Top Engineering - My chances?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I have a few questions which I could not find any answer for yet and I hope someone will be able to help me.</p>

<p>I am an undergrad senior (actually graduating in December 2013) student at the New York Institute of Technology, majoring in Mechanical Engineering with Aerospace Concentration. I am looking into graduate schools for the Fall 2014. I have done some research already but, because I come from Belgium, I don't know know as much about top grad schools as Americans do and, as the title says, I am looking at schools such as CalTech, Stanford, MIT, etc.</p>

<p>Here is my first question: What are the actual differences between these schools? (I'm mainly interested in CalTech and Stanford but not limited to them) I have read that overall CalTech has a huge focus on research and a small community, that MIT has greater entrepeneurship development, and that Stanford has a lot of money, but this is pretty much it. Do you have any other information and, if possible, related to my field?</p>

<p>Another concern is about my admission. Here is some information about me:
-CGPA: 4.0
-Topics of interest: CFD, fluid-structure interactions, propulsion, energy
-Experience: about to have an internship this summer in a CFD development company + probably 8 months of work/internship between graduation and graduate school
-References: I can ask about any faculty in my department
-Actvities: Senator in the Student Government Association, Student Athlete Advisory Committee, captain of the NCAA Div II NYIT Men's Tennis
-Honors: multiple for academic excellence and leadership, including membership in Golden Key International Honor Society and Phi Eta Sigma Freshman Honor Society
-Computer Skills: Catia, Comsol Multiphysics, MatLab, Mathcad, EES, Autocad, java (I get to learn programs very quickly)
GRE: still need to take it
What do you think my chances are?</p>

<p>My last question is about financial aid. I can clearly not afford these schools if I have to pay it all by myself. I have heard that some schools (I think it was Stanford, but I am really not sure anymore) are "free" once you get in but you are required to work in some kind of teaching assistantship. Is this true? Anyway, is it easy to find graduate assistanships and financial aid at graduate level in these top schools?</p>

<p>I thank you very much for your help in advance and I am looking forward to hearing back from you.</p>

2

<p>I don’t think you’ve mentioned what research area you want to do? Is it computational mechanics (Judging from “topics of interest” and “experience”)?
You should learn C/C++/Fortran. Most CFD labs I’ve seen use one of more of those languages. </p>

<p>The difference is how well the research conducted in the respective lab matches your interest.</p>

<p>Do you have any faculty that can speak about your research skills? That is the most important thing you want in a reference letter.</p>

3

<p>Well, I am not 100% sure yet but CFD is definitely one possibility. And I am most likely going to start working in this as soon as this summer during my internship.</p>

<p>Thank you for your answer. I definitely need to look more deeply into the research labs of each school!!</p>

4

<p>I’d suggest you find out the area you want to go into.
AE is a very broad field.
Computational mechanics branches from AE, but computational mechanics is still a broad field.
CFD branches from computational mechanics, but CFD in itself is broad.
There’s a lot of flows CFD can be applied to. Are you looking into coding or using commercial codes?
Those are some things you want to identify before you apply. </p>

<p>You want to be clear about what it is that you want to do.</p>

5

<p>Well, I have only very recently got interested in CFD. The problem is that my college does not offer any class in this area. I am looking at some stuff on my own but that is it. Even my professors are not very familiar with CFD.
The internship I have for this summer is actually about apply a commercial software to fluid-structure interaction situations and verify those results with experimental data. I am extremely excited about it. However, I don’t really know what the other options are. I am also interested in coding (I am very good in my basic programming and numerical analysis clases but it is very basic indeed).
As a more general problem, my undegrad curriculum is very broad and general. My school does not offer a master’s degree, which I guess explains this lack of specific topic classes. I am trying to find my way on my own. The issue is that I tend to be interested in a lot of things, which is good but that doesn’t help me in my choice for specialization … Propulsion is also a example of topic I am studying right now and that interests me a lot.</p>

6

<p>That sounds like a research internship, which would be more beneficial for your goals. Propulsion and fluid mechanics are pretty closely related. In fact, a lot of labs conduct research in both fluids and propulsion. What type of propulsion? Electric? I’m more familiar with electric propulsion, but there aren’t many programs offerring that.</p>

7

<p>I think I would rather work with jet propulsion. Do you actually work as an aerospace engineer? What kind of education have you followed?</p>

8

<p>No, I’m a junior in ME, but my focus is in fluids. If you’re into jet propulsion, then without a doubt, you should consider Caltech. [Space</a>, Stars, Mars, Earth, Planets and More - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory](<a href=“http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/]Space”>http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/)</p>

9

<p>Well honestly, I have an unconscious preference for CalTech because of the size of the campus. I visited it and I think this size would suit me best.
CalTech has an internship program called SURF with the possibility to intern at JPL. However, international students cannot work at JPL. Do you know if it is different once you are actually a graduate student there?</p>

10

<p>If you are applying for a Masters degree, it is likely that you will have to finance it yourself at the schools you mention.</p>

11

<p>well, a 4.0 in ME certainly works in your favor. You have to be insanely smart and dedicated to pull that off. with the internship and a decent GRE score, you should get in. </p>

<p>about the financing, if it is an MS, you may have to pay yourself, especially for engineering. For a Ph.D., acceptance is often coupled with a funding package (ie being a TA + a research assistant with a grant the school gets to fund you) that would make your education essentially free. </p>

<p>WARNING: not an expert on how engineering school admission works, im just a humble life sciences major</p>

12

<p>It should also be mentioned that some schools (in particular Caltech) do not take MS students in a number of programs. And, yes, you can work at JPL once you’re a grad student. I imagine the reason they don’t allow it for summer interns that aren’t local is because you now need a security clearance in order to get access to lab.</p>

13

<p>So it seems like funding for an MS is very limited. Thanks everyone for your help.</p>

14

<p>JPL should higher summer interns who are not US citizens/permanent residents.</p>