<p>I am currently a Junior majoring in Civil Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and I am just beginning to think about Graduate school. I plan on specializing in Structural Engineering after I graduate from Rose. I was wondering if anyone could give me some insight of where I might stand when applying to the Structural Engineering graduate programs in the following schools:</p>
<p>Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Purdue University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Columbia University
Cornell University
California Institute of Technology</p>
<p>Thus far, my gpa at Rose has hovered around a 3.0. I don't know if I have the authority to judge the level of difficulty of other schools, but I have to work pretty hard to even maintain a 3.0 gpa on our trimester system. Would another student coming out of a possibly less 'difficult' school with a higher gpa than mine be looked upon more favorably?</p>
<p>I am very much involved with our ASCE student chapter. I have served as the Activities Director and Treasurer, and plan on running for Vice-President. During my tenures, I have headed up several projects such as fundraisers and community service projects.</p>
<p>I run on the varsity track and field team, and plan to continue that for the rest of my remaining time here at Rose.</p>
<p>In addition, I am a member of the College Democrats club and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics student chapter.</p>
<p>In terms of work experience, thus far I have worked during two summers as an intern for two different structural engineering firms. For this summer, I plan to go back to the firm that I worked for during the past summer.</p>
<p>Your best bet would be to stay at rose and get a high Masters GPA. You have no shot with a 3.0, which I know sounds cruel and mean. I've met some hulman people through research at some of the schools on your list and they all had very high GPAs and other qualifications for structural engineeirng.</p>
<p>Don't mention any of your extracurriculars; they don't matter at all. Grad programs don't care if you run track and field or are members of any clubs. Your research credentials and recommendation letters are the most important aspects of your application.</p>
<p>To be clear, are you interested in a Ph.D. or just an M.S.? If you want to get into a Ph.D. program, you really need research experience. Something, anything to indicate that you would succeed in a research environment. Are you doing a thesis? Start early. Another option is to go into a research-oriented M.S. program: like Blah says, this would also help you get your GPA up. As much of a ***** as that is, I know that at Caltech, for example, a 3.0 would not be acceptable from an MIT graduate (unless there were major publications involved) applying to a Ph.D. program. However, requirements for the M.S. program are much more lax, and I just don't know what they would be. Have you talked to the structural engineering M.S. students at Rose? That would give you a feel for the grades you would need to get in somewhere else.</p>
<p>Even for a MS at the schools he is looking at, his GPA is too low. For a lot of schools on his list, he needs about a 3.7. Its unfortunate but his best bet would be working for a few years and then applying.</p>
<p>You're still a junior. You can pull up your GPA and you have a full year to get research experience. I don't know about Cornell or Caltech, but if you have a 3.1-3.3 and really good recs, I'm sure you can get into MS(which is what structural engineers typically go after). If you're really serious about grad school and feel pressed for time, look into dropping the clubs - they won't help(Why is a Civ E. in an aerospace club? O_O)</p>
<p>i would agree to that for the following schools:</p>
<p>Purdue University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Rose-Hulman
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute</p>
<p>Uillinois is equally selective as Cornell by virtue of being regarded as the top structural engineering program so its probably out of his range.</p>
<p>I should have clarified this before, but I am looking to get an M.S. in structural engineering.</p>
<p>The M.S. program at Rose for structural engineering is almost nonexistent as we are primarily focused on undergraduate education. Say I do increase my gpa up to a 3.1-3.3; What schools, then, would probably be my best bet of getting into (not necessarily on the list that I made).</p>
<p>It needs to be a 3.3. 3.1 is too near the cutoff of 3.0 at most schools and they most likely would not give you a fair shake so to speak. If you were to obtain a 3.3, Georgia Tech, University of Washington-Seattle, Virginia Tech, Carnegie Mellon and Any lower University of California and maybe UCSD would be possible.</p>
<p>Wow, all of that is pretty much blazingly incorrect. It's true that a 3.0 is a little low, but a 3.5 will easily get you into most of those schools. Extracurriculars, contrary to popular belief, <em>do</em> count for quite a bit.</p>
<p>Go talk to some of your professors. See if you can slam-dunk the GRE math part (shouldn't be too hard)... It doesn't carry a lot of weight, but it's a couple of brownie points. Start looking for profs to help you out with your recommendations.</p>
<p>Is it a 3.0 within your major, or are there some math or general science courses that are pulling your gpa down? Calculate your major GPA and let us know what the results of that are.</p>
<p>Rose-Hulman is known as quite a competitive program, and even a 3.0 carries weight in the grad admissions universe. Work to get it up to a 3.1 or 3.2, and your chances will improve greatly. No research experience doesn't hurt you as badly as all these folks say... I had some TA experience grading papers, but no research experience, and I got into all the top ten programs.</p>
<p>(Also, a CivE is in an aerospace club because structural engineers are routinely hired for aerospace applications. I got three job offers at Boeing, Northrup Grumman, and The Aerospace Corporation with my MS from Illinois in structural engineering. Civ ain't just wastewater treatment plants, folks.)</p>
<p>What's with all this doomsday goofiness??? This guy's got a perfectly good chance. Talk to your professors, see what they have to say in terms of guidance. It'll turn out okay.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot aibarr. My two EChem classes brought down my overall GPA for the most part. My gpa for strictly my civil classes is probably around a 3.2-3.4.</p>
<p>A 3.2-3.4 from RH gives you plenty of options. =) Bust your hump your senior year, make some faculty friends within the department, and ask 'em for guidance!</p>
<p>I graduated from Rose in civil engineering in '94, specializing in structures. I had a 3.0-ish GPA after my sophomore year, but raised my overall to around 3.3 by graduation. My GPA in structural courses was maybe 3.7 or higher. Your GPA in civil and especially structural courses is really important. Also, GRE scores can help, as well as decent summer job experience, and some involvement with structural faculty members at Rose (I graded Structures I homework).</p>
<p>I got into Illinois, Penn State, and Wisconson. Illinois was my first choice, Wisconson was my girlfriend's first choice (French major - Wisconson is a top 5 program), and Penn State was a compromise school (top 20 in both our programs, great atmosphere). We ended up at Penn State, mainly due to decent assistantships, although I did get into Illinois. In retrospect, I wish we had applied to Texas, Cornell, and maybe Michigan also. </p>
<p>I think you'll have a shot at Illinois, Purdue, GT, and RPI. I have the impression that Cornell is more difficult to get into than Illinois, but maybe that's just the Ivy League thing, as Illinois is as good as any. Does Columbia have a structures program? I've not heard much about Cal Tech's grad program.</p>
<p>If you want to go straight from an MS to a structural engineering consulting job, I'd encourage you to send your resume to my firm, Steven Schaefer Associates (ssastructural.com), in Cincinnati. We typically have at least one or two part time grad students at the University of Cincinnati (not a top tier program, but not bad), and I believe we pay 1/2 tuition while they work 20 hours a week at our office. It's a nice path to a permanent job at the top regional firm. If you're interested, give us a call and ask for John, and we can talk.</p>
<p>Having just been through this process, grad schools really care about your upperdivision GPA as evidenced by Berkeley's app asking and using ONLY your GPA after 2 years (essentially your junior and senior year GPA) and Utexas stating so here: Structural</a> Engineering at UT-Austin Admissions Criteria . Luckily I rocked those semesters and pulled a 3.9 eventhough my major gpa was slightly lower. I also met some Rose-Hulman grads during my structural engineering visits. Very smart and cool people. All commented on how hard the place is so I believe it.</p>
<p>I am a Rose-Hulman student as well. I had a GPA below 3.0 by the end of my freshman year and managed to raise it to a 3.3 with a lot of hard work. I have also managed to be accepted to Virginia Tech, Purdue University, and University of Illinois for their Structures program. It has been a bit difficult getting financial aid, but it has not been difficult getting into the schools. Our professors do a great job of informing most of the schools about Rose-Hulman and how difficult it is. I would definately recommend getting some research experience, I think it did help me get into grad school. I would also recommend sitting down and discussing your thoughts/options with one of our professors. I spent a lot of time talking to Dr. Hanson, and he helped me out a great deal.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of your input..it is very helpful. I've just found out about USC's Viterbi school of engineering. Does anybody know if they have a competitive graduate program? And do you think I would have a shot at being accepted into their graduate structures program with the stats that I have?</p>
<p>I don't know about structural engineering, but I think that you have a fair chance for all of those MS programs you have mentioned.</p>
<p>However, from hereon, you should try to contact professors in addition to getting higher grades for "relevant" courses. I don't even think that you have to get the "3.3" from your 3.0 by taking music 101 and other free elective classes. Just show that you are capable of doing graduate work and the best way to do this is through research and summer work experiences.</p>
<p>Therefore, try to contact professors who are in your field of interest and get some researching experience. Finding the right professor would be crucial.</p>
<p>I heard that top programs care less about the gpa than lower ranked programs, and weight in more towards relevant research, courses, recommendation letters, and SOPs. I can't say that this is entirely true though.</p>
<p>The reason I said that you don't have to get the maximum possible gpa of "3.3" was because I don't see the difference between a 3.1 and a 3.3...</p>
<p>Student A (3.3 student) could have done really well during his freshman year with econ 101 and statistics 101, but didn't do too hot on his major courses and took minimum amount of graduate level courses.</p>
<p>Student B (3.1 student) could have done really bad during his freshman year but decided to bust his @ss and take lots of relevant graduate level courses that complements his research and did pretty well on his major courses.</p>
<p>I don't know if this is true in the admissions office, but student B seems like the better candidate.</p>
<p>I'm an Engineering Physics major at Rose in my sophomore year.</p>
<p>It might be late to do this, since finals are real soon, but I'd browse the website and find a faculty member who does something with structural analysis or something... I don't know if you know John Aidoo or Jim Hanson, but from the website they seem to have research interests most relevant to what you want to study in the future. I don't know about the Civil department, but in Physics there seem to be plenty of research opportunities that go on throughout the year and during the summer as well. During the school year they just work as 1 or 2 credit hour "directed research" classes. It might not be too late to show interest in something like that for next year, assuming your department is anything like mine. I think this would be helpful since then you could have started research of some kind before your apply to Grad School. From what I hear (around here) it's really helpful for your app if you show your interest in the field through research.</p>
<p>Maybe talk to your adviser and see what he has to say about research next year. I know mine would gladly help, but I guess there are so few physics majors we may get pampered treatment ;)</p>
<p>Sadly I have no idea about admissions to engineering programs, so I can't say much about USC or your chances elsewhere. </p>