Electrical Engineering graduate school advice (i.e. where I stand)

Graduate School
1

<p>Hello everyone, I'm a senior electrical engineer at Rice University and I was hoping I could get some advice about my situation in applying to graduate school. I am not graduating this year for reasons I will explain later, but my breakdown goes as such:</p>

<p>Major: EE
minor: Applied Math</p>

<p>GPA: 3.48, Major:3.57 / 4.00
GRE: 780M 680V 5W</p>

<p>Experience/Employment</p>

<p>Rice University – Researcher under Dr. Zhong Spring 2010 – present
• Design a quad-rotor helicopter that is self-balancing via microcontrollers and sensors.</p>

<p>S&G Imports – Contract Engineer Spring 2010 – present
• Head engineer and project consultant for a commercial bar breathalyzer. I’ve redone the product for more accurate sensing and am incorporating a smart interface with touchscreen controls among other capabilities. </p>

<p>Rice University − Teaching Assistant for ELEC 301 Fall 2009 </p>

<p>Rice University − Research Intern – Compressive Sensing – Dr. Baraniuk Summer 2009
• Created a 3-D projection system, performed Compressive Sensing on images and studied other methods such as Compressive Structured Light.</p>

<p>Rice University − Teaching Assistant for ELEC241 Fall 2008 </p>

<p>Baylor College of Medicine − Lab Assistant for Dr. Scott Pletcher Summer 2008
• Engineered devices for Dr. Pletcher to improve his lab’s efficiency such as creating and programming a robotic arm from servo motors to incorporate into a fly counting system I engineered via photointerrupts.</p>

<p>Honors:</p>

<p>Louis J Walsh scholarship for Engineering (2008), F & M Rogers Scholarship (2008), National Hispanic Scholar (2005), Rice Intramural Billiards Champion (2008), National Society of Collegiate Scholars Inductee (2006).</p>

<p>Basically, I have a lot of work experience with a few graduate courses under my belt. I am not graduating this year because, while studying abroad last Spring in Singapore at NUS, I had to come back to help take care of my father who was diagnosed with cancer--so I am one semester short. I've luckily been able to continue school and still help my parents since he's being treated across the street at MD Anderson but that is why I will be doing an extra semester. </p>

<p>Now, my GPA is low because, quite frankly, I've had interesting circumstances to work through such as taking a full load while living out of my car because of hurricane damage last year, helping parents through cancer treatment and so forth. Anyway, that doesn't show in a transcript so it does not matter. What does matter is what I should be doing in this next year to give myself the best possible chances. </p>

<p>In terms of recommendations, I have an excellent recommendation from S & G Imports (a small startup) because I am literally in charge of everything about their product and they are simply paying me to get their end goal product done. One of my better recommenders is a man (Rhodes Scholar) who I have had several Applied Math courses and a research seminar with and is a top 10 in the world Numerical Analyst. Also, the current research under Dr. Zhong should produce a great recommendation as well, and during the summer I expect to be able to get another good to great one at my internship at Schlumberger. As backup, I have a few other recommenders because I am intimate with the faculty at Rice being the IEEE Vice President. </p>

<p>Also, if all goes as it has been for the past three semesters, I should be able to get a 3.55+ GPA in the next year (by application time) because my past two years is a 3.75 GPA with mostly engineering courses. So, do I have, realistically, any chance of being accepted at schools such as:</p>

<p>Cornell, MIT, Rice, Cal Tech, Georgia Tech, Standford, Berkeley, Purdue, etc.</p>

<p>In terms of project experience, I would have done the following</p>

<p>Guitar Effects Processor (senior design) sponsored by Freescale
Commercial Breathalyzer with a smart user interface
Self-stabilizing quadrotor platform
and probably one more thing under Dr. Zhong (he's rather well known too).</p>

<p>What should I do to better my chances aside boost my GPA as high as I can? </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Well, if you want simple advice for how to improve your admission prospects, be sure to apply for fellowships at the same time you’re putting together grad applications. Those can get you admits where you otherwise might not have gotten them. Try to have a peer reviewed manuscript in the works as well. </p>

<p>I think you have a decent shot at any of those universities you listed, with definite admits to half of them.</p>

3

<p>The reason I am hesitant to believe that I am fairly well off is because a lot of my peers are getting rejected from every top tier school with better stats than I have. For instance, my suitemate has a 3.88, 800Q 620V 4W GRE, research experience at NIST, works for a startup, etc and he has been rejected at MIT Princeton Carnegie but got into Rice and UT with CalTech still not responding. It seems as if he messed up or he wasn’t good enough this year, but it feels like the latter. </p>

<p>Anyone know any good fellowships I could apply for and have a chance at getting?</p>

4

<p>Oh, and does the GRE verbal score really have any impact on an app?</p>

5

<p>Your roommate probably screwed up his applications somehow. I know people with similar stats with less notable work who were accepted at MIT.</p>

<p>For engineering, the big fellowships are NSF, NDSEG and Hertz. I think this year there was also a DoE fellowship. There is plenty of advice on the internet about those fellowships, so I won’t go into detail here.</p>

6

<p>isn’t it true that in general, the announcement of fellowship acceptances comes some time after the announcement of grad school admission status?</p>

7

<p>"Oh, and does the GRE verbal score really have any impact on an app? "</p>

<p>Yes… just not much. Even engineering students have to publish, so they do like to see some evidence that you are literate. Unfortunately, the GRE is the only evidence of this that they can guarantee is your own work - your fantastic SOP was at the least (hopefully) edited by someone else, and may have been partially or wholly written by them as well. So they look at it, but it only really matters if it is unusually low or if they are looking for tiebreakers between roughly even students.</p>

8

<p>“I know people with similar stats with less notable work who were accepted at MIT.”</p>

<p>Grad admissions is very individual - the OP’s stats “clear the bar” at every level, but do not shine. Some professors will worry about that, as it may predict a difficulty in completing required grad coursework. Other professors will brush that aside. Two people with similar stats applying to two different professors may see wildly different results. In the end, good numbers will usually only get you past the “elimination round” of admissions, they won’t sway a professor to up-select you for their lab.</p>

<p>Also, research experience is always a tough thing to quantify - while you may feel your research efforts represent a high level of effort and production, the reviewing professors may feel differently depending on their expectations and your LOR’s. Of course, the opposite is also true - I was given a lot of credit for one research effort that, as an older student with professional experience, I thought was mediocre on my own part. However, my professor was comparing that to typical undergraduate standards, and felt it was much higher in quality than standard fare. Go figure.</p>

<p>Lastly, remember “fit” - professors are often looking for a match to their interests and needs much more than a specific set of qualifications. If you match up well, you can get in despite lesser qualifications, and if you don’t, nothing else will really help.</p>