Hello everyone,
I graduated last year in a mid-tier university with a BS in mechanical engineering and I will be starting my MS degree in aerospace engineering this fall. So far, out of all the schools I applied, I have been accepted into U Washington and NC State. I am still waiting for Penn. State and Texas A&M.
My focus in research will be in the propulsion/aerodynamics area and I was curious if people with more experience in this field could give me some insights about choosing in between these four schools and job placement after my MS degree, regardless of the factors of tuition, location, and weather. The only useful info I have is that I have been told Penn. State has a really well-known propulsion program, and UW is very near to Boeing (does that really help getting a job!?). I really want to work at the big areo/defense industry, like Boeing, GE, or Lockheed, and perhaps NASA (if I have a shot).
Thank you for your opinion in advance!
I don’t think you’ll make a poor choice regardless of which of those four you choose. The best approach here is to do some homework and find out whose lab at each university you’d be most excited to join. This isn’t a situation where you should care much about the name brand of the overall school so much as you should be caring about the quality of potential advisors. You might even contact some of the professors in question, though you are less likely to be ignored if you do that after having already been admitted.
Thanks for your reply, boneh3ad. I have been in contact with several professors in the past prior to applying, mostly like you said, to find out which school has the type of research I am interested in. But the impression is that they usually don’t care too much about MS students as opposed to Ph.D. students, and oftentimes following the interest/research inquiry emails, I got a simple and short reply along the line of no available funding, not looking to hire anymore new students and good luck.
Also, I don’t expect to receive any assistantship at any school, would this condition limit my chancing of working with professor with similar interest? And how does “knock-on-door-and-ask-for-money” work in my situation?
It really depends on the school and the professor. I know for a fact that in the aerospace department at Texas A&M, for example, most MS students are funded one way or another provided they are taking the thesis route.
And yes, just universally most professors care more about PhD students. The general adage is that MS students leave right when the start to become useful. There are exceptions, of course, but that’s the stereotype. To be fair, though, PhD students often get short emails with a dearth of information in them as well. That’s just a function of professors getting about a zillion emails a day, and that’s just before lunch.
Regarding funding, even if you don’t get a departmental assistantship, that doesn’t mean you can’t find a professor who individually has funding available. It depends highly on the school, but some places will actively help you with that. Others not so much. Your chances are higher if you are pursuing a thesis option, though, and in that case you have to work with a professor by definition.
You have gotten the typical response for general inquiries by M.S. students. I think you need to choose based on the kind of research that is being done and once you are there work your way into a lab by volunteering. A strong academic performance in your first term will go a long ways toward getting you into a lab.