Advice for UIC Master’s Students
Welcome to UIC! Below I offer my own personal (not official UIC policy, just my experience) advice.
If I have been assigned to be your "Temporary Course Advisor" after admission to UIC:
1) first, carefully look at the ECE MS Student website which should answer most of your questions. If not,
2) note there are 2 different types of Master's -- with or without thesis. The majority of students go for a course-only (no thesis) Master's degree. I only encourage you to go for the thesis option if you are genuinely interested in research, want to figure out if research is for you, are potentially interested in a Ph.D. program, or have a particular reason for wanting to work on and write a whole thesis. Doing a Master's with thesis involves you finding a thesis advisor (a [[https://ece.uic.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty/][UIC ECE faculty member]). If I am your temporary course advisor I am not automatically your thesis advisor.
3) once you understand the number of 400-level and 500 level courses you need to take, and from which departments, take a look at the courses offered by the UIC ECE department here.
4) Make a plan for the courses you would like to take during your Master's degree. Most Master's students take 3 courses per semester (sometimes 2 or 4, depending on available time/effort). When planning out which courses you will take when, note that at the 400 and 500 level, not every course is offered every semester, so you need to take a careful look at the expected semester each course if offered (generally always Fall or always Spring, or sometimes every 2 years). This can again be found in the "Course Schedule" link here. The UIC ECE Master's program does not have pre-determined specializations but does have optional tracks which can guide you. Each student can compose their own set of courses. I encourage you to either go broad (sampling a wide variety of topics), or to go deep (make your own focus and try to take courses related to that focus). Pick things you are interested in!
5) Email me your course plan and any further questions you may have. I am happy to help.