Michelle Rigel
Graduate student in electrical engineering
Why did you choose UT Dallas?
Mainly because of its reputation, but I also work for Raytheon, which has a strong relationship with the university. The school’s also very convenient for me.
What are you studying?
Digital design. At work I do FPGA (field-programmable gate array) design, which falls under the umbrella of digital design. Whenever there’s a chance in my graduate work to steer toward that area, I take it.
What do you like about studying here?
The flexibility. I work full-time and have three kids, so flexibility’s really important. Generally the classes meet twice a week rather than three times, so that minimizes the number of times I have to drive to campus. That means my time away from family and work is spent more effectively on campus rather than driving back and forth.
What do you hope to do after graduation?
Continue working at Raytheon. I really enjoy the work I’m doing, and I decided to go to grad school so I could understand more about the work I do and make a bigger impact.
What’s been hardest so far?
Trying to balance everything. I’m going to school with a lot of full-time students, and it’s hard to compete with them. School can’t be my top priority. It’s hard to figure out sometimes where to draw the lines between family and school and work.
What’s been the most fun?
Interacting with the professors as a professional. What I’ve been impressed with is that they treat me as a peer. It’s like working with a colleague. I learn a lot from them and feel that they learn from me sometimes as well. I also love how much my schoolwork ties into my real work. As an undergrad it’s kind of abstract — you don’t really understand how things apply to the real world. But now that I’m in the real world, I feel I’m understanding things on a much deeper level.
