<p>Hello,
I am thinking about getting admission in PhD just after the completion of BS in Civil Engineering (Concentration: Transportation). 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 Georgia Tech, 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 Georgia Tech student, can I expect to get any benefit for the admission there?</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>It is not atypical to go into PhD programs without getting an MS first, provided that you are a well-qualified candidate. Your grades are not fantastic, but they are still above the 3.0 cutoff that many programs have. However, they are not going to significantly help your application, so you will have to use other ways to show that you are a strong candidate to admissions committees. You say that you don’t have any publications, but you do have research experience. That’s good. Publications aren’t the most important part. The experience is, and research experience is basically the most important part of a PhD application. How long have you been involved in research, and what types of tasks did you do? (i.e., was it more than just menial work) If you can get a really strong letter of recommendation from the PI you worked with, that’s really great for your application.</p>
<p>Since this forum is aimed at undergrad admissions, you would also probably get more useful help on the grad school forum: <a href=“Graduate School - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/</a></p>
<p>@nanotechnology, To be honest, the work I do for the research does not require that much skill. I have been working here for two months. I hope to get involved in more intense part of the project. And just to make it sure, you got it right, my overall GPA is higher than 3.36. It is 3.64 including the transferred and Georgia Tech credits.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply. Thanks for letting me know I have some hope at least!</p>
<p>For a Ph.D., many suggest not to stay at the same university. It is not necessarily the case that you will find easier admission at Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>I did not know about that. Why do people suggest that? Actually, the main thing is, I really like my institution. I would be very glad to continue here. I will apply in other places. However, my first choice is Georgia Tech (till now).</p>
<p>Many institutions prefer their grads to branch out, it is not usual to get PhD at your undergrad, I don’t know how strongly that philosophy is at your institute but I’m sure it is a case by case basis anywhere. The case may be that you are involved in some specialized research with a particular prof that you 2 plan to continue or there just is not other school that offers your subfield with sufficient quality. Look up academic inbreeding.</p>
<p>If you don’t have strong research experiences it is unlikely you will get admitted to a strong grad program.</p>
<p>It is generally frowned upon to get your PhD from the same institution as your BS because it limits the exposure you have to other ideas and other approaches to a problem. It isn’t so much a problem if you just want to take your PhD and go work for industry, where they mostly just care about your skill set. On the other hand, if you are trying to go get a faculty job somewhere, it will hurt your chances. Honestly, even if it will often work out okay for the student to stay at the same institution for all degrees, I’d advise against it. It often makes you a weaker researcher and exposes you to a much narrower range of experiences and approaches to a problem. It also keeps your professional network artificially small.</p>