should be considered.
The survey respondents generally felt that the current 10-course Ph.D. requirements are reasonable in terms of the number and breadth of courses. There was less agreement about the time and grade requirements. A number of respondents expressed a desire to have fewer courses or to provide students with greater flexibility in choosing the areas of their courses. A number of respondents noted that the need to focus on courses in order to satisfy the grade requirements impeded their entry into research. The faculty has acknowledged this sentiment, and we hope that the new Ph.D. course requirements will address many of these concerns.
Teaching Experience: There were a number of criticisms of the experience
that graduate students gained as teaching assistants. On the positive side,
survey respondents felt that workloads were reasonable, and many felt that
their teaching experience was quite valuable. However, many expressed the
feeling that the Department could do a better job in providing students with
training and guidance in teaching. Although it was felt that some course
supervisors do a very good job in providing guidance and direction to their
teaching assistants, many respondents would like to see much more of this.
There was also sense that a better job could be done in assigning students to
courses based on their particular backgrounds and interests. A number of
respondents commented that they would like to have more opportunities to teach.
There was also some concern about the cramped space used that is currently
being used for TA office hours. (The Department is working on equipping a
larger room for this purpose, which it hopes to have available in the fall.)
Facilities, Travel and Administrative Support: There were widely
expressed concerns among the survey respondents regarding the adequacy of
building and office space. For the most part, graduate students are housed in
large interior offices in the A.V. Williams building. These offices are without
windows and can be quite crowded. A few respondents complained of poor
ventilation and erratic air conditioning in the building.
The general stress on the availability of space for student, staff, and faculty offices has resulted in the recent closure of social space, including our graduate lounge. Currently, the faculty, staff and students share a small common lounge area. This has the regrettable effect of reducing the quality of social interaction among all these constituencies. We also have no good space for group study for graduate students. On the positive side, the recent construction of the adjoining CSIC building has greatly enhanced the quality of our instructional facilities, and provides some additional meeting space for faculty and students.
One of the consequences of the University’s recent budget cuts has been the need to curtail our program of Departmental support for student travel. A number of respondents noted that this has adversely limited their ability to select conferences to which they will submit papers.
Respondents were nearly unanimous in their praise of the efforts of our administrative staff. The general feeling is that our staff works tirelessly, but under great stress. Many respondents acknowledged that being understaffed adversely affects the timeliness with which their requests can be processed. Respondents were also relatively happy with the quality of access to computer equipment and library facilities.
Advising, Guidance and Placement: Overall, the survey respondents
indicated strong satisfaction with their advisor and their research. However,
the quality of training in career skills, including public speaking and writing
research papers, is very much dependent on one’s individual situation and
advisor. A number of respondents expressed a desire to see more institutional
support for this type of training. For example, from time to time, the
Department has offered informal seminars on topics related to job skills. (One
example is a recent seminar by Profs.
We also asked students about evaluation of their progress. Although the vast majority of students proceed smoothly through the system, there are a small number of students who after some number of years in the system have failed to find an advisor and seem to be drifting without direction. Currently we have no system in place for the regular evaluation of student progress. Some respondents commented on the fact that students receive little evaluation of their progress, except when a deadline is about to pass. They also comment that the task of finding an advisor can be quite intimidating, and that it would be nice to have better ways for faculty members to establish connections with students in search of advisors. In recognition of the importance of providing students with regular feedback, the department has formed a committee to study this issue and to provide a recommendation for a system that will check on the progress of students on an annual basis, and provide feedback to students that are in need of guidance.
Climate and Environment: In terms of their course work, research,
advising, survey respondents were generally satisfied with overall quality of
their experience in the department. They felt that the department faculty is
supportive of their needs, and that there is a supportive community of
students. A significantly number of respondents expressed a sentiment that they
wished that they had more time to pursue interests outside their academic
program.
A significant number of survey respondents also expressed concern about the level of funding, especially in its relationship to the cost of housing in the area. There was wide agreement that it is not possible to find adequate housing in safe neighborhoods given current funding levels. Although it is not clear what steps the Department can take to improve matters here, this seems to be an issue of great concern to our graduate students (and probably graduate students of other departments), and providing sufficient financial support so that our graduate students can obtain adequate housing is an important institutional goal for the University.