<p>Hi, I'm a junior and am strongly considering grad school for engineering.
I attend Virginia Tech (materials science engineering)
GPA: 3.91
I'm in honors and will graduate with an honors diploma (unless I completely fail)
I've served a three-term co-op.
I haven't done any research yet.
I also haven't taken the GRE.</p>
<p>Assuming I do pretty well on the GRE, what grad schools do you think I could potentially get into? I really want to go to a top tier school (like GaTech, VaTech, MIT, CalTech, etc.).</p>
<p>I also have teachers who really like me, so my LOR's will be fantastic!</p>
<p>What kind of schools could I get into?</p>
<p>Do research, then you can shoot pretty high. Without doing any undergraduate research, you are handicapping yourself.</p>
<p>Ok, maybe I should rephrase that question a bit: without research, where do you think I could get into?</p>
<p>With research, where do you think I could get into?</p>
<p>Thanks!!!</p>
<p>What do your professors say? They would know.</p>
<p>Hmmm…Maybe I should be a bit clearer: What grad school do you think I could get into!!! It’d be really nice if someone could actually answer the question (as opposed to just telling me to go ask someone else).</p>
<p>That’s because, get this… No one knows! None of us are on admissions committees. None f us are psychic. We can only tell you what we know, and what we know is that you really need to do research to get the top tier schools.</p>
<p>I’ve you’re content with a non-funded masters program, I think you can go ahead and apply anywhere…including Stanford, which pumps thru a lot of for-pay masters students from my understanding. If you expect to get full-funding for a PhD program, however,you are going to need to get going on undergrad research, or shoot for something other than the top schools.</p>
<p>What kind of degree do you want? What kind of career do you want? </p>
<p>If you’re going for a M.Eng. or a non-thesis M.S., then I think you could reasonably apply to top-tier schools like Stanford. I don’t know anyone who’s ever received any form of significant funding for these. </p>
<p>Admissions is much harder for funded M.S. (thesis) and Ph.D. programs. Even those at second and third tier schools have undergraduate research experience. But if you don’t have any research experience, then you probably should be cautious about taking this path anyway.</p>