EE grad school, Power/Energy Systems

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>So I am going to be a senior this fall, have not ever given much thought to graduate school. But now that the end of school is so close and I have a bit of work experience, I am realizing that I would really like to get a Master's degree in EE in the Power area. I have been interested in power and energy systems for the past few years, but the program at my school (Michigan) is in its infancy and I don't feel like I've learned what I need to know in the few special courses that have been offered at U-M.</p>

<p>As I said, I never really put much thought into graduate school and was never really interested in research as a result. I am looking to do a Master's in Engineering program, likely course-based vs. thesis-based.</p>

<p>A rundown on me, I have a 3.4 in Electrical Engineering at the University of Michigan. As I said, we don't really have a power program that is up and running, so I've only been able to take "Special Topics" classes in the area of power / energy. (In these two courses, I earned grades of A- and A+, a bit better than my average EE course grades.) I also will graduate with a minor in Economics.</p>

<p>What I lacked in classroom experience, I can make up for a little bit in the workplace. When I head back to school in the fall, I will have 4 semesters of electrical engineering experience. One as an intern with an electric utility in MI, spent modeling the high-voltage grid covering the utility's territory. Three as an electrical engineer co-op with "Big Oil" at a 200,000bpd refinery. Two of these semesters spent working electrical and instrumentation reliability, and this summer working as an EE in the Engineering department, modeling the refinery's power distribution network using ETAP modeling software.</p>

<p>When I head back to school in the fall, I will be taking my capstone design class in digital signal processing (not what I want, but again, we don't have a power course that satisfies capstone requirements yet.) I also will be taking another "Special Topics" course in power electronics. Anyways, I fully expect to do well in the power electronics course, and to do decent in the DSP design course. I hope to have an overall GPA of 3.45 after the fall semester.</p>

<p>So this brings me to the choosing a graduate school topic. To sum it up, I am hoping to do a non-thesis MEng program in Electrical Engineering, focusing in power. I expect that I will score in the top few percentage points on the GRE. I have already accepted that I will not be a great candidate at the very top graduate schools, I merely hope to attend school at a flagship public university. (I would really like to go to a Big Ten school.)</p>

<p>Would appreciate suggestions on where I would be a good candidate for grad school, especially at Big Ten schools. If the Big Ten is too ambitious, what other flagship state schools would I have a chance at? Any other advice/recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!</p>

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<p>I think you have a good shot at most of the big 10. Illinois ECE has an average GPA around 3.8 for enrolled grads so your chances are fairly slim with a 3.4 (most programs will not care about fall grades). And you probably don’t want to attend Michigan EECS again (even if it’s sympathetic to its own undergrads) because of the smallness of the power/energy program. But the rest you should be competitive at. All are good in EE except for Iowa and Indiana, though I don’t know about power/energy specifically. IMO you underestimate a 3.4 from UM EECS and overestimate the competition. Outside the top 5, EE grad admissions aren’t too bad, particularly for terminal MS. I suggest applying to any big 10 schools, including Illinois, that you wouldn’t mind attending. You also have a shot at most other programs outside the top 5.</p>

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<p>The Illinois ECE number of 3.8 is for PhD programs, which are MUCH more competative.
I’m sure you are a good candidate for their program, for MS.</p>

<p>Also keep in mind, the low acceptance rates for top schools is because of the huge # of international applicants (most of which get rejected).</p>

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<p>No, it’s for both MS and PhD admissions combined and the difference in GPA is small between the two as Illinois pools PhD applicants without an MS degree into the MS pile.</p>

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<p>Ow…are you serious?
Is this another case where the international applicants dominate the applications with high gpa’s (and have a lower acceptance rate?). Do you have any statistics on it?</p>

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<p>You have a chance at any program, in my opinion. Aim as high as you please. Power is not a very popular field; perhaps 2% of the EE’s at GT are in the power area, for example, and most faculty do not have more than 1 or 2 students (as opposed to the mega groups in areas like microelectronics and circuit design)</p>

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<p>Do you think a field like microelectronics/circuit design would be significantly more competitive for graduate school admissions, or are there more spaces available as well?</p>

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<p>Without a ton of knowledge on the subject, I would guess it is a more competitive area.</p>