What do graduate schools for engineering look for?

Graduate School
1

I’m currently a freshman in chemical engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. I just finished my first semester here, and I already know that I really want to continue with the research I’m conducting and go on to graduate school to hopefully earn a Ph.D. I know I would like to go out of Colorado for graduate school, and I also know that I’m still a ways away from doing that, but I just wanted to get a sense of the types of things graduate schools look for when accepting graduate students, especially for chemical engineering. For a basic profile, I finished the semester off with a 3.55 cumulative GPA (not exactly the level I like, but I’m definitely going to bring this up), am also currently pursuing a minor in Physics. I’m taking a few summer classes and am also going to be working with a professor in the Chemistry department in his research group. I’d like to consider going to places like CMU, Pitt, Berkeley, Minnesota, and others for graduate school, to give you an idea.

Any information would be appreciated. I know, once again, that I’m still a long way away from it, but I would like to keep that in mind when I choose what types of research to apply for, classes to take, etc.

2

All the profs you have went to grad school, probably good ones. Have you asked any of them?

3

I have, a lot of them have been saying the sames things regarding your technical GPA, research positions, etc. I’m not sure though whether people who are a lot more well-rounded are preferred or those who focused more on their respective fields, because most of my professors did the latter. They didn’t really give a clear answer on that.

4

GPA, GREs