How to make the most of my undergrad classes to get into MIT (EE/CmpE)

Graduate School
1

<p>Ok so right now I just finished my first year at the University of Virginia, I am double majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering. My dream is to go to MIT, and I want to know how to get there.</p>

<p>This topic is specifically about my course load, I know research, internships, letters of recommendations matter the most, what I am uncertain about is how to optimize my course load to attract MIT.</p>

<p>First one main question I have is, which looks better, 16/17 credits per semester with a ~3.9 GPA or 19/20 credits a semester with a ~3.7 GPA (I don't know that my grades would drop if I took an extra course than the norm each semester but if they do I want to know if the tradeoff is worth it)</p>

<p>There are a couple of approaches I am looking at:</p>

<p>The current plan is that I will be participating in a special program here that mixes the top EE and Systems Engineering students where I take some intro Systems Engineering classes and then participate in special classes with these other students to do projects that mix the two fields. This will take up 1 class every semester, which sucks but there are a lot of benefits to the program (make friends, get to know professors, get set up with internships). Other than this I am mainly just taking a ton of ECE and CS classes, with a primary focus on circuits. </p>

<p>Another approach is to study an outside interest of mine, Cosmology. This would mean not participating in the Systems Engineering program but I would love to take Astrophysics and Quantum physics and the such. This would be cool and all, but I don't plan on going anywhere with this and I would probably be fine just reading books about it, but it would be my only chance to learn from professors about it. </p>

<p>And the other option is just to not do either and take nothing but ECE/CS classes, circuits, communications, controls, everything. </p>

<p>I also plan on taking graduate level classes my last year, how big of a difference would it be if I took 4 grad level classes instead of 2. Especially considering that the extra 2 would be during my last semester after my application is already in.</p>

<p>And finally another question I have is that with all of these options I will want to take some physics, I placed out of physics and I know MIT likes to see that you took college level physics. I could either take Modern Physics (which is the fourth intro physics class) and then take Quantum Physics, or I could take the modern physics and then take a 3000 level physics course in Electricity and Magnetism, which would be better?</p>

<p>I know a lot of this is probably trivial, but I just want some of this cleared up for me. Just give me some of your thoughts. If one of these paths is significantly better than the other, let me know. </p>

<p>Thanks a lot!</p>

2

<p>1) Why is your dream to go to MIT?</p>

<p>2) A 3.9 with fewer credits is better than a 3.7 with more, in my opinion. Learn things well - it pays off. But on the other hand, follow your interests. Don’t let fear of a lower GPA stop you from learning what you want to learn, like cosmology.</p>

<p>3) It probably makes no difference to MIT whether you take quantum or E&M. E&M is probably more useful to you.</p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>

3

<p>MIT won’t care, and upper division physics courses are utterly irrelevant to EE except condensed matter. I ended up dropping modern physics as an undergraduate after seeing this fact.</p>

4

<p>MIT: Please please please try not to obsess on one school - find a specialty that you love, and go where that specialty is strong, whether it is MIT or South Central Lousiana State (go Mud Dogs!). Even the best schools are really strong in only a relative handful of areas.</p>

<p>Systems: Be wary with this - there is (in my experience) a stigma in EE associated with systems engineering, and while this may help you to get a job it may hurt you getting into grad school.</p>

<p>Cosmology: Go for it! Not only is it more academically rigourous, but grad departments love passion. Taking difficult courses because you love the material is exactly the kind of thing they love to see, even if it does not directly impact your future research. Plus, it might introduce you to an EE specialty like radio astronomy.</p>

<p>Grad courses: Taking one or two can help, because it can demonstrate your readiness for grad-level work and give you some extra preparation in a specific area of study, but don’t go overboard - research is where you want to really exceed expectations. And its a gamble - get a B in a grad level course and you suddenly become a tougher sell.</p>

<p>Physics: Figure out a specialty first - there are a handful that do require extra physics courses, but most do not. No point wasting time and GPA on a physics course that does you no good. If you do take it, I would focus on E&M - by far the most relevent.</p>

<p>Last Thing: You are pretty eary to worrying about this stuff. Try to focus on having a great undergrad engineering education - gpa, research, “passion” programs, etc. Build relationships with professors and do lots of stuff. Going into your senior year, with a year or so of research under your belt you will be in a great position to decide if you even want grad school, and where is the best place to go. Until then its betting blind - you just don’t know where you’re going to be.</p>

5

<p>My dream is to go to MIT because I absolutely love learning in every facet. I am fascinated by so many things and want to be a part of new and exciting science. What better place than MIT? If I visit it and find out I don’t really like it then of course I wont go, but even if it isn’t the place for me, its a challenge, its a goal, its a dream. If I can get into MIT I can do anything. I can’t really describe what it would mean for me to get in… </p>

<p>You say its early but I don’t see how, there is no wiggle room in my schedule. If I want to do the Systems Integration program I have to start this semester, I can’t just join late. If I want to do Astronomy I have to do it this fall because 3 courses I need to take are always only offered in the fall and they are at the same time (and they are 3 different disciplines), meaning I have to start now because I only have 3 falls left. I have to pick my specialty now because I have to start doing research and I need to take classes in that field before I can do that, and like I said there isn’t much wiggle room I pretty much need to know a specialty by Spring without having taken any classes in another field. Well that is if I want to do research starting this year, which I feel I need to do to separate myself. </p>

<p>I am going to have a great undergrad experience regardless, I already have some fun extra curriculars that I enjoy, but I can still enjoy stuff outside my academics even if I am OCD about my academics right now.</p>

6

<p>“My dream is to go to MIT because I absolutely love learning in every facet. I am fascinated by so many things and want to be a part of new and exciting science. What better place than MIT? If I visit it and find out I don’t really like it then of course I wont go, but even if it isn’t the place for me, its a challenge, its a goal, its a dream. If I can get into MIT I can do anything. I can’t really describe what it would mean for me to get in…”</p>

<p>If that’s the case, why didn’t you go to MIT as an undergraduate. Honestly, I think your mentality is a bit off here. You seem to be more in love with the idea of attending MIT than truly knowing why you’d like to attend. </p>

<p>First of all, have you even done research? Did you like doing research?</p>

<p>Secondly, yes MIT is a great school. But there’s tons of other great schools out there. And a lot of them will probably be better for whatever field you choose to pick for graduate school.</p>

<p>On top of that, I like the fact you’re interesting in so many things. But the harsh reality is that you will need to decide when you apply to MIT what particular field you want to go to. Saying you like so many things will be automatic rejection. They want people with a semi-clear idea of what field they’re focusing in.</p>

<p>My suggestion: get over the notion that you need to apply to MIT. Do whatever you like as an undergrad and don’t fret about whether it’ll be useful (I took modern physics because I wanted to, but it’s going to absolutely useless when I apply for grad school). And finally start doing some research. If you do that, in a few years you’ll have a much better view of whether or not you want to go to MIT.</p>

7

<p>Great science is being done at many universities. If you look at the geographical distribution of NSF/NIH special interest centers (each getting millions of dollars a year) you will see that great science is all over. MIT gets a lot of press because “it’s MIT”, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be doing great things if you attend MIT.</p>

<p>Also, with circuits, which is a mature area, you probably won’t be doing much groundbreaking. If you really want to do interesting things, I suggest looking into device physics.</p>

8

<p>

Applying to and attending graduate school isn’t about validating your worth as a person or as a student – it’s about what you want to study intensively for five or six years.</p>

<p>You should be thinking about what subfield you’d like to study, and applying to places with researchers with whom you’d like to work. It’s about researchers, not institutions. As a graduate student, you’re not going to be a real participant in the life of an institution.</p>

<p>It’s also important not to fixate on one particular program because top programs are incredibly competitive. MIT’s EECS PhD program has an admit rate of about 5%. You could do everything right as an undergrad and still be rejected.</p>

9

<p>Please don’t go to MIT just to assuage your insecurity. :(</p>

10

<p>You guys are really reading me all wrong… I know I am doing a crummy job of describing it here, but I can’t express on a message board why I want to go there… I haven’t picked a specialty, I haven’t visited any schools, I haven’t done any research, I just finished my first year of school… I am very very aware that there is a good chance that it might not be the best place for me and if it isn’t I’m not going to go. However I want to be able to CHOOSE what school I go to, and I want to set myself up to be able to get into the school that fits me. Theres a good chance that MIT is my fit, but even if it isn’t Stanford might be, or Illinois, or whatever, but they aren’t exactly easy to get into, I want to know whats valuable to get myself into grad school, I will worry about which school that is in two years, you guys took a very small part of the topic and took it way too seriously. </p>

<p>And telling me take which classes I want to is like asking me to choose between a brand new sports car and a paid vacation to Europe… It is all great… I’d take Russian Literature if I could. One thing from keeping me from doing Astronomy is that I can go buy the textbook or the Quantum Physics textbook on my own time if here is something more valuable to me. </p>

<p>And as for why I didn’t attend MIT in undergrad, you really think I didn’t try?</p>

11

<p>OP - you want to be able to choose where you want to go, and ultimately that is not very realistic. The reason? You have to be passionate about your research area to get into a top school, and that passion immediately eliminates 80+% of all grad programs - they just won’t be working your specialty. You could pick something you love (Cosmology?) only to find that no MIT professors in that area are taking new students when you graduate. Or you could apply an a new area, just because MIT has an opening, but then you’re competing against someone else with that passion that you lack!</p>

<p>For what it is worth, getting into MIT (or any top-10ish school) is usually going to require great LOR’s from 2-3 professors, some decent experience in research, a great GPA focused on courses in your area of intended research, decent to excellent GRE’s, and a statement that ties everything together to show why you should be picked over 20-30 other applicants with similar levels of qualifications or better. Oh, plus you will need a professor with an opening - see the first paragraph. Your extracurriculars won’t matter (except in how they influence the above), not will your avid preference for MIT.</p>

12

<p>OP - Sorry if we misunderstood your intentions. But I think I can speak for all of us that we’ve seen way too many people asking what they need to do to get into MIT. Mainly these are people who want to go to MIT because it’s MIT and for no other reason.</p>

<p>My understanding was that you were focusing too much on what courses MIT would like you to take. That’s why I said “don’t fret too much and take what you like”. Now if you have a very tight schedule, I can understand that you can’t take this or that class. But if you have the space and you want to take the class, take it and don’t worry about whether MIT will approve.</p>

<p>As to which classes you should pick over another, there’s really no right answer to it. Maybe course A might look better than course B on paper. But who knows, maybe you’ll enjoy course B much more and it’ll end up forming the foundation of your graduate research. I guess what I’m trying to say is, don’t take classes depending on how it’ll be perceived by grad admission committees.</p>

13

<p>I think that people are trying to tell you that you are going ass-backwards in your approach. And I agree that everyone would like to choose the grad school, as opposed to the grad school choosing them, it never happens, lol.</p>

<p>My daughter was accepted into a few top 15 CS programs for PhD track. She did take Russian Lit, first year. Along the way she took Russian language, Hungarian and Mandarin Lang, and, later, a fiction writing workshop as a Senior. She also took 2 grad level classes in the major as a CS Senior, audited one as a junior as part of independent study for research. She mostly took a challenging class load in math and science, started in physics, switched to CS, banged on doors and got involved with research as soon as possible.</p>

<p>I am convinced that the research is the number one thing that got her into grad school. She did it every semester from freshman spring. She did it every summer. She had done it in high school. It was long term demonstrated interest and passion.</p>

<p>There is no formula for admissions. There is no this-many-class-with X-gpa-vs-that-many-class-with-Y-gpa. Take what you love. Don’t overload yourself, just do well in what you take. Give yourself room to take a non-related class each semester. Start research with a prof now, it doesn’t matter what it is about.</p>

<p>When you are mature enough in your studies to know what area you are interested in, research professors who are doing that, not schools. No one misunderstands you, indeed you misunderstand the advice here and the process. You pick a grad school because there is someone you want to work with in that department. Not for the prestige of the grad school or, especially the undergrad school. Unless you are from overseas, then cancel all the above advice and just go for prestige, lol.</p>