Confused Mechanical MS/PhD International Student

Graduate School
1

<p>Dear all,</p>

<p>I would just like to seek some opinion on my current situation now. I am an international applicant from Australia for Mechanical Engineering MS/PhD beginning Fall 2012. Some current statistics of admission decisions:</p>

<p>U Michigan AnnArbor : MS self fund accepted
UC Merced : PhD TA funding accepted
UC Davis : Waiting
UCSB : Reconsidering MS self fund, PhD denied
UC Berkeley : Reconsidering MS self fund, PhD denied
University of Melbourne Australia : undergrad school, MS or PhD funded by school easily</p>

<p>Undergrad Score: 83/100, or around 3.7-3.8/4.0 GPA
Internship: 1 in UC Davis
Exchange: 3rd year in UC Davis
Awards: Dean's List in Australia and UC Davis
Research: Currently working as researcher in Uni Melbourne, possible advance to MS/PhD
GRE: 800Q, 540V, 3.5W</p>

<p>Basically, I have been rejected by a few other top schools, I believe because of my weak letters, lack of research experience, weak GRE AWA, and I am sending emails to urge them reconsider me for a MS program rather than a PhD which I have applied for originally. I am currently really confused on which decision to make. It is basically to stay in Australia for MS and go to US for PhD at a top school, or to go to US right away.</p>

<p>Staying in Australia for MS, I am hoping to get a good MS thesis and possible papers published, with these opening up a gateway for me to get into a top school like Stanford, Caltech or Berkeley. However, I am not sure if this is counter-productive, as I waste another year in Australia when I could go over to US and start building up a strong relationship with people in the university in US.</p>

<p>Going over to US now, firstly UC Merced accepted me with a PhD offer and funding available as TA position. Then again, I realize they are actively recruiting PhD students. I know it is not a ranked school and it is new and the people inside isn't impressive, but I am thinking of going there and possible transfer to other schools for PhD. My concern is they will not give a MS to me since I am admitted as a PhD student, and the fact that they paid me for it. I am sure they will not like me to take the money and leave to others for a PhD. Will anyone help comment on this issue, whether I can legally request for a MS from UC Merced after I complete all the requirements for MS, while enrolled as a PhD student????????????</p>

<p>U Michigan accepted me for MS program after I ask them to reconsider me, based on my current research work in Australia after graduation. However, it is a MS and therefore self-funded. It seems like this is the best option, but I am concerned about advancing to PhD candidate after MS completion, as told by a professor there that they do not have much funding available. Can anyone tell if a MS degree from U Michigan is "qualified" enough for me to apply for PhD in top schools? (top choices are UC Berkeley, Stanford or Caltech) I know this is a stupid question, but all other factors aside (MS grades, thesis qualities etc), will U Michigan a school good enough to give me a higher chance?</p>

<p>I guess if UC Berkeley or UC Davis take me for MS (or better PhD from Davis), I will go over right away to either of them, but if they do not, I am not sure what to do. UC Merced seems to be a weak option for me, but considering they have less people, I am thinking if I could stand out as a big fish in a small pond, and consequently perhaps have an easier career pathway in that place (less competition and PhD students?) My heart is set on the US, so one way or another, I am going to reside there in the future. I guess it is just a matter of which decision will ease my progress towards getting a good job and securing residency in US after my PhD completion. Appreciate if anyone could sound their opinions.</p>

2

<p>Hi,
I am currently a PhD student in Computer Science at UC Merced. I started last year in August. I got a BS and two MS degrees from a top 20 - top 10 engineering university in Europe. I was in the same situation as you are now about a year ago. I applied to a lot of top schools in the US (Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, …) and was rejected every were.
I got two MS degrees, both with distinction, 790 at the quantitative GRE (which is the most important for engineering programs), was an exchange student at Stanford in 2009 and also got a recommendation letter from a Stanford Professor.
PhD programs in top schools in the US are incredible hard to get in, at schools like Stanford, MIT, etc. there are 2000-3000 applicants and maybe 12-15 get accepted. So its not that your application is weak, its just like a lottery (well a little bit you know).</p>

<p>What can I say about UCM, the bad thing is it has not much reputation yet that is true, but it is already growing and we are publishing papers with the same success rate at conferences where also people from MIT, Berkeley, etc. publish. We work together with a lot of people from Berkeley and other UCs. Most professors here are from top schools like Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, etc.
In a PhD program it is better to be in a small program with an adviser who has time for you. In a big school you can end up seeing you adviser maybe once every two months and share him with 20 other students (people from Berkeley told me that for example). At UC Merced I share my adviser only with 3 other students and we work together every week and I learn a lot. Of course you can also have this situation in a bigger school, but its less likely.
The funding situation is really good here at UC Merced, you won’t have to worry about money here.
If a PhD applicant doesn’t meet the standards of a UC school, he or she will also not be accepted at UCM, thats why we are recruiting actively. </p>

<p>I hope this gives you a better view on UC Merced and maybe help you in our decision. Feel free to ask other questions, I am happy to help.
BTW the surroundings at UCM are a lot like at UC Davis.</p>

3

<p>hello and thank you so much for your reply. I was studying in UC Davis for exchange so I have been wanting to go back there fore my postgraduate.</p>

<p>What you are telling me seems to be what I have been hearing people say about UCM, and believe me I totally appreciate a good supervisor that has time to spend on you. In fact, I like my supervisor alot and would have gone over right away, but there’s just one thing that is stopping me if anything, that is:</p>

<p>will you stand a lower chance than other graduates from top schools to secure a good job in the R&D industries with a degree from UCM? and when I say this, I mean everything aside, for example consider your quality of thesis is as good as others, everything else is on the same par, only difference is your degree is from UCM, rather than MIT Harvard Stanford etc?</p>

<p>This has been the reason that kept me thinking over and over again. Also the other thing if I can ask you is, what do you think the possibility of UCM giving me a MS degree after I complete the requirement, although I am admitted as a PhD student? I am exploring my every option now, and leaving UCM to some other top schools for my PhD after MS in UCM is frankly in my consideration too. Would you say this is possible, or they simply would not give me the degree, because they want me to do PhD at UCM, so in other words, if I go now, it will either be I am binded to get my PhD from UCM, or I leave UCM with nothing and start over again at other school?</p>

<p>If you can give me your opinion on my 2 questions I would appreciate alot! Thanks so much for your time!</p>

4

<p>also, would you think there is any problem if I accept the offers that I have in hand right now? ( multiple). I simply could not possibly make up my mind at this stage, and they are demanding me to answer them, literally by the end of this week…</p>

5

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>you will be for sure able to get a good job with a degree from UCM after you graduated. Its not like it is an online degree from somewhere, it is still a University of California campus and that is a very high standard. My lab mate for example will graduate this summer and just got a job offer at a company in silicon valley with an entrance salary close to a 100k, another graduate from our department is doing a postdoc at Carnegie Mellon University. Some of my labmates including me got internship offers for this summer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, etc. So of course you have good chances to get a good job after graduation, especially in an engineering field. What do you think is more useful for industry, a BA in History from Stanford or a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UCM?? It think its easy to answer this question.</p>

<p>You can do crap work in your PhD at MIT and do excellent work at UCM, also the other way round. But at the end when you apply at a big company everyone has to go through the same interview process and there people will see if you are good or not. A degree alone doesn’t say if you are good or not.</p>

<p>I think they would probably give you a MS degree if you decide to drop out from the PhD program. I think that is not the problem, the problem will be to explain this in a later interview for a PhD position at Stanford or where ever: “You left the PhD program because the school was to small for you. Ok you are probably not passionate enough about your filed.” -> do you get what I want to say?
Another problem in this case could be that your adviser from UCM won’t be very happy and probably not willing to give you a letter of recommendation for another application, unless you have a really really good reason for it. And this is very bad and will lower your chances to get accepted somewhere else.</p>

<p>When I came here I also thought about reapplying to another school after a semester or a year, but it was clear to me very fast that I won’t do it because I really like the work I am doing here and that is what counts most.</p>

<p>I don’t really know what happens if you accept an offer but then reject it again. I am sure that’s considered kind of rude. But I don’t know if it will affect you somehow.</p>

<p>To summarize it, you will for sure be able to get a good job with a UCM degree, it is up to you what you make out of your opportunities. But that is the same everywhere.</p>

<p>Let me know if you have any more questions, and let me know what your decision will be ;)</p>

6

<p>thanks so much for your help. I will think it through. Maybe one day I will see you at UCM.</p>