Ivy league?

[chem.eng]

Hi all,

 

I am a chem eng student in my last year, I have co-authored two papers and my CGPA is 3.67 as of now (2 semesters remaining and I hope to improve that; also all my semesters have a GPA above 3.8 except i messed up one when i was sick hence the lower overall). I want to apply to some of the Ivy league schools like Yale,UPenn,Princeton. But I'm not sure if it's a realistic decision? And what kind of things should an engineering student focus on in the SoP? I'm planning to do MS, but do chances differ with PhD anyway?

 

 

And what are some other good schools that I may apply in the North East States?

 

I don't know a lot of people to discuss with so any help will be much appreciated, thanks!

[Edge]

Your chances of getting into a good ChemE graduate program are dependent on a lot more than just GPA.  Specifically, your GRE scores, recommendations, experience, application/SoP and the X-factor.  If your 3.8+ GPA is reflected in your GREs, they will probably ignore the bad semester you had.  Recommendations are important because it shows if you are a standout student to your advisors/professors/whoever.  Remember that your competition will receive similar recommendation letters, yours needs to be different.  Experience could help since you've already co-authored two papers, any work experience would be helpful.  Your application/SoP should focus on you, what makes you want to attend graduate school, why you want to attend, what motivates you, what your goals are, etc.  Lastly, the X-factor is something you can't control, i.e. the number of qualified applicants to a particular school in a particular year, availability of funding, availability of professors, etc.

 

MS and PhD usually only differ when it comes to funding.  Keep in mind that some schools don't accept MS/PhD students, you'll have to get a MS, THEN apply for the PhD program.

 

As for your school choices, I'd consider MIT, UDelaware, Cornell, Columbia, Georgia Tech (it's not NE, but it has GREAT funding and opportunities), etc.  If you branch out and look at the midwest you can consider UIllinoisUC, Purdue and UT-Austin.

 

Hope everything works out!

[chem.eng]

Well, whatever you said does make a lot of sense so I'll look into what you said. Thanks for replying!

 

Btw, any chance you could giveme any idea about what early decision/early action admissions are?

[Edge]

Early Admissions/Actions are typically dates reserved for applications to schools you DEFINITELY want to attend.  The way it works is you apply a month or so earlier than the regular application due date, and if you're accepted you're basically automatically enrolled.  So you should only do this for your top choice.

 

Keep in mind that several schools, including the ones I listed, DO NOT have early admission dates for MS/PhD programs.

 

Almost all apps are due between Dec 1 and Jan 15th.  If you're applying for next year you should be prepping to take the GRE in Sept/Oct, and working on your applications during that time as well.  You don't want to be writing SoPs and studying for the GRE while you're taking midterms and group projects with your normal class load.

[Catria]

Dartmouth Thayer on the middle-high end of the list... less selective than Cornell/Columbia.