<p>thanks so much for the link Battlefrog! I'll definitely look through it thoroughly so I get a better idea on how to write a good SOP. this is pretty much exactly what i needed since i haven't started my SOPs yet lol.</p>
<p>Blah2009, for those not so brilliant masters students at Stanford, what are their stats? How about the stats of those very brilliant ones?</p>
<p>Hey grdschoolhopeful I'm in sort of the same predicament, a little worse than yours probably. I found this thread very helpful and most of the suggestions/advice apply to me. </p>
<p>I am applying for a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. </p>
<p>A senior in biomedical engineering at George Washington U which isn't a top tier engineering school.
I have a 3.33 and not as stellar GRE scores : 720/440-Quant/Verbal. I plan to re-take the GREs some time in Jan. </p>
<p>I also have 3 years of research experience no publication though (was very close to one w/ a patent). </p>
<p>I am applying to Purdue, U of I Urbana, NC State, Cornell, MIT, UC Irvine, Drexel, Northwestern, UMD-CP, NJIT, GW, & Boston U</p>
<p>I would be appreciative of any other suggestions/comments not already posted.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>In regards to the whole UCLA 3.2 GPA conversation you were having - some schools simply have lower average GPAs than others. For example, I go to Duke where getting a 3.5 in a semester gets you on the Dean's List if you're in the engineering college. Here, a 3.3-3.4 is quite normal and average. My point is simply that the grading is different at different places...</p>
<p>I just wanted to update this thread, seeing as how I’ve finally received all of my decisions from all 4 schools that I applied to:</p>
<p>UCI: Accepted
USC: Accepted
UCLA: Accepted
Stanford: Accepted</p>
<p>I’m not posting this to brag what-so-ever, but more so to give people out there hope that they can get into good schools with a 3.2GPA lol. </p>
<p>My guess is that my SOP and my GRE helped me the most.</p>
<p>Oh and actually, I forgot to mention…so right now I’m facing a tough decision of whether to enroll in UCLA or Stanford.</p>
<p>I prefer UCLA’s environment, but Stanford is obviously better in academics and prestige. But I was looking at what my coursework requirements would be for stanford and I found that:</p>
<p>UCLA: 1yr + 2 quarters to graduate
Stanford: 2yrs+2 quarters to graduate</p>
<p>This is simply because I am only currently a Mechanical Engineering undergrad, and so there are a bunch of required basic CE courses that I need under my belt - and thus I am behind and will take longer to graduate. And Stanford freakin has more of those requirements than UCLA does, and their availability of courses (whether offered in Fall, Winter, Spring) also does not cater to my needs very well.</p>
<p>What do you guys think I should do? Stanford tuition is freakin 40K/yr, whereas UCLA is 10k/yr.</p>
<p>hey grdschoolhopeful-congratulations on getting into the MS program. to answer your question about which grad school to go to, i vote UCLA for a great and cost-efficient education, which i am sure you would already agree with. do you think you (or anyone else) could answer a few questions for me, since you already got into some grad programs?</p>
<p>so i am considering applying to grad school at UCLA, but i have no idea what my chances are. this is due to the fact that i want to completely switch industries, from civil engineering to architecture, and not to mention the fact that i didn’t do very well in my undergrad for engineering.</p>
<p>i absolutely adore the Master’s program for architecture at UCLA. i even attended the summer graduate program for students who were interested in the Master’s degree, did fine (2 As and a B+), but it does not guarantee my spot in the program. my dilemma is more about how much UCLA would weigh my undergraduate GPA and how recs from professors not in the field of architecture would affect my chances. </p>
<p>i didn’t attend some prestigious engineering school-north carolina state-since it was the only practical choice for engineering (duke was too expensive and hard to get into) for north carolina residents. but it had a great program. i did civil engineering because i thought i would enjoy the challenge, cared about designing safe structures, and partially because my parents wanted me to. eventually i found out a little too late it was not the right major to pursue because i discovered i was more gifted in the arts rather than math. i didn’t switch majors because 1) i felt it irresponsible to switch majors and thus would have prolonged my undergrad career on my parents’ money, and 2) i didn’t want to quit but rather fight the struggle because i knew i could do it. i finished, got my degree, though it doesn’t mean much to me.</p>
<p>not sure whether grad schools look at your grades outside of your major, but i was nearly 4.0 for my first two years. i studied abroad for a whole semester without taking any engineering courses, and still managed to graduate in four years. it wasn’t until i started my major where my grades started plummeting and i got loads of B’s and C’s. i made a few A’s but not nearly enough. my overall GPA in the end was a 3.23, with no honors. (honors would have been a 3.28 and above! blah.) i think my major GPA was around a 2.8. it’s low, really low, and i’m embarrassed to even tell people i want to apply to grad school. </p>
<p>having seen the design portfolios of graduate students who got into UCLA’s architecture program, i feel as though i have a good chance. i know they weigh your portfolio heavily, which works to my advantage, but then again, there are a million other students who have excellent portfolios and excellent grades to boot. </p>
<p>i would love to go to UCLA for their architecture program, but i simply have no idea what my chances would be in this situation. i know i can’t explain all the circumstances that affected my poor grades, but i can explain why i think i will excel in architecture.</p>
<p>-what would my chances be with such a low GPA?
-how can i explain away these low grades in my essays? i’m definitely not lazy and i work very hard. i can do math…just not applied math!
-would my recs from civil engineering professors make any impact even though they’re not in the field of architecture?</p>
<p>any advice?</p>
<p>(sorry for writing so much!)</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>Wait hold on, do my eyes deceive me?
You got into STANFORD with a 3.2 GPA?!?
Do you have any secrets you’re hiding from us? Did your parents donate a building to the college? I mean it can’t be that easy to get into stanford, right?</p>
<p>But totally congrats on your great results!</p>
<p>The difficulty about most stanford engineering master’s graduate admissions isn’t getting in but rather paying for it. It is ridiculously expensive after all.</p>
<p>Fatpig, it would be difficult to get into Stanford with that GPA except for an engineering major. A 3.2 is considered quite respectable for an engineering program.</p>
<p>jazzgirl - sorry i took so long to respond, i didnt know ppl were looking at this thread. anyways i actually ended up choosing stanford…oh well lol. Im not sure how much help i can be since your situation is kind of different because you want to go into architecture which is more artsy and less having to do with engineering. but at the same time, we have something in common since we both wanted to change majors (me going from mechE to civilE, and you going civilE to arch.) Basically, i feel a big reason why i was even able to get into all those schools despite my 3.2GPA was because, through my essays, I tried to paint a story of how i am still a bright/capable person, but just not very great with mechE. Basically i tried to make it seem like CE is my true calling and that ME left me bored/uninterested. but keep in mind, if you follow this essay style, you have to be VERY careful and not make it sound like you’re lazy or whatever. Also keep in mind, i got a 770M+710V=1480 GRE score that really helped both my application, and the “story” that i was trying to explain in my essay. the GRE score made my story credible and convincing. Obviously, with a low GPA, you’re gonna need other components of the application to help you out. For me, it was mainly my GRE and my Essay. My Letter of recs were probably all standard/positive, but i doubt any of them were special. i really have no idea how the portfolio stuff factors in, but im sure its a huge deal…sorry i cant be of more help with your situation. but if there are a few things to take away from my experience, it’s that it IS definitely possible to get into a good school with a low gpa, you just need to make it up somewhere else. also, from what i’ve noticed with my peers…having connections with professors at the school you’re applying to can really help, a lot. if you have anymore questions, feel free to PM me or something…i dont check this forum too often though just fyi</p>
<p>fatpig - getting into the MS program at stanford rather than PhD is much easier. and ‘momwaitingfornew’ is definitely right. GPA is all relative. it’s very hard to get a good gpa at UCLA (my undergrad), not to mention in ucla engineering. thanks for the congrats though</p>