<p>GRE: Not taken yet but all practice test have had Q at 750+ and V at 500+</p>
<p>Research: 1 Year Organic Chemistry, 1.5 Years and Summer Physical/Analytical Chemistry
2008 ACS Regional Poster Session, 2009 Regional Poster Session, (in progress) 2010 National Hazards Conference Poster Presentation, Writing departmental honors thesis on summer research, and also good chance of being published by next spring/summer.</p>
<p>Recommendations: 2 very very good recommendations from p.chem research adviser and head of chemistry department. Can either get a third very very good recommendation from a mathematics professor or a good one from an "MIT" distinguished alumni.</p>
<p>I live in New Orleans and the hurricane ****ed up the first year of college, I lost my house and then my parents divorced in the same semester too. I got a 0.0 during the spring after and that is why my GPA is sub standard. My GPA has been on a steep increase ever since. I have had all A's (no A-'s) and only 1 B over the past 3 semesters (including summer classes). </p>
<p>I am sure I wont have too much difficulty getting into most of my school because of the research interest of mine and the fit but I am most curious of MIT. I want to apply to their M.S.CEP. program and wanted some advice on how competitive it is in comparing it to the Ph.D program. If you can shed some light on my chances I would fully appreciate it, please try to be brutally honest. I am mainly looking for Masters programs, possibly Ph.D but I haven't decided if I want to do 5-6 years of research yet.</p>
<p>hurrican katrina is the reason why i got a 0.0 and lost my house. i figured that would be reason enough, in light of my record in the years after</p>
<p>Would documenting that reason in your SOP be enough or would they need more substantial proof? Your record looks excellent once your personal situation is factored in.</p>
<p>I know if I include it in my SOP that it would not hinder but I dont know if I am underestimating MIT admissions. I just feel that yes even though I have a valid reason, I just feel that It would still be a flag. Am i being paranoid about considering their admission so strict? I consider my credentials competitive but I also consider MIT extremely competitive. If anybody has any light on their graduate Chem.E program please help me get my expectations where they should be.
I appreciate all responses though</p>
<p>I mean documentation or SOP either could be provided in an instant so I dont think that it should interfere but then again that semester put 3 F’s on my transcript even though they were non major classes.</p>
<p>I guess my situation is too specific and unique to be adressed the way I want. I guess I’ll just have to wait until I find out next spring.</p>
<p>You should consider the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. It’s where I did my undergraduate chemical engineering/chemistry degrees, and the chemE program (both grad and undergrad) is a top three sitting up there with berkeley and MIT.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response. I knew about University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. I havent really looked into it though. I definitely should though. And since your a graduate from there how is the Chem.E’s research in energy and sustainability? I’m def going to check the website out but a word from the inside is always more helpful.</p>
<p>also, if anybody reading this thread is planning to apply to MIT chemical engineering, then post some replies and some stats. Im always interested in seeing my competition.</p>
<p>I didn’t do my emphasis in renewable energy but they definitely have a good bit of research going on it by more than a few professors, and to my knowledge pretty good research–the guy you’re going to want to look up for that would probably be Dr. Lanny Schmidt, or possibly Dr. William Smyrl, I believe.</p>
<p>What I can tell you from my experience as an undergrad is that the faculty and staff are all brilliant people (most all of whom are MIT/Caltech/UofM/Urbana/Berkeley/Yale grads), and in particular Dr. Ed Cussler–look him up on google, I’m sure there’s lots to be had–AICHE National President at one point, Yale grad, and the smartest/sharpest prof I and everyone else ever had the privilege of learning under even if he loved giving everyone Cs and wrote the hardest exams I’ve ever taken–though, I think he is no longer taking on grad students and is about to retire, but I’m not sure. Still does a crapload of consulting though.</p>
<p>So the faculty are certainly top-notch all around, the facilities are pretty good–there are some pretty impressive labs (the unit ops lab for undergrad has a two story methanol distillation column and an old see-through military-issue uranium enrichment column used for propionic acid extraction), and the coursework was very rigorous all the way to the bitter end. It was as if they were still trying to weed you out hardcore right up til the very last final exam–and as a result they produced damn good engineers who went on to work for Dow, Exxon, Shell, NASA, etc. etc. Some friends were even offered over $80k to start, plus bonuses just as undergrads with no experience. I think the vast majority of people started between $67k-$73k plus bonuses, and the lowest I knew of was $59k.</p>
<p>And there was definitely a difference between the chemE and the chem program. The chem program is decent, middle of the road I suppose, and also has some brilliant people in the chem field, but there was just a feeling you got when going through the chemE program–compared to the chem program, it just FELT like it was a top three program–and it is.</p>