<p>Hello everyone, I am currently an undergraduate at Georgia Tech majoring in Chemistry with a Materials concentration. My plan is to enter a Masters/PhD program for MSE after undergrad either here at GT or maybe even a more highly ranked university. I have contacted a MSE Graduate Administrator here for advice to put me into a good position and she gave the usual response on a strong GPA, high GRE scores, and good Recommendations. I am currently applying to many Materials Science related internships and REU's for this summer as I think that would be a great experience and excellent to put on my application. What are some rough estimates for a GPA & GRE that I should aim for to be considered at schools such as MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Northwestern, CalTech, Cornell, and GA Tech? I am expecting to have around a 3.8 GPA after this semester and have 2-3 more semesters to go.</p>
<p>Your GPA is good. For engineering your GRE scores will need to be in the upper 160’s range for the quantitative and as high as possible for the verbal. If you are going for a Masters degree, they will expect you to self-fund and so the admission criteria are not as stringent as for a Ph.D. In any case, you will need strong research experience and good letter of recommendation from faculty who know you.</p>
<p>Have you looked to see if GA Tech has any Co-terminal BS/MS programs? If they do you can probably cut off a year from the entire time to degree and keep your undergraduate financial aid package throughout the Masters.</p>
<p>They do for MSE undergrads but I’m Chemistry and don’t want to switch cause that’d push me back pretty far for bachelor’s but I’ll look into it more cause it may work out to be about even actually after getting Masters either way.</p>
<p>Try for GPA 3.5+, and GRE Q165+
The other parts of the GRE aren’t too important.
Of course, if you can get your GPA to be closer to 4.0, that would be really beneficial.
What’s really important for these applications, though, is your research experience and your letters of recommendation. Work on those! Try to push for a publication of some kind, and get on your PI’s good side. Good luck!</p>