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aero9

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    Pasadena, CA
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  • Program
    Aeronautics

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  1. Do you have the chance to visit both schools? Talking to faculty and especially graduate students at both universities is (IMHO) the best way to assess the culture and environment of the program. Do you have full funding at both institutions?
  2. Congratulations, what a very nice problem to have! I agree with the other responses and my best advice would also be to visit the schools and determine which one is the best fit for you. It's important to hear the experiences of current grad students and get a feel for what it would be like living in Cambridge, Palo Alto, and Pasadena. Funding might, of course, change the equation but I think the advice given so far is still applicable. I also had several choices and I am confident I made the right decision after visiting my top choices. Good luck!
  3. Sorry for the late reply. Yes, your assumption is correct and I'm interested in experimental fluids but I am a little familiar with the work of Professors Pullin, Meiron, and Colonius (all top-notch researchers of course). I wouldn't count yourself out as GRE scores are not particularly important. Judging by your posts, furthermore, your writing seems pretty good so if you have a well-written Statement of Purpose they might overlook your GRE scores. Good luck nonetheless!
  4. Research Experience: 1. Research Asisstant, Heat Engines Laboratory at my local university, 1 year. 2. Research Engineer Intern, CFD Group at Cidaut R&D Center, 3 months. 3. Research Assistant, Combustion and Solar Energy Laboratory at San Diego State University, 1 year. 4. Research Assistant, Department of Applied Mathematics at my local university, Since Nov 2013. 5. Research Engineer, Cidaut R&D Center, Since Aug 2013. Publications: 3 1st-author journal papers, 1 coauthor journal paper, 3 1st-author conference papers, 1 thesis. Wow! Just out of curiosity, what is your top choice and what are your research interests? Seems like propulsion would be your main area of expertise based on your research experiences.
  5. Have you asked for your advisor's opinion? He/she would have a good idea of the quality at both departments.
  6. Yep, completely agree with the above post. I would strongly advise visiting both schools. I wouldn't have seriously considered the school I currently attend had I not visited! It's also a great way to get 'the real story' about what goes on at the school from current graduate students.
  7. Are you going to have a chance to visit the two schools? Even if they do not reimburse you for travel, I would bit the bullet and go anyway if you can (you'll be at the graduate institution for a minimum of 5 years so you want to make sure you'll be happy there). Then you can actually talk to current graduate students (the best source of information about a program including labs, coursework, advisors, funding, etc.) and see if School A is as good a fit as you think it is.
  8. Do you by any chance know which professor? Maryland was where I went for undergrad so I'm fairly familiar with the department. Quite a few schools send out funding offers quite a bit after they send out admissions decisions, so I wouldn't worry about that just yet. I know it may be difficult especially since airfares are more expensive this year, but I would strongly recommend physically visiting the school if you can. Perhaps it will only be feasible to visit the ones you are most interested in. I wouldn't say Minnesota is 'third tier.' They are consistently ranked in the top 15 I believe and I know one of the professors at Maryland went there for her Ph.D. Are you interested in doing just a masters or are you planning on going on to do a Ph.D.?
  9. I think this is correct for the most part. I would replace Minnesota with Princeton though. Yep, Georgia Tech and Maryland aren't as 'methodical' when it comes to sending out admits but an invitation to visit is a very good sign. Yep, each school has strengths and weaknesses in terms of certain categories such as propulsion, fluids/aerodynamics, structures, and controls. MIT, for example, is very strong in controls but their fluids/aerodynamics is probably their weakest area at the moment. Absolutely. Figuring out a potential lab and advisor are very important so I definitely think you shouldn't over rely on the prestige factor. If you get the opportunity, visiting the schools to which you were admitted and talking to the professors will help you get a better idea if the school is a good fit for you or not. Since you were admitted to so many schools, you probably won't get to visit them all. To address the funding part of your post, I don't think it's worth going into huge amounts of debt at Stanford if you get an excellent offer from a school as good as Georgia Tech or Purdue. In the end, however, only you will know whether or not it's worth it.
  10. Since you are at MIT, can u throw some light on the profile the institute looks out for handing out admits in Aero?I am a 3rd yr mech engg student at an Indian univ

  11. Could be either. At some schools, an invite to an Open House DOES typically mean that admissions have made their decisions and only accepted applicants are invited. On the other hand, some schools might have an Open House and admit you later or perhaps they might have admitted you already but they don't bother inviting you to the Open House. I'd say it's more likely to be the former scenario but that's based on a pretty small sample size so try not to worry about it too much. Hope that helps a little bit.
  12. This is absolutely excellent advice and I second all of it. Being accepted as an MS student at MIT is pretty much standard as was the case when I applied there for AeroAstro so I wouldn't make anything of the MS vs. PhD. I agree again with everything stated here. Pretty much all AeroAstro MSs were funded based on what I heard and the connections at MIT for engineering are probably worth more than the Princeton alumni network.
  13. Ahhh...yes. Stanford's funding for Aero/Astro is very tricky. If you are being reimbursed for travel I can say with 95% certainty that you will be considered for fellowships to cover your first 5 quarters at Stanford or more (I met someone last year who got 3 years covered). I believe last year about 15 people were interviewed for fellowships (there are 3 X 10-minute interviews if I remember correctly) although I don't know how many of us actually received one. I would guess around 10 so only 20% of an incoming class of 50. It is also difficult to find TA's since Stanford does not have an undergraduate Aero/Astro department so you have to compete with mechanical engineering students to TA undergrad mechanical classes (please feel free to correct me current Stanford students!). Some people got creative and TA'd for math classes or even foreign language ones as well. There are other ways to get funded such as NSF, NDSEG, etc. I can also say with a fairly high level of certainty that the qualifying exam at Stanford is probably the most difficult among all the other aerospace grad schools based on pass rates and what I heard when I was visiting schools last year. Although these may be 'negative' aspects of Stanford's Aero/Astro program it is still an incredibly good program. Very high quality professors and the networking is extremely powerful. It is true that your first year is much more class heavy than the other years but that is to make sure everyone reaches the same academic standards. There are people who come from different backgrounds so they may not have taken an intensive fluids class for example. My advice to you is don't worry about the funding situation until you have to. I believe only 25% or less (again Stanford students please feel free to correct me here) of 1st year students end up paying their way. They will address this a lot during visit day.
  14. I'm afraid to answer that you need to give us more information. What department did you apply to at Princeton? Simply looking at the graduate engineering rankings on US News is not helpful because it's more important to look at your specific department like mechanical, civil, aerospace, etc. In any event, I would strongly encourage you not to place the institution's ranking as the most important factor in your decision (I apologize if that wasn't your intention in the first place). Funding is very important as is your 'fit' with the program itself. Hopefully you'll have a chance to visit the schools where you were accepted and meet faculty to gauge where you truly want to go. Congratulations on your Princeton acceptance. Congrats to all others who have received offers!
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