<p>I am a sophomore at Texas Tech University, and pursuing Mechanical Engineering. I have high aspirations of attending MIT for graduate school in MechE. </p>
<p>How can i prepare myself? </p>
<p>I suppose high GPA (3.5+ in engineering) and strong GRE (near perfect on the Quantitative) scores play a critical role. What else can i do to become a strong candidate?</p>
<p>Thanks, in advance!</p>
<p>Lots and lots of research if you can publish some articles or more realistically get your name on one or present at conferences that will be very important.</p>
<p>Right.
I contacted them last week to get some suggestions, and they seemed very lenient. According to the lady i spoke to, “make sure your GPA is above a 3.0, and you have a good GRE score”. Though lenient, I was not satisfied with her response; It’s vague.</p>
<p>Also, why is so much emphasis put on research? Especially for students that desire to pursue a master’s degree. I can imagine it being critical for PhD students, but why for master’s…?</p>
<p>Lastly, besides MIT, i am also considering other elite schools, Stanford, Berkeley and such. I suppose requirements for all these schools are similar if not identical?</p>
<p>The MIT program in MechE is a research master’s. You need to write a master’s thesis to finish. Since all graduate students get funding, they need to get something out of the money they’re giving you, i.e. the research work you do. Lastly, a lot of people have high GPAs and high GREs, so you need something else to stand out.</p>
<p>Stanford should be easier since it’s unfunded. It’s a rumor, but I hear they accept a lot of people because the MS in MechE program is a cash cow for the department.</p>
<p>I didn’t know Stanford’s program was unfunded. Thanks for that info.</p>
<p>Just wondering, I transferred from a community college to Tech. So, i took all of my math classes at the community college, including University Physics 1 and Chemistry 1 and 2. Does this hurt me in any way?
I’ve always assumed that elite schools look down upon community colleges (for obvious reasons-- it’s not competitive).</p>
<p>They’ll give more weight to your grades at Texas Tech.</p>
<p>By the way, I applied to Georgia Tech, and one of my recommenders was my community college professor. I got accepted without funding, but I will likely turn them down as I cannot afford to pay the $25,000 out-of-state tuition, and then housing and other expenses on top of that.</p>
<p>Most master’s programs are unfunded. MIT is an exception because it considers all its MechE master’s students potential PhD students although only a fraction will continue on. Stanford is the exact opposite: all students, even the PhD hopefuls, are considered Master’s students and they compete for the limited funding and lab work, allowing only the strongest to continue onward. At most other places, however, the terminal master’s and PhD students tend to be considered separately with funding usually reserved for the PhD students.</p>