Chances for structural masters

Graduate School
1

SO! I’m wrapping up my junior year as a civil engineering student at the University of New Hampshire and hoping to apply to some grad schools in the fall for admissions cycle of Fall 2020. I would be applying for an MS in Structural Engineering.Hoping to focus on Structural engineering but still have an interest in geotechnical. I recently took the GRE and I’m not too sure if I should take it again (not a great test taker). My list of schools are pretty tough to get into. What do you think my chances are? Is my list of schools okay? Should I take GRE again? Please be honest, any info helps!

Creds:
-GPA: 3.58
-Architectural Minor
-GRE: QR:155, VR:149, AW 4.0
-Summer internship experience, 2018 and one lined up for 2019
-Assisted a professor in Structural research for a few months Oct-Dec 2018 (then he quit…)
-Working in Tech Center creating a resource for Bridge preservation/maintenance (Feb-May 2019)
-Will be completing Geotechnical research experience in the Fall of 2019 with an Undergrad Research Award
-Tau Beta Pi Volunteer Chair
-Society of Women Engineers Professional Series Chair
-Varsity Swim Team (1st and 2nd year)

List of schools:

  1. Columbia
  2. Virginia Tech
  3. NC State
  4. Duke
  5. UPitt
  6. UConn
  7. Northeastern
  8. Lehigh
  9. U Tennessee
  10. Princeton
    11.UMaryland
    12.Drexel
  11. Villanova
2

Are you going into academia or trying to work in industry? Regardless of the answer, this pool of applications seem all over the place. What are you basing these off of?

Also, your GRE score is very low. Averages for a lot of these schools are hovering over 167 quantitative. Senior year is when you’ll take a lot more advanced structural classes, so you will have a better idea of what you want to get into. If are interested more into the soils itself, then geotech may be for you. If you’re interested in the foundations you design in your geotechnical courses, then structural may be more for you. The architectural minor goes hand-in-hand with the structural focus, but will be useless if you go into geotech.

3

I do think I will ultimately decide to choose structural engineering and eventually go into industry, but I am not saying no to academia. I looked at universities along the east coast with good engineering programs. I could use some insight on what schools would be best. I am intending on retaking the GRE in August.