<p>I am in the process of applying to Grad Schools for mechanical engineering and need some help deciding which ones to apply to.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, my profile is: 3.9 from Gatech, GRE (450 v/800 q), 3 sems of research, no publication but my prof has mentioned that I am close to one (won't happen before I apply though), know my 3 recommenders well...feel free to check my thread called "my chances into MIT/Stanford" for more details</p>
<p>so I'm definitely applying to the top four (caltech, mit, stanford, berkeley) and if i get into any of them, ill be enrolling there..problem is: what if I don't?</p>
<p>I've already been accepted into Gatech, because i did my undergrad from here..but don't want to stay...but will if I absolutely have to.</p>
<p>The other state school, good for ME, I am willing to go to is Umich, but I feel like that still isn't special/elite enough. Hence, I'm applying to Princeton and Cornell, because it's prestigious to go there (esp Princeton). So the six unis I apply to are set (the two Ivy's and the top four)</p>
<p>My question is..do you guys think I need a 7th, will I get into any of these universities? If I do need a 7th, what should it be: CMU or Umich? I guess the question boils down to: Is a prestigious, acclaimed uni, but only a top 10/15 MechE program better, worse or just about the same to a state school top 5 for MechE. When it comes to graduate school and research, are the opportunities in a public school (with a large student body) lower than ones in a private school...Or is Umich/Gatech >> Princeton/Cornell/CMU for MechE?</p>
<p>You should take a look at the research being conducted at the school before considering applying. For example, I believe Princeton’s MechE program is pretty prestigious but it’s tiny. Like, 12-15 professors, and most of their research has to do with lasers, plasma physics, combustion, and energy. Or I could be confusing it with something else. The point is, if you don’t want to do research in this, don’t apply. You’ll be spending 4-6 years living and breathing your research.
It’s hard to compare the amount of opportunity without knowing what you intend to conduct research in. A large school might have 150 professors but only 2 does work you’re interested in.</p>
<p>That’s a fair point Ouroboros313…but let’s say I am interested in the research in all the universities. I say this because my research interests are pretty broad…it’s either computational engineering and/or control…and there’s always something fits the bill…</p>
<p>What does these rankings mean anyway? Its the quality of the research dat gets published from the university, I’m guessing…Is it important to check whether the quality of research published from that discipline is acclaimed??</p>
<p>As I understand it, ranking are based on a “summation” of all the research output, not an “average”. So naturally, larger research universities will have higher output, but in the end you’ll only end up working for one lab.
One approach would be to look up where the top people in your chosen field are, then apply there. The fame of your PI is just as important as the fame of the school.</p>
<p>So uni’s name, prestige…faculty to student ratio are a lot less important than the quality (and quantity??) of the research of your interest area done in that university??</p>
<p>There’s a lot of competing factors in deciding where to go: quantity of research, quality of research, availability of funding, prestige of the school, prestige of the PI, location of the school, size of the school, available facilities, the PhD requirements, etc. etc.</p>
<p>It’s up to you to decide what’s important for you. The following is just my opinion:
- The quantity and quality of research not in your field is irrelevant to you and should not matter.
- As I’ve heard, if you want to work in academia you are, for the most part, limited to schools equal to or less than your PhD school. MIT grads can teach anywhere, but no-name school grads can’t teach at MIT unless they’re Nobel level researchers.
- Certain schools have special ties to government and industry that you might want to take into account. For example, MIT does a lot of government work, and Boston is a hotbed of start-up companies as is Silicon Valley.
- Both the school and the PI’s fame will be important, but the school’s fame is more likely to transfer into the lay populace. Dr. X might be the top guy in his field, but people outside it might have no idea who he is. This would be important if you want to step outside your field or go into government or industry.
- Conversely, Dr. X is famous because he’s brilliant at what he does. He would be the person to learn from, making you a better researcher in the process. Plus, he might have a lot of connections he could throw your way.
- Better schools tend to attract better grad students. These people will be your peers, you’ll work with them every day and learn a lot from them. You gotta keep that in mind: it’s not just about the faculty, it’s also about your classmates.</p>
<p>The best case scenario, of course, would be to work for someone prestigious at a prestigious school. If you had to choose between the two, however, it would depend on your own preferences.</p>
<p>I didn’t really answer your question, but that’s because there’s no clear cut answer. It depends on you. Just take rankings with a grain of salt: they’re measures of the total output of the school or an average of everyone there, but you won’t be working for everyone. You’ll be working in one lab, for one guy. So what if a school has 20 Nobel scientists instead of 5? You won’t be working for all or learning from all 20. At best you’ll be working closely with a small handful of faculty.</p>
<p>Anyway, that’s my rant. Hope it helped.</p>