<p>I was browsing through Caltech's aerospace engineering program. Is anyone on here familiar with their PhD program?</p>
<p>It looks like you can't apply for a PhD there without a masters? Do they fund their masters students or is it like Stanford where the student funds himself?</p>
<p>there are groups in FB</p>
<p>Facebook…?</p>
<p>Where does it say that you cannot apply for a PhD without a master’s degree?</p>
<p><a href=“http://catalog.caltech.edu/pdf/catalog_12_13_part4.pdf[/url]”>http://catalog.caltech.edu/pdf/catalog_12_13_part4.pdf</a></p>
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<p>Ah, it looks like I misread.</p>
<p>From here: “Students wishing to pursue studies leading to the Ph.D. must select and be accepted by a research adviser by the end of their first year of study and prior to taking the qualifying examination described below” it seems that you don’t choose an adviser until end of year 1 of PhD.
So I guess that means their admission’s decisions aren’t dominated by the professor you want to work for, but by the adcom?</p>
<p>It likely works both ways. That says you must have an advisor no later than the end of your first year, not that you must wait until then. Most likely some people come in with plans to work for a particular professor already while others wait until they get there and eventually find one. If you already have a relationship with a professor, he or she can likely away the adcom one way or the other.</p>
<p>You’ll find similar verbage in most departments at most schools.</p>
<p>Admissions decisions, especially at a school as small as Caltech, are very heavily influenced by the professors you want to work for. From what I’ve heard here, the admissions committees decide who makes the cut, and then individual professors say which students they want to take. They generally wind up taking the students that have the most professors interested.</p>
<p>That’s good to know. So it’s better for the applicant to be broad in his research focus so that he/she is not limited to one professor? </p>
<p>I’m not sure if I understand the “individual professors say which students they want to take. They generally wind up taking the students that have the most professors interested” part.
If one faculty member is interested and wants the student, then why do other profs have to be interested? </p>
<p>I’m mainly interested in working with 2 professors (Dale Pullin who’s focused on computational turbulence work and John Dabiri who’s focus on bio-inspired propulsion), however, the areas are distinct and almost unrelated.
From what I’ve seen is that it’s better for an applicant to mention more than one faculty they want to work with, but it seems like that only works if the faculty members they mention have similar research interests. I’m not sure how that would work for mine if I mentioned both of them.
I’ve also heard that it may be bad to show too diverse of a research interest.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, does Caltech use recommendation forms for the grad program or can recommenders send/upload “letters?”</p>
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<p>Google is your friend. It took me 15 second to find my way here: [Application</a> Requirements - Caltech Graduate Studies Office](<a href=“http://www.gradoffice.caltech.edu/admissions/checklist]Application”>Application Requirements - Graduate Studies Office)</p>
<p>Do your own research.</p>
<p>I already looked at that. What I meant was that some universities just wants you to submit a written letter whereas other universities wants that and also has a bunch of questions where you classify the applicant in terms of percentages (2%, 5%, 10%, etc…).</p>
<p>You want to have a few professors that would want you in case unexpected things happen. Examples are funding a professor is counting on doesn’t come through (ie the government sequestration right now), personality conflicts with your advisor, it turns out you’re not interested in what you thought you were, or something happens to your advisor (hit by a bus, leaves for a different school, doesn’t get tenure, etc).</p>
<p>You don’t need them to be in very different types of work, you just need a backup in case something goes wrong. I’m really glad things worked out with my first choice, because I realized my second choice professor would have had massive personality and research interest conflicts.</p>
<p>I know in my program one person pulling with all of their weight isn’t enough to get you in if the rest of the committee isn’t interested. We had a prospective student lost because of that.</p>
<p>Racinreaver is correct- admin committee makes first general cuts then profs decide who they would like to admit after they meet students during the visiting days for prospective grad students. When you visit you will get the chance to meet all the professors in the department you are interested in and visit their labs. You will find that each research group has a different feel and this will help you decide what your preferences are. Be honest, tell them if you have favourite research areas and preferred labs- don’t just think in terms of winning the admission game. Caltech is an exceptional school.</p>