🚀 go-pugleaf

You ask:

       I would very much appreciate, on my and many other prospective
       graduate students' behalf, your comments on graduate software
       engineering programs.  I have been reading brochures from various
       schools, collected various rankings and read a couple books about
       graduate programs in software engineering or computer science. 
       What I am asking for in this message are personal opinions,
       observations and comments.

I believe that this is the wrong mailing list for this message, but I
feel that it is important that I try to respond as best as I can.  Of
course, this is not the official position of my school (MIT), it is my
personal opinion.

I do not think that the way to choose a graduate school is by
abstractly evaluating departments and programs.  Graduate study is
fundamentally different from undergraduate education in that it is
based on apprenticeship rather than on classwork.  Thus, one should
choose a graduate school by finding a master craftsman (professor) who
you would be happy to be apprenticed to (sorry for the split
infinitive).

You must first find out what you would like to work on.  Then you
should do a bit of research on that topic in the library and find out
who are the appropriate masters.  You should read their works and
interview their graduate students (perhaps by phone, but better in
person) to determine which master is most compatible with your a
priori goals AND your personality.  Finally, you should interview the
master directly to determine if you hit it off with him.

Remember, you are about to spend about 5 years apprenticed to that
master.  It is important that you can stand each other -- as a
marriage.  When you find a compatible match you should apply to the
appropriate graduate program.  Of course, you may not get into the
program of your choice (the professor you contacted has less control
of the admissions process than I may have implied and there may be
competing goals of the department that you apply to, but a
well-informed professor can help you estimate your chances of
success).  Thus you may have to cut several such deals for the
contingincies. 

                                Gerald Jay Sussman
                                Professor of Electrical Engineering
                                Massachusetts Institute of Technology.