Graduate Engineering Options

<p>Hello, I wanted to get some advice on Engineering graduate school admissions for Masters or PhD. DS has finished his sophomore year at a good small liberal arts school. He is mid way through a physics major. GPA is 3.6 overall and 3.76 in his major. He has mostly A’s in physics and math but one B in each. His SAT was 660 math, 680 verbal but he did not do very much prep. He finds the physics easier than the math. He has not done research or engineering extra curriculars so far. This summer he has an internship with a startup company in the communications space where is doing significant engineering design, production, and seems to have really found his “home” and is doing great in a work setting. He likes mechanical engineering and materials science. </p>

<p>With a liberal arts background, (no real engineering undergrad coursework), assume he maintains the same GPA, can probably bring up the math score for the GRE significantly with some study, and assuming he starts doing research and more engineering related extra curriculars, what level of graduate engineering program is realistic for a Masters, and is being accepted to a PhD program feasible without a BS and/or far more research than is available in a liberal arts setting?</p>

<p>Masters programs are pretty easy to get into. If he gets good letters of recommendations and gets his foot in the door in some kind of research, he is a realistic candidate for all kinds of masters schools.</p>

<p>PhD is more difficult to get admitted into, especially without an engineering background. At the same time, it may be doable since physics does overlap with many engineering disciplines.</p>