I receive many queries from prospective international applicants indicating interest in joining our dept. I am glad that many applicants consider our graduate program, and I would like to thank you for your interest and encourage you to apply. Below, you can find my responses to frequently-asked-questions and some other useful pointers and comments. Please read this FAQ carefully before contacting me with questions regarding admission or financial aid. If you believe that your question/situation is not covered in the following bullets (e.g. if you are not an international applicant), please feel free to contact me.

• If you have general questions about UC-Davis, ECE dept, application process, deadlines, application materials, etc please check out our dept information for graduate applicants at http://www.ece.ucdavis.edu/Grads/admission.html and contact the graduate advisor. I am  not fully aware of the application process details, and my answer might even mislead you!
• If you are about to send me your resume and ask me to comment on the likelihood of your admission and/or financial aid, please don't do so! I realize this may be an important issue for you that might affect the choice of schools that you apply to (or even your decision of whether to apply to grad schools or not), however, there is not much that I can tell you at this stage. You should know that students with strong credentials who are admitted to our graduate program, often have little difficulty finding financial assistance.
• If you are inquiring about the openings in my group, the positions are normally finalized after the application deadline. As a result, you would need to formally apply to our dept by the application deadline, in case you would like to be considered in case of an opening. 
  

If you are still inclined to apply to our dept and would like to join our group, I recommend that

1. formally apply to our dept. Please indicate that you are interested in "computer system design" on your application.
2. Apply early to make sure that your application receives full consideration. 
3. Check with the graduate program coordinator to ensure that all your application documents are received by our dept.
4. Contact me with your resume, when your application package at our dept is complete. I will review your application and will get back to you.
5. I (and many other colleagues) tend to consider only PhD applicants for financial aid. If your degree objective is MS or MS/PhD, it is much less likely that you receive financial assistance. Remember that you need to indicate your final degree objective on the application forms. 

I hope that I have answered your questions. Feel free to contact me if this is not the case.