<p>I will be graduating next Decemeber (2010) and I was wondering if it would be generally "harder" for me to get accepted into a PhD program in the spring semester than it would in the fall semester?</p>
<p>It varies by institution but usually admissions cycles are for the fall.</p>
<p>There are far fewer institutions that accept Ph.Ds is the spring. For EE there is Carnegie Mellon and USC maybe, and they accept fewer students. You are limited as a student becasue you need a professor with your specific research interests to be recruiting in the Spring otherwise you won’t get accepted.</p>
<p>My advice is to find an internship for 6 months and wait until fall. I once knew of a student in your position who graduated in December and got a 6 month internship at Argonne National Lab before he went to get his Ph.D. He got a stipend and free housing. It was a good chance to get some experience before grad school.</p>
<p>How about for MS programs? Is it also best to wait for fall?</p>
<p>I don’t really have any experience applying for MS programs in the spring, but there are very few programs in EE that accept spring applications…period. Of the top 20 or so I can think of only Carnegie Mellon and USC. If you want to know the chances for individual programs, contact the program. You won’t find too many programs accept spring applications, so your choices will be limited, but if you’re going for a Masters and funding isn’t an issue it wouldn’t hurt to apply to spring programs you are interested in and would go to. If you need funding, I’d think this would be even tougher than usual(Masters students have a tough time getting funding) since all the TAs would be decided and the RAs would go to a present student over Masters student who is applying. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>‘I once knew of a student in your position who graduated in December and got a 6 month internship at Argonne National Lab before he went to get his Ph.D. He got a stipend and free housing. It was a good chance to get some experience before grad school.’</p>
<p>how competitive are admissions to get an internship at those national labs compared to getting into an REU?</p>
<p>anyone know?</p>
<p>I would apply for the fall before you graduate and indicate that you will defer your admission to the Spring. Many schools will allow you to do that.</p>