<p>Can anyone help me identify some decent PhD programs in mechanical engineering? </p>
<p>I am doing ME at Cornell, have about a 3.5 GPA, no GRE scores yet (predicting upper 700s/800 quant, 600s verbal, 5~6 writing), two semesters of research and a summer internship at a large company. I have a lot to talk about from my internship, but don't have anything really significant from my research because I mainly helped with other people's projects. I am motivated and smart but I'm afraid not enough to be competitive at elite schools. </p>
<p>Does anyone know of less selective programs that still have a decent reputation in ME? I need to develop a list of schools that I have a reasonable shot at getting into, and would appreciate any input. To be more specific, I guess I am mostly interested in studying controls and dynamics. I want to pursue a career doing research in industry. </p>
<p>Bump. I really just need guidance on what kind of schools to aim for. I am pretty sure I would not be fit for schools like Cal Tech. I would love to stay at Cornell but, knowing firsthand that grad students here are REALLY smart, I realize it will be very competitive. </p>
<p>I have been looking up schools like RPI which, according to schoolaah.com (sketch?), has an average 3.5 GPA, 533V and 766Q GRE. These numbers seem slightly more attainable for me based on current GPA and practice GREs, but I would imagine a school like RPI would still be very hard to get into. </p>
<p>I would appreciate any advice/suggestions for schools that you think might be in the right ballpark.</p>
<p>I don’t know which schools are best, but I would still try to shoot high (along with medium). Your GPA is low, but everything else looks great. Do know what your letters of recommendation will be like?</p>
<p>I had the /exact/ same stats as you (minus the company internship, and from a little-known college), and got into 2 T10 PhD programs in Computer Science. Aim higher!</p>
<p>I think I can get a couple of strong recommendations. I will have to work on a third one. The biggest thing I have to work on this summer is studying for and taking the GRE. Better do well, because I don’t think I’m taking it more than once unless I really bomb it. </p>
<p>Trout, congratulations on your acceptances; maybe I will apply to two or three reach schools just for laughs (Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley?) and also go for some of the “more realistic” ones. I haven’t had time to look into it too deeply, but just from US News rankings I’ve come up with: Penn State, RPI, Case Western, University of Rochester. Provided I have decent recs and SoP, 3.5 GPA and 750+M/600+V GRE, would I have a chance of getting into at least one of these?</p>
<p>Yes, you would have a good chance. Assuming good research and LoR’s: it’s all about fit at this point, since it’s a PhD program. Treat it like applying to a competitive job: what skills do you bring and how do your research interests match up with 2-4 faculty at a given school? If the fit is good you have a good chance anywhere except maybe top-5 departments and certain ivies (which bring in an inordinate number of apps because of their famous names). Just try to apply to at least 6-8 places.</p>
<p>Re: fit… hopefully you have a good idea of what direction you want to go. To narrow your search, look at the top conferences/journals in your area, and see where the attendees are coming from. You can even consider emailing them if you have a connection to their work or your decision to apply depends on whether a prof is considering new students.</p>
<p>I think you overestimate the difficulty of the quantitative GRE… but you’ll see once you do the practice tests It’s like an easier version of the SAT math, but curved upwards like the SAT2 math.</p>
It’s like an easier version of the SAT math, but curved upwards like the SAT2 math.</p>