This post is long and about my BSEE and MSEE experience. After high school I attended college in Santa Rosa then later transferred to UC Davis in 1988. During my MSEE I made my income as a TA and RA while doing debug and repair at local recording studios and a laundry mats. I saved money building my own computers.
In fall of 1986 I started at Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC). Some people called it 13th grade but my applications to Caltech, Berkeley and Davis were denied in spite of my graduating somewhere in the top 5 students in my high-school class at CGHS in 1986. If I got accepted into those schools I don't how I could have afforded it anyway. My parents made enough money to disqualify me from most scholarships but didn't have (or choose) to support me in college outside of a little help here and there. (I covered some 98% of my total college costs by working multiple jobs, getting grants and awards. I admit it was easier back then..) I think going to the Junior College was the right move and wouldn't do it any other way. SRJC offered a Doyle scholarship that was very helpful and easy to get even if your parents claim you on their taxes. The lower-division class sizes at the JC in Engineering, Physics and Math were small compared to those at UC. The small class sizes (12-20 people) allowed you to stop the professor without worrying about what 100 other people would think. When people asked to stop the instructor normally most of the class was also confused. Also, you got to know your classmates well since there weren't too many. SRJC was close to home and my parents generously let me live rent free while going to school during that time. This helped me to work to pay them back for the car loan which was a "high-school graduation present" to me and twin brother who shared (and repaired) that car for the following four years. I used this period of time living at home to save as much money as possible by doing some electronics repair and working a part time security job.
Books, fees and supplies were shockingly high for physics, engineering and math students. We called it the $70 equation fee, the extra charge for adding one or more math equations to a textbook. The bookstore was a shock and cleaned me out of cash a few times. Even engineering paper seemed awfully expensive but I still carry a pad to this day since its so useful. In general I don't think I ever sold any engineering books back. Sometimes they are good to brush and refresh your mind before starting some technical work. (One time after book shopping at UCD my Dad saw my ATM receipt with a $17 balance and called me on it. "Glad I have a full tank of gas!")
Books, fees and supplies were shockingly high for physics, engineering and math students. We called it the $70 equation fee, the extra charge for adding one or more math equations to a textbook. The bookstore was a shock and cleaned me out of cash a few times. Even engineering paper seemed awfully expensive but I still carry a pad to this day since its so useful. In general I don't think I ever sold any engineering books back. Sometimes they are good to brush and refresh your mind before starting some technical work. (One time after book shopping at UCD my Dad saw my ATM receipt with a $17 balance and called me on it. "Glad I have a full tank of gas!")
There is a club at SRJC called TEC "The Engineering Club" and it was a great place to meet people and do homework. TEC also had great parties I know I used some of my "home repaired" amplifiers (see previous post) to DJ an event or two. Along the way at SRJC I discovered that its easier to learn when you are working with and cooperating with your peers. There were some scholarships you could get through TEC. Not everyone was in TEC some students were more independent and also did well. TEC had fun trips to nearby companies where engineers worked. It was a nice glimpse into the work environment and in one case the contacts I made helped me get a job. TEC makes a point of not bothering companies you visit for internships while on the field trip, however that doesn't mean you cant take the initiative to contact people you meet later on. I interned for two summers in 1988-89 at OCLI (now JDSU) working in the MAC Glass Fab unit at first sanding the edges on front-surface mirrors and then later working with the engineering group improving safety and productivity. So TEC at SJRC helped to make the homework easier, added fun and led to some of my earlier engineering experiences.
At SRJC I learned to use an oscilloscope for the first time it was a huge step from just using a volt meter. The scope-expert trainer prof. Herb Sullivan also introduced me to the IEEE. The IEEE is a big help and I'll get to that. Herb told me to seek out the student chapter of the IEEE once I got into a four year college. There was a "transfer" program at SRJC at that time. Assuming I got a certain GPA in a given set of engineering courses I would have a 100% chance of being accepted into the college of Engineering at UC Davis. Davis was not too far from where I grew up and its engineering program was more quaint than UCB. I liked the attention from the cooperative instructors at SRJC and hoped for that at Davis. I met my GPA goal and moved to Davis in 1988 for my junior and senior year. It was tough saying goodbye to my TEC buddies we went in all directions.
Davis had an "Orientation weekend" before the start of the school year that I found very useful. Tim and I drove out there with our car (without AC) during the hot summer. The campus was overwhelming and it was nice to have someone take you on a guided tour. They were ready for us and had engineering profs. available for us and I got a copy of the course catalog. The prof told me how the catalog worked and I was able to get enough information to plan the first quarter. UCD is on a quarter system which has a pace that is pretty fast. Pretty much immediately I got involved with the IEEE at UCD. It wasn't hard there were posters around the engineering building. There were many organizations in addition to the IEEE, SWE, TMS and PACE come to mind. Later I would get into Tau Beta Pi which would lead to career opportunities later on down the line. SWE and IEEE would have get togethers and it was a great place to connect with like minded students. Not everyone was in an engineering club some students were "too busy" or too introverted. In the workplace its hard to work in a bubble, so the interaction with the clubs at UCD was also good for social skills. Also when it came to picking classes it was useful to talk to your new friends. I saw most the same people in my classes. Near the end of the quarter it wasn't uncommon to hear the "What are you taking?" conversations. Also the club people and classmates helped you pick the "better" professors. (This was 1988-1990 and there was no world wide web at the time so I am pretty sure today the clubs may be virtual and have a presence like Stay With It.) Some of the engineering and math courses were tougher than the others and I got my worst grades in statistics. We all are different and consider your grades as feedback as to what you are best at. You don't have to get A's in everything to be a successful engineer later on, but its easier if you play to your strengths.
During my BSEE I pretty much burned up all the cash I had saved while going to the Junior College. I did have some small savings from my grandparents and money saved from my appearance as "Joey" in the Big Valley episode "The Prize" (google it). In spite of that the money situation was still bad and I needed to do get as much electronic work as possible.
During my BSEE I pretty much burned up all the cash I had saved while going to the Junior College. I did have some small savings from my grandparents and money saved from my appearance as "Joey" in the Big Valley episode "The Prize" (google it). In spite of that the money situation was still bad and I needed to do get as much electronic work as possible.
To graduate in 2 years at Davis I had to take elective classes (in my undergrad minor: chemistry) during the summer. I got my best grades in analog and circuits courses but the job opportunities at the BSEE level in that area were scarce. I got the message the BSEE wasn't enough for interesting circuits. To open the door to more interesting job opportunities I applied for and was accepted into the MSEE program in 1990 without taking any break. I was able to get a TA position for a lab class that paid enough for me to barely live on with two roommates I met during undergrad. Money was so tight that I had to find work during the summers while going to school.
With graduate degrees your choice of a project is very important since it will probably define the initial direction of your career. If you work hard doing research on a tough project (selected by your thesis adviser) you can get paid as a Research Assistant (RA). Being a RA helps you to spend less time as a TA or working part-time jobs off campus. If you pick your own project, professors will normally support this but you may not get a jobs as an RA. The most you are officially allowed to work at the time wast 50%. You could do a full-load of classes with as much as a 20hrs/week of work at UCD. Also it was possible to get the department to pay your registration fees but you are required to pay taxes on the gain. That law was passed during the Bush era since "parents normally pay that tax anyway", not in my case I had to find work to pay it.
It was possible to get scholarships and grants if you look carefully. There are opportunities for all students some more or less depending on your ethnic data. I found that the grant proposals that took a bit more writing were the easiest to get. For example you need to give a budget and write a detailed proposal on what you will do with the money. It takes some time and thought but if you hit one it can make a huge difference. Even with my choppy writing style I got one grant and one award.
The graduate students group Solid state circuits research lab (SSCRL) was originally in Bainer hall then later relocated to Kemper where we spent the most time. Arne, Namdar, Ravi, Tom, Tim, Wes, Bret, Jim(s), Mike(s), Chuc, Charles, Daihong, Jun, Ke, Ozan (who could barely out-solder me) and so many more. Sorry if I left you out were all there. My graduate student friends were a big help in me learning analog and the lab was a temporary home base on campus. I think I learned almost as much from the other students then I did the classes. I also made some really good friends and ironically my manager today is a UCD SSCRL grad.
With graduate degrees your choice of a project is very important since it will probably define the initial direction of your career. If you work hard doing research on a tough project (selected by your thesis adviser) you can get paid as a Research Assistant (RA). Being a RA helps you to spend less time as a TA or working part-time jobs off campus. If you pick your own project, professors will normally support this but you may not get a jobs as an RA. The most you are officially allowed to work at the time wast 50%. You could do a full-load of classes with as much as a 20hrs/week of work at UCD. Also it was possible to get the department to pay your registration fees but you are required to pay taxes on the gain. That law was passed during the Bush era since "parents normally pay that tax anyway", not in my case I had to find work to pay it.
It was possible to get scholarships and grants if you look carefully. There are opportunities for all students some more or less depending on your ethnic data. I found that the grant proposals that took a bit more writing were the easiest to get. For example you need to give a budget and write a detailed proposal on what you will do with the money. It takes some time and thought but if you hit one it can make a huge difference. Even with my choppy writing style I got one grant and one award.
The graduate students group Solid state circuits research lab (SSCRL) was originally in Bainer hall then later relocated to Kemper where we spent the most time. Arne, Namdar, Ravi, Tom, Tim, Wes, Bret, Jim(s), Mike(s), Chuc, Charles, Daihong, Jun, Ke, Ozan (who could barely out-solder me) and so many more. Sorry if I left you out were all there. My graduate student friends were a big help in me learning analog and the lab was a temporary home base on campus. I think I learned almost as much from the other students then I did the classes. I also made some really good friends and ironically my manager today is a UCD SSCRL grad.
In 1991 I met Tom Matthews (now CSUS faculty) who was a member of the SSCRL at UCD. After class I was using the bench for some hobby work and Tom is also a electronics hobbyist and he couldn't help but say hello. Tom is an awesome "hands-on" type of analog guy who was a few years ahead of me in graduate school working on his Ph.D. (He was interested in microphones and loud sound systems at the time, other great stories there.) During one of our conversations he told me that he made some money on the side by doing repair for recording studios. It was decent money and Tom thought I would like it. He introduced me to "Dave" at RNP studios in Sacramento who needed some debug and soldering work done. There were many different debugs at RNP most of them involved things that make strange noises. The studio was open during the day and I was only allowed to work at night after 8pm. The goal was to return the studio to "equal or better" functionality by the time you left so the morning shift can use the gear. The jobs were on reel to reel tape decks up to 32 tracks, two common brands of mixing consoles with dozens of sliders, DATs, VCRs, patch bays and studio tough custom XLR cables. I always made a point to clean up the gear and replace any burnt bulbs. Remove you rings before reaching into an open channel on a hot console.
One debug worth mentioning at RNP was the "noisy chair" problem. During a recording session, if the engineer rolled his chair on the platform around the mixing console static would get into "the mix" and was causing the recording engineers headaches. I took on this problem showing up at 8pm with my toolbox. I entered studio a and sat in front of the console. By wheeling around you could make different noises. It seemed correlated to chair motion. The previous tech thought it was something "loose" in the mixing console and was cleaning the sliders etc. but the problem returned and he gave up. Sometimes when I try to solve a problem I "take a walk" around and think. So I was walking around the studio when all of a sudden the noise happened but without the chair. I looked down and saw "the snake". The connection between the power and the mixing console is often called "the snake". Its large, heavy and is one of the reasons the mixing console is raised with the snake passing underneath the platform. The debug tool was "foot". I kicked the snake and nearly blew the speakers. The connection between "the snake" and the power supply was corroded. I powered down the console and pulled the snake off the supply unit and cleaned and lightly sanded the connections, then plugged it back in. The chair no longer made noise and it took me less than 1 hour but they paid me for 2.
During that time we "made" our own desktop PCs. It was too expensive to by a Compac or a store bought machine so we made our own. Thats when I met Rick D. and Ian M. Both of those guys helped me to learn about building and debugging computers. Ian introduced me to a local Laundry mat (Soap City) owner who had a couple of stores in Davis.
The Soap City automated laundry mat was a decent source of income. The store had an automated system that allowed a person to control coin-op 30 or so washing machines and dryers remotely from a central panel. The guy who invented and supported the system died and the store owner was in a tough spot. The receiver units would fail at high temperatures in the dryer and my jobs was to repair those bad units. The problem there was thermal and by punching holes in the receiver boxes you could more than double their life.
At the completion of my MSEE in 1993 I observed that it wouldn't be too hard to make a living just doing mobile debug/repair for businesses. Not may people do "house calls" on electronics these days it seems. I was able to avoid spending all my small savings on my MSEE which would later get completely wiped out when I focused on the Ph.D.
You can make a very good living with an MSEE these days. If you can handle electronics and want the most money in the shortest period of time, go for the MSEE which opens the door to many more interesting and higher paying jobs than the BSEE. The Ph.D. poses a problem that it delays the start of your career which postpones your savings and debt payoff. Also the salary difference between MSEE and Ph.D. is not huge. It takes many years (if ever) to catch up if you do the Ph.D. path. For this reason I stopped work at the studio and handed off the laundry mat work after getting married in 1995. My lovely wife Geraldine was a huge help since she worked at UCD (still does) and had income which made it easier to get by. For hobby electronics I consider 1995-1998 the "dark ages" since I had to focus. I even backed off 90% on the repair business. I discovered "Quicken" and still used it to track my spending.
One general contrast between college and the work force is that professors are just "giving it away". As professionals we don't share trade secrets or internal processes to our competitors. However in college, if you ask a professor a question they will normally give you an answer or lead you to it. College is the time to absorb knowedge in this type of environment. Once you get in the work force there is considerably less time for learning since you are expected meet a tight product schedule.
At the completion of my MSEE in 1993 I observed that it wouldn't be too hard to make a living just doing mobile debug/repair for businesses. Not may people do "house calls" on electronics these days it seems. I was able to avoid spending all my small savings on my MSEE which would later get completely wiped out when I focused on the Ph.D.
You can make a very good living with an MSEE these days. If you can handle electronics and want the most money in the shortest period of time, go for the MSEE which opens the door to many more interesting and higher paying jobs than the BSEE. The Ph.D. poses a problem that it delays the start of your career which postpones your savings and debt payoff. Also the salary difference between MSEE and Ph.D. is not huge. It takes many years (if ever) to catch up if you do the Ph.D. path. For this reason I stopped work at the studio and handed off the laundry mat work after getting married in 1995. My lovely wife Geraldine was a huge help since she worked at UCD (still does) and had income which made it easier to get by. For hobby electronics I consider 1995-1998 the "dark ages" since I had to focus. I even backed off 90% on the repair business. I discovered "Quicken" and still used it to track my spending.
One general contrast between college and the work force is that professors are just "giving it away". As professionals we don't share trade secrets or internal processes to our competitors. However in college, if you ask a professor a question they will normally give you an answer or lead you to it. College is the time to absorb knowedge in this type of environment. Once you get in the work force there is considerably less time for learning since you are expected meet a tight product schedule.
In the next post I will include a section on "getting that first job".
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