PhD Chemical Engineering-What are my chances?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi guys, what a lovely group this is!
I intend applying for graduate (PhD) degree in chemical engineering for fall 2010.
I am an international candidate (indigene of the world's most populous black nation) with the following profile:</p>

<p>Undergraduate chemical engineering degree GPA = 4.64 of 5.00 (approx. 3.71 on a 4.00 scale)
Took GRE recently = 790Q, 610V. Yet to see AW.
Almost 1 yr undergraduate research work (No publications yet)
An undergraduate design project work
LORs to come from professors in my (ex) department
TOEFL = Not ready yet (but optimistic for a good score) </p>

<p>Sent GRE scores to Princeton U, Rice U and U of Florida. </p>

<p>Please do u think I stand any chance of getting admitted?</p>

<p>Your comments, suggestions, advice or even shared personal experience would do a lot.</p>

2

<p>lol, by reading some of the words u used, I could tell you were from nigeria.</p>

3

<p>Apply to more colleges. You don’t have much research and that will be a disadvantage. Do your professors writing your LORs have connections to the schools you mentioned? Good Luck.</p>

4

<p>Are you doing undergrad in the U.S.? Your scores look adequate for any program, but the experience might be a little iffy. Have you ever worked in ChemE at all? That could be just as beneficial as research experience.</p>

5

<p>@ Safego
Really brainy of u. Yeah I’m a young Nigerian passionate about achieving my life dream of being a pundit in my field.</p>

<p>@Batllo
I’m also thinking of appling to more schools, but i’m just a bit confused which ones i should choose. Any idea could be really helpful.
‘Research’ - I know my research experience may not be good enough, but it’s not my fault. Nigeria doens’t give any regard to research, unlike the American government. Only very few and probably the easiest research can be initiated, carried out and completed in Nigeria. So, undergraduate research work is almost the only opportunity you have as a Nigerian student to have a feel of what research is like.</p>

<p>@gthopeful
I graduated from a Nigerian University (actually the first chemical engineering department in Africa) late last year.
Before graduation, I had a few months internship as a petroleum engineer trainee in a Nigerian subsidiary of an American Oil giant. What about that?</p>

<p>Generally now, I’ve not applied to these schools, what do you think i should do?
Go ahead and apply to them and to a couple of other schools?
Apply to one or two of them and then to others?
Take another GRE?</p>

6

<p>You used words like indigene and most populous black nation. It made kind of obvious. I really hope you get in, I’d to know how it turns out. Isn’t your gpa equivalent to a first class? Dont take another gre, your scores are fine. I’d worry about research experience if I were you.</p>

7

<p>lol, you are extremely touchy. I didn’t read all your post but yes your sentence structure and word choice gave it away (I am nigerian too though i did college in the US, so dont get too offended). Infact using the word “pundit” in a public forum is another give away. I was actually happy at seeing a fellow country man apply to PhD, very few Nigerians do which makes me sad.</p>

<p>Anyways, to give you a reality check. I would prefer to PM this to you, but I have lots of stuff to do later—> Getting into a top PhD program in engineering at princeton or any other school requires research which you don’t have…they dont care about the policies of your country or the lack of research opportunities and are not going to turn another applicant away. You , seem intelligent and as Christjah commented, your GRE scores are excellent (schools dont care about the verbal). But PhD is a research degree and they want people who excel in research.</p>

<p>You could try other schools, and you might have to go far lower than your desires, but if you actually want to do a PhD, that should not be a hindrance. However, I would advise you to apply for a masters degree at a top American university (do you have a masters already?) and maybe find a way of paying for it, then later apply to a top PhD program. I know they have PTDF and Shell scholarships, can’t you try those? Then you could try like an MS at Stanford or Berkeley, and then apply for a PhD?</p>

<p>Another disadvantage is that, in case you dont know, most Americans don’t know jack**** about the educational system of any country outside the world—even admission officers. They have never heard of UI or Unilag or wherever you went to and think is great school, and they have never heard of your professors before either. As someone mentioned, are your LOR from people who are well known in engineering or at the top of the field? if the answer is no, then a Masters degree could get you in contact with those professors and give you an edge later when you apply to a top PhD program. </p>

<p>Your situation is not unique, and my advise is not exceptional, you could ask other international students, and they would tell you the same thing. Check most international students doing science and engineering PhDs (mostly Asian (south and east). They had to do a masters in the US b4 they did their PhD. Ironically enough. very few universities do masters degrees. Ok, I am tired of typing but seriously do more research (on Phd programs here). I know how limited, if any, reserach opportunities are back home but admission officers wouldn’t care anyways.</p>

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<p>Thanks chrisjah for ur interest.
Thanks sefago. I appreciate the concern of compatriots like you. Paying for an MS programme might pose a great challenge. The PTDF and Shell scholarships you suggested are mainly for British schools; i’ve never heard of any American graduate programme sponsored by any one of them.
A friend of mine will be resuming at the U of Michigan in August (/Sept) for a PhD degree in chemical engineering. We finished from the same school, graduated with comparative gpa’s, and would likely have LOR’s from the same academics. He had a better GRE score though (1510). That was why i thought of taking another gre. But u know what, i’m gonna give it a shot.
I just need some suggestions of (low tier) schools u guys think i can apply to.
thanx.</p>

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<p>Hi guys.
I just got my toef(ibt) - 107.
Do u think this brightens my chances in any way, considering the fact that i am applying to an ivy league school (princeton)?</p>

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<p>Toefl doesn’t contribute in anyway to admission decisions. They only use your GPA, GRE, LOR and research experience</p>

11

<p>The TOEFL is merely to test whether you can do work in English, and whether you qualify for a TA-ship. (You can’t teach if you can’t speak English.)</p>

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<p>hi BlackBoy</p>

<p>myself is ChemE PhD, I’m starting this coming fall at Boston area. </p>

<p>Your GPA is pretty good, GRE/TOEFL are fine, the non-800 on GRE Q is bit itchy but wont hurt you.</p>

<p>no paper is a pity, you still have about 6 months before you submit your application, try your best to get something published with your name, it will put you on a higher level, since you are aiming for ivy schools, the competition is keen. Just focus on LoR/research</p>

<p>by the way–being black is a plus</p>

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<p>Thanks guys for your comments.
But the fact is that getting more research experience or getting a paper published in my name within the next 6 months, as Mr.Zoo commented might be more difficult than a 50 year old sprinter becoming the world’s fastest man.
If sefago had his first degree in Nigeria, he would probably understand my point. There are simply no research opportunities in the country after graduateion, especially in chemical engineering.
I have heard of guys who actually got phd chemical engineering admissions into some top notch schools without some research experience. That friend of mine (resuming at U of Michigan) got phd admissions into almost all the graduate chemE programs he applied to (including Uof Penn, UT @ austin, LSU, U of Colorado etc). I can’t remember him ever telling me of any reserach project he is carrying out somewhere. The only difference we’ve got is in the GRE (he score 110pts higher than me).
I understand this difference can be of significance to graduate admission guys, especially of those highly ranked schools including the ivies.
I am thinking of striking out princeton and florida in my list of schools to apply to. I’m thinking of replacing it with others, of lower ranks for graduate chemical engineering like Louisiana State U (LSU), U of Pittsburgh, Texas A&M U, Ohio State U, Brigham Young U, and so on.
What do you guys think?</p>

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<p>^^^ I’ll bet the US universities understand the differences between undergraduate education/opportunities here and those done abroad. Many of the expectations listed here are for U.S. educated undergraduates attending research universities. Even U.S. liberal arts college students get a slightly different look when it comes to admissions.</p>

<p>Don’t strike out schools because you don’t have publications and/or research. In your statement of purpose, make it clear what skills you have learned in your classes and how you excelled at certain projects. Show how you have exploited all the opportunities in your home country and why you want to challenge yourself in the US.</p>

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<p>to BlackBoy, you mentioned your friend “got phd admissions” to the good programs. Now there is huge difference between a PhD admission (“ad”) and an offer letter (“offer”). For ad you get in but you have to fund yourself, for offer the school pays for your tuition plus giving you a stipend</p>

<p>I suggested you to get something published is because you said you did 1 year of undergrad research work, I was referring to that work, not asking you to start something new and publish it (it’s impossible). Where did the 1 year of work go? If they are going to publish something, see if they can put you on the author list, any type of author is fine. I admit I don’t know about the situation in Africa, but I will assume if you helped someone in the lab for one year, they should have a goal for their project. Either to publish some journal paper, some conference paper, apply some patent, writing some review articles, industry contracts, etc.</p>

<p>Among the public schools you had, OSU seems to be the best one and fairly easy to get in. (I’m from OSU)</p>

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<p>Hey blackboy, I actually went to secondary school in Unilag, so I know how things work probably far more than you think. I also know you would be able to get into many schools even with little or no research because admission commitees know that research is limited in universities in sub-saharan africa…however, you could do better if you got a masters degree first. I can swear that PTDF and other petroleum scholarship are also for the US because I saw a lot of kids go to Utexas at austin and some american schools.</p>

<p>^Mr Zoo’s comment is wrong, as you are probably going to comment later on. Like I mentioned earlier your lingo is atypical so when you said your friend got a PhD admission you also meant he was admitted and given a stipend. </p>

<p>Hey, PM me, i could advise you better, a lot of what is mentioned on collegeconfidential is very misinformed (I can assure you) and take what anyone says with a grain of salt.</p>

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<p>As a personal princple, I take every comment, contribution, advice and ideas in this forum equally special and important. I don’t see what anybody stands to benefit from misleading others in this forum, afterall we all have a common goal of gaining admissions and doing well in the graduate school. </p>

<p>Thanks Momwaitingfornew for those kind and gentle words. Maybe Princeton stays, but U of florida is already out - according to my research they’ve got a bad financial aid situation so it’s definitely not ideal for poor african prospectives like me.</p>

<p>Mr.Zoo, my friend got all admissions with full funding. I sincerely appreciate your concern for me, but the project I was working on is still being worked on by the current final year students in the dept. (my immediate juniors) whom I regularly offer some advice to concerning the work. The project is not yet completed- it’s a pilot plant study. But I’ll talk with my supervisor if I can be allowed to publish my work.
Thanks for the info. about OSU.</p>

<p>Sefago, thanks for your comment. But I hope you understand that secondary school is a lot different from the university. As a test, do you know that tertiary education activities in the country is currently in doldrums?</p>

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<p>Guys, I got my AW scoes today.
Disgustingly low 4/6 (37%).
I feel really disouraged.</p>

19

<p>I finally decided to submit some applications:</p>

<p>Princeton
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
Rice
TAMU
Pittsburgh
Drexel
Alberta</p>

<p>All PhD Chemical Engineering (except Alberta which is MSc).</p>

<p>I should get into at least one. HAHAHA.</p>

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<p>cool, goodluck. I am sure you would at least make alberta. I dont know about the others though- but u might have a very good shot in most of them</p>