<p>Seeing as how we're on a stanford/mit rant, I think I'll join. I got rejected from both Stanford ChE and MIT BE yesterday. Additionally, I'm sure I got rejected from MIT ChE since my friends were already given recruitment weekend info and am pretty sure that they have made the final decisions.</p>
<p>With that, I feel that I will not be accepted anywhere else. I feel like the applicant pool was EXTREMELY strong, as I believe that most here, including myself, belong in these schools. </p>
<p>The optimistic side of things - it's the school's loss not mine.</p>
<p>Nrets- do you know when the MIT recruiting weekend is this year?
Also, people get accepted late at MIT. Go to gradcafe and you will see acceptance notifications out to mid March.</p>
<p>Also OchemE, how did you prepare for GRE? Or did you just take it with no preparation? Thanks. What university do you plan on matriculating for PhD Ch E? Again, congratulations.</p>
<p>To answer your questions, I did not prepare for the general GRE. I just showed up and took the exam. I did prepare for the Chemistry GRE and scored 770. I almost retook the general GRE because my verbal score was pretty abysmal (520) and after getting 790 on the SAT equivalent in high school, I knew I could do better. The reason I did not take it is I got a 5.5 on AW, which ended up being in the 90th percentile the year I took the exam (2005), and way into the 90's for engineers. I also was first in my major, so I didn't really care. One of my profs from undergrad who went to MIT said you really want to break 600 on the verbal to get into a top 10 school, unless you have a strong class rank (note emphasis on rank over GPA), strong writing score and/or quantitative score. Suggestions to prepare - I would buy one of those books with practice tests, is my best guess. If you are planning on taking a subject test, your best bet is to just go over your old text books, exams and homework assignments.</p>
<p>Where do I plan to matriculate? I don't know. My top two choices are MIT and Berkeley. I am in at Berkeley and am waiting to hear from MIT. My second choices are Princeton and Caltech, and I have been accepted to both those schools.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick reply. Do you have any advice for freshmen chemical engineering majors in terms of getting internships? Did you receive any internships during your undergraduate career? If so, what kind of work did you do?</p>
<p>I never did an internship. I went straight through and on to work so I can't help you out there. My best advice is learn how to write a good resume. Differentiate yourself as much as you can, like a double major in Chemistry or perhaps some kind of minor. Leadership in at least one student org also doesn't hurt for job hunting, especially if you have a really high GPA. Don't kid yourself employers are not into people with 3.9+ that are total bookworms/hermits.</p>
<p>^agreed
When I was interviewed yesterday they told me it was my minor that helped set me apart from the other applicants. They also said 4.0's make you look like all you did was sit on the library. Research is also something that will greatly help for graduate school but not jobs. While internships will help with jobs but not graduate school. A good gps is needed either way. I've gotten a lot of interviews even with my research oriented resume so you should be ok either way.</p>
<p>Double majors help if you can do it. Was close with the math but would have to graduate late. You can settle with the minor and use the uncounted classes as tech electives.</p>
<p>Nrets,
Hang in there. You got into a stellar school (Cornell). I think this year applications are up and funding is down because of the economy. The awards you won in undergrad are way impressive, I didn't even apply for any of those. If you want my honest opinion, your GRE scores could have been marginally better, but then again Ni said he knew someone that got into MIT w/430V. I think it's all a crap shoot. Best of luck.</p>
<p>I would really be *<strong><em>ed if it was my GRE scores that screwed me out of all these schools. That test is a joke, and if they're using verbal scores to compare applicants, then they can just *</em></strong> off. GRE scores should be used for nothing other than minimum requirements. I don't want to go to a school that thinks that GRE scores are a good measure of an applicants potential. </p>
<p>Only as a very last resort should GRE scores ever be used to compare applicants. There aer so many other important factors, and I hope it was either my recommendations or my statement of purpose, and not my GRE scores.</p>
<p>Nrets-
I share your point of view. Unless someone is not meeting a bare minimum I don't think the test should be that important. I read your profile on gradcafe.com and it was damn impressive. You have everything going for you- high class rank, loads of research, national awards, and conferences/publications to boot. Your qualifications are stellar. Nothing stands out to me as something that would negatively influence your admissions chances. Your GRE scores are good- it's not like you got 600Q/400V/3W. I think your scores are competitive. This whole thing is a crap shoot though because, as Blah2009 said, lots of highly qualified people are competing for a limited number of slots. :-</p>
<p>"lots of highly qualified people are competing for a limited number of slots. :-\ "</p>
<p>That's basically the B.S. they always give you in a rejection letter though. I mean, yes, it's true, but there have to be reasons why other people get the spots that you don't. I think you, with all your schools awards, top tier undergrad school, high GPA, and good research experience set you apart from me with only a handfull of awards, albeit highly competitive national ones, research experience only vaguely related to my graduate interests, and somewhat blemished GPA.</p>
<pre><code> My name is Alex, I am from Greece, and I need some advice. I have applied for a Phd to 5 Departments, and I have already received the offers. Princeton shut the door on my face, while Wisconsin/Delaware/PennState/Tufts hugged me. So, now I have to choose between Wisconsin-Madison and Delaware (I have eliminated options 3 and 4).
Is there anything at all you know about these 2 uni? How would you compare those?I know that W-M has probably a better department, since it is ranked 5th, right? Do you think it would be a "mistake" to choose Delaware over Wisconsin?.......lots of questions there :)
Anyway, thanks for reading this. Hope you give me your opinion.
</code></pre>