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2009 Applicant Profiles


noojens

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Ah sorry I was wrong, I was admitted to MEng (not MS!) Assuming your question is still the same - nope, no word on funding. They indicated in my admissions letter that they wouldn't be funding me. No surprise, it's only a 9 month program! I know they don't really fund many masters students. Are you inquiring about merit or need based aid?

I was asking about merit-based aid, and you answered my question - thanks. :)

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Undergrad institution: UC Berkeley

Major: Bioengineering

Upperdivision major gpa: 3.7

overall gpa: 3.2.... chilled too much during my 1st two years sigh...

GRE: 770Q 530V 4.5W (verbal and writing kinda suck but I only started cramming vocabs for 1 month before taking it)

Research exp: 1+ year in a tissue engineering lab, 1 year in a biomolecular/nanotechnology lab (w/ 1 publication review article)

job experience: summer intern (soph summer) at Crown Bioscience Inc. and part-time job at Wanger biotech (~2months) during freshman summer

Awards: some grants but nothing spectacular

LOR: 1 from lab prof, 1 from nanotech lab director, 1 from dept chair

Applied to: harvard duke stanford ucla ucsd columbia mit usc (all MS BME) UCB(phd Bioe) USC PIBBS(PhD)

Accepted to: Duke :o usc, ucla, ucsd, usc Pibbs(fully funded)

Denied by: harvard, mit, UCB, stanfurd (the way we UCB kids call them :lol:)

Pending: columbia (but probably not gonna go there at this point anyways)

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Undergrad Institution: Big state school with great engineering reputation

Major(s): Bioengineering

GPA in Major: 3.8

Overall GPA: 3.8

Length of Degree: 3 years, followed by 1-year thesis-based masters at same school

Position in Class: Near top

Type of Student: Domestic male

GRE Scores:

Q: 800

V: 660

W: 5.5

MCAT Score: 42S (15 Biological Sciences, 14 Physical Sciences, 13 Verbal Reasoning)

Research Experience: 4 years research at my institution, 2 summers at MIT/HST. Amazing recommendations, one publication.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Lots of honor societies/awards, but nothing major.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Teaching AIME/USAMO competition math to high school students, also an MCAT instructor.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Medical volunteer work in Costa Rica and Tanzania.

Applying for Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering PhD at:

Wash U, St. Louis - Accepted 1/16, 1 year fellowship ($27,000)

Boston University - Accepted 1/23, 1 year Distinguished BME Fellowship ($27,300)

USC - Accepted 2/23, 5 year Provost's fellowship ($30,000)

Caltech - Interviewed 2/20, Accepted 3/2, 1 year DEAS fellowship with guaranteed funding for 4 years ($28,000)

Stanford - Interviewed 2/27, Accepted 3/8, 2 year Bioengineering fellowship ($29,600)

Berkeley/UCSF - Interviewed 2/23-24, Accepted 3/9, 1 year fellowship ($27,000)

U Penn - Interviewed 3/6, Accepted 3/24, HHMI-NIBIB Interfaces Fellowship ($27,540)

Johns Hopkins - Interviewed 3/13, Accepted 3/22, NIH fellowship ($26,855)

Duke - Offered interview, withdrawn

University of Washington - Offered interview, withdrawn

Columbia University - Offered interview, withdrawn

MIT/HST - Rejected 2/15 - Saddest day of my life.

Just a note for those interested - I have decided to matriculate at Stanford this fall.

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Just a note for those interested - I have decided to matriculate at Stanford this fall.

i am surprised you are rejected from MIT considering you did research there. You have GREAT stats also. is it really that competitive there?? If i were you it would be hard to sleep on it but hey it is their loss.

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Undergrad Institution: UCLA (B.S. Mechanical Engineering)

Major(s): Civil Engineering (Structural Focus)

Minor(s): None

GPA in Major: 3.1

Overall GPA: 3.23

Length of Degree: 4 yrs

Position in Class: probably very low

Type of Student: typical asian male...

GRE Scores:

Q: 770

V: 710

W: 5.0

Research Experience: None

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: None

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 2 summer internships at top tier fortune 500 engineering company.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: perhaps a very, very strong SOP complemented with solid LORs

Applying for [ MS ] or [ PhD ] at: M.S. Civil Engineering (Structural Focus) in all schools.

In the order that I heard from them:

UCLA - Accepted

USC - Accepted

UCI - Accepted

Stanford - Accepted

I did not apply for funding at any of these schools.

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Undergrad Institution: State school - Top 5 for overall engineering and biomedical engineering

Major(s): Biomedical Engineering

Minor(s): none

GPA in Major: 4.00

Overall GPA: 3.98

Length of Degree: 4 years

Position in Class: top 5 for sure... don't know a number

Type of Student: female, american, minority

GRE Scores:

Q: not great (didn't finish)

V: 620

W: 5.0

Research Experience: >1 year in a lab at my school; 4 conference abstracts (1 of which was an oral presentation at an international conference)

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: none

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: no jobs, a couple honor societies / clubs

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: really strong LOR's

Applied for PhD at:

Johns Hopkins - BME - Accepted <- My Choice!

Georgia Tech - BME - Accepted

U Penn - BioE - Accepted

Rice - BioE - Accepted

Duke - BME - Rejected (not a good faculty match)

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I'm now waiting for Univ. of Nevada, Reno's (Structural Engineering) information, and if anybody applied to this institution or knows someone who applied, please be free to PM or email (dainytracy@163.com) me, thanks.

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Undergrad Institution: WHU (China)

Major(s): Civil Engineering (Structural Focus)

GPA in Major: 3.6

Overall GPA: 3.4

Length of Degree: 4 yrs

Position in Class: Top 5%

GRE Scores:

Q: 800

V: 590

W: 3.5

Applying for MS/PhD, Civil Engineering (Structural Focus)

UIUC, ISU, Univ. of Arizona, Buffalo-Accepted to the MS program (no funding)

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Undergrad Institution: (HUST, China. Fine Reputation in Engineering)

Major(s): Civil Engineering

Minor(s): Construction

GPA in Major: 3.80

Overall GPA: 3.71

Length of Degree: ( 4 years of Bachelor's)

Position in Class: (1st)

Type of Student: (International, male)

GRE Scores:

Q: 550

V: 800

W: 3.5

TOEFL Total: 106

Research Experience: with advisor. Two research projects. No paper.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Several scholarships.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Not decided

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Applying for [ MS ] or [ PhD ] at: Most PhD with only 2 MS where direct application to PhD is not allowed

Purdue - Department - Admission/date/None

TAMU - Department - Admission/date/Fellowship

Columbia - Department - Rejected/date/None

stanford - Department - Pending/date/None

USC - Department - Admission/date/None

All are in Civil Engineering Department

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Undergrad Institution: University of Applied Sciences - Germany

Major(s): Mechanical Engineering

Overall GPA: not comparable

Length of Degree: 3 years of Bachelor's + thesis (best grade possible)

+1 year of graduate school

Position in Class: not ranked, top 10%

Type of Student: International, male

GRE:

Math: 780

Verbal: 380

AWA: 3.0 - I know this sucks, but really I don't know why it is that low - I tried to compensate with a writing sample

Toefl:

Listening: 29

Reading: 29

Speaking: 23

Writing: 28

109 out of 120

Research Experience: thesis, acknowledgement in one paper (should have been co-author by the amount of work done),

one international conference presentation coming this May, Research Assistant

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Fulbright Scholarship

study abroad

Studied abroad one semester at a top 50ish US University, maintained a GPA of 3.75 there - taking 4 classes.

I took three classes in my major, and one history class, in which I was ranked 3 out of 70 participants.

(no chance to get credit for at my home instituiton - shows commitment)

LOR two good ones, third I don't know

Applied to: Virginia Tech - Accepted

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Undergrad Institution: Reputed private engineering institute in India (Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani)

Degree: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons.) Chemical Engineering & Master of Science (Hons.) Chemistry dual degree

Overall GPA while applying: 7.60/10.0

Length of Degree: 5 years

Position in Class: Top 15-20%

Type of Student: International, Asian Indian male

GRE Scores:

Q: 780

V: 700

AWA: 5.5

TOEFL Scores (iBT):

Reading: 30

Listening: 29

Speaking: 30

Writing: 27

Total: 116/120

Research Experience:

Undegraduate thesis: Tungsten oxide-based chemical gas sensors for volatile organic compound detection, Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute, Pilani, India (premier government-funded electronics research laboratory in India)

Working on Government of India-funded project on developing environmentally benign alternatives to chromate conversion coatings on aerospace aluminium alloy for corrosion protection at the National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore, India

Worked on Government of India-funded projects to develop aqueous toxic metal ion adsorbents, exploratory research in diacetylhydrazine coordiantion chemistry

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: First class

Research interests: Chemical Sensing, Corrosion, Electrochemistry, Surface science

Applied for MS/MSc at:

Ohio State University: Materials Science & Engineering, Waitlisted, file shifted to second round

University of VIrginia: Materials Science & Engineering, Pending

University of Florida: Materials Science & Engineering, Pending

Case Western Reserve University: Chemical Engineering, Pending

Virginia Tech: Chemical Engineering, Rejected (late March)

Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands: Materials Science & Engineering, Rejected (mid-February)

Applied for PhD at:

University of Delaware: Chemical Engineering, Rejected (early March)

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  • 3 months later...

Undergrad Institution: A hacker engineering school in New England with many movie references

Major(s): Electrical Engineering

Minor(s): Biomedical Engineering

GPA in Major: 3.3

Overall GPA: 3.4

Length of Degree: 5 years, BS + Masters

Position in Class: No freaking idea

Type of Student: Female, naturalized citizen

GRE Scores:

Q: 800

V: 710

W: 5.0

Research Experience: REU program as undergrad, 2 summers + a term R&D internship

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA (1 summer)

Applied for PhD at:

Berkeley - EE - Rejected

CMU - EE - Rejected

Harvard - EE - Rejected

MIT - EE - Rejected

HST MEMP - Rejected

Yale - EE - Rejected

Princeton - EE - Waitlisted

Columbia - EE - Accepted (with fellowship?)

Cornell - EE - Accepted with fellowship

JHU - EE - Accepted with fellowship

Stanford - EE - Accepted with fellowship

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  • 2 months later...

@cleff: you give me hope :)

Undergrad Institution: UC Irvine (Rank: 46, Tier 1)

Major(s): Computer Engineering

GPA in Major: 3.33

Overall GPA: 3.28

Length of Degree: 2 yrs at CC, 2 yrs at UCI (didn't attend college 1st yr out of HS due to personal/family reasons)

Position in Class: Better than average, I would guess

Type of Student: Domestic Male Minority (ethnically diverse)

GRE Scores:

Q: 800

V: 530

W: 6.0

Research Experience: None :(

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Nothing notable within school, unless being on the dean's list counts. Have about 10 extracurricular awards.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:

2yrs, owner/sole-operater of an online business

1yr, Engineering Intern, Broadcom

1.5yrs, Embedded Engineer, Eaton (still here)

Applying for MS or PhD at:

Stanford - EE - 2011 (expecting rejection)

Berkeley - EECS - 2011 (expecting rejection)

UC Irvine - EECS - 2010/2011 (expecting acceptance) -- they almost begged me to enter the program in 2008.

Extra Info:

Because of the lack of available engineering courses at my community college, I was forced to take 18-20 units every quarter at UCI if I wanted to graduate on time. Taking this many units, running my online business, and working at my internship took a toll on my grades (I was getting ~3.0 those quarters, the others quarters I got ~3.5). I regret this. Instead of the internship, I should have done research. And instead of taking 2 yrs at UCI, I should have finished in 3 yrs. My GPA would be much higher, I think.

I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get into either Stanford or Berkeley. I think I have a few different options.

1) Do research at UCI, if I can. Get better GRE verbal scores. Do this before the deadline for 2011.

2) Get my MS at UCI (or equivalent). Get better grades. Apply to Stanford/Berkeley for my PhD.

Any advice?

Edited by ComtriS
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  • 1 month later...

I think this is the 2009 thread, but I didn't see a 2010 one so I figured I'd post anyways.

Undergrad Institution: State University of New York at Buffalo (moderate engineering and chemistry reputation, VERY mediocre physics reputation)

Major(s): Physics

Minor(s): Mathematics

GPA in Major: 3.95

Overall GPA: 3.96

Length of Degree: 4 years

Position in Class: Top

Type of Student: Shorthair Domestic Male

GRE Scores:

Q: 800 / 770

V: 590 / 500

W: 4.0 / 4.0

(second time taken 10/09 / first time taken 1/09)

Research Experience: 3 semesters of research experience in my university's chemistry department in inorganic nanomaterials. Fifth author (out of seven) on a publication in Langmuir (an ACS journal). A poster session at a regional conference. Also, one summer of research experience in the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (also in inorganic nanomaterials).

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: A couple awards for high GPA within my university and department. First place at a research poster competition at a regional APS conference. Phi Beta Kappa.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Vice-president of my university's chapter of the Society of Physics Students. Undergraduate physics tutor.

Applying for [ PhD ] at:

Stanford - Materials Science and Engineering - decision pending

Cornell - Materials Science and Engineering - decision pending

University of Michigan - EECS - decision pending

UCSB - Materials - decision pending

RPI - Materials Science and Engineering - decision pending

University of Minnesota - Materials Science - decision pending

CalTech - Materials Science and Engineering - decision pending

University of Washington - Materials Science and Engineering - decision pending

NSF Fellowship- decision pending

DOE Fellowship- decision pending

Edited by SethL
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  • 2 weeks later...

GRE- 1140 (Q-750, V-390)

Undergrad in electrical engineering - 3.85 GPA

MS in electrical engineering - 3.67 GPA

3 Publications - 2 conference proceedings, 1 journal

1 Report of Invention (Patent in process)

Author of a Book

Active member of IETE, ASME and NSF IGERT

Prizes in Technical Extempore

Recommendation letters from Co authors of my papers

Applied for Phd in Electrical engineering in Yale & MIT...?

Any chance of getting admitted....rolleyes.gif

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EXAMPLE: I will apply for PhD programs in 2010, but here are my current stats. I'll add more schools as I decide on departments to apply to. :)

================================================================

Applying for PhD at:

Cornell - Mechanical - decision pending...

Boulder - Civil (Engineering for Developing Communities) - decision pending...

UW-Madison - Mechanical - decision pending...

Stanford - Civil (Atmosphere/Energy) - decision pending...

Berkeley - Energy and Resources Group - decision pending...

Delaware - Energy and Environmental Policy - decision pending...

Carnegie Mellon - Engineering and Public Policy - decision pending...

UC-Davis - Energy Graduate Group - decision pending...

MIT - Technology and Policy Program - decision pending...

==========================================================

Did you receive any e-mail confirmation from Berkeley ERG? Also, I understand the UC Davis Energy graduate group is not yet approved by UC, so how did you apply to this program? Did you apply to another department and then plan to transfer ?

Thanks!!!

Good luck let me know of any updates. I know MIT TPP program has already begun its review.

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Yes, I would like to know if there is a similar thread for 2010. My profile

Undergrad Institution: Fairly reputed state university in the U.S

undergrad G.P.A: 3.9

Major: EE

Masters institution: One of the top-15 universities in the U.S

grad G.P.A: 3.7

Major: EE

GRE: 1300 (760-A + 540-V)

Experience: 2 summer internships in the finance industry + 1 co-op in a research laboratory

Publications: 2 conference papers + Masters Thesis (no 1st author publications though)

Awards: for high G.P.A and research

Recommendations: From Grad and Undergrad advisor, and third prof whose course I did very well in

Applied to:

Stanford - pending

Berkeley - pending

UCSD - pending

Caltech - pending

Princeton - pending

UCLA - pending

MIT - pending

U-Mich - pending

U-Minn - pending

Edited by mac_user
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Undergrad Institution: MIT

undergrad G.P.A: 3.6

Major: Mech. E

GRE: 1410 (800-Q + 610-V), 4.5 AW

Experience: 2 summer internships as mechanical engineering intern, NASA-funded research position

Publications: 1 journal article in progress

Awards: NEWMAC Academic All-Conference soccer team, Pi-Tau-Sigma mechanical engineering honor society nominee (top 35%)

Recommendations: Professor with reputable background in MEMS, Instructor for one of my courses, Supervisor at my last summer internship

Applied to:

MIT - pending

Stanford - pending

UC Berkeley - pending

Purdue - pending

Texas A&M - accepted

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Undergrad Institution: Big University, no special reputation in engineering

Major(s): Electrical Engineering

GPA in Major: 3.8

Overall GPA: 3.78

Length of Degree: 4 years

Position in Class: Top 5 (I'm guessing)

Type of Student: White Male

GRE Scores:

Q: 760

V: 600

W: 4.0

Research Experience: 2 years with same professor, honors senior thesis project

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: A few scholarships; nothing big though

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: President of Eta Kappa Nu, Vice President of IEEE, Writing Fellow

Applying for Biomedical engineering [ PhD ] at:

UPenn.... Interviewing in March

MIT...... Waiting

UMaryland ..... Phone interview last week

Drexel ..... Accepted

BU...... Waiting

UVirginia ...... Waiting

Edited by mattchurgin
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WOAH, sorry folks -- looks like my moderator status got lost when the forums switched over, otherwise I would've locked this thread.

We'll get this thread locked ASAP.

And could the 2010 applicants please put their profiles in the I just started?

Thanks!

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