<p>Hey guys! Anyone care to help me out with graduate school admissions chances?
I'd like to attend the absolute academically best school I can, I promised myself I would when I stupidly turned down Berkeley/UCLA for undergrad, and opted to stay in San Diego. </p>
<p>I want to study Electrical Engineering (Radio Instrumentation) as applied to astronomy. </p>
<p>I <em>think</em> I'm competitive, but am curious if that's just over-inflated ego. Stats:</p>
<p>University of California Honors BS in Electrical Engineering</p>
<p>GRE: (Haven't taken it yet, but practice tests are in the range of 170 verbal, 170 quant)
GPA: 3.9 (cum, and major)
Research: Spastic at best... I did 2 quarters in an astronomy lab, name on a paper, prof loves me, won a poster contest at AAS, but the research isn't related to the subfield of astro I'm interested in.
I'll do an honors thesis this year in Antennas / computational E&M, but it won't be related to astro.
I did a summer research program at Brookhaven National Labs</p>
<p>Do extra-curriculars count for grad school? Womens captain of the cycling team, top 10 placements at collegiate nationals, loottss of results. </p>
<p>I've been TA'ing two classes for more than a year, and I can safely say from that experience that I <em>know</em> I want to be a professor one day. Won TA awards and such. </p>
<p>Goal Schools:
Stanford
Cambridge
Univ. Chicago
Cal Tech
Univ. Chicago
CMU</p>
<p>Fall Backs:
UCSB
CU Boulder</p>
Top EE schools are all fighting for good female students.</p>