| 1 | Aug 19, 2009 6:35 PM | need more details about the program and the number of students.
i also think it would be harder for phd students to work on long term projects (like i am) with masters students, when those students will leave in two years. |
| 2 | Aug 20, 2009 5:29 AM | How could I have any idea what affect a Masters program would have?!? It all depends on how it is implemented.
I assume it would make the department/University a ton of money, which is good. But, it could potentially lead to over-filled classes and over-worked/over-subscribed advisers if more faculty weren't hired, too. |
| 3 | Aug 20, 2009 5:29 AM | As though I know what it would do. It depends how it were run and how much we could charge Master's students :). If we milked them for oodles of money, maybe it would be a nice positive effect. |
| 4 | Aug 20, 2009 5:30 AM | More teaching ==> more work for advisors ==> less time for them to spend with their PhD students. |
| 5 | Aug 20, 2009 5:32 AM | One of the reasons that Berkeley was so desirable to me is because it is very much committed to "basic/pure/fundamental" research, in contrast to Stanford or UCLA, which seem to me more corporate and career oriented. |
| 6 | Aug 20, 2009 5:35 AM | One of the reasons I chose to attend berkeley for graduate school is because the small size of incoming class and how everyone is focused on doing research and obtaining a PhD. Thats what have made berkeley really attractive to me in my decision between berkeley and stanford. I would be very very disappointed if the EECS department at berkeley choose to increase class size and offer a master only program. I think its also bad for the department's reputation as well. For instance, people in silicon valley know its not hard to get a master from stanford - 20% chance of being admitted and just need to take enough courses to get a degree. |
| 7 | Aug 20, 2009 5:59 AM | The focus of courses would shift from preparing students for research to preparing students for industry. |
| 8 | Aug 20, 2009 6:19 AM | This is clearly an effort to get more money at the expense of current and future students. Many faculty already do not care about teaching courses, and the situation will only get worse with more students. |
| 9 | Aug 20, 2009 6:26 AM | It would definitely dilute the seriousness of research and the ability to find an advisor, since Masters-only students would want to find an advisor merely for funding themselves for the short-term. |
| 10 | Aug 20, 2009 7:35 AM | Would hurt reputation of program. |
| 11 | Aug 20, 2009 8:29 AM | i dont know enough about the masters program. these questions seem biased. |
| 12 | Aug 20, 2009 1:03 PM | I think the department needs the money. |
| 13 | Aug 20, 2009 3:17 PM | I assume it would be too make money, like Stanford. So students would be admitted without funding, pay $60,000 and then get a masters. I am worried this would impact incoming, committed, PhD students, would they still be guaranteed funding? |
| 14 | Aug 20, 2009 3:23 PM | It would kill class discussions, since discussions often depend on class size and the interest of the students. |
| 15 | Aug 20, 2009 3:57 PM | We would turn into Stanford. |
| 16 | Aug 20, 2009 4:05 PM | No other comments. |
| 17 | Aug 20, 2009 4:18 PM | Competing for my advisor's time with a hoarde of masters students would be a big problem. This is much of the reason why I didn't go to Stanford, and I think this difference between the two schools is vital one. |
| 18 | Aug 20, 2009 4:49 PM | My answers to 1 and 2 were just speculation. |
| 19 | Aug 20, 2009 5:48 PM | I've heard negative things about the environment at Stanford, and I wouldn't want a similar environment here. |
| 20 | Aug 20, 2009 10:28 PM | not having one was a reason to choosing Berkeley over other schools... |
| 21 | Aug 20, 2009 11:44 PM | What is the real value add of this? Most of our advisors don't need more students and I much prefer the smaller classes |
| 22 | Aug 21, 2009 12:43 AM | Assuming it did not negatively impact current students, I would say go for it, since it seems like we need the extra money we could get from it (which I am assuming is the main motivation). |
| 23 | Aug 23, 2009 6:18 AM | worried that class content will change and less professor-grad student interaction |
| 24 | Aug 23, 2009 9:50 PM | Why? |
| 25 | Aug 25, 2009 6:09 AM | Do we have the space / administrative resources? |
| 26 | Aug 25, 2009 9:15 PM | I think it would be great. But there should be a beefing up of administration so that we still have good access. Also, the extra $$$ brought in from the MS students shouldn't be used to backfill existing programs - they should be used to add. Also, more classes will need to be added, not just shoving more people in the same classes. |
| 27 | Aug 25, 2009 9:40 PM | A Master's program would surely impact the academic reputation of Berkeley in a negative way. |
| 28 | Aug 25, 2009 9:47 PM | If there were more masters students / year than Ph.D. students, that would shift the emphasis of the department dramatically. If additional faculty was hired to handle the increased teaching load, and the department continued to expand into the CITRIS building, I don't think it would harm us otherwise. |
| 29 | Aug 25, 2009 9:49 PM | Comparing what I know about Stanford's program, it will probably "dumb down" the curriculum and make classes much more crowded. |
| 30 | Aug 25, 2009 9:51 PM | I am very supportive of this program IF it means we get more classes. |
| 31 | Aug 25, 2009 9:53 PM | We're not Stanford, and we shouldn't aspire to be. |
| 32 | Aug 25, 2009 10:15 PM | Overall I think it would be a win. More students means that more classes will be offered, and it's always nice to have more potential collaborators. |
| 33 | Aug 25, 2009 11:21 PM | Where do we have space for all these students? Cory hall is crowded enough as is. We already have our larger classes in other buildings. |
| 34 | Aug 25, 2009 11:37 PM | I think it is a bad idea. |
| 35 | Aug 25, 2009 11:53 PM | There's barely enough space and resources in the department as-is. Where would masters students go? My office is crowded enough, and we have a hard time finding space to hold meetings! Would we hire more faculty so that class sizes don't increase? My advisor already has a lot of students, I can't imagine how he could possibly manage more students. |
| 36 | Aug 26, 2009 12:09 AM | Maybe a great way to grow the department, but classes have to be well thought of, not to create a mega-sized graduate courses for Ph.D's. |
| 37 | Aug 26, 2009 2:43 AM | Sounds good to me. |
| 38 | Aug 27, 2009 6:17 AM | Degree of consequences would depend a lot on how the program is run, both in terms of revenue generation and impact on professors' time, shared resources, course offerings, etc. It's hard to guess. |