Official 2011 Engineering Grad School Profiles/Results/Discussion

Graduate School
1

<p>This will be like last year's thread: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/771815-official-2010-engineering-graduate-school-results.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/771815-official-2010-engineering-graduate-school-results.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>These types of threads are useful for trying to get a good idea of what engineering grad schools look for. Let's get data points for future applicants (make sure to include research experience as numbers alone don't mean much). Two things: <a href="1">b</a> this is NOT for chances and (2) please don't update us on individual results; do them in batches.**</p>

<p>I'll start.</p>

<p>Major: Electrical Engineering
School: University of Illinois, ~4th ranked EE school
Cumulative GPA: 3.93 (top 5% or so)
Technical GPA: 3.92 (EE: 3.97)
GRE: 710V/780Q/4.5AW
U.S. Permanent Resident</p>

<p>Research Experience:
- 3 semesters & 2 summers at a micro/nanotechnology lab at Illinois with two groups in semiconductors, includes 1 summer REU and ongoing senior thesis
- 1 semester at a lab in Germany through an international research experience program
- No publications or notable results</p>

<p>No major awards; just ordinary stuff like departmental scholarships, departmental honors program, dean's list, and honors societies.</p>

<p>3 LORs from Illinois EE professors (2 from research advisors, which should be decent; 1 from my academic advisor, who has a bizarrely high opinion of me but can't comment on my research).</p>

<p>Applying to the following grad schools, all in EE unless otherwise noted and in no particular order:
Stanford, Berkeley, Illinois, Cornell, MIT, Princeton, Northwestern (Mat Sci), UCSB (Mat Sci)</p>

<p>Also applying to the NSF GRFP.</p>

<p>I’m already in at Illinois, with funding guaranteed through at least a TA position but likely will get RA/fellowship funding. My chances are pretty good, I think, at Stanford (funding unlikely), Cornell, and Princeton. MIT, Berkeley, Northwestern, and UCSB are reaches due to the lack of publications. We’ll see what happens. Good luck to the rest of you.</p>

2

<p>I just made this thread a sticky. Good luck, everyone!</p>

3

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I like the format they use on another forum so I copied and pasted the template below. Feel free to omit some information since it is quite extensive.
[noparse]
You can leave the ** and ** alone because they are there to bold the headings so input your information after the **.</p>

<p>For example:</p>

<p>Major: EE
Minor: physics[/noparse]</p>

<p>becomes:</p>

<p>Major: EE
Minor: physics</p>

<h1>[noparse]</h1>

<p>**Undergrad Institution:<a href=“School%20or%20type%20of%20school,%20such%20as%20big%20state,%20lib%20arts,%20ivy,%20technical,%20foreign%20(what%20country?)…%20Overall%20Reputation%20in%20Engineering?”>/b</a>
Major(s):
Minor(s):
GPA in Major:
Overall GPA:
**Length of Degree:<a href=“Are%20you%20graduating%20after%203,%204,%20or%205%20years?”>/b</a>
**Position in Class:<a href=“No%20numbers%20needed,%20but%20are%20you%20top?%20near%20top?%20average?%20struggling?”>/b</a>
**Type of Student:<a href=“Domestic/International,%20male/female,%20minority?”>/b</a></p>

<p>GRE Scores:
Q:
V:
W:</p>

<p>**TOEFL Total:<a href=“if%20applicable,%20otherwise%20delete%20this”>/b</a></p>

<p>**Research Experience:<a href=“At%20your%20school%20or%20elsewhere?%20What%20field?%20How%20much%20time?%20Any%20publications%20(Mth%20author%20out%20of%20N?)%20or%20conference%20talks%20etc…”>/b</a></p>

<p>**Awards/Honors/Recognitions:<a href=“Within%20your%20school%20or%20outside?”>/b</a></p>

<p>**Pertinent Activities or Jobs:<a href=“Such%20as%20tutor,%20TA,%20organization%20officer%20etc…”>/b</a></p>

<p>Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:</p>

<p>**Applying for [ MS ] or [ PhD ] at:<a href=“delete%20one”>/b</a></p>

<p>School - Department
School - Department
School - Department
School - Department</p>

<h1>[/noparse]</h1>

4

<p>Might as well…</p>

<p>** Major:** Chemical Engineering</p>

<p>Undergrad Institution: Caltech
GPA in Major: 3.5
Overall GPA: 3.53 (>3.50 is graduating with honors)
Position in Class: slightly above average
Type of Student: Domestic</p>

<p>GRE Scores:
Q: 800
V: 550 <– Haha, oh well. I didn’t think it was worth retaking.
W: 5.0</p>

<p>Research Experience: 3 summer research fellowships working in two very good labs, pretty extensive research experience in protein engineering. No publications will be ready until February unfortunately.</p>

<p>Awards/Honors/Recognitions: None really</p>

<p>Pertinent Activities or Jobs: AIChE Caltech Chapter President</p>

<p>LORS: 1 LOR from Biochem prof, 1 from a ChemE prof, and 1 from a ChemE lecturer/lab manager. All 3 have told me they wrote very strong recs.</p>

<p>Applying for PhD in Chemical Engineering at: </p>

<p>MIT
Stanford
Texas
Illinois
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Georgia Tech
UCLA</p>

<p>Also applying for NSF GRFP and NDSEG.</p>

<p>Not really sure how this is going to go. I think my GPA might hold me back from my top choices, but LOR writers said not to worry about it. I guess I’ll update in March when I’ve found out.</p>

5

<p>Undergrad Institution: Stanford
Major(s): Electrical Engineering
Minor(s): None
GPA in Major: 3.68
Overall GPA: 3.696
Length of Degree: 4
Position in Class: Probably average to upper average
Type of Student: Domestic</p>

<p>GRE Scores:
Q: 800
V: 640
W: 5.0</p>

<p>Research Experience: Two summers of research here at stanford. First summer was in radiation therapy at the cancer center. I got 1 publication from that. The second was more of an engineering project than actual research, but it was in the EE department. No publications from it but I’m still working on the project.</p>

<p>Awards/Honors/Recognitions: None</p>

<p>Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Internship at SpaceX</p>

<p>Applying for [ PhD ] in EE at: </p>

<p>MIT
Caltech
U Illinois
U Michigan
Berkeley
Princeton
GA tech</p>

<p>I think I’m on the borderline for most of these places. I may decide to just get a terminal masters at Stanford too. I do have a publication, but I don’t have anything too significant going for me other than that. I also applied to NSF and NDSEG. Good luck to all of you.</p>

6

<p>Major: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science</p>

<p>becomes:</p>

<p>Major: EECS</p>

<p>Undergrad Institution: UC Berkeley
Major(s): EECS
Minor(s): None
GPA in Major: 3.6
Overall GPA: 3.557
Length of Degree: 4
Position in Class: around top 20%
Type of Student: Domestic, Male, Asian</p>

<p>GRE Scores:
Q: 800
V: 410 <---- Non-native speaker, don’t really mention in the app though, hope they don’t care.
W: 3.5?</p>

<p>Research Experience: Computer Science - Computer Vision: 1 year at Berkeley, doing eye and skin color detection.</p>

<p>Awards/Honors/Recognitions: None</p>

<p>LOR: 1 from research professor, 1 from postdoc, 1 from academic professor(got an A+ in his class, he really likes my project)</p>

<p>Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 2 internships + HKN</p>

<p>Applying for MS for CS at:</p>

<p>Berkeley
UT Austin
Michigan
Columbia
UCSD
UW Madison
CMU
Princeton
GATech
UIUC
Maryland</p>

7

<p>Hey guys.
I am an electrical engineering.
School : Cal Poly graduation June 2011
Overall GPA :2.83
Upper Division GPA: 3.05
Major GPA : 2.94
GRE1: 290/ 710
GRE2: 440/ 780
Length of Degree: 4
Type of Student: International , Asian
Experience : Two internships from small companies.
Research : Working on Senior Project with a prof.
LOR from great profs.
May apply ( I think I have no chance at all . What do you think?)
UCSC
UCI
USC
UCSB
UCDavis
Purdue
Penn State
SJSU
CMU
Boston Uni
UIUC</p>

<p>I really want to go to grad school for EE but I don’t know what school to apply with such a low GPA. Please give me some advices of which schools I should apply for ( I don’t want to go to Cal State anymore).</p>

8

<p>oh snap! dauntless and I have very similar stats except my major gpa is slightly higher, cumulative gpa slightly lower and I’m only vp of aiche.</p>

9

<p>So what is your plan?</p>

10

<p>Major: Electrical Engineering</p>

<p>Undergrad Institution: Cooper Union
GPA in Major: 3.6
Overall GPA: 3.6
Type of Student: International</p>

<p>GRE Scores:
Q: 800
V: 650
W: 4.5</p>

<p>Research Experience: Summer Internship at Cooper (nothing special). Summer international research experience in a Korean University. Ongoing research with a Cooper Professor who’s writing one of my recommendations. Summer research with a professor at USC who’s also writing one of my recommendations. Senior thesis at Cooper is advised by my third recommender. </p>

<p>Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Nothing really, Dean’s list 4 times.</p>

<p>Pertinent Activities or Jobs: ACM Cooper Chapter Vice President</p>

<p>LORS: Mentioned above. Should all be great.</p>

<p>Applying for PhD in Electrical Engineering at:</p>

<p>MIT
Stanford
Illinois
UC Berkeley
USC
UCLA
UC San Diego
UC Santa Barbara
Michigan
Princeton
Columbia
Rutgers
Caltech
Virginia Tech
Purdue
Carnegie Mellon</p>

11

<p>I’m applying to PhD programs as a ChemE, do all schools have interviews, and what kind of questions are typically asked?</p>

12

<p>To the best of my knowledge, none of the schools to which I applied do interviews for chemical engineering.</p>

13

<p>How does the process work for EE/ECE once applications are turned in? Do programs do in-person interviews, and if so, when do they send out invites? Do some programs accept students without any interview at all?</p>

14

<p>Undergrad: Florida Institute of Technology '06

  • GPA: 3.85 (3.95 major) – 1st in graduating class
  • Degrees in CS and Math</p>

<p>Master’s: UCLA '09

  • GPA: 3.81
  • Degree in CS</p>

<p>GRE: 470V / 770Q / 5.5AW</p>

<p>Research Experience:
overall, 12 research projects and 7 internships, including:
- 2.5 years during undergrad
- few projects during grad school
- 1.5 years as an Associate Staff researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory</p>

<pre><code>Internships:

  • a few government sites, doing research
  • MIT Lincoln Laboratory
  • Google
  • Harris Corporation
    </code></pre>

<p>No major awards or publications.</p>

<p>1 LOR from high-up boss at MIT Lincoln Lab; 2 from UCLA professors</p>

<p>Applying to: MIT, Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth</p>

15

<p>Undergrad Institution: University of Delaware (Masters Student Currently)
Major(s): Environmental Engineering
Minor(s):
Overall GPA: 3.78
Length of Degree: 2 Years (Masters)
Position in Class: Near top
Type of Student: Domestic</p>

<p>GRE Scores:
Q: 730
V: 590
W: 4.5</p>

<p>Research Experience: Masters research</p>

<p>Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Lots of undergraduate scholarships, just the Research Assistantship for grad school</p>

<p>Pertinent Activities or Jobs: RA, manager of 3 labs, chief safety officer</p>

<p>Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Current advisers are well-known, I’ve met potential advisers in person and some showed great interest in my research background, and a masters degree helps because of research experience and a more intimate relationship with recommenders.</p>

<p>Applying for [ PhD ] at: </p>

<p>Stanford - Biogeochemistry
Texas-Austin - Environmental Engineering
Georgia Tech - Environmental Engineering
University of Illinois - Environmental Engineering
Cornell - Environmental Engineering
Wisconsin Madison - Environmental Engineering and Biogeochemistry
UC Davis - Environmental Engineering</p>

16

<p>does MIT EECS give out interviews? i applied to EECS track II for systems biology (i was a math major undergrad) and i’m a bit unfamiliar with the admissions process, since it’s quite different from biology graduate programs…</p>

17

<p>I have not come across of any mention of interviews for the MIT EECS program so I doubt it will happen.</p>

18

<p>What the heck. Might as well post my own. My applicant stats:</p>

<p>Undergrad Institution: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (dual undergrad/Ph.D. student)
Major(s): Computer Science, Math
Minor(s): Psychology
GPA in Major: 3.97
Overall GPA: 3.97
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: Top 1-2%
Type of Student: Male, US citizen</p>

<p>GRE Scores:
Q: 800
V: 620
W: 6.0</p>

<p>Research Experience: Some CS research at my school. One paper accepted submission to a journal (per competition… see below) and one accepted to a conference. Gave a talk at SIAM AN10.</p>

<p>Awards/Honors/Recognitions: SIAM prize in 2010 COMAP Mathematical Contest in Modeling. The paper written is to appear in UMAP at some point. Some other school-wide award as well.</p>

<p>Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Couple of summers as an undergraduate researcher and four semesters of TAing (undergrad TA in Logic and Data Structures/Algorithms, graduate TA in Discrete Structures and Multivariable Calc)</p>

<p>Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Chess team captain? I don’t know</p>

<p>Applying for PhD at a couple top CS schools</p>

19

<p>Have you guys heard back from any schools yet?</p>

20

<p>Top 10 Private:
Major(s): Mechanical Engineering & Material Science, Biomedical Engineering
Minor(s): Chemistry
GPA in Major: 3.95
Overall GPA: 3.92
Length of Degree: 4 year
Position in Class: Around 95th percentile
Type of Student: Domestic</p>

<p>GRE Scores:
Q: 800
V: 720
W: 4.0</p>

<p>Research Experience: All at undergrad institution. 5 semesters of research+2 summers. One 1st author (out of 2) publication</p>

<p>Awards/Honors/Recognitions: REU fellowship for the summer. Competitive in school fellowship to fund research.</p>

<p>Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Just starting to TA now</p>

<p>Applying for [ PhD ] at:</p>

<p>MIT - Mat.Sci.
MIT - Mechanical
Stanford - Mat.Sci.
Cornell - Mat.Sci. (Accepted)
Northwestern - Mat.Sci.
CMU - Mat.Sci.
Caltech - Mat.Sci.
GeorgiaTech - Mat.Sci.</p>