<p>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>I'm interested in pursuing a PhD to study nano-structure enhancement of thermoelectric materials. I've been talking to faculty at my school about this, but I'm also interested in seeing if anyone from CC has some good input on my situation.</p>
<p>From looking at departmental labs on websites, I've chosen the following candidate schools:</p>
<ul>
<li>UMich</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon</li>
<li>UMaryland</li>
</ul>
<p>These schools are further away, but also possible: UCLA and UCSB</p>
<p>All these schools appear to have existing research in thermoelectrics. I'm prepared to start my own project studying a material of my interest, or work into an existing project in the field</p>
<p>Is it possible to tell how competitive I would be for these schools? I understand it is difficult given the nature of PhD applications, but here's a bit of info:</p>
<ul>
<li>Undergrad at University at Buffalo, MechE, overall GPA: 3.96</li>
<li>Three summers of internships in Aero/Thermodynamics Research and Development</li>
<li>One summer of research at University at Buffalo in magnetic materials (publication started, but won't be finished in-time for apps)</li>
<li>One semester and continuing this semester of research in fabrication of solid thin-films and nano-wire arrays</li>
<li>GRE to be taken soon</li>
</ul>
<p>To summarize, my three main questions for CC are:
a) Do I seem like a competitive applicant for these schools?
b) Are there any important schools/research groups that I'm overlooking?
c) Is there any reason to apply for MSE? I intend on applying MechE since that is my background, but my research will likely overlap with MSE greatly.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You seem like you would likely be a competitive applicant to me assuming your GRE isn’t a total bomb and you have good recommendation letters.</p>
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<p>You have a very specific research interest, so I assume you are already familiar with the field somewhat. With that in mind, your best bet is to look through the relevant journals in that field and find research that interests you and look at those programs. The more publications from a research group in the more prestigious journals, the more likely it is that that particular research group is a very good one, at least in terms of research output (which is a huge part of PhD programs). Also, in terms of prestige in PhD programs, the number and impact of publications is more important than the name on the school.</p>
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<p>Generally speaking, with a PhD, the title on your degree doesn’t matter one bit. You will be qualified for the same jobs as a materials scientist as you will as a mechanical engineer since those jobs are looking for experts in your research area, not in specifically mechanical or materials engineering. With that in mind, absolutely look at ME, MSE or any other label as long as the research group is publishing the kind of research you are interested in performing.</p>
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<p>With few exceptions, you will be working on a project that your chosen advisor already has coming through the pipeline because that’s where the money is going to be. This is why I mentioned you need to try and find a group publishing the sort of things you want to do already. It is harder and less common to go into a group as a new PhD student and start them on a new line of research unless it is already related to what they are doing and can be done within the existing funding framework for that research group.</p>
<p>You might want to look into MSE programs if the people doing that sort of work the schools you’re interested in tend to take students from the MSE program. You might also want to consider which program is easier to get into for each school you’re applying to, and decide that way.</p>
<p>I know, for example, the lab I’m interested in at Cornell is directed by an assistant professor in materials science. I need to find out whether I could work there and be in the MechE department, or whether I should apply MSE there (or if it matters). </p>
<p>I’ll be taking the GRE very soon, and for better or worse, I’ve mostly neglected to study for it in favor of research. It seems like a waste of time in comparison. It’s possible I’ll do very well, but more likely I’ll end up closer to average or lower than most applicants. Do you know how likely it is that a lower GRE score would result in rejection if the rest of the application (LORs and SOP) are reasonably strong?</p>
<p>Take a practice test to see how you’ll do on the GRE. Just doing that will probably help your score out a lot since you’ll become familiar with the layout of the exam (and see what sort of questions are asked, so you can get that part of your brain going again). The GRE isn’t really something that makes an application, it’s mostly just a box you need to check where the answer is “Good enough.”</p>
<p>Most professors will have students across a couple of different departments. Honestly, if you’re looking at doing nanostructured control of properties of a material, MSE seems like a much more natural fit than MechE. Your coursework will have more in phase transformations, nucleation theory, defects in materials (as opposed to solid mechanics you’d have in MechE), and you might even want to take a class or two in solid state physics so you can start to really get the science behind the effect you’re interested in.</p>
<p>BTW, I was at CMU for MSE in undergrad and loved the department.</p>
<p>It really depends on te school whether or not cross-departmental advisors are common. It is uncommon at my school, for example, but common at others.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I didn’t get around to doing a practice GRE before taking it this morning. My prelim scores are (Q:159 / V:158) or ~(Q:750 / V:570). It doesn’t seem that I totally bombed it, but I certainly botched a few of the math problems. Final scores with writing will be available in a few weeks. </p>
<p>Almost all the programs I am interested in had no minimum GRE cut-off, instead electing to view the application on a whole (which makes sense to me). However, I believe that UMaryland had listed on their website that the minimum GRE Quant. score was 163. This seems strange because their minimum GPA was down at a 3.0… I wonder how strict admissions will be about the GRE…</p>