Thoughts on top 1~30 chemE?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>I plan to apply for a PhD in chemical engineering this coming fall (apps coming soon! Already started on SOP!); I'm looking at process or bio modeling and a career in R&D, not necessarily academia.
I'm worried about low GPA, no pubications, and no famous chemE recs (lol but srsly).</p>

<p>ChemE major, CS minor
GPA 3.54, been slowly/constantly rising since year1; ignore year1 and it's nearer to 3.65; too many ECs and honors, took too many classes I didn't have pre-reqs for...
GRE 170Q 167V 5W</p>

<p>Rec 1: Academic & Research Advisor (PhD in chemE, UT Austin) : 1 year of computational biophysics research. Maybe pub pending. Does it help for my UT Austin application?
Rec 2: Research scientist (PhD in chemistry, UCB): Summer research internship at an FFRDC - this summer
Rec 3?: A pretty well-known research scientist whom I do statistics/data analytics research with for a tech start-up I co-founded (but his PhD is in clinical psychology)
Do admissions people frown upon out-of-major, entrepreneurial ventures like these, even if it involves research?
Rec 3? I'm taking a project-based grad course on scientific computation with a cool prof I plan to talk to more, but don't think 3/4 of a semester is enough to develop any sort of rec-worthy work relationship.</p>

<p>Applying to 8 schools for a PhD:
Near-impossibilities because of GPA alone, it seems everyone who gets in has a 3.75+ GPA:
Stanford, UT Austin, Carnegie Mellon, MIT CEP (start-up and industry mentality gives me a plus?)
Reach:
Northwestern, Columbia, UC Davis, UChicago IME (New program, risky for a non-academia track applicant?)
+Harvard computational engineering program (1 year MS)</p>

2

<p>Seems like your research experience, LORs and GRE scores are all fine. The GPA is a bit low but Engineering will do that to you. Since most of your choices are highly selective, it is sort of a roll of the dice whether you will get in. Probably UC Davis is your safest choice. </p>

<p>The entrepreneurial stuff is not a detriment it is probably neutral. Research is research…</p>

<p>If you are interested in a Ph.D. why apply for an MS where you will have to pay. Your academic record is good enough to get into a bunch of good programs (just not as selective) and you will have support. i would suggest looking at a couple of so-called safety options where you think you will be happy to do a Ph.D. You can get ideas by asking your research mentors for suggestions or introductions and looking at the literature of the field which interests you and see what universities the research is coming out of. The most important thing is your Ph.D. advisor, not so much the university. I have had a number of students in my career at Illinois Tech and all of them have done very well with jobs after graduation even though my university is certainly not considered a peer of the universities you list.</p>

3

<p>IMMENSE thanks for this helpful response.
-Huge relief knowing that the psych research scientist is a fine LoR.
I was most worried about job options after PhD at non-top schools but if what you say is the case, I’ll start looking ASAP. Thanks!</p>