Grad school chances. Will chance back.

Graduate School
1

Hi all,

I’m fairly new to this process so bear with me. I’m currently a senior majoring in mechanical engineering at a medium-sized public university. I graduate in April and plan on working as a mechanical engineer for about a year until the Fall 2018 semester, which is when I want to start grad school. I have recently decided that I want to get a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering and eventually work in prosthetic limb design. Since I have little to no experience in the medical field, I’m going to get into research in the BME field with one of the professors at my current university. I have about 7 months until the first of my applications are due, so that gives me time to gain experience, write my personal statement, study for/take the GRE, etc.

Could you guys take a look at my “resume” and comment on what ranking of school you think that I could get accepted into. I want to know this so that I can pick a range of schools to apply to. Thanks!

—About me—
University: University of Alabama at Birmingham
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Prospective graduate program: M.S. Biomedical Engineering
Cumulative GPA: 3.5
Major GPA: ~3.6
Practice GRE scores (without studying): 162Q, 154V
—Research Experience—
3 months: Conference paper (thermal energy modeling)
7 months: Biomedical engineering research (plan to do in future)
—Work Experience—
1 year: Engineering Teacher’s Assistant
1 year: CAD modeling contractor
3 months: Process engineering intern (manufacturing)
3 months: Mechanical engineering intern (manufacturing)
1 year - present: Head designer for BAJA SAE club
4 years - present: Restaurant co-owner
—Volunteer Experience—
4 years - present: Youth group leader
–Senior Design Project—
3d printed prosthetic hand for a chil

What schools do you think i should apply to ranking wise? Any help/advice is greatly appreciated!

2

Graduate school is not like undergraduate programs where it is reasonable to “chance” you. Ultimately, the process is much more holistic and much more subjective. Further, what constitutes a good school really comes down to research fit more than it’s ranking according to whatever ranking service you happen to prefer. Your stats will be fine for getting into graduate school and a fair number of places, but exactly which places is really impossible to say.

3

So basically what I’m wondering is how high should I aim? I know I wouldn’t be able to get into say, Stanford, but would I have a good shot at at top 20-50 school (i.e. UT-Austin, USC, Penn St, U Washington, etc.). I know you can’t really say an exact school that I can get into, but I’m just not sure how high or low to aim when I start to apply.

4

You’ve got comparable stats to what I had (slightly higher GPA and slightly lower GRE) and I landed at a top 10-15 program in my field. I didn’t have a conference paper either. Shoot for as high as you want and just see what happens. You really don’t know until you try.

Also, don’t think about rankings so much. Find a program doing research that interests you and join that program.

5

Take Boneh3ad’s advice and pick the research that resonates with you and set the ranking aside. That was great advice for my son. He also contacted the profs whose research interested him and knew what they were about when he was doing his applications and had established a relationship with them. I expect that if you reach out and they aren’t receptive you know to drop them from the list. Also, another tip we got from CC is to go to the results forum on gradcafe. Put in your major and you can get some clue about stats of students accepted and rejected. Not everyone includes their stats but if a post has a diamond click on it and they will show up.