<p>Hi guys. I am a mechanical engineering major applying for PhD/MS admissions for next Fall. My top choice schools would be MIT, Stanford, and Caltech. I will be applying for mechanical/aerospace departments at these schools. I am mainly interested in computational fluids and maybe experimental.
Can someone break down each department for me based on quality of research and whatever you think is important?</p>
<p>I know not everyone here is an engineering major, but if you have some insight, it would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Regarding selectivity and funding, out of those 3, Caltech is by far the most selective school for aerospace engineering and probably for mechanical. As you probably know, Stanford will not admit you into their PhD program if you do not have a master’s. Most of their MS students do not receive internal funding, though quite a few take take their external fellowships (e.g., NSF GRFP, NDSEG, etc…) to Stanford’s M.S program. Unless you are some kind of superstar (i.e., you stand at the top of Stanford students), you will not receive internal funding. I’m pretty sure MIT funds all their students (M.S included, but not M.Eng) and will not admit you if they cannot financially support you. Same with Caltech. </p>
<p>I don’t hear much about MIT’s fluids group so I honestly don’t know much about them. Fluids is pretty broad, so certain professors/schools may be better in that particular subfield than others, but generally speaking, Stanford’s fluids group is phenomenal, especially their turbulence group. They have the biggest name in fluids, Parviz Moin. There’s not much computational fluids work at Caltech’s aero department (aside from Dale Pullin however I think he’s on the verge of retirement), but they have multiple distinguished profs in the mechanical&civil department. </p>
<p>I have heard from multiple professors that Stanford’s M.S program is not as prestigious as the name suggests to people in academia. This is because that their MS program isn’t terribly selective and the program is really more of a “I want your money” kind of program.
This is not true for industry (industrial leaders only recognize the name of the school, not so much the specifics of the school). </p>
<p>In a nutshell:
Stanford
-advantages: amazing fluid mechanics group
-no funding, no directPhD, MS program is not all that highly regarded
MIT
-advantages: funding for all grad students and some others I don’t know about,
-disadvantages: I haven’t heard much about their fluids group nor have I looked into it. So I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. check it out for yourself
Caltech
-funding, very good fluids group in mechanical dpt,
-most selective school, </p>