<p>Hi, I'm a senior at Seattle University hoping to go to grad school in electrical engineering. I just took the GRE yesterday, and I was a little disappointed in my scores..do I have a chance at getting in?</p>
<p>-Intern at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Microelectronics & Signal Processing. Project will be launched on a satellite in 2011.
-Intern at Boeing Phantom Works, working on formal methods.
-One quarter of research related to signal processing theory at Seattle University.
-I have not published anything, but I did a formal poster presentation at NASA and Boeing.</p>
<p>I have taken the most challenging engineering and math classes offered at my school. Aside from this, I have been active on campus as an RA, a news reporter for the school newspaper, engineering representative to University Council, a member of Judicial Board, Pep Band, and some others. I know that this isn't very important for grad schools though.</p>
<p>What schools should I be reasonably aiming at? Do you think it would help compensate for the low GRE score if I mention I have a 4.0 GPA in math in two schools on the application?</p>
<p>I would love to go to USC for EE with a concentration on signal processing and communications, but is this possible?</p>
<p>MS or Phd? If it’s for MS I think you have an excellent shot, for Phd it depends on a lot of things.</p>
<p>I don’t think those GRE will hold you back at all. Sure they’re not as sky-high as they could be, but they’re still very good. Plus GRE is much less important to graduate school than SAT is for undergrad. You’ll definitely meet whatever minimum standard is set anywhere, and beyond that it’s not as important.</p>
<p>If anything that experience at NASA Goddard & the other research is probably the strongest part of your application, besides your GPA, so you want to emphasize that research experience.</p>
<p>If by EE & math you mean that you double majored in EE and Math (or majored in EE and minored in math) then that’s probably the <em>other</em> strongest part of your application. Signal processing and especially comm are (if anything) very mathematical, especially the research part. The 4.0 gpa is just gravy on the top.</p>
<p>And letters of recommendation are also important, especially ones from professors you’ve done research with who will testify to your research ability. </p>
<p>edit: you can PM me also, I’m an EE at USC who’s also really into the mathematical</p>
<p>Here’s a tentative list of schools I’m applying to for an MS. Some of these are reach schools and others are safety schools. Do I have a reasonable chance at these schools?</p>
<p>-Harvard University (22)
-Boston University (44)
-Northeastern University (65)
-University of Pennsylvania (23)
-Drexel University (52)
-University of California at Berkeley (3)
-Santa Clara University
-University of Southern California (8)
-University of California – Los Angeles (13)
-University of California – Irvine (37)
-University of California – Riverside (65)
-University of Miami
-Northwestern University (20)
-University of Illinois – Chicago (65)
-University of Washington (24)</p>
<p>The biggest worry is the 730Q. EE grad students are expected to get 750 minimum, and most get 780+ if not 800. GRE scores don’t matter in that a great score doesn’t really help you but a poor score can drop you.</p>
<p>I would retake the GRE. 20% of EE’s get an 800 on the quant section. The EE department at my alma mater (30ish in EE) had an average quant of over 750, for example. I’m sure whatever you get on your verbal section will be fine though; The program I go to now is top 10 and the average verbal is only 550 or so.</p>
<p>If the average quant is 750, that means a 730 isn’t really a terrible score, although it is below average. I had a 720 and still managed to get into a number of top 10 programs in Materials Science.</p>
<p>Like I said, whatever you get on the verbal section will be fine and I’m sure they will take the highest score. I am almost 100% sure no school looks judiciously at your verbal score if you’re in engineering. To corroborate my statement, the average GRE verbal at MIT EECS is sub 600. They just don’t care what you get as long as it’s average for their admitted students.</p>
<p>Don’t take the GRE more than twice though. I swear I heard somewhere that there’s a limit to how many GRE scores at least my school accepts.</p>