<p>Hi!
I am doing aerospace engineering at MIT, and I have a 3.4/4.0. (This includes humanities classes, without them it's a little bit lower-- pretty much straight B's in my technical classes). I have done a lot of research, first author of a paper, and have a very high GRE (well within the average accepted score for these schools). I was looking at applying to top programs-- MIT, Stanford, Caltech, etc. I only want to apply for a Master's program (not PhD). I was wondering if it's even worth it to apply to these schools.
Thank you very much!
Sorry about all of the parentheses.</p>
<p>You can certainly ask the person who will be writing your primary recommendation. It will certainly carry a lot of weight for MIT. Does your department do MEng? I’m sure they’d be happy to take an additional year of your money. </p>
<p>The only way to find out is to apply. Applying is an investment in your future. Sure, there’s some uncertainty tied up in it - but you have to play the game to win. If you don’t apply, there’s a 100% chance you won’t get admitted.</p>
<p>More to the point, your GPA is not in the range to completely shut you out for all time. Acceptance is still possible if the rest of your application is outstanding, so go ahead and apply.</p>
<p>Well, for graduate admissions at the same school, the primary recommendation writer has a lot of clout and their own reputation to think of. I’m pretty sure they will give you a straight answer if they think that you are competitive for their own school. Asking them that question is a whole lot less work than applying. If they aren’t going to strongly recommend you, ask where they could recommend you. A frank discussion will be very valuable to you. Don’t take it personally. </p>
<p>Doesn’t MIT engineering discourage their undergrads from attending their grad program?
MS or M.ENG?</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ll have a problem getting into Stanford’s MS with your profile since it’s mostly unfunded.
Caltech aero is probably a stretch, but I think there’s a pretty big spread and standard deviation of the students they accept, so your GPA probably won’t hurt you too bad. That first author paper will help. It seems most Caltech aero admitted students have a publication, most of them were first author. </p>
<p>
No, MIT is the most common undergraduate origin of MIT grad students, and actually departments that have M.Eng. programs specifically restrict them to MIT undergrads. The aerospace engineering program in particular takes a very large percentage of the MIT aerospace undergrads who apply (approaching 100%), but they don’t have an M.Eng. program.</p>
<p>OP, I don’t think you’ll have trouble. Don’t you think a 3.4 probably puts you in the top half (at least) of your course 16 class? My husband had a 3.2 (including a few C’s in technical courses), and he didn’t have any problems being admitted.</p>