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Welcome!

The Graduate Division is here to help you throughout your graduate career, sometimes behind the scenes and sometimes face-to-face. We will assist you — in your search for financial support, in arranging research and teaching appointments, and with academic skills building — from the time you are admitted until you’ve earned your degree. You can find our student services on the third floor in Sproul Hall.

Choosing Berkeley for your graduate career was an important decision for you, and a wise one. No other university can match the breadth and depth of education offered here. That may seem like an overly broad generalization, but I’ve learned how true it is at all levels. The graduate programs here, from the smallest of majors, like Range Management, to the largest departments, like Molecular and Cell Biology, uphold very high standards of excellence.

You, our graduate students, are magnetic, and you play a critical role in the cycle that keeps Berkeley’s excellence a constant. As Professor T. Y. Lee, who earned his Ph.D. here in 1965 and later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, once said, “I came to Berkeley as a graduate student to work with the world’s greatest faculty. I came back to Berkeley as a professor to work with the world’s greatest graduate students.”

I know that you are here because of the reputation of your particular department or program, but myriad other delights on campus are available to you as well. Berkeley is a magical place, and I predict you will fall under its spell as so many other scholars have over the years. Whenever I travel to meetings and universities around the country, and around the world, I meet people who were once graduate students at Berkeley. They always want to reminisce with me. They are keen to know about new degree programs and new research, about new and old faculty members. Berkeley maintains a special hold on them — forever.

So take advantage of the richness of opportunities. Go to lectures in different disciplines. Join a political club or work for a student journal. Attend film festivals, live performances, and art exhibits. Make time for a hiking trip in the Sierras or sailing lessons on the Bay. Get out of the libraries and labs on occasion and go to a graduate student social event. You can thrive with a full, multifaceted life here.

Here is your first assignment as a new graduate student. On a beautiful fall afternoon, take a bus, bike, or walk from campus to the Berkeley Marina. Walk the length of the Berkeley pier, gaze back at the East Bay hills, look across to San Francisco, and then watch the sun set beyond the Golden Gate Bridge. These are going to be some of the best years of your life

Andrew J. Szeri
Dean of the Graduate Division

 

Last Updated: April 13, 2012 3:52 PM