REGGIE >> Hello everyone this is future PhD Dr. E and I'm with Jule Schatz.
JULE >> Hi everyone I'm
Jule Schatz. I'm a second year PhD student studying computer science.
REGGIE >> And today is a special collaboration video since admission decisions have already
came a lot of you are probably choosing what schools you want to choose and this
video will kind of give you some light about why we chose the University of
Michigan for grad school. Hopefully this be useful for your own decisions.
So, Jule, what was one of the reasons why you chose the University of Michigan.
JULE >> Um, a lot of the main reasons was because of advisor fit.
So I really like my advisor I knew him from undergrad.
And I liked his mentoring style a lot. He's very relaxed and chill he's
an older professor so he kind of lets you do your own thing but then still
helps you when you need it which I liked.
REGGIE >> I want to ask you a follow-up question. What kind
of student and what kind of work style do you have?
JULE >> What kind of student am I you mean?
REGGIE >> Yeah, like how do you work? Do you prefer less hands-on, are you
more motivated or do you like help?
JULE >> So I've kind of discovered this through the first two years of grad school so
it's not something I knew coming into
grad school but I like having weekly goals and kind of setting those together
with my advisor. I feel like that helps me, I can stay on track and feel productive but
then besides for that I also like having the flexibility of being able to like have a
personal life and work life balance and be able to separate those, so having an
advisor that lets me do that has been really nice.
REGGIE >> Cool, cool. As for me, my advisor is a relatively young professor.
This is his sixth or seventh of the year in academia
and I wanted a younger advisor because it provides more attention, a lot of
older advisors they're more established so they may be less focused
on students and a younger advisor is more interested in your success because
your success is also there success too. JULE >> Yeah, that's a good point
REGGIE >> In terms of my work style, I like scaffolding in the sense that I want to
know what my goals should be but how to reach those goals should be up to me
like for example if you think about undergrad and high school,
the goal would be to fill the assignment and then you get to use whatever like
formula or like style you want to use to actually get the answer.
JULE >> Cool were there
any more like personal reasons that you decided to come to Michigan?
REGGIE >> Um, one of
the personal reasons I chose is grad school and your 20s in general should be
a time to push yourself and find yourself.
A lot of people like comforts of familiar things which is great but for
me I want to push myself the furthest I could go. I follow the philosophy to do
things people can't. You have to do things people won't.
And I think University of Michigan has pushed me in ways I never thought I
needed or could be pushed. I'm very appreciative of that.
What about you?
JULE >> Yeah so I chose Michigan for kind of the opposite reason because
for me Michigan was the more comfortable choice. So I actually went here for
undergrad so I know a lot of people in the area, I know the town pretty well and
I have family nearby. So that was one of the reasons I chose
Michigan was because it would be kind of an easier transition in terms of friends
and social aspects and so I wanted to challenge myself mentally with like the
work and the research but not so much with like the social aspect.
REGGIE > Okay so can you talk about any of the advantages Michigan has over other universities?
JULE >> Um well one thing I really liked about U of M which is kind of a
silly reason but I really like the computer science building. Um it's really
new, it has a lot of windows, a lot of glass. There's this really cool spiral
staircase in the middle of it. And the office spaces for the grad students are
really nice. They have lots of windows, lots of space, big desks and that was actually pretty
different at the other universities, so that was one thing that Michigan had
that I really liked.
REGGIE >> I definitely agree with you. For some reason Michigan does a
lot of focus into the aesthetic of the buildings. Um I work at NCRC for those
who don't know that's the North Campus Research Complex and they used to be a
former Pfizer building but one thing I like about it NCRC is it feels like a
work building so you feel inspired to work which is a minor thing but a
very big thing and I like how my office is actually a full size office.
A lot of schools I visited the offices were basically super small and super cramped
and sometimes it'd be four or five grad students in one office. In my office
there's like two of us so there's like a lot of space we can like really think
about things because in grad school you think about a lot of things.
Um, what are your thoughts about University of Michigan stipend and student housing?
JULE >> Yeah so I really love Ann Arbor I think its a great size city. It's big enough
where there's always like people walking around there's things do, lots of people
to meet, but it's small enough I don't feel lost or super exhausted from
walking around all day or things like that and with the budget or with the
stipend, it's super easy to live in Ann Arbor I think, I have a pretty great
quality of life I would say. I eat good food, I live in a nice place. I think it's
a great amount of money for the town. Do you have a similar experience?
REGGIE >> um definitely about the stipend. What I like about the University of Michigan is engineering
students in general get top dollar which is around $30,000 even without
fellowship and with that money Ann Arbor is very survivable with that budget. I
lived on my own for three years and my rent was around a thousand dollars which
you really can't say about other cities with top institutions. I'm from LA so I feel Ann Arbor
is small but, the city I mean, but I really think it's cool but there's a lot
of nature retreats and a lot of things to do like in nature that's pretty close.
There's a bunch of parks, there's a bunch of rivers and streams, there's a lot of running trails, so I kind of like
that because like as the city kid, you are so focused on like the urban environment and
Ann Arbor has a lot of people who pursue more natural interests.
So Jule, do you drive to North Campus?
JULE >> No, so I do not have a car, I take the city bus
which is free for students which is really nice. So from where I live it's
about like a seven ten minute bus ride and then maybe a five minute walk. That's
a pretty easy commute. I know parking can be kind of difficult
on North Campus, so it's kind of nice not having a car. How about you do you
drive to work?
REGGIE >> I do drive because I live in Ypsilanti which for those
who don't know it's a city adjacent to Ann Arbor. Housing is usually cheaper
and but one thing I do like about Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan is it's
pretty bus-able to get downtown and the buses are completely free for
students and I know a lot of people like live around the school so they just bus to
they will bus to school, they bus to work like buses are really efficient and
school buses come in like every 5-10 minutes which is really great because if
you live in the West Coast like the busing system is horrible. Alright, I think this was
a good session so we'll be signing out and thank you for watching.
This is future PhD Dr. E and Jule Schatz signing out. Bye-bye all!