iamthewalrus696

What is the best way to look for places in Ann Arbor? I've never really had to search for my own apartments... I'd like to start looking for apartments for late summer/fall. Will be mostly around north campus, but would consider living more in the downtown sorta area as well as north campus. Thanks!

I'll add my two cents-- I'm a physics and astrophysics double major at a fairly top notch school, also with a 3.9 GPA. Also, all my research is in astronomy, and I have no publications. I applied to Aerospace Engineering MS programs for Fall 2013 and have gotten into the majority of the places I applied, including Stanford, a top 3 school in Aero/Astro, and several more top 10 programs (see my signature for more details). I actually thought I'd be at a disadvantage so I applied to a LOT of places, but it turns out that it's really not a disadvantage at all, at least for Aerospace. This I get from (a) my results and ( Aerospace professors who have said it's not a disadvantage. Hope this helps!

I'm considering a number of schools for Aerospace Engineering or Aero/Astro MS programs, and I was wondering if anyone had any general ideas about which departments are the best on the space side of things. I'm interested in anything like space propulsion, mission design, space systems, etc. Basically anything having to do with space. I'm interested in going into the private space industry (i.e. SpaceX) after I graduate. I am generally trying to differentiate between the departments at: Stanford, Michigan (M.Eng. Space Engineering program), Purdue, Illinois, Georgia Tech, Minnesota, and Maryland. Thanks!

Thanks for this information. Currently I am actually very interested in just going into industry afterwards. I've heard UMich mentioned as a top 5 school, but I think that was more with respect to their MS program; hard to tell the quality of the M.Eng. program. I would DEFINITELY like to work at SpaceX, so that sounds quite good.

Thanks for your responses. Just got waitlisted at MIT... argh. It's a shame that the only place that has offered me funding so far is Minnesota, which you guys seem to put on the third tier or so (if the first is Stanford/MIT/Caltech and second is GT/Purdue/Illinois/Maryland). In terms of research interests, I'm more interested in the space side of things right now, which Stanford seems to be good for. I need to do a little more research to see how well the other schools will fit into that. I hope that GT will offer me some sort of aid (and accept me) since they seem to be a nice program. It's hard to tell for me which schools have the best space focus, since they all seem to have at least one lab or a couple professors working on it. Stanford seems to have several labs, but I keep coming back to the money issue with them (and the fact that I'd like to go somewhere other than the bay area, where I've lived my whole life). I'd like to get a better idea of the programs at Purdue and Illinois since they've accepted me, but they aren't offering to fly me out so I'm not sure I'll be able to physically visit. Visiting Michigan would also be nice but I'm not sure about the quality of the MEng program that I applied to. A professor at Maryland has also talked to me about giving me a TAship, but I haven't actually gotten a decision from them. Does this mean I'm in...? Thanks a lot.

I'm a physics & astrophysics student who has been accepted into a number of master's programs in Aerospace Engineering or similar. My number one problem: my school doesn't have an aerospace department, and I don't know anyone else who wants to do AE, so I have very little idea about the prestige/quality of different programs. Basically, I'm wondering what the difference in future job (or maybe Ph.D.) prospects would be with an MS from Stanford vs. Illinois (or Purdue, or Minnesota, etc). From what people told me at Stanford, the generally accepted top 3 departments are Stanford, MIT, and Caltech. Beyond that, my only ideas of rankings come from the US News & World Report rankings. I just want to get an idea of this, since Stanford is the highest ranked school I've gotten into, but I've gotten at least one offer of money from another school. I need to weigh prestige/quality of department vs. who offers me money, since if I end up going to Stanford I'll probably end up with a bunch of debt. For my full admission results (so far) see my signature. Any info on how to weigh these departments against each other would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.