<p>Hello,
I am thinking about getting admission just after the completion of BS in Civil Engineering. I will discuss about it with my advisor; however, getting some opinions from you will help me plan.</p>
<p>1) How good my GPA should be? I transferred 53 credits with a 3.80 from a two years college. After completing 30 credits in GT, I have 3.36. I expect at least 3.40 during my graduation (let's see!). Is this a competitive GPA for an admission in PhD without MS?</p>
<p>2) As a GT student, can I expect to get any benefit for the admission?</p>
<p>3) So far I have no publications. However, I work as a Undergrad Research Assistant. Will that be any help? I want to do something more than good in my Senior Design. If I can do so will it help?</p>
<p>Finally, what is your suggestion for me? Am I daydreaming?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I was recently admitted as a transfer student for a bachelors in discrete math. I also have a master’s in economics. I decided to get into computer science hence why I am at Tech. I will probably change majors to CS or add a double major. We will see. But I say this b/c I thought I wanted to do a PhD in econ when I was in undergrad. I also used to hang around a lot of PhD students in the Econ department where I was getting my master’s (Univ. of South Carolina).</p>
<p>First ask your self why you want to get a PhD. A PhD is nothing like undergrad. This varies by major, but most PhD candidates do not finish the degree. The system is set up to weed out all the students that do not have a comparative advantage or have higher opportunity costs. What this means is unless you really, really want to be a professional academic and are will to suffer through the rigor of the program and low pay for 5+ years then you will probably drop out. This does not mean you are not capable. It could mean that you aren’t capable, but most of the time it is that there are other opportunities. Or you discover that you really don’t like academia/research very much. This all being said, you need to understand the market for fresh PhDs grads in your field also. Some fields are extremely difficult to get an academic job in.</p>
<p>But after all of this you decide that you still want to do it then good for you! Probably the most important factor that will persuade admissions committees will be previous research. You need to be published somewhere. Your GPA also needs to be stellar. Ideally they would probably want to see a GPA higher than a 3.40. They are probably looking for a 3.7 or 3.8+. Of course the difficulty of the institution says something extra about your GPA. But even being from Ga. Tech I would expect they want to see a higher GPA than a 3.40. Another extremely important part of the admissions packet will be your faculty recommendations. It helps a lot if you have a great recommendation from someone that is well known in the field you are applying for or who is well known by the admissions committee at least. Your scores on the GRE are also going to be very important. For the GRE quant you are going to need a near perfect score to be taken seriously for any mathematically rigorous field.</p>
<p>First, I would recommend doing a lot of research into life as a PhD student in your given field. Second do a lot of research into the life of PhD graduates in your field. How is the job market? Also, and most importantly, do a lot of self discovery. Try and understand if this is really, honestly and truly, what you want to do.</p>
<p>In my quest for an economics PhD, I decided after graduating from my master’s that I did Not want to do research my whole life. It takes a special talent to be a good researcher, and if you don’t have it then you might as well do something you enjoy.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice and detailed opinion!</p>