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Welcome to the Department

Welcome to the UCSD Computer Science and Engineering Department Department!

The CSE Department has been undergoing significant growth in recent years, and has been attracting a high caliber of students (that's you). There have been some growing pains and things are not perfect, but the general direction is good. At this point, UCSD has one of the best computer science programs in the country and it continues to improve.

Most of the faculty are willing to treat us as colleagues. Many are not far removed from their grad student lives, and can empathize with what we are going through. In a few years, you will be doing active research and publishing papers with one or more of them. Show respect, but don't be intimidated!

This portion of the guide summarizes things you will need to be aware of and adminstrative tasks that you will need to complete within your first week or two here at UCSD. It also tries to provide you with some useful information. This Wiki is in general most useful to new students, so poke around.

Basic Information You Will Need

Other Valuable Info

Getting Help

During the first few weeks on campus, you may get a little lost in your new environment. Don't worry! We all did! Just remember that there are a lot of people and resources in CSE and on campus to help you through. I'll mention a few here just to get you going:

  • FacultyAdvisors - The faculty members of GradCom know what is and is not official policy. Or if they don't, they can find out (or make that policy). For more information about the faculty and their research areas, please see the department brochure and section on meeting the faculty.

  • JulieConner (conner@cs) - in the Student Affairs Office. Basically, see Julie if you have any questions - especially concerning "official" academic or department matters. Julie's word is not official, but she will know what to do and who to ask.

  • CSEGSA - The CSEGSA is the Computer Science and Engineering Graduate Students Association. They do everything that involves communication with faculty and staff about graduate concerns. You can visit their webpage at http://cse-gsa.ucsd.edu or contact them via e-mail (coordinators@cs).

  • Other grads - Heck, if you need the answer to something, just ask someone in the halls. You won't be guaranteed a correct answer, but you'll meet someone new.
  • CseHelp (csehelp@cs) - Handles all the computer support (general questions, software questions, hardware questions, and operations questions) for the department.

  • OGS - Office of Graduate Studies, the organization responsible for some of the university's over-arching cross-program oversight. You'll have to run down there off and on to deal with paperwork. They can also answer the weirder questions you may have.

  • TritonLink - Where you sign up/change classes. Also gives other information related to your status as a student, and a searchable index of courses this quarter.

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