What constitutes a publication for grad school admission?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>Here we go:</p>

<p>I have one first-authorship that was presented at the MRS conference/proceedings, several co-authorships on MRS, ACS, and international conference presentations (various research topics, various groups, but they all fall under my general "research specialization" category), and some first-authorships and awards at rather undergraduate-oriented journals, conferences, etc.</p>

<p>However, I do not have a "real" (whatever that means) publication at a SCI-indexed journal yet. (ie. Nano Letters, Applied Physics Letters)</p>

<p>I used to think my "research experience/accomplishment" is impressive, enough to overcome my rather not-very-confident GPA, at least not a guaranteed-top5 grad school quality. Now I am not so sure.</p>

<p>I guess what I am asking is whether my research accomplishment (eight itemized individual presentations/publications) would be something that is "typical" of those who apply to top5 schools.</p>

<p>Another way to put this question: do you have to have a SCI-indexed JOURNAL publication to stand out in the application process, or are things like MRS Conf. noteworthy for, say, MSE majors?</p>

<p>I don't think there are many undergrads who are primary authors at MRS, but I could be wrong.</p>

<p>Any thoughts, personal opinions would be helpful. (to ease my severe post-submission-and-pre-decision-anxiety and panic attack)</p>

<p>Merry Christmas!!!</p>

<p>P.S. having not-super-proud GPA and great everything else, let me just say that i'd rather have rock-solid GPA and mediocre everything else...</p>

2

<p>I'm not sure about the specific conventions for MSE, but I had a conference abstract (in neuroscience), and I certainly included it on my list of works published.</p>

3

<p>I never submitted a paper to any journal, nor did I present at or attend any conference. However, I was still admitted to Berkeley's MSE PhD program. Given this fact, you should have a good chance at any top 5 school since you have "strong everything else". I suspect your great research experience will easily dwarf your "not-very-confident GPA". Good luck.</p>

<p>So where did you end up applying? What are your research interests?</p>

4

<p>I applied to Stanford, MIT, Caltech, and Princeton (no real safety school). I just really want to get into Stanford.</p>

<p>I never thought about conference abstracts counting as publications, but I suppose that's true. That's a nice spin to get around the "list of works published" category.</p>

<p>In general, I am interested in electronic materials and nanoscale devices. I am making different research pitch to different schools I am applying to depending on whom I have connections with in that department and other factors. </p>

<p>We'll see. Hopefully I'll get some offers before the end of February. =T</p>

<p>Berkeley MSE program is a very strong and continuously growing program... A ton of interesting professors to work with... Hmm, but early deadline...</p>

5

<p>Don't worry if you don't have so-called 'real' publications at the time you're applying. If you've published anything at all during college, no matter at how large or how small a venue, just list it down and make sure to write down what the venue (conference/journal/workshop/etc.) was so that the admissions committee knows what the scope of the publication is. Something is better than nothing, because it shows that you've tried. Publishing in a major journal as an undergrad is a great bonus, but it is by no means mandatory for admissions into grad school.</p>