More usefully, Penn has an off-campus housing website only open to Penn people which includes a roommate profile/search system: this is how I found my roommate my first year. This website has some apartment listings from landlords, but those are the kinds of things you can also find on zillow, so it’s mostly useful to find openings in existing student groups that already have a place, and people looking to form groups to find a place.
There are also various facebook groups, such as University of Pennsylvania (PENN) Housing, Sublets & Roommates and University City Off Campus Housing (Upenn, Drexel, U Sciences), which can help you connect with other students to find housing groups. I’d recommend everyone look at look at zillow.com and apartments.com listings semi-regularly, and join those facebook groups, starting at least 3 months before your planned move-in, to get a sense of the market, figure out what you’re looking for, and train yourself to recognize a reasonable deal when you see one. Listings from landlords mostly appear about a month before their desired lease start date, though some are up to 2 months before. Earlier than 2 months in advance, landlords will mostly be trying to fill spaces sooner than you want to move in, but existing roommate groups often try to fill existing spots way before then so they can figure out if they want to renew their leases. So if you’re looking to find or form a roommate group, start looking literally as soon as possible. If you (as a group or individual) are looking to interact with landlords, I’d recommend having a strong sense of what you want and being ready to monitor and jump on new listings by 2 months in advance, though it’s not the end of the world if you’re a few weeks later than that.
Many large landlord companies have their own websites and contacts. Their openings may appear more quickly on their own websites than on 3rd-party websites like zillow. Pro-tip: contact large landlord companies directly to describe what you’re looking for (lowballing your budget very slightly), and their agents have every incentive to show you things as soon as they become available.
Penn is in the easternmost part of West Philly (which refers to west of the Schuylkill River). The immediate surroundings of Penn and Drexel are a neighborhood called “University City”: this is one of many neighborhoods within West Philly. Right next to campus are some super expensive fancy buildings which I think are mainly full of rich undergrads and maybe like MBA students. A bit farther from campus is some much cheaper housing, including apartments and group houses. The further west you go, the cheaper it gets. Just east of the river is Center City: sub-neighborhoods near campus include Logan Square a bit to the north, Rittenhouse Square and Fitler Square just across the river from campus, and Graduate Hospital a bit to the south (south of South Street, which has a bridge going right to campus). Grad Hospital is a bit cheaper than the rest of Center City, especially the further south you go: some consider it the boundary between Center City and South Philly, and it’s where apartment buildings (towards the north) start transitioning into group houses (towards the south).
Get a SEPTA keycard and look at the bus, train, and trolley routes near where you plan to live. If you’re physically in the Bi-Co while you’re looking (which I wasn’t because my first housing search was summer 2020), go into the city and walk around various neighborhoods, explore the transit options, etc.
Most grad students do not have or need cars. Car maintenance is expensive, as is parking in the city. Grad students who do have cars mostly live significantly further west in West Philly, because it’s less dense so the parking is cheaper, and because the cheaper rent helps with car expenses.
]]>Wondering what classes to take in your first year? Here are some quick recommendations (and an overview of the CIS PhD course requirements). Scroll down for the TLDR.
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Note: Course codes changed from three digits to four digits (ie: Software Foundations used to by CIS 500 but is not CIS 5000) in spring of 2022. If you see any course codes with only three digits, just add a zero at the end.
In general, CIS PhD students need to take eight courses: four WPE-Is and four seminars. A WPE-I, or Written Preliminary Exam One, is basically a “core” course or breadth requirement. If you’ve heard of them, it’s basically our department’s version of qualifiers or qualifying exams.
You can choose four WPE-Is out of a list of eight, and these eight choices are split into two buckets: foundations and systems.
Another note: People often refer to courses by their number, and the change to the four-digit course code system is very recent, so you may hear people talk about “five hundred” rather than “five thousand” or “Software Foundations.”
You need to pass at least one from each bucket, and systems WPE-Is must be passed by achieving the appropriate course grade—you must take the class (and do the homework). Some foundations classes allow you to pass the WPE-I by taking the class or passing the final exam. Official passing thresholds are posted on Piazza at the beginning of every semester.
If you’d like to attempt the WPE-I exam without taking the class, wait for Britton to send the sign-up form at the end of the semester that it’s offered, usually a week before finals week. If you “exam out” of a WPE-I, you do not need to take another class in its place. If you really wanted to, you could theoretically exam out of three foundations WPE-Is and just take one systems class.
The four seminars can be any graduate-level seminar in the University. Yes, any of them. In general, this means any class with the course code 500 and above. Research credits, like 899, don’t count. If you have a masters, you should be able to get two of these courses waived.
When in doubt (or just in case), ask Mayur Naik (Graduate Group Chair) or Britton Carnevali (CIS Academic Coordinator)!
The PhD course requirements are basically a masters—and if you fulfill the course requirements for the MSE in CIS, you can receive a masters while working on your PhD. It’s actually not that hard to align your courses!
The MSE requires ten courses, and seven of them must be CIS courses. These seven courses include four core courses (taking four WPE-I courses, not examming out, will cover these) and three CIS elective courses (any CIS course numbered 5XXX to 7XXX, and at most one 7000 topics course). The remaining three courses can be any CIS 5XXX-8XXX or approved non-CIS course (you can take another CIS 7000 topics course for this category). You can also petition to have an unlisted course approved. You can even use two independent study credits as electives with advisor approval!
Contact Swapneel Sheth (Director and Program Chair of the CIS/MSE program) at [email protected] and Redian Furxhiu (CIS/MSE Program Coordinator) at [email protected] with questions or course approval requests.
TLDR
Just plan your seminar classes well and you can get the masters without much extra trouble.
If you’re worried about the timing of some of these milestones, talk with your advisor or the Graduate Group Chair! The department is willing to work with you and has made adjustments for other students in the past. You can do it!
In your first semester, take 1 WPE-I, 1 graduate-level seminar, and 1 independent study. Depending on your previous experience, you may be ready to take more classes or get involved more heavily in research. Be sure to discuss your plans with your advisor.
Modified on June 14, 2022, to reflect course code changes from three digits to four digits (ie: 7000 instead of 700), advisor approval for counting CIS 8990, contact informaton for CIS/MSE, and Piazza post for seminar courses.
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The Office Committee (which @Harry Goldstein @Stephen Mell and I are on) is working very hard to assign desks to everyone who wants one! It’s a big challenge because we have limited space and lots of demands we are trying to fulfill. We will provide more information as soon as possible (we’re working on a web page too). Feel free to ask your labmates, PM us, or email [email protected].
If you have access to email already, you may have seen some emails about TGIF! That’s our department happy hour, organized by our wonderful TGIF committee (which is led by Jessica Shi and Joe Cutler). Come by for free drinks and food!
Update 18 Oct 2023: The department is modifying the PhD requirements, so this section is outdated.
In general, I would recommend 1 WPE-I, 1 elective/seminar, and 1 independent study. WPE-Is are basically qualifiers/“core” courses. You’ll need to take 4 out of a list of 8, with some possible exceptions that I don’t want to overwhelm this post with. You’ll need to take 4 additional courses—these can be any graduate-level course in the entire university! If you have a masters, you should be able to waive 2 of these additional courses. Depending on your previous experience, you may or may not be ready to dive into research. I certainly wasn’t! I did minimal research in my first year and half. Ask your advisor about their expectations and recommendations.
An independent study is basically just a research credit on your transcript. Britton can help you register for independent study sections for the professor you are working with. Independent studies are great opportunities to see what it’s like working with different professors before officially declaring an advisor in your second year. I suggest starting with an independent study with your current unofficial advisor and trying another with a different professor in a similar area in the spring. Independent studies are student-driven, so you should reach out to professors rather than waiting for someone to reach out to you (this is our department’s version of a lab rotation).
Penn is located between 30th and 40th (ish?) streets along Walnut street, west of the Schulkyll (“skoo-kull”) River. Major CIS buildings are clustered around 33rd and 34th streets. Housing tends to be cheaper as you go further west (street numbers get bigger as you go west, so 40th is wester than 34th). As you go east of campus and cross the Schulkyll River, you’ll hit a neighborhood called Center City. Center City and east Philadelphia tends to be more upscale (and expensive). If you keep going east all the way to “0th” Street, you’ll hit the Penn’s Landing neighborhood and the Delaware River. Philly is easily walkable and has pretty good buses! You can expect to spend about $1200 +/- 200 a month on rent if you want to live alone (current students, feel free to add your thoughts). Some neighborhoods you might want to start with for your housing search: West Philly, Rittenhouse Square, Fitler Square, Graduate Hospital.
Our stipend right now is $35k/year, with monthly payments of about $2.8k. The stipend is increasing to $38k/year in the fall, so monthly payments will be slightly higher! First year stipends are split across 13 months instead of 12, so you’ll receive your first paycheck in August to help with relocation. Health insurance (including dental, a routine eye exam, and an allowance for glasses/contact lenses) is paid for by the department/university. Housing isn’t too bad—I think most people spend between $1000 and $1400 a month on rent. SEPTA (public transit) fare is $2.50 per ride ($2 with a SEPTA Key Card).
A woodchuck would chuck all the wood it could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
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