aerodreamer

just got the email. Last name W.

Thank you for your reply, eternallyephemeral. It's nice to know about the funding issues related to the public schools, and I will look for more information on that to see whether it will apply to my case. As for poster presentations, I've only done two research presentations that were internal to the departments I was working with, and I don't think those matter too much. I am currently in the process of co-authoring a paper on the aerodynamics project I worked on in Germany. It is still uncertain whether that will be published eventually, but I am trying my best to make it happen. You are absolutely right about applying to more schools other than only the top 3 and looking for great professors and research areas specifically. However I think my goal is to only attempt the tier 1-2 schools in the States, so eventually I may apply to 8 schools at most. If I could not get into any of those, I am happy to stay in UofT, because I don't think it worth much going to an expensive school in the US that is just as good as UofT, in which every aerospace graduate (research type) student is almost guaranteed to receive full funding. Thanks again for the information. I am well aware of the intense competition out there, but on the other hand, I don't regard getting into a top school as the most important thing in my academic studies. After all, learning is primarily a matter of personal discipline in which big name schools can only play a subsidiary role.

Hi there, I am a third-year aerospace undergraduate student who is doing a full-year internship right now. I will continue my 4th year study this coming fall and will apply for graduate schools for the 2017 term. I need some opinions about my chances of getting into top aero/astro graduate programs in the US, including MIT, Stanford, and Caltech etc. Undergraduate Institute/Program: University of Toronto, Engineering Science cGPA: 3.83/4.0 3rd year major GPA: 3.99/4.0 GRE: V164, Q170, AW: 5 Research / Industrial Experiences: 2 summer research; 1 full-year internship (flight sciences engineer intern in Bombardier); 1 thesis project ( starting this summer) My concerns are about my cGPA and my research experiences: Will my cGPA be a disadvantage for my application? The number is around the low end of the published stats of the admitted students. However, considering the good reputation of my school and program, will the graduate admission committee consider my cGPA more leniently? I've also noted reports on grade inflation in Ivy league schools in the States (is it true for engineering programs?) , and will the graduate committee regard my cGPA at a similar level to a 3.9 from those US undergrad schools? Will my industrial experience increase my chances ? The work is mostly not about research, and includes writing codes, writing design study reports, and doing aircraft performance simulations and analysis. On a positive side, my boss got a PHD from stanford aero way back in the early 90s, and I want to ask him to provide me a reference letter. Would this help much? My 4th year thesis project supervisor is a very well-known professor in CFD, and I will for sure ask him to provide me a reference letter. However, by the time I require the letter from him, I will have only worked with him for 3-4 months in part time. So I should not regard his reference as a strong one, should I? Regarding my summer research in aerodynamics, it lasted about 3 months in full time. I worked with a well-known professor in TU-Darmstadt, Germany (an okay but not a top school). I did fairly well, so I assume I will get a decent reference from this professor. How should I evaluate the quality of this reference, in weighing the not-so-good reputation of the institution but the good quality work I have done? With all the information above, I am wondering how I am ranked in general among the pool of the prospective applicants for the top 3 aero/astro graduate programs. More particularly, will I be competing with the international applicants only or with all applicants? Secondly, what can I do to increase the chances of admission in selecting the prospective research labs/ professors that I want to work with in the application? Does this matter a lot for a master program application? I know the PHD applicants need to look at this more carefully in case some labs are full already. Any insider's knowledge will help. Thanks a lot.