tarrman

I think a Master's would be more than adequate for what you want to do. You can get into some national labs (Lincoln Lab, JPL, Sandia, etc.) doing research with just a Masters, and the atmosphere is much more laid back than in academia (40 hour work weeks). The jobs are very competitive though.

It shouldn't matter as long as you know you will be able to work with one of those two professors. Having two POI's isn't that bad either. You should go to the school with the professor's you know you'd be happiest with, not the one with the most professor's. Just make sure there isn't chance you'd go there and wouldn't be able to work with anyone you're interested in.

PhD's are for people who love the topics they are studying and who want to do research. You never get a PhD for the money, but for the careers they can lead to. Usually academia and high-end research positions in national labs/industry require a PhD. What kind of career are you looking for?

NSF GRFP and NDSEG are the big ones that offer 3 years support. You can apply for NDSEG up until December of your second year. I'm not too sure how late NSF is, but the earliest would be November of your first year. There might be a few others for people doing CEE. To be honest, I think anyone capable of getting a 3-year $36k fellowship in Stanford CEE wouldn't have an issue getting funding at a later point in time.

@sweetpearl16 I can definitely sympathize with the stress of completing coursework and applying to schools. My drive to continue working has been completely shot. For some reason, I decided to take 3 grad courses (a full graduate semester) in addition to 3 undergrad courses, and I was completely overwhelmed a month in to school. From October to December I was working 7 days a week for 80+ hours. This all culminated in 6 finals (the week all my apps were due as well). I often fear that by the time grad school starts, I will be too burnt out to care. I think a year off would do wonders for anybody who has lost their drive (including me, but it's not gonna happen).

Depends on the school. Princeton has a ton of endowment (highest endowment per student in the country; something like $2.2 million, but all endowment doesn't go to students), so every grad student regardless of discipline is guaranteed full funding for the duration of the Ph.D. (correct me if I'm wrong, somebody). The fellowship is provided for the first year to free you up from any research/teaching duties. The next four years, you're funded via TA, research, or a combination (but I think the stipend is the same all 5 years). The reason they only tell you one year is that you don't know the source of funding for the next 4 years. All you know is that you are guaranteed funding. Rice ECE is the same way. First year fellowship frees up teaching/research responsibilities for the first year. You will be funded for the following years, but the deatails are worked out during the first year of school. My guess is it's the same for your school. Is it a private school? (I think this is more common among private schools). It might also have to due with the fact that you don't pick an advisor at these schools until second semester. At UT, my RA comes in the form of a first year fellowship and then 4 years of actual RA (again, to free me from TA/RA responsibilities my first year) since I've already got my advisor.

It should be pretty easy to secure funding from your advisor or a TA position by your 4th year.

ML is more like theoretical CS, so programming knowledge isn't necessary. Many of the professors doing research in it now come from a mathematical background, so I think you'd be plenty prepared. My plan is to do ML as well, but I feel like I'm at a bit of a disadvantage since I don't come from a mathematical background. I'm in a statistical learning class now, and my friend (math major) is able to breeze through the HW with much less effort, while I'm struggling to make sense of all the linear algebra/statistics.

Cornell is an ivy. Duke is considered a sister school of Princeton. So I'd say prestige for both is equal. You really ought to email some professors in the department, possibly the chair, and ask for the academic and consulting placements for graduates. Like selecttext said, don't base your decision on overall prestige.

If you have a smartphone, there are some great apps for training. I used Painless GRE.

Georgia Tech does. On campus they have the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) that does a good bit of work with the government. I think they are most well known for radar work, but they work in other fields as well. CS program is also very strong (#10 according to US News). Here's a link to some of the technology they work on: http://www.gtri.gatech.edu/government/defense

Major GPA is definitely most important of the three GPA's. Grad schools love seeing improvement over your years in college, and your high major GPA definitely demonstrates this. And an overall 3.3-3.4 GPA is still very good; keep working hard and it'll continue to grow. Only the very best schools expect 3.8+ GPA's anyways. And don't forget, having a recommender who knows faculty there is a HUGE benefit. There are other aspects of the application that will also be judged aside from GPA. Research experience is another big factor that can easily erase any doubts casted by low grades. I strongly recommend against playing the health card when you apply to grad schools; that usually results in instant rejection. It gives them the impression that you will continue to have issues that affect the quality of your work (even if it isn't true), and it makes you less appealing as a candidate. It seems a little unfair, but these schools are going to be investing a lot of time and money into you, and they want to make sure they get their money's worth.

I love the cold weather and snow, and I prefer to be in areas like that. I find locations that lack seasons to be incredibly boring. There's nothing worse than walking to class in your new Christmas sweater only to have the temperature jump 30 degrees in the middle of February, and you have to take it off. I wouldn't worry about the snow. It's only a nuisance when you have to drive somewhere or have to shovel around your home. And cold days are pretty tolerable if you wear a jacket, gloves, and a hat.

@yoconman Just three letters.

@ak48 Same here. I've got to say, it makes so much more sense to just submit an unofficial transcript for the application and then a real one post-graduation. I chose not to apply to Stanford because they wanted TWO copies of official transcripts (and also because of the whole quals/funding/$125 application/Palo Alto cost of living is astronomical thing). @monquin It might be worth contacting these schools closer to the time you apply. If you're having to submit official transcripts from 3-4 schools to 8 or so programs, the cost can get pretty expensive. Their might be some extenuating circumstances in your case. You should also take the GRE early on since you're only allowed to take it once every 30 days. I'd recommend trying it in the summer, and then again in the fall if necessary (I wouldn't take it more than twice).

@Khaled I got that with MIT sooooo often. After months of everyone telling me I'd be a shoe-in and me trying to explain to them that it was highly unlikely, I was finally rejected. Their only response: "What?! They'll be sorry..."

They have fellowships for incoming students , but you have to be nominated for them. The graduate coordinator is right; everything is out of your hands. Did he say when the results will be released? Haven't thought much about housing, but I heard it was cheap.

Are you in-state or out-of-state?

Hahaha I love these! @qed67 I get the exact same responses except it's Princeton!

I'm pretty surprised at how few people are actually replying to this topic. Where are all the engineers?!!! Undergrad Institution: Top 10 public university Major(s): Electrical Engineering, Physics GPA in Major: Both 4.0 Overall GPA: 3.96 Length of Degree: 5 years Position in Class: Top 1-2% Type of Student: Domestic white male GRE Scores: I hate standardized tests, but it doesn't seem like the big-name schools take them very seriously Q: 162 (86%) V: 157(73%) W: 5.0 (92%) Research Experience: - 2 summers at Lincoln Lab - 1 year working on a digital signal processing project - 1 year in soft condensed matter - NO PUBLICATIONS! Awards/Honors/Recognitions: - Several departmental scholarships in Physics - University research grant in soft condensed matter - Eta Kappa Nu Pertinent Activities or Jobs: - Undergraduate math TA for 2 years Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Strong LOR's all from Ph.D.'s I've done research with. I've also taken four graduate courses (three in DSP, one in quantum mechanics). Spent over a month writing my SoP, but I don't think it was exceptionally good. Applying for PhD at: UT Austin - Accepted, 1/29/13, $2k/month RA + $9k/yr fellowship (Guaranteed for 4 years) Georgia Tech - Accepted, 2/1/13, $1.3k/month TA ( so low!!!) Princeton - Accepted, 2/21/13, $32k 1st year fellowship UIUC - Accepted, 3/5/13, $1.9k/month TA UMich - Currently on "waitlist" w/ POI for RA. Received email earlier this week indicating I'm on a short list of applicants strongly being considered for admission. Hopefully will hear by the end of March Rice - Went to recruitment weekend. 70% attendees accepted. Hoping to hear within the next week or so MIT - Rejected Good luck everyone!

If you do the entire PhD unfunded, it is definitely not worth it. I seriously doubt that USC wouldn't fund you at some point in the near future (worst I've ever seen is 1st year unfunded). You should contact the department by April if you still haven't heard anything about funding.

Not sure, but strongly considering it. CommNetS track in the ECE department.

For me, I think there are three key things that have helped me this season ranked by order of importance: 1. I fit really well into the programs I applied to. I'm a rare breed of an ece student because I'm uninterested in design; I'm looking to do theoretical signal processing, machine learning, etc. It doesn't seem like many EE's are interested in this side, so I think it's given me an edge over some schools. For example, at UT the graduate admissions chair for CommNetS track is doing research that perfectly aligns with my interests. He contacted me, I expressed interest, and I was admitted in late January and given A TON of funding. I think fit had to do with most of it. Same with Princeton; they're unique in that most of the professors there are doing theoretical work, and I think many people who apply there only do so for the name, not realizing there is much less design going on than other schools. It's a perfect fit for me in every academic aspect of the program. 2. I have good recommendations. I've never published anything and the Professor's I've worked with aren't as well known (two were physicists, one was an electrical engineer doing DSP work). But in spite of this, I managed to impress all of them while I was working with them. I know they wrote me strong recommendations, and that always counts more than a reference from a well-known professor who knows very little about you. 3. I have done two internships at Lincoln Lab. Everyone knows about the place, so it's a good way to converse with Professors who interview me. It's also very competitive (acceptance rate is comparable to the grad schools I applied to; about 10%), so schools know that I'm a good student if I can get an intership there. I also got one of my references from one of mentors there.

@ak48 It might be difficult to meet a significant other in the ECE dept. , but I'm sure there will be plenty of campus events to attend and groups to join; those are some great places to meet people. Princeton's also in a good location in relation to two major cities, so you could always try online dating. I wouldn't be too worried about it.

Having research experience is typically more important than what field you did the research in (to a reasonable extent). Keep in mind people change their minds about what they want to study in grad school. Grad schools can't expect you to know exactly what topic you want to do research in when you start out undergrad, especially when you haven't had experience with everything EE has to offer, so I wouldn't be worried about this hurting your chances. But if you're interested in one topic over others, you ought to try to get in a lab in that topic as early on as possible to see if you like it or not. Summer projects are nice because you're typically only committed for that one summer and you can accomplish a great deal because you don't have to worry about classes. I'd recommend trying out the project to see if you like it. If you do, it can turn into something that you do during the next year or so. If not, try to get in with some nanotech people for your junior year.