<p>Other than good grades in undergrad of course? Although I am going to a school that I love for undergrad anyways, I didn't really get into any of the schools I really wanted to, and I don't want to repeat the mistake of not doing the little things that could've gotten me in wherever. I'm not trying to look too far ahead, but I didn't really look ahead at all during high school.</p>
<p>For engineering, is it really important being a part of clubs in undergrad? What about minors or language? Travel? I know co-op or work experience is huge, and I definitely plan on doing that.</p>
<p>All top universities want well rounded students. But most important for graduate Engineering schools is GPA, GRE, research and faculty recommendations.</p>
<p>What engineering graduate schools are looking for is really simple: good grades and research experience. Good grades are a must and research experience is very nice to have as well. Those other things you mentioned (leadership in clubs, minors, language, work experience) are almost a non-issue. There may be some programs that care, but most won't.</p>
<p>Depends on what institution you attend for your undergraduate studies and on the field you wish to study for graduate school. If you are at Cal or Michigan and wish to get a graduate degree in Industrial or Civil Engineering, a 3.3 should be sufficient to get you into a top 10 graduate program. but if you attend an Engineering school that isn't as well regarded and wish to get a graduate degree in Electrical or BME at a top program, a GPA closer to 4.0 is in order. As for research, different universities have different levels of opportunity. You have to aggressively pursue professors.</p>
<p>You did not say what speciality you are interested in. But let us say for a minute that you wish to study Electrical Engineering. If you go to a school of Toronto's, McGill's, Waterloo's, McMaster's, Alberta's or British Colombia's quality and graduate with a 3.7+ GPA and get over a 2250 on the GRE (including a 770+ on the math section), you should be in good shape with schools like Michigan and Cornell and you should have a shot at schools like Cal, Illinois, MIT and Stanford.</p>
<p>Im doing Chemical Engineering at Ohio State Honors. I know Ive gotta work for a 3.7-4.0 type GPA, but I just don't know what else I need. I don't necessarily feel like I want to go to MIT or Stanford, I just would like to have as many options as I can when I want to go to grad school. </p>
<p>What I dont really understand is what research is at a university. I know what the definition of the word is, but do you actually try to discover new things, or is it more of experimenting to prove something further? It just seems like people throw the word around as if its something everyone can do.</p>
<p>I'm not sure I buy into the importance of research if your objective is an MS. MS programs typically are more oriented for eventual work in a non-research part of industry and hence having good internship or co-op experience would probably be more important than research work. A PhD as an objective is a whole different story.</p>
<p>All right, thanks Alexandre. I'm in MechE btw. Also, I'm in a co-op program, and I'll gather 20 months of internship (this makes my BSc into a 5 year program) by the time I graduate.</p>
<p>I had absolutely zero research experience and got into MIT grad for their structural MEng program, so based upon my own personal experience, I agree with fundingfather. If your objective is an MS, internships are important, recommendations are really important, GRE you should get a high score in (800 was mine... the math is a lot like the SAT, so don't freak out about it too much), and I had a 3.5 GPA at Rice structural eng with scads of extracurriculars and tons of leadership experience, which I emphasized vociferously in my essays.</p>
<p>Research experience is nice, but it certainly isn't a requirement. We had a student accepted to Stanford and Purdue graduate school and he didn't have any research experience. He was top in his class, had great scores and excellent recommendations.</p>
<p>A lot of topics have already been covered in the thread, but here are my two cents. </p>
<p>I agree with fundingfather that an MS is an entirely different game than the PhD. A lot of master's degrees are course based so schools are mostly looking for applicants with high scholastic aptitude (high GPA and GRE scores).</p>
<p>For the Ph.D, I would say that the most important things are letters of recommendation, research, GPA, and GRE. Different schools give weight to different things. For example, many programs at MIT don't give a hoot about the GRE; they care much more about research experience. On the other hand, Stanford tends to put more weight on the GRE and GPA. While I am sure there are excellent students accepted to graduate school without research experience, it is pretty important for a PhD. If admitted to a PhD program, you will be doing research for about 4-6 years. Schools want to know that you have aptitude for research and enjoy doing it. Everyone I have met in my PhD program has published or holds a patent. In fact a standard question at orientation was: "so what research have you done?" Granted it's a competitive program, and I'm sure there are people whom I haven't spoken who didn't publish, but still ...</p>
<p>Stunna, you asked what constituted research. Basically it's working on a project to which no one has the answer yet. You can do research at a company as a summer intern, or, more common for undergraduates, you can work for a professor in his/her lab. Typically, a professor will have you work with a graduate student or under the supervision of a graduate student. Ohio State has research groups so I would suggest scouting around the website and reading the descriptions of the professors' research. Find three or four that interest you and rank them in order of preference. Email your top choice professor stating your interest in their research, the courses you have taken, etc. and asking them if you could work for them during the summer/school year, etc. If professor 1 doesn't say yes, don't despair. Many professors just don't have the room or a sutible project for an undergrad. Keep trying. If you don't have any luck that route, speak to a professor you have had for a class and ask for his assistance. Doing research at your own institution allows for a longer/ more involved project, but you could also check out NSF Research for Undergraduate Experiences which are 3 month programs at different universities during the summer. The deadline for this is typically in January/February though. </p>
<p>go to the reu site.It has a list of all the schools(and there are A LOT of them) that have research internships.I'm doing one(chemical engineering) this summer at penn state university(my school). Its fairly easy to apply for them.You need to write personal statements for some of them(the ivies) but its real easy to apply for the others.you only need a G.P.A of at least a 3.2 for most/all of them.</p>
<p>anyone know what math graduate school is like? What kind of work is given?I'm considering going to an ivy for maths.</p>