Orientation

Today was the College of Engineering Open House. I've been pretty excited about it, not really because I have too many questions about grad school, but because I've been wanting to get out and meet some of my fellow grad students. I have to admit that UMich is a pretty big school, since the new engineering grad students alone filled up the entire auditorium that we were in. There were also tons of international students, especially from China and India, but I guess I should have expected that.

I got the impression that all the grad students there were really stressed out, even though classes haven't even started. During various Q&A sessions, everyone kept asking about how to find funding, how to find an advisor, how to get an internship, how much time to spend in lab on research, how many classes to take... The whole thing was starting to worry me until my housemate Jin asked a grad student panel the only nonacademic question of the day: What do you guys do for fun around here? The whole panel answered the question one by one, and at least half of them told us about their favorite bar. I guess I should have expected that as well.

All in all, the day was pretty fun. I met most of the new grad students in my department, and they all seem pretty cool. Now I just have to meet with my advisors, but they're both out until classes start next week...