<p>I would like to know how's my chances of getting into the following schools in electrical engineering Ph.D and Master.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley
UCLA
UCSD
USC</p>
<p>I graduated from UC Berkeley with a cumulative GPA of 3.3. GRE score: 790 Q, 560 V, 3.5 writing</p>
<p>I've done a summer research program (REU in Computer Science) at an univ. in Florida, and currently working as a design engineer. I was able to get an recommendation from my research professor and the VP from my company. The last letter is kind of bland.</p>
<p>Poor dcee_2008... First post and such abuse already :P</p>
<p>Just judging from your numbers, I think you have as good a chance as any of the other applicants to those schools, except for maybe Berkeley. The only pointed flaw I see is possibly the lack of more academic research, which may or may not be remedied by your work experience. </p>
<p>Do you have a work supervisor who can attest to your technical expertise and dedication to EE that can write you a recommendation? Unless your company is very small and the VP would be able to talk about those items, I'd say the work supervisor would be a far better choice than someone in an administrative position. I'm also not sure how long you've been out of school, but you seemed to have done fine while there-- any old professors you can contact for a rec?</p>
<p>Thanks for the welcoming abuse ! Maybe they are truthful.</p>
<p>And I understand the my lack of academic research is a huge flaw, but I can't help it because I transferred to Berkeley in my junior year and spent most of my time catching up needed prerequisites.</p>
<p>As far as my recommendation letters go, the letter from my company's VP and my academic research professor should be relatively strong (as they know me personally), and the last one is simply a generic one. I am much more concern about my GPA and my GRE writing as they are not stellar compared to many in this forum.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all your feedback. Much appreciated.</p>
<p>dcee_2008,
I think you have no strong points in your application other than the fact that you came from a well-respected university. At this point, I think your PI and employer's letter will matter a lot, because they will evaluate you on how fit you are to pursue research in graduate school. I think you can indirectly know the strength of the letter from your daily experience with them: are they satisfied with your work? are they afraid of losing you because your work is so good? </p>
<p>Another thing I noticed was that you listed only California schools. I would say California residents have priority in admissions at those schools, so your application might not turn out bad like we would think.</p>
<p>I think you probably have a good chance of getting into the USC EEMS program. But, I know the PhD program is very competitive everywhere, especially at USC.
Since I know a little about the program at SC I would rate your chance for the MS very good, especially coming from Berkeley.</p>