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
GRE: TBD in three weeks
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.
What kind of degree are you seeking? A professional Masters, a research-based Masters, or a Ph.D? The admission criteria are very different for each. Your GPA is clearly strong and your EC’s are irrelevant. The lack of significant research experience may limit you for Ph.D. or research-based Masters but should not be an impediment for a professional Masters. Your GRE scores will be important.
The programs you list are all very selective and have low admission rates for the Ph.D. so you don’t want to limit yourself to just them. Find a school you would be happy to attend and which is a bit less selective as a safety.
Bottom line, we need to know a bit more about your goals though.
I would be applying for a Ph.D program, with research interests in some subset of mechanical engineering (system controls, robotics, etc.) or in aerospace engineering.
At this point, it is hard to strengthen my EC’s very much, but I have also been told that playing NCAA baseball is HUGE and should be emphasized, not only because of the extremely high time committment, but also because of the positive intangibles it can develop. Ideally, I would have more research experience, but I am limited by my home university’s low research opportunity, so I am hoping that the NSF REU at UF will hold a lot of weight.
Thanks for your feedback!
What I meant was that ECs are not relevant for graduate admissions. It is academics and research experience that counts for just about everything. I cannot say if athletics are any different but, frankly, when I do graduate admissions for my university’s physics program, I only look at the grades, test scores and letters of reference. The research experience is important in that you can get a good, personalized letter form the faculty member you have worked for. The NSF REU is good for that, as is your TA experience. The internships probably won’t help too much but for engineering, they are a positive. Good luck on the GRE and line up some excellent letters of reference. You should be fine.