<p>Hi everyone,
I have my BS and MS, both in Materials Science, and am looking at applying to schools for Fall 2011 to start my PhD, also in Materials Science. My problem is related to my GRE, and whether or not I should retake it. I took it about five years ago, and found out that if I wanted to, I can use it for my grad school applications, as I'm right on the edge of the five year limit.</p>
<p>Quant and writing are great, but verbal obviously could be better. I feel like my qualifications are great otherwise: undergraduate research, summer fellowship at national lab, graduate research, two published papers in decent journals (one as first author and another as third), a presentation at a large materials conference, and my current job with a university which is basically academic research minus actually being a student.</p>
<p>I want to apply to some top-tier materials schools (UC Berk, Stanford, Northwestern, U of Minnesota, etc) and don't want that glaring 480 to hold me back. Is the verbal score going to cause me problems, or will my research experience override it? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>One of my good friends had a 480 or so (I remember it was below 500) and a mediocre writing score, but still managed to get into Stanford and Northwestern (don’t remember the others). If you’ve got a good transcript, have written your own papers, and did fine on writing I don’t think there’d be much reason to hold your verbal score against you.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback. I did forget one important detail. My undergrad GPA was a 3.2, and my graduate GPA was 3.35.</p>
<p>I’m thinking that it may be worth my while to try to take the GRE again. It’s been close to five years, and I think I can do better with the verbal. My only concern is somehow not doing as well with the math or the writing. Hopefully I can match it.</p>
<p>Be sure to brush up a bit on the math. I didn’t study at all for it, and had forgotten lots of my geometry, so I wound up scoring way lower than I should have.</p>
<p>I have sort of similar issues. I will be graduating from Berkeley with a joint/double major in BioEngineering and Materials Science looking to go on to PHD in MSE. My undergrad GPA is 3.65 currently through three years.</p>
<p>I took the GRE yesterday: 740 math and 560 verbal. Everyone at my lab says that I need to retake it and improve my math scores.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is true, but my feeling is that if you can demonstrate great writing in your personal statement, they won’t care what the GRE thinks of your writing.</p>
<p>I just graduated from Northwestern and will do an MSE PhD at MIT next year. I spent a summer at MIT, a professor on the MSE admissions board said that GRE is a checkbox, a bar you must pass. This bar is 800 (basically no exceptions) on the math, and at least 500 on the verbal, ideally 600. UG-GPA should be about 3.7-3.9 as well. </p>
<p>I know that Northwestern’s average graduate admissions GPA was 3.6, with similar GRE scores. </p>
<p>I had friends get into Cornell with ~3.7s, UCSB with 3.5s, Caltech with 3.6, UCLA with ~3.2. </p>
<p>FYI I had a ~3.6 UG-GPA, 3.8 MSE GPA, 800 Math, 630 Verbal, 4.0 Writing.
I also had 4 publications (all first author, 1 JACS, 1 PRL, not all submitted), three conference presentations, and several research awards. I’m pretty sure I had a super low GPA, and the only thing that saved me was my prolific research.</p>
<p>I am also looking to do my PhD in MSE (or BME or ChemE). I have an undegraduate degree in BME. My other qualifications are:
GPA: 3.87
GRE: 790 Math/590 Verbal/ AWA: Still Waiting, but I expect a 5.
I have one publication but that publication was in the Journal of Chemistry and Biology and it was on Olfactory Chemistry. I have worked in research in industry for the last 2 years. Unfortunately, we are only now preparing to write our manuscripts for publication. I also cannot talk a lot about the specifics of my research because of confidentiality. </p>
<p>I am looking to do research in the area of polymers/tissue engineering. How many of MIT, JHU, North-western, UMich, UCSD, UCSB, UC Berkley, Cornell, UPenn and Stanford want me?</p>
<p>Pragmatic Dreamer - yes, there are many physics students in MSE, along with chem students, chemE students, EE students, and even some BME. MSE is a fairly rare undergraduate major, and so it’s not surprising that the departments would be made up of students of other majors! I had a good friend get into UCSB MSE with a physics background.</p>
<p>My friend who went to Caltech had a second author publication in Advanced Materials. I think he was writing a very exciting first author one, but it wasn’t published by the time he was applying. It’s similar to me - I had a first-author-from-contriubting-institution paper in JACS, and three lined up, but those I hadn’t even begun drafting yet. </p>
<p>Desiyankee - your stats should be very competitive. I just looked up journal of chemistry and biology, and it is a fairly high-impact journal, which should be very good. One major consideration is what author you are, first author is <em>HUGE</em>, second author is expected, and third and below are not very interesting :-. Also, I noticed you had recommendations from industry - that is very tricky. People in industry do not praise the same values as those from academia, so you have to be very directed in how you ask for recommendations (“please discuss my ability to research independently, not necessarily my strict adherence to schedules, etc”). Finally, although you may be competitive for the top schools (MIT, NU, Cornell, Stanford), competitive just means hard to predict, so it’s really no guarantees. There are some very good schools like Umich and UCSB that have huge departments, and so I think it’s not as hard to get in.</p>
<p>Rising sun - thanks for your prompt reply. I was a second author on this publication. As regards to my work in industry, I actually work in Technology Development. A lot of the research is very similar to academia research - fundamental issues of polymers being looked at. My supervisor is also actually very academia oriented. I just think that someone like my VP who I might be able to squeeze out a recommendation letter, might be a name that some professors would recognize. (He has a PhD in BME from Georgia Tech. and he has been a co-author in the Handbook of BME among other things)</p>
<p>The reason I want to use my industry research to leverage my case is because it is probably the most germane of my CV towards the research areas that I am going to focus my application on.</p>
<p>I posted this somewhere on the forum, but this seems like a better place.</p>
<p>I am a EEE graduate from India with 73.4%.
I am currently in Glasgow in Scotland about to finish my Master’s in EEE and Management in University of Glasgow. I haven’t yet got my thesis results(60 credits) but my GPA for written exams (120 credits) stands at 3.66/4. IELTS 8/9 and GRE score 1270 (530-v, 740-q, 3-a(crappy I know!)).</p>
<p>As far as recommendations go, I have two very strong ones already, thanks to my thesis preparation.</p>
<p>Although I have been advised to go for the **lower ranked (strongly advised)
** from that list.</p>
<p>I’d like to know your opinion with regards to my chances. I do have ample extra curricular activities and an employment history as well, but no publications yet :(</p>
<p>I think your recommenders have good advice and have your best interests at heart. </p>
<p>A 740 math, despite seeming like a good score, is actually quite a disadvantage, since the median is 780 and almost all people applying to top programs will have 800. Your GPA is okay, and in the mid-range for the good schools, but it doesn’t seem like you have very much to give you that extra ‘kick’. You say you have strong recommendations from your thesis, but a senior thesis is fairly standard these days in most universities and I imagine nearly all people who write theses get strong recommendations. </p>
<p>All that negative talk aside - it could be that you perform very well on the GRE next round, and actually have extremely strong recommendations, and get into one of the top 5 schools! You should certainly apply, but perhaps temper your hopes.</p>
<p>RisingSun,Thanks for your reply!
How much does Statement of Purpose add to that extra ‘kick’ you mentioned about?
and does previous teaching experience help in any way?</p>
<p>I’m hopeful will be able to raise my GPA to 3.7 or 3.8 with the remaining 60 credits on my thesis.</p>
<p>I am going to apply for a material science grad school this cycle also. I have a 3.9 and am double majoring in BME and ME. My GRE score is 800Q/720A/4.0, and I have a first author paper accepted and currently pending publication in Applied Physics Letters.</p>
<p>I’ve got two questions: My list of schools so far is MIT, Cornell, Northwestern, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford. Is six enough, or should I apply for more? Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Also, from the following three people, which two should I ask to write my letters?
A mechanical professor with whom I got an A, a feat requiring topping two standard deviations, and to whom I talked occasionally after class. Had this course last semester.
A post-doc who taught my controls class (his first class, I believe) but is now a professor at another school. I had the best final project and gave a presentation at the end of the semester. This was 3 semesters ago.
A BME professor who teaches signals and systems. I will be a grader for him for this semester but I did not interact with him at all when I had his class. He admitted this morning that he didn’t remember me, though his grad student did. I took his class 2 semesters ago.</p>
<p>If you’ve got published research don’t you have a professor or two you’ve worked closely with and knows you outside of class? You really want your statement of purpose to show they know you and understand your abilities to do research. Grad school doesn’t care about your abilities to get an A, they want to know you’re smart enough to get a B in your classes while spending the rest of your time producing good research.</p>
<p>Also, as to GREs, I got a 720 on the math section and feel it hindered me a bit during grad applications. I still got into a few top 10 schools, but I was waitlisted at a number of others and wonder if I had actually taken the thirty minutes to study if I’d have gotten into one or two more places.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply. The 720 was on the reading portion of the GRE, not the math. I got an 800 on the math. I got one professor who knows me due to my research with him, but I don’t know who to ask for the other two letters.</p>
<p>Whoops, should have specified, the GRE part was more directed towards alimpossible.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t ask for a recommendation from a professor who doesn’t recommend me, even if you will be grading for him this coming term (odds are you still won’t have many interactions).</p>
<p>The other two seem like good choices, though it’s difficult to say if the former post-doc or the MechE professor would be better. If the post-doc knew you well and was familiar with your work throughout the term he might be the better choice since he can comment better on your work ethic, ability to work with others, and those sorts of less academic traits. The admissions committee will see you got an A in both of the classes taught by the other guy, and there’s no guarantee he’ll write about how crazy hard his classes are.</p>