Finding and Choosing an Advisor is of crucial importance to your journey toward your degree at NSE. Personalities and personal mentoring aside, your selection will put you on a road toward an area of specialization within NSE. Once that path has been set, the majority of students will continue down that road to their degree. Moreover, if you are not funding your own education, then the research in which you will be engaged will need to have sponsorship (financial resources).
Obviously there is no right or wrong way of approaching a professor about research projects. Most commonly in our department this is done in person. Here is a couple of suggestions as of what could better prepare you before approaching your professor of interest and potentially help you establish yourself as a strong candidate for the position you are interested in:
- Research about the professors/groups you are interested in:
- Check out the professors' websites at MIT's NSE: keep in mind some of them might be out of date, and not all professor listed on it is actively accepting students.
- Research about the professors' recent publications to get an idea of the projects he/she has. Two sites I like to start for searching for publications are:
- Engineering Village/Compendex: Engineering Village (requires MIT certificate)
- Web of Science: Web of Science (requires MIT certificate)
- Ask the graduate students that work in the group. Your Buddy should be able to help you find someone who can help.
- Email the professor of interest and politely ask whether he/she can meet briefly to discuss whether he/she has new opening and/or funding available.
- Decide on a group/project. You should definitely decide by the end of first year.