babu

Thanks for the reply, I'm feeling more confident in staying the extra year now. I understand what you're saying about being tired of classes in the fifth year, but for me the fifth year would be a pretty light class load, so it shouldn't be too much of a grind. Something I hadn't considered too much either was having the chance to refine my interests, which I think will be a big benefit. I have worked on projects in composite materials, design, and computer vision, and liked them all. Having the time to narrow down what I would like to research will not only help my application but help me get more out of grad school. Good luck at your future school! heh, I actually came in to my program trying to finish in three years, but due to course scheduling I had to stay for at least four years with a very light load. I started taking CS classes to fill out my schedule, and now I like it enough that I am considering staying even longer. Thanks for the advice, I will definitely talk to some professors before making any final decisions.

Hi everyone, I'm currently a third year MechE student considering staying a fifth year for a CS degree. I am interested in robotics research, and while I have learned a lot of programming on my own, I think the CS degree will help me have a more formal background. Also, I am hoping to start working on a research project in the fall that I will be able to work on for at least a year before applying to grad school. I've saved up so I wouldn't have to work, meaning I could put more hours into research/projects/clubs. While I have worked on research projects previously, they have all been in the very early stages so I haven't had a chance to publish/present at a conference. I took this semester for an internship (Big name plus my mentor expects me to publish a paper by the end), so I am no longer working on those two projects. Would staying an extra year for a second major + more research experience be a significant benefit in grad school applications? For some more background, I am currently at a Big State U ranked around 50th for engineering in US depending where you look for the two programs I am interested. I expect to maintain a 3.9+ GPA either way, and from the practice GREs I think I will be able to get high 90 percentile on quant, low 90 on verbal. My only real concern is that the lack of a long term research project will prevent me from getting in top ranked schools like CMU. While I can't imagine it would hurt my application, paying for another year of school (no scholarship past four years) and starting to work a year later has a big financial impact so I just want to make sure the decision makes sense. Thanks for any suggestions!

I think that this will depend on the school. I don't think all graduate programs are the same, but at the graduate program I worked at the graduate committee made the final decisions. If there was someone that the graduate chair wanted to be accepted, the graduate committee would generally agree, but only if there were professors willing to serve as their adviser. My guess is the chair will talk to you about your application and then make a recommendation to the committee, who will make the final decision.