FAQs

Ask SWE Grad A Question! This is where you'll find answers to some common questions asked to the SWE Graduate Community through Social Media (including this blog). Do you have a question? Ask us at grad-coordinator@swe.org!

1. How can I become a SWE member?

​SWE membership is very easy! As a student, you can purchase a 1 year collegiate membership for $20. However, you can also buy a C2C (collegiate to career) membership for $50 which will cover all of your years in school (for example, this could include undergrad + all Masters/PhD years) plus an additional year of your first "professional" year (non-student). If you are planning to be a SWE member for more than one year, we highly recommend the C2C membership. Professional member is $100/year, so the C2C will save you money. If you need more help, check out this informational link: https://support.swe.org/support/solutions/articles/35000070236-join-reinstate-instructions. If you are unable to follow the instructions in the link or encounter other issues, e-mail membership@swe.org and HQ can help you with any additional issues you have while signing up.

If you have interest in the graduate community specifically, sign up for our biweekly newsletter here.



2. How did you finance your travel to previous SWE Annual Conferences?

• Funding could be grated through the Academic Leadership for Women in Engineering (ALWE) program.  Click here for more info.
• I have been fortunate enough to have my travel sponsored by my collegiate sections -- both at Purdue and at UT-Austin. Additionally, I was a poster competition finalist last year and received a decent travel stipend and free registration, including a ticket to Celebrate SWE! I also won award money because I placed 3rd.
• I would suggest asking your advisor for at least partial funding. Then I would approach your department, the college or school or Engineering, then the graduate college. If you are smart about it the SWE conference is not that expensive, share a room, volunteer (to get a discount on registration) and sign up for every free meal you can. If you can get someone to pick up the plane ticket you are doing really well.
• At University of Michigan, we work with our Office of Graduate Education to recruit people for grad school at the conference. They pay for our travel expenses and in exchange, we each put in a few hours at the booth at the career fair. Priority on who gets to go is speakers, then people who applied but were denied, then officers, then general members. It has really improved the number of UM women who speak each year.
• I'm planning to finance by myself my first attendance at the SWE Annual Conference.
• The Conference Planning Committee has volunteer slots. By being a volunteer, you can cut the registration cost down. Keep a lookout for these announcements from SWE HQ!
• As we get closer to conference, the SWE Graduate Community will help members find people to share hotel rooms with to help cut down costs.
• Be sure to ask around at your university. Many graduate schools have small stipends to help support graduate student travel to conferences. Additionally, Women in Engineering or Diversity Programs may be able to support you.
• If you are a section or region leader, there are usually discounts and support for your travel. In general, you should talk to your region to see if they are able to support you.
• If you participate in the Collegiate Leadership Institute there tend to be discounts and support for travel.
• If you are doing research for a company, you may be able to ask them to support your travel, especially if you are able to talk about the research through a poster or Lightning Talk.