Chances at getting into select top 50 engineering grad schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi,

My name is William, and I am a senior undergraduate student in mechanical engineering at a relatively small, private liberal arts school. I was wondering if anyone could evaluate my qualifications and give me feedback on my chances to get into some of my school choices, all of which are top 50 schools (Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Vanderbilt, Yale, UCLA, Duke). Here are my qualifications:

Senior undergraduate student in mechanical engineering
GPA: 4.0
Research experience: 1 summer (10 weeks) of (civil) engineering research at UF (NSF REU) - research options limited at home university
Leadership experience: student facilitator, TBP secretary, TA experience
Other: NCAA baseball student-athlete, 2 summer internships in mechanical engineering

I’m afraid that my research experience may limit me, although being at a school with little opportunity for research and playing college baseball has not allowed for that. Also, I’m hoping that the range of schools on my list allows for a few that I may or may not get in to but at least a few that I should get in to, thoughts?

PS: For what it’s worth, I am a white male as well.

2

‘Chancing’ is not for grad school, since your SOP and LOR are so important. Also be sure to ask your professors where you are now.

REU very good, internships very good, TA good, gpa can’t be beat. What about your GRE?

3

Thanks for your feedback!

I know it is hard to evaluate a resume for grad school (I am looking at Ph.D programs by the way), I was just hoping for a rough estimate based on what I have. I should be able to get strong LOR from professors, including the one who advised my research at UF which should be helpful since I’m limited in research at my home university. I will take the GRE in less than 2 weeks, so hopefully that goes well.

Any thoughts based on this information? Or how I could potentially strengthen my qualifications? Critical feedback helps as well, then I could work on addressing anything and note it in my SOP at the very least.