EE Ph.D Graduate Admission Chances

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi All,</p>

<p>I am graduating in 3 years from the University of Michigan and applying to a few Ph.D programs. I was wondering if you could let me know what you think my chances are of getting in. My stats are below: </p>

<p>3.76/4.00 Overall GPA || 3.84/4.00 Major GPA
800 Math / 720 Verbal / 5.5 Writing GRE
2 Research Internships [Air Force Research Lab, MRLets (Signal Processing Startup)]
1 Corporate Internship [Capital One, Business Analyst]
1 IEEE Published Conference Paper
1 International Journal Paper Submission/In Review
2 U.S. Patent Applications Submissions/In Review</p>

<p>I am applying to Stanford, Berkeley (Top 2 Choices), MIT, GT, Illinois, Caltech, Michigan, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton</p>

<p>One other thing, my fall 2008 GPA was not so hot and my overall GPA was lowered to 3.71, do you think this will affect my admission chances? The GPA on my transcript that I sent out to the schools was 3.76 but will my fall 2008 GPA be seen? </p>

<p>Thanks everyone for your help!</p>

2

<p>For a Ph.D. at Stanford EE or Berkeley EECS, you're probably at 50/50 or lower. Definitely in at the Master's level. Most EE Ph.D. people I've met have graduated close to or at the top of their class from schools like UIllinois or MIT.</p>

3

<p>Did you say you have 3 years until graduation and you've already taken the GRE????</p>

<p>If so, all I can say is wow, congrats on posting this message 3 years earlier than most people would. :) I'm no expert on getting in as a PhD in such selective programs, but I'm sure people will give you plenty of advice on what to do over the next 3 years! You are like a ball of clay that is just waiting to be molded. hehehe</p>

4

<p>
[quote]
The GPA on my transcript that I sent out to the schools was 3.76 but will my fall 2008 GPA be seen?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Wait I'm confused... If you are graduating in 3 years, why in the world are you applying now? Was that a typo?</p>

5

<p>Battlefrog,
I think he meant that he has taken 3 years to complete his B.S., not that he will be receiving his diploma 3 years from now.</p>

<p>Hsiying,
To a large extent, graduate admissions (just like undergraduate admissions) are a bit of a crapshoot. There are many many well-qualified applicants each year and only so many funding slots at top-level engineering scools. I'd say you have a good chance at any school you want to apply to, but don't beat yourself up or feel down if you aren't accepted at your top few choices. </p>

<p>Good Luck!
-Justin</p>

6

<p>bme is right. It's hard to see what makes colleges accept some but not others at the graduate level. You will get into at least 2/3 of those schools, though. Which 2/3 I cannot tell you because of what I just said. You seem like a smart guy but I have to warn you that Stanford's PhD qualifier is particularly brutal and arbitrary; My advisor complained that many amazing people have failed it while some not-so-amazing have pased it due to its nature.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the help guys!</p>

8

<p>For Stanford MS, the original poster is definitely in. His GPA and GRE were slightly better than mine, and my undergrad school wasn't even top-25. (I was rejected by UCB/MS.)</p>

<p>When i was at Stanford (MS EE), a good portion of my entering class hailed from Xinghua (China), National Taiwan University, and University of Waterloo (Canada), Seoul University (S korea) -- all top schools for their respective regions. I was really impresed with UWaterloo co-op program -- I had nothing comparable as an undergrad at a non-top university, so boy was I jealous!</p>

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<p>Heh, my friend failed it the first time, then aced it on the second try (top 10%.)
Then again, he didn't bother to prepare the first time ... only after he first failed it, then realized he had exactly 1 more attempt, did he subsequently hunker down, sweat, pray, and prepare.</p>

9

<p>Hes in for the MS but acceptance to the more selective MS/Ph.D. program with funding is less certain.</p>

10

<p>Does anyone think my Fall 2008 grades will sink me? It was pretty bad and I was taking pretty easy classes...</p>

11

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<p>Could you refresh my memory?</p>

<p>When i was there 10 years ago, I was under the impression that any Stanford grad-EE, after acceptance to the school, could subsequently try out for PhD candidacy. I saw a lot of PhD candidates enter the school as MS students -- they concurrently took the PhD qual-exam, with the hopes of getting picked up by an adviser the following year. For the hardest groups, it was a crapshoot -- my systems&signals T.A. was happy to get his 2nd choice despite an outstanding ranking on the PhD qual, the guy who beat him had more A+'s!</p>

<p>Is it different now? To be eligible for PhD candidacy, do you now need to select the PhD-track on Stanford's grad-school application?</p>

12

<p>At Stanford, you can get admitted as MS/Ph.D in which you are given the option to take the quals or MS only in which you are told you cannot take the quals without petitioning. This latter MS only acceptance gives no funding and requires you to find an adviser that will recommend you for the quals before even taking the quals. From a lot of my friends here in EE, the latter MS only option is a very difficult path to a Ph.D.. The main point here is funding. They only fund the top students, which is what I'm guessing the OP wants.</p>

13

<p>Thanks blah2009. Looks like my memory is poor -- I definitely only applied to MS terminal program (which as everyone has noted, is much less selective than the MS/PhD track.) 11 years back, I thought anyone in the EE grad-school could petition to take the PhD-quals, but I'm probably wrong on that.</p>