<p>Hi, I have been a long time viewer of this forum and finally decided to ask for help.
I go to a California State college, and thus they offer almost no research and do not have phd programs. Its basically a teaching institution. They do give terminal Masters in EE.</p>
<p>I am a sophomore studying undergrad Electrical Engineering and so far I have a 3.7 Gpa and 3.8 major GPA. I plan on taking the GRE next chance I get.
I have no research or anything, as its hard to get at my school and I'm pretty tied up during summers (work). I'm searching desperately for research anywhere.</p>
<p>I want to go to a phD program in California, perhaps UC Riverside/Irvine/Santa Barbara...</p>
<p>I can easily get into the Masters EE program here at Cal State right after I graduate. If my GPA and GRE are decent, and if I stay at my undergrad unveristy and get a masters...how hard is it for me to do Electrical Engineering phD at UC Riverside or UC Santa Barbara. </p>
<p>Your GPA is fine, but the research is a big deal. Quality research is really the prime factor in getting into a PhD program - if you have none, everything else better be great. There are several programs designed for letting students at small schools spend part of the summer at a larger school doing paid research (REU, in particular), and without local opportunities I would say that this is your only likely chance at undergrad research.</p>
<p>Here are the options I see:</p>
<p>(1) No undergrad research, but do a research-based masters. Your grad gpa will effectively supercede your undergrad, but the bigger factor will be your research - how many pubs and how good they were. Good prep for PhD programs, but you may be paying your way through the masters.</p>
<p>(2) No undergrad research, and do a non-research masters. Again, your grad gpa supercedes your undergrad, and you still have no research. Not very good prep, and you may not have significantly reduced your PhD courseload. And you are almost certainly paying out of pocket for this. This is usually a course of action for those with a mediocre undergrad gpa.</p>
<p>(3) No undergrad research, straight to PhD. Tough, but doable. As I mentioned before, everything else better be stellar to make up for a lack of research experience.</p>
<p>(4) Skip a summer of work and do some undergrad research, preferably something you can continue picking at over the school year and get published somewhere worthwhile. Pricey (you are missing a summer of work) but probably a good bet in the long run and still cheaper than paying for even 1 year of a masters program. Combined with your gpa and decent GRE’s you become a strong PhD candidate.</p>
<p>Just apply to a summer research program. Most of them pay about the same as summer internships/jobs. The NSF-funded REU program is very popular:</p>
<p>As I said, unless you are making a ton of money at your summer job, you are better off doing a paid research program even if it means making up the difference with loans. Masters programs are very rarely funded, so putting off research until grad school will just cost more.</p>
<p>Still, it IS possible to jump into a PhD program without undergrad research, they will just need a compelling reason to believe that you are ready for that level of work.</p>