Concerned about a lack of research...

Graduate School
1

<p>I am a senior in Computer Engineering at a middle of the road school. It took me a while but I've decided I really want to go to graduate school. Moreover, I was hoping to go to a relatively well known/respected school in my field. </p>

<p>I've always been a very good student (3.9+ GPA), but I'm concerned because I have relatively little research experience. The research opportunities at my school, especially in ECE, are few and far between for undergraduates. Besides that, in order to afford school I had to work during the school year which prevented me from taking advantage of a couple of research opportunities. I did end up with 12 months of internship experience at a couple of well known companies, but I'm not sure how much this counts.</p>

<p>I've read a lot of posts on CC about how research experience is THE thing that matters to most upper-division graduate programs, especially for a PhD. I'm afraid that with my lack of research experience I will only be able to get into upper-tier schools MS programs, which I can't really afford with a lack of funding. Can someone definitively tell me what the importance of research is to both PhD and MS graduate admissions at upper-level programs?</p>

2

<p>Research experience is important because that’s what you’ll be doing in graduate school, and experience at the undergrad level is a signal to graduate admissions committees that you at least have an idea of what you’re in for. I didn’t do any undergraduate research as an RA but I did write a senior thesis. Having a ton of research experience will not guarantee you admissions anywhere, but having none will almost surely keep you out. Internships don’t typically matter unless they are directly relevant to what you plan to study in graduate school.</p>