Graduate classes during undergrad?

[Same-same]

tl;dr version: EE senior, wants to take grad course next semester, is there a standard way to do this?

Detailed version:
I'm an Electrical Engineering major at a state university, and just obtained senior standing. For next semester, I'm interested in taking the graduate version of a class (digital signal processing) instead of the undergrad version.This makes sense for a variety of reasons, including my interests, the quality of instruction, and the quality of the curriculum.

However, I can't find any information about how to do this on my school's website. I was planning on asking my adviser, but I wanted to make sure there wasn't some unwritten rule or standard protocol I should know first. How would you guys go about this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jasonRF]

tl;dr version:
However, I can't find any information about how to do this on my school's website. I was planning on asking my adviser, but I wanted to make sure there wasn't some unwritten rule or standard protocol I should know first. How would you guys go about this?

Asking your advisor is exactly the right thing to do. There should be no unwritten rule about asking questions like this. Also, your advisor will likely have a better handle on what that grad course really assumes you know beyond the official prerequisites (in EE grad school I took a number of courses that assumed you had take complex analysis, or graduate electrodynamics, etc., without explicitly stating so).

good luck,

jason

 

[johnqwertyful]

I am a math undergraduate who took a full year of graduate real analysis and I strongly encourage you to do it! It's been a TON of fun, one of the highlights of my school so far. Doing well in undergrad classes or doing research shows that you are capable of doing grad school. Taking graduate classes shows that you DID grad school.

In a weird way, grad classes are a ton less stressful than undergrad. The way it works is "do the work, get at least a B". In my classes it was average or above was A. Below average was B. They're a lot less stressful in that sense. Of course they're more demanding. The second quarter I had an awesome professor. He was really fun and I learned a ton, but I easily spent 20 hours a week on the homework. There was one week where I swear I spent 30-35 hours. He was an extreme though. But be prepared for that.

And for me? I didn't ask anyone. I just signed up like I would any other class. No permission from instructor. No waiver. I signed up like I would any other class.

I encourage you to do it. It's a lot of fun, looks great, and opens you up to a whole new world.