<p>I am currently a junior at Cal Poly SLO, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. I am confused about what grad school admissions committees are looking for. I know GPA is big, as well as letters of recommendation. Is joining a research project essential to gaining admission to a top engineering grad school?</p>
<p>My opinion:</p>
<p>Grad schools are looking for good researchers, aka lab rats. To impress a grad school, you need four things:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Letters of Recommendation
This is where a professor tells the grad school of how much lab rat potential you have.</p></li>
<li><p>Research Experience
This is how you impress the grad school by showing you have experience being a lab rat.</p></li>
<li><p>GPA
This indicates both your lab rat knowledge and work ethic.</p></li>
<li><p>GRE
This shows how smart you are compared to other potential lab rats.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>To answer your question, I have no idea whether it’s essential. Certainly it helps.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for all schools, but I can tell you a bit about the school I go to (most of their engineering programs are ranked top 5 by US World News, so I guess it’s one of the more competitive schools… if that means anything)</p>
<p>The admission process is done by the process of elimination. Practically speaking, the school receives a lot more applications than the spots available, and most of the combing through the applications pile is done by one professor (or a very small group of people) who just wants to go through the stuff in the least amount of time possible.</p>
<p>So… at first glance, they look at:
- the school you are applying from (school reputation counts. If they got a bunch of students from your school before that they were happy with, they will trust that the school has done its job training its students and will give preferences to the students. On the flip side, they really don’t want to waste resources and time on poorly trained students)
- your GPA
- your GRE score</p>
<p>According to the above indications, I believe they make three piles: the outright rejects, the outright acceptances, and borderline (example: strong in just the two out of three categories). </p>
<p>One minor exception: the school you went to and the GPA you got become less and less important the longer you were out of school. In this case, where you worked at and what kind of work you did would replace category #1 and 2.</p>
<p>I think the best way to gauge which graduate school you’ll end up in is to find out how many students who graduated last year went to which schools for gradschool. You can probably get an idea of which grad schools picked your program as their “favorites” 
In our program, about 30-40% of our students are from our own undergraduate program.</p>
<p>Anyway… back to the three piles:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The “acceptance” pile: Usually this pile is almost never tampered with. The only times when students may be shaved off from this pile is if something bad really sticks out, or if the students require tons of funding that we happen to lack. But the reality is that students with perfect records are very hard to find, so you can consider yourself safe if you belong here.</p></li>
<li><p>The “borderline” pile: this is where all the embellishments count. The letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities (research experience, club activity, leadership), scholarships, your essay, etc. To break it down:</p></li>
</ol>
<p>a. letters of recommendation: make sure that you get your letters from professors and/or people with real title. You will not believe how many students asked their graduate school recommendation letters from me when I was just a TA because they were “too afraid” to ask the professors. Letters from people like me are pretty much tossed 
This is where research activities can help you because you will get to know the professor a lot better than average students.</p>
<p>b. research experience: If you get involved in research activities, you have to treat it like a real class. Spend time and effort in it. Go above and beyond your call of duty so the professors and the researchers you work with understand that you really like doing research. In our research lab, we go through at least half a dozen undergraduate students who sign up for “research.” Most do it to just put something in their resume, and it is so painfully obvious. Once in a while we get someone who is truly dedicated,and they always end up in good places because motivated students motivate the professors to really go out of his way to help them.</p>
<p>c. leadership/club activities: it helps to show that you have more interest in the field than average students</p>
<p>d. scholarships/fellowships for grad school: if you already know your source of funding, then it’s a bonus because everyone loves freebies, and schools love having students they don’t have to pay to stay.</p>
<p>e. your essay: People say this so many times so it’s becoming a cliche, but your essay is your only chance to reveal your personal side. Focus on showing that you have the interest, motivation, and the humility to learn. Explain how this degree will help you and what great plans you have after you graduate.</p>
<ol>
<li>The “reject” pile: You know that you are in the reject pile the quicker you receive your rejection letter. If you are the first to hear back from the school amongst your peers who applied to the same school, or if you get your reject letter within weeks of submission, then you know that you have no chance in heck at the moment. If this is the case, the only way you can redeem yourself is through impressive work experience you will have to commit to for a few years.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>On the flip side, if you get your rejection letter at the very last moment then you were probably the borderline student they held out in case a spot becomes available at the last moment. In this case, you are encouraged to apply again for the next academic year.</p>