<p>^Doesn’t he have a website? That, and recent publications, are the best way to find out what a professor’s lab does.</p>
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<p>Do you mean at MIT or in general? MIT profs are busy people; they don’t have time to answer emails from random people who want to work in their lab. As an undergrad, I got 50 emails a day; I imagine it’s worse for professors. In fact, I know grad students at MIT who got random emails from people they didn’t know from foreign countries that wanted to know how they could get into MIT.</p>
<p>If there is really some venue for applicants to talk to professors, I’d imagine it would be set up by the department or the department would know about it. I would contact the department. </p>
<p>The only case where I’ve seen applicants talking to professors ahead of time is if they are applying for an NSF fellowship and they are stating in the application that they are going to work with the prof in grad school. That prof writes a recommendation saying the same thing. I don’t know how the initial contact is managed. Faculty from your own school should be able to give you advice. Maybe a prof you have worked for at your school could make the initial contact.</p>
<p>Seriously, though, is there a chance that MIT may not be good enough to apply to? Why not just apply and then figure out later? You should be able to figure out in general terms what professors’ labs do from their websites enough to write that in your application essay.</p>
<p>I’ve been involved in aerodynamics research as a junior, and I really enjoy it and think that that’s what I would want to do research on in grad school. However, looking at the classes that are offered under Aircraft Systems Engineering SM program, systems engineering interests me just as much, even though I don’t quite know what a typical research in that field entails since I don’t have any research or academic experience in systems engineering. Would it be possible for me to do research in aerodynamics but get my SM in Aircraft Systems Engineering, based on the classes? The reason I ask this is because looking at the course structure of ASE, it doesn’t look like this field would involve aerodynamics but would rather be more focused in systems engineering research. Any opinion on this?</p>
<p>You can generally take whatever classes you want, as long as they meet with the approval of your advisor. But the SM degree awarded by the aero/astro department is a general one – the specific “track” you study as a master’s student is not reflected on your degree. No matter what classes you take as a master’s student, you will get an SM in Aeronautics and Astronautics.</p>
<p>well, in that case, would i be better off applying for research in area of my current research, ie aerodynamics? And then choose the track based on the classes I like, ie Aircraft Systems Engineering? And maybe, also change my research lab or track depending what I find more interesting once I’m in? I know this should solely be my decision, but I also want to hear from people who have gone through grad school application. Since I will have 4 semesters of aerodynamics research by the time I enter MIT, I think I’ll have a better shot of getting into aerodynamics research than into ASE which I don’t have any experience in.
Also, my research adviser who I work with told me that most grad programs don’t assign students with a research project right away, but rather let them float around different labs for about a year, unless they’re really sure what project they want to join or begin. How true is that at MIT, esp. in AeroAstro? Would an admitted student be mostly taking classes first year or first semester, and and explore different options or is it a straight dive into the lab we mention in our Statement of Purpose?
Also, I’ve read in many websites that taking graduate classes in undergrad and doing well also helps to stand out as a competitive applicant. How true is that there? I came in with 0 AP credits as an international student, but I’ve overloaded and done extremely well so far in an honors dual degree program. Sadly, due to the dual degree, I just don’t have any space to take any graduate level class since I can’t overload a grad level class at my university and I already have to overload to finish the 5 year program in 4 years. Is presence of grad level classes on transcript something that the grad admission committees usually look at? How important is it?</p>
<p>What I heard when I applied to grad school was that you should say you are going into the area in which you have previous experience. You don’t even know if you will like this new area once you try it, so it’s best just to say you are going into the area you have already had research experience in.</p>
<p>The most important thing in a theoretical field like aero/astro is your performance in the core classes in your field. Recs will also be very important. I don’t know about aero specifically, but grad classes aren’t necessarily any harder or revealing of talent than undergrad classes.</p>
This isn’t the way it works in the Aero-Astro program. Students are admitted specifically to a particular lab, and they’re expected to do their thesis research in that lab.</p>
<p>I didn’t answer because I thought collegealum’s answer was sufficient. Graduate courses aren’t a necessary component of a successful application, at MIT or elsewhere, and if you can’t take them anyway, it doesn’t seem worth worrying over.</p>