<p>I am an aerospace engr. sophomore and my plan is to go to graduate school, possibly Caltech (ofcourse because of JPL) mainly because of the research opportunities they provide. I would love to be in R&D rather than production line. Currently it is electric and plasma propulsion that seem like I want to study. But I will definitely be working on space systems ( propulsion or dynamics)</p>
<p>Can anyone create a sample profile for grad admission to CalTech (PhD). Or even better if there is someone who has been accepted, your help would be highly appreciated.</p>
<p>PS I am an international student, studying in the US though.</p>
<p>I’m not entirely sure what you are asking for in terms of a sample profile. Are you asking what sort of qualifications you need to have in order to be accepted at Caltech for graduate studies? Assuming that’s the case, it’s probably what you assume. You’ll need to be at (or around) the top of your undergraduate class, and not just by taking the easy classes. It’s important to take graduate level classes that demonstrate you are thoroughly interested in some sort of advanced topic - and of course excel at it. It’s also more or less a requirement to perform some sort of undergraduate research for a Professor for more than just a few months. Publications of course help a ton. I also recommend you pick an area of research, and stick with it for as long as you can - try to not skip around. That way you can come up with a pretty good story for you personal statement. It also helps to have summer internships doing something research related. Keep a good relationship between 2-3 of your Professors in the department you are in, since they will need to write you some stunning letters of recommendation. Of course doing well on the GRE is critical too. Since you are just now a sophomore, you are in great shape. Try to start figuring out which professors you might want to work for, and start talking with them about opportunities they may have for you. Just stick with it and you’ll be fine. As a person who just went through the process, I think its important to at least stay that doing bad a single test, or class for that matter, is not going to kill your chances of getting into grad school. Good luck!</p>
<p>yeah that was exactly what I was asking for. Thanks a ton for the response.</p>
<p>Now here is the dilemma, I did have an idea about the research you talked about, the problem is that at my university there is not a lot of research into what I want. As I mentioned I really wanted to go for propulsion, turns out most of the research at my univ is about dynamics and control ( more imp. not just lots of research in this field, but quality research).
I do plan to graduate with a thesis, but more I have been looking into research fields, more it seems that I may have to settle for dynamics and control. Is it going to be any problem (i know it won’t be, but how to handle this) if I do extensive work in dynamics and look for grad school in propulsion?
Can i work in dynamics but take grad level courses in propulsion? will that help at all?</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter what sort of research you do in undergrad. The point is to get exposure to how life is working in a lab and what research is like. I jumped around between a few different labs as an undergrad due to funding stuff, and it really helped me narrow down what kinds of labs I did and didn’t enjoy working in.</p>