<p>GPA 3.5 from top 30 engineering school
3 years research experience w/ 2 professors; 2 great LORs, 1 LOR from faculty adviser
at least 1 publication by December (2nd author; 10 IF journal?).
interested in polymer research with emphasis on materials; maybe biotech if they let me do a rotational program before I am committed. </p>
<p>reach:
GA Tech
UT-Austin
Stanford (I like the location... and the rooftops and the fugly mascot)</p>
<p>maybe:
U Mass-Amherst
NC State?
UC Davis</p>
<p>fall back:
no clue, maybe industry and/or apply 1 year later?</p>
<p>I've talked to my 3 letter writers, and they've all suggested different schools. My adviser (professor [X]) wants me to apply to the top 30. Professor [Y] tells me to shoot for top 20, and include MIT, UC-B and UC-SB as my reach schools, even though [X] told me that anything below 3.75 is out of the question for the top 5. [Y] tells me that students with 3.2s have been admitted to UM-TwinCities, and they're ranked above MIT; But that might have been because the LOR was from people they knew. I will talk with my other research professor [Z] to hear what she has to say.</p>
<p>I'm mostly worried about my GPA and GRE-verbal (taking it in november). I also would like to be in either TX or CA, maybe NE, but not the midwest.</p>
<p>First off theres no way that UM is higher ranked than MIT in chemical engineering. I think your list is pretty good, and even though you have lower than average GPA for your reach schools, it seems as though you have good research experience. Although people will tell you that GPA doesn’t really matter, I believe that it does because everyone I have met that is from the top 5 schools has a really high GPA with good research experience. I think you should add a few schools to the maybe section such as UC Boulder, Penn State, Cornell, RPI etc. Look into which schools have professors doing impactful research in the areas that you are interested in and start contacting some professors expressing your interest.</p>
<p>I would also take the GRE a little sooner because you might not be happy with your first score and if you take it in November you won’t really have a chance to take it again because most apps are due in December. Good luck!</p>
<p>I’m a little iffy on contacting professors out of the blue. My adviser told me she doesn’t like that when students do that to her, mainly because she thinks students mostly just try to feed her what they think she wants to hear.</p>
<p>And I think I might add CU-B and Cornell; I was about to, just didn’t. Maybe not penn state, just because the name might strike a weird nerve with employers; it’ll take at least 10 years before that scandal washes away.</p>
<p>Contacting professors is not a bad thing, even though ONE of your professors said she didn’t like it. You are not really “feeding them what they want to hear”, but rather you ask them important question regarding their research, position availability, etc. It would suck if you end up going to a school because of a few profs and turned out that they are not planning on taking any graduate students that year. </p>
<p>Sometimes that could be the difference between getting in an not. If you really line up with what a professor is looking for in a future grad student, they could vouch for you when your name comes up in the review process. Worst thing that could happen is they don’t reply, but they are not going to say “oh no don’t accept him, he emailed me and I don’t like that.”</p>
<p>so what do you think the cut off for my GRE verbal should be? obviously higher the better, but it’d be nice to get a range. for instance, a 150 would probably not be good enough for most of these schools, right?</p>
<p>If English is your first language it really doesn’t matter that much. I had a friend that got a sub-500 score on the old scoring system and still got into a bunch of top-10 programs within our field. Most people I knew got between 500-600. A few of us scored over 600.</p>
<p>Ideally over 600 for science and engineering is excellent, but 500+ will not keep you out of a school. I’m talking about the old scale of course, I’m not too familiar with the new.</p>
<p>so cheme, I’m assuming you’re chem e? I was asking my adviser about job opportunities for PhDs and how it is much narrower than those for undergrads, due to issues of over qualification and the area of focus involved with a PhD. By area of focus, I mean your research will be very specific, which only narrows your options even more. She couldn’t really answer this question, and didn’t try to. So I was wondering if you have any input on how PhDs are hired in industry. How much versatility does a PhD have for the various research jobs, and how competitive are they?</p>
<p>PS. I’m not a native English speaker. But I’ve been here long enough that I am pretty much domestic.</p>
<p>Thats a good question. Most people assume that because you have a PhD, you are overqualified and your job prospects are very limited. I used to believe that too because everyone would say it to me. </p>
<p>I really think it depends on which school you attend and who your advisor is. If you’re going to get a PhD, you should get it from a top 20 program otherwise its not worth it and it won’t have much value in terms of getting a job. I have had way too many professors tell me “Either go to a top 10 school or just don’t go to grad school.” Every school I visited during recruitment weekend was a top 10 school and they all pretty much functioned the same way. The professors are usually well established in their field and have many industry connections so that students almost always have a job lined up before they graduate. </p>
<p>For example I met with one of the best profs in the world in the field of semiconductors and he showed me all the emails from Intel, IBM, etc asking him if he has any students who are graduating soon. Often, when industry is looking to hire someone they will contact the professor and ask if they have any students before they make the job opening public. I saw this in quite a few professors and all of the grad students I spoke to said they had no problems getting jobs. I currently work for one of the best polymer/membrane groups and the people who graduated while I was here had multiple job offers because the professor is so well connected and industry trusts the PhDs he produces. I had no idea things worked like this until I actually visited the schools and spoke with the professors.</p>
<p>Now if a school is not top tier school then things work differently and students might have a harder time getting jobs with their PhD because the professors might not be as established or as connected to industry. Again it also depends on how hard the student works during his PhD and the type of work he produces and a bunch of other factors, but I think the school and professor reputation play a huge role in getting jobs. So the take home message is get your PhD from a top tier school or don’t get it at all in my opinion.</p>
<p>Also I hava friends who were at industry for a few years before doing their PhD and they often tell me that having a PhD will allow you to start at a really good position. The way my friend described it is that an entry level engineer starts at level 6. After 3 years you can get promoted to a 5. Then after another 3-5 years you can get promoted to 4. Obviously the higher the level is, the better your position. Then they said a PhD started at level 3. So you can already see the difference it makes.</p>
<p>I wasn’t aware of this engineer hierarchy level thing. Maybe it was a system being used only by your friend’s company, or maybe it’s just something you pick up with experience. So is level 1 suppose to be CEO then?</p>
<p>Anyhow, it’s really good to know about that. The really good professors will probably get the most demand and competition. But even if I don’t get the professor I really want, I might still be able to get another professor at that same school and work my way into his circle, get his advice, or something. That makes me feel a little better about the future. I’ve never really enjoyed the chem e curriculum (process engineering, plant design and such). I doubt I’d even land a decent job if I go to the career fair, because my resume has nothing with real world industrial experience; it’s all research… oh well. can’t hurt to try, be professional, all that ■■■.</p>