What are my chances of getting into top-tier graduate school for MS in Aerospace or Mechanical?

  • Class standing: Soon to be senior
  • My Undergraduate school: Second best engineering school in Florida
  • Current Overall GPA: 3.76 (Top 10% of engineers at my school)
  • Current Aerospace Major GPA: 3.78
  • Research Experience: Currently doing research, nothing special though
  • Work Experience: Intern at best/second best rocket company in the United States
  • GRE: Haven't taken yet
  • L.O.R: They will be standard letters, nothing special

One caveat; I just received a C in a Fundamentals of Aerodynamics class. This, along with a C in Calculus 1, are the only Cs on my transcript. However, a C in a major course (Fundamentals of Aerodynamics) will destroy my application, correct?

What are my honest chances of getting into the following schools for MS in Aerospace (or Mechanical for group X)?
Group 1: MIT, Stanford
Group 2: Ga Tech, UMich, Purdue, UIUC
Group X: UC Berkley, Harvard, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell

If I applied to all of these schools, would I get into at least one? Which ones possibly? Thank you so much for any insight that can be provided!!

go to gradcafe.com A lot of eng students positing their stats and say where accepted or not. Im sure someone there will help in what you can do or read what others have done to see if you fall short. just went thru this with my son . Your LOR and SOP need to be really strong (thats what we heard).

Thank you, I will do that now!

Hey AerospaceEngine, I firmly believe that you should be fine getting into any of those schools.

I’m currently a student at the University of Alabama majoring in Chem E. Our program isn’t too great, so I was able to obtain a 4.00 GPA due to fairly easy courses . Your GPA is high so you shouldn’t worry about that part of your application. Similar to you, I have research experience, but didn’t do anything special (no publications or anything). Moreover, my GRE scores weren’t too great- 162 (83%) quant and 153 verb (59%). I feel as the strength of my application came from my GPA, volunteering experience, recommendations, and personal statement. You already have the GPA down (those Cs shouldn’t ruin your application as long as all your other grades are good, which they are). I’ve volunteered abroad, so I made that connection to why I wanted to pursue BME. I’d recommend looking for professors that would write you a recommendation letter as soon as possible- ones that know you by name and know that you’re a hardworking student. For the statement, get it reviewed by as many people as possible. I only got it looked at by 2 of my friends, but one of them is an English major that works for our writing help center.

(FYI, my GRE score was about 16-20 points below the cumulative average of those that got into Berkeley…)

All in all, with some “okay” research experience and a mediocre GRE score, I got admitted into several of the top MS/M. Eng in BME/BioE programs (Johns Hopkins (#1), Duke (#6), Berkeley (#6), Carnegie-Mellon, UCLA, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Northeastern). I would recommend getting started on the applications as soon as possible. I turned most of mine in on the deadline. I actually started working on my applications towards the end of November.

If you have anymore questions, I’ll happily answer them!

Wow, this is the best answer I have ever gotten. Now that I know I have a chance, I am going to really put all my effort into these applications!!! THANK YOU!!!