Graduate Assistantships are precious commodities. For this reason -- except in the most extraordinary circumstance -- graduate assistantships are never given to incoming new students. Those that are are decided by committee before the admissions letters are sent. If you are not among the chosen and still do enroll at Rutgers, you must first take a course with one of the WINLAB professors. AFTER completing a course successfully (preferably with a grade of B+ or A), we can begin to explore possible project topic
During your first term you should, IN ADDITION TO YOUR
COURSEWORK,
start attending WINLAB seminars to get a flavor for what sorts of
problems
exist. You should also start attending one of the
weekly
topical meetings (for the best info see current WINLAB graduate
students).
WINLAB faculty will be glad to meet with you to discuss generalities,
but
it is REALLY best if you simply start showing up regularly to the group
meetings so we can get to know you in a technical setting. In
fact,
I would go so far
as to say that before contacting a WINLAB Professor for a
personal
meeting, you should have already attended a number
of group meetings
By your second term you should have a strong feeling for what you like and don't like and we should have a strong impression of your ability. At that point we can begin thinking about likely projects and possibly about GA status for the next year.