First, I apologize if this is a little scatterbrained.
I have a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, and I have a minor in Chemistry and Bioengineering. I performed absolutely horrible at my community college when I got my AA. I had a 2.53 GPA and 9 withdrawals due to extenuating circumstances at home, but I completely turned it around when I got to my state school. When I got to my state school, I finished with a 3.56 overall GPA and a 3.91 institution GPA. I graduated with honors, and I was accepted into my university’s Honors in Major program. While in Honors in Major, I conducted research on an original project, and I wrote, defended, and published an original honors thesis that is now in my university’s library. I also had an industry internship at Lockheed Martin in my final year at my institution. I am worried that my community college history will haunt me, but most people that I have talked to say that graduate admissions will mainly only care about how I did in my bachelor program and my upper level coursework. I am looking at about 6 Biomedical Engineering programs and about 5 Chemical Engineering programs. I wish to get into cancer research involving targeted drug delivery, cellular engineering, tissue engineering, immunotherapy, and nanofabrication. Some of my top choices are the University of Minnesota, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Washington, Penn State University, and Cornell University. My number 1 choice is the University of Minnesota. Do you think I have a good shot at getting into these institutions? Please be honest with me.
Are you looking at the Master’s level or PhD level?
Have you spoken with your professors, learned what they think and whether they endorse this idea? Their support can be key.
I have spoken to several of my professors, and they fully support me. They think I may have a little trouble due to my lack of research, but they still think I stand a very good chance. I am trying to get as many opinions as possible on the subject though.
If you have a great GRE score, good references, and a good statements, I think you should be a competitive applicant for the programs you mentioned. However, when applying to PhD programs, applying to more is better than applying to less. Apply to a range of schools to give yourself options, the top programs get far more well-qualified applicants than slots and it can be kind of random.
Thank you. My GRE score is a 321, and in my opinion, I think I have some good references. As I mentioned, I am applying to 6 Biomedical Engineering programs, and I am applying to about 5 Chemical Engineering programs. Should I try to find more programs? I am applying to only 1 “top program,” and that is Georgia Tech. The rest range in ranking from about 14-30 on US News’s website. My number 1 choice, UMinn, is ranked right around 16.
Those are all very selective programs. Take a look at other, less selective programs which have the kind of research that you are interested in and if there are strong faculty there, and you find the program appealing, choose one and apply as a backup.
Agree, find a few less selective doing research in areas you are interested in. You want to be sure to have choices, so I’d try to find 2 or 3.
I have looked at a few less selective programs such as the University of Connecticut, but I figured it was go big or go home in regards to my PhD. What would you recommend?
Only if you want to go home. My kid (in a different STEM subject area) applied to a range of schools. But she only picked schools that had decent sized programs and at least a couple of prof researching in her area of interest. She’d like to work in a national lab or industry after graduating, not teach. UConn was in fact one of the schools she got into. Visited and found it wasn’t a fit, but I think of her acceptances, it probably was #2 or 3 on her final list.
My take is that if you aren’t just focused on a tenured teaching position at the end, you can go to a school that isn’t absolutely tops in the field. But what my kid found was that she was glad she had cast a wide net. She didn’t get into her top 2 choices, but had 6 other schools to choose from (and withdrew apps from a couple others). When she went on visits she found that there was wide variety in the schools. Some had dysfunctional departments, some had grad students in the later years of their PhD that she didn’t necessarily think knew much about their research area (an area she had done a lot of work in as an undergrad), etc. Sometimes the prof she’d likely have as a PI wasn’t a fit. One school just didn’t seem to care enough to make sure there were any profs on campus in her area of interest during the official grad student visit days. She ended up at a program she likes quite a bit, but she was happy that she had several to choose from.
What does it hurt (except in elbow grease and fees) to apply to some more programs? You can decide based on where you get in. Her schools all paid for visits, even though they weren’t the very tippy top schools.
Oh, and one of my kid’s recommenders complimented her on her list of programs. Said that it was clear that she hadn’t just looked based on ranking, but had really reviewed the research being done at the different institutions, and had a range of selectivity that made sense for her stats. This recommender said she was tired of everyone coming in with the same 10-15 programs on their list.
Careful research of the programs also enabled my kid to put together a pretty specific personal statement for each college that I think helped her admissions.
Actually, yes one of my goals is to be a tenure track professor, but I know that is extremely difficult, so I do have backup plans. One of those, is being a physician. Another, is using my undergrad, and then go into industry. It is funny you mentioned UConn. I have actually been severely looking at their program for Chemical Engineering with their research base in Biomolecular Engineering, and I am even looking at their combined MD-PhD program. It is a university that I am currently heavily considering. I am also looking at the University of Virginia and their combined MD-PhD program. I assure you that I do not just look at ranking. I pay very, very close attention to research interests first and foremost, but I do weigh in ranking as well.