Hello all,
I’m planning to apply for Fall 2016 for a PhD in EECS. I don’t have a lot of experience in research and I haven’t worked at any major lab before. I also haven’t had any publications ever. However, based on the little I have done in research and trying out the industry I am certain that I want to dedicate my life to research and scientific work. This is me:
University of Maryland, College Park
Major: Electrical Engineering
GPA : 3.9 (a B in DSP and a B+ in technical writing)
Research : Research assistant (nothing published)
letters of Recommendations from good professors (Haven’t seen the letters)
GRE : 167/147/4 (Q/V/A) -I’m taking this again soon although MIT does not require GRE
Work Experience : 1 year Systems analyst (Software Engineering) at Visa Inc in San Francisco
Status : domestic
Do I have a chance to get in? Should I email professors? Should I visit the campus? Should I ask for a recommendation from my manager?
Thanks,
Kia
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B in DSP
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Sinner! Say your beads. Why didn’t you study?
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Research : Research assistant (nothing published)
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This is trouble. Do you have a project portfolio at least?
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1 year Systems analyst (Software Engineering) at Visa Inc in San Francisco
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What kinds of things were you doing at Visa? Be specific, and I’ll try to make suggestions.
Hi @jsm2015
I wanted to ask about some of these.
So basically, if you look at my transcript, I have 4.0 every single semester except for one (Spring 2013) which I got a B in DSP and the B+ in technical writing.
That semester, I had launched a startup with a some of my classmates and we were all working 60+ hours on it every week (http://www.thebrodkast.com). As a result, I skipped a lot of classes and I was faced with two very attendance-sensitive professors and everything went downhill from there.
Should I explain this in my SOP? I always thought making excuses would make my application look weak. Is that true?
I was working with a professor under independent undergraduate research credits. The same professor is supposedly my strongest letter of recommendation, but unfortunately, I didn’t dedicated serious time to research during undergrads.
Same goes for my job at Visa. My job is not related to my major at all (Electrical Engineering) and I chose to work here as a venture and mostly because I wanted to have some silicon valley software worker experience.
I am building an internal platform for Visa employees (engineers and others) to be able write automation programs for day to day operations tasks. It’s basically a full on, full stack web application where I use every single software technology out there.
The reason that I’m applying for PhD programs is because I have finally decided what I want to do in terms of career between startups, industry and research (PhD) and this move would be considered a hard turn.
Is it too late for me? Should I go for a masters at Maryland and then apply for a PhD elsewhere?
Is there any strategy I can use in my SOPs and applications in general?
Thanks for reading 
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The reason that I'm applying for PhD programs is because I have finally decided what I want to do in terms of career between startups, industry and research (PhD) and this move would be considered a hard turn.
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First, find a few places that have faculty that are doing the kinds of things you are interested in. I’d pick about 10 different institutions and send people an email message with an introduction, research interests, and your CV.
Your verbal GRE score is a bit low, but not terribly so. I would retake, score well on the math (>160), and at least around the 50th percentile in the verbal section. Keep a 4 or above on the writing.
As for your SOP, discuss your undergraduate research (since this is the source of your strongest reference), and mention your work in industry. Focus on the academic/research side, though, as some may argue that you really don’t need a Ph.D. if you are simply looking for a (technical) career.
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I would not discuss your "bad" semester.
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Edit: BUT because it’s MIT, you may want to atone a little by bringing up research/work experience that suggests your grades for that semester are not indicative.
Thanks again @jsm2015
One last question. I read here that MIT does not require GRE scores.
https://www.eecs.mit.edu/academics-admissions/graduate-program/admissions/dear-prospective-applicant
Do they still care? although they have dismissed it
Thanks