I’m working in more of the business end of engineering and I want to go back to school (for an engineering PhD) so I can switch my career back into engineering. I have a Masters from a decent US school. I saw a colleague return to school for a PhD, and I’m intrigued by the idea and want to assess my chances.
DEGREES
BS Civil Engineering GPA. 3.65/4.00
Arizona State University
MS Aerospace Engineering GPA. 3.70/4.00
Georgia Tech
PUBLICATIONS
2nd author of conference paper
1st author of journal paper
LORs
3 strong recommendations
(2 from profs)
UNIVERSITIES
Imperial College
Cambridge University
University College London
Oxford University
You are certainly competitive. If this is the direction you want to pursue, go for it. These are all fairly selective universities so you might wish to apply to one or more others where you are quite sure you will be admitted.
The PhD process in the UK is very much about matching your research interests to those of the researchers at the University. Go through the research interests at each of the universities that you have listed and identify the ones that are most interesting / relevant to you. Then look into who the lead researchers are for the areas that you are particularly interested in. Think about why or how you might like to be involved, then contact the researcher whose work is most interesting. Most of the universities actively encourage you to contact a potential supervisor directly before applying. Your qualifications are credible, so there is no reason not to investigate further!
Are you sure that you need a PhD to get back into engineering? if your main goal is just to go back into engineering, and you already have an MS from Georgia Tech, you probably just need to try to effect a lateral move into a more engineering position. I don’t think you’d need a PhD for that.
You should get a PhD if you’ve decided that you have a burning desire to do independent research on some specific area of engineering.
Fair point Juillet,
I’m interested in ultimately going into research. I’ve always wanted to do the PhD and regret not obtaining one at Georgia Tech. Fortunately, there are tremendous universities in the UK. I know it would be a big sacrifice to go back to a doctorate, but I’m willing to explore the idea.
I need to assess my chances of getting into a good program, and see if my company would be cooperative with this endeavor, and/or see if I can obtain a funded research position in a lab.
@AeroEngineer28, also a Tech alum, is also looking at doing a PhD in the UK…you might reach out to her / him.