<p>I left high school early at 16 to go to Bard College at Simon's Rock. I am currently finishing my 1st year at Columbia. Let me explain.
The Pre-engineering concentration at SR means I spend 3 years there. And then if one's grades are up to par (a 3.5) and one gets a good recommendation then they are guaranteed a place in the at Columbia's School of Engineering.
Ok, so I am in my fourth year of college, 1st at Columbia.
GPA: 3.9
Major: Chemical Engineering
GRE: Quantitative (780), Verbal (740), Analytical Writing (5.5)
My Analytical Writing grade is due to the intensive seminars at SR.</p>
<p>As a Junior or 3rd year at SR, since I was headed to Columbia, I had to do my thesis (It's required of all SR students going for a BA). It's entitled: Synthesis of a Predictive Direct Digital Control Algorithm. I am not explaining that.
If my grades don't change in the next year, I will be graduating summa cum laude at SR, but I don't know about Columbia. In the end I will have a B.A. from Simon's Rock and a B.S. in Chemical engineering from Columbia.
My research desire is nanotechnology, which is freaking amazing. And hopefully discoveries at that level will lead to an better fuel and solar cells.
I am 20 and will graduate at 21.
I really want to go to MIT for my masters and PhD, but Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Northwestern, or Penn State are all great options. I want to stay on the East coast, so no California schools. Can someone chance me for those?</p>
<p>Thanks and tell me if I should include anything else. PS. I am a girl.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.9 is pretty dang good - will you have separate #'s for the different schools, and if so what does the Columbia gpa look like? That will dominate in the sciences.</p>
<p>GRE: Again, pretty dang good - your V and AW blow most science majors out of the water, and the 780Q will not hurt you.</p>
<p>Research: Well, you seem to have some, which helps. Research is a big differentiator, so try to parlay that into a publication or a conference presentation. You want them to be able to associate your name with some peer-reviewd research forum.</p>
<p>LOR: You mention nothing here. You need 3+ known professors or professionals ready to go to bat for you - got it? You do not want professors who gave you an A in their class a few years ago, you want someone who can talk about you a little without notecards, who knows your research ability and goals. If you do not have these, start cultivating them now.</p>
<p>SOP/“Fit”: What do you want to research, and which schools/professors can support you? Your numbers look great, but to get chosen there has to be at least one professor per school who (a) has an opening and (b) thinks you are the best fit. You need to know who they are before you apply - you might be surprised where those spots turn out to be.</p>
<p>Chancing you: You are a girl, which will help more than hurt in engineering. If you are a US citizen, even better. Personally I would say Northwestern and PSU should be relatively easy, MIT is always a crapshoot, and the rest - I just don’t know.</p>
<p>Michael Bergman went to MIT and was my physics professor at SR. He was a reviewer or w/e of my thesis and knows me very well from the lab. He told me he would definitely write one up from me. I helped him with some of his research that is NSF funded. </p>
<p>Alan West was my professor in Engineering Applications in Electrochemistry this past year at Columbia and he was great. He supervises undergraduate research and I assisted him with that since I had already done a thesis. He and I have very similar interests in research and fuel cells. So, I expect a great recommendation from him.</p>
<p>William Dunbar from Princeton taught me Vector Calculus and really made me love it. Since SR is so small I know all my teachers very well. And I know he will write an amazing recommendation. He reviewed my thesis.</p>
<p>I have another source, a professional I worked for at Harvard for a summer who I could get one from also. </p>
<p>About “Fit”, Michael Bergman (my best rec) knows an old professor at MIT, Prof. Stephanopoulos, who happens to share my research interest, so I think I am covered there. </p>
<p>PPS. I am also white. Which, Idk may help me since I’m not Asian.</p>
<p>American girls wanting to do graduate work in engineering are highly, highly sought after. All kinds of rules will be bent to get you in, so I wouldn’t worry very much about admissions. However, I suggest you look into more schools than the ones you listed. I’ve been doing research in the (broadly-termed) nanotech field for some three years now and I haven’t heard much out of any of those schools except MIT and Northwestern.</p>
<p>Also, you might think you know what you want to do, but the vast majority of graduate students don’t find their niche until their first year after taking some classes/seminars. You never know what kind of opportunities might come along; For example, I was planning on leaving Tech with an MS and had already interviewed at several places for internships for the summer, but late in my first semester one of the departments won a $5 million grant over 5 years for just the kind of work I would have pursued if I were going to do a PhD. Needless to say, I got in pretty quick on that.</p>
<p>Sid, I’m also a ChemE … I agree with cosmicfish, your criteria is very strong, you don’t need to apply a bunch of school. Something like MIT+2 or 3 is good</p>
<p>Wow another white girl joining nanotech!</p>
<p>(I’m in nanotech too, there is this one white girl I’ve seen during my years here, she is a fellowship sweeper, you are gonna be taken good care of)</p>
<p>This is a good time to start establishing those contacts at different schools - contact Stephanopoulus, see if he has any openings, start getting your name in his head. Then find some more at each school - especially at MIT! You cannot get admitted if no one goes to bat for you, but if there is only one person doing so it is still pretty tough!</p>
<p>Think of it this way - if you are the #2 applicant in the whole pool, you can still lose out if only one professor likes you and he goes with the #1 applicant! This is why I say MIT is a crapshoot - there are so many great applicants that it becomes a very individual selection, beyond what the numbers would seem to predict.</p>
<p>Being white will probably not be a big deal - there are no majority fellowships - but being a female US citizen will, as both of these will help with funding. When funding is easy, admission gets a lot easier. The NSF in particular is throwing bucketloads of cash at citizens right now - look for IGERT fellowships if you can.</p>
<p>Make sure to pursue your research, keep tight with your letter writers, and make sure you are going someplace you WANT to go, not where you think you SHOULD go - a few years down the road that’s the difference between success and failure.</p>