hkcool

Hi all, just a question about the broader impacts criteria. I think my research in itself has very clear broader impacts on society at large, and I can definitely relate my personal experiences to why I want to carry out research in this field. On the other hand, I feel like my outreach activities are lacking. I've done STEM mentoring for fellow college students (holding office hours, meeting 1 on 1 with students to help them, etc.), but it seems everyone keeps talking about mentoring and outreach with respect to underrepresented minorities, which is definitely lacking on my resume. I volunteered as a tour guide and specifically gave tours to underprivileged students (aside from giving the a tour of the campus, sat on a Q&A panel about college life, encouraged the kids to get a college education, etc.), but it had nothing to do with STEM. But I think my application shows that I am definitely committed to making my field accessible to those outside of it. My biggest achievement is authoring a tutorial on computational methods in my field (I'm a computational math and mech eng. major) that is focused solely towards scientists and engineers that have no prior knowledge in this field. One of the areas I've seen fellow classmates struggle immensely with is in the computational math courses required by all of the depts of engineering at my school. I've been getting feedback from many of my professors and classmates in writing it and it will be well over 100 pages in its final draft and includes codes and theory that will (I hope) help transition from theory to application. I've spent the past year working on this (it's not a thesis, just a personal project). Do you all think this would be suitable for the BI category? Trying my best to get involved in some meaningful outreach activities this summer as I'll be working on some interesting stuff with a national lab that frequently has outreach days for local schools

WOW, um I just realized that each section is out of 170 and not 180. So I hope I didn't come off as whiny or condescending...

Planning to apply to grad school in applied math. I just took the GRE for the first time this morning. I didn't study all that much, just did two practice tests yesterday but didn't really have time to absorb the mistakes I made. Anyway I got: Verbal: 163 Quantitative: 165 I'm assuming the quant is probably too low, especially since I will be applying to some top programs. I honestly think I could improve a lot if I took it again since I was really rushed for study time this time around (read: two days). I'm just wondering what would constitute good scores for a math program. And say I were to not retake the exam. If my GPA is amazing and the rest of my application is too, then are my scores all that bad? I know they won't help for top programs, but would they necessarily hurt?

I know it's not the end of the world, and for grad school admissions I will most likely be fine. Even for NSF and some of the domestic fellowships I don't think it'll be a huge deal. For Fulbright though, I'm just not sure since being able to adapt to a living situation abroad is a big deal. I guess in my case I could argue that my second educational experience abroad was much more successful

I'm double majoring, one major in engineering and the other in applied math. My major GPAs are both basically 4.0 and my cumulative GPA is not far behind. I studied abroad for a semester in my freshman year and my GPA was not good, around a 2.8 or so. My school handles study abroad grades as follows: as long as you get above a C, you get credit for the course but the grade doesn't factor into your home GPA. I think the reasoning behind this is that they don't want study abroad grades inflating your GPA too much, but the opposite seems to have occurred for me... The honest truth is that I just traveled a lot and didn't devote as much time to the courses as I should have. Anyway, I'm looking at applying for Fulbright, NSF GRFP, etc. and I know I'll need to submit my transcript for study abroad. So how screwed am I? For Fulbright, I have some experience and contacts in the country I want to study in. My rec letters will be fantastic and I have a lot of research experience (have published a paper before). I've also been awarded scholarships where I've served as an ambassador to a foreign country, so I think re: ambassadorship I'm good. The study abroad GPA though is bad though by anyone's standards.

This coming semester, I'll be continuing research as an undergrad and my professor said that there's a very good chance my work could be published in a well-known journal in my field. She's published before with an undergrad where he was the principal author. That would more or less be the case with me as well. Anyway, I'm just wondering re: grad school admissions. Does this look more favorable than just being an undergrad contributing author with a professor and his/her grad students? Or do admissions not really care either way?

Thanks, Arcanen. That was a really helpful post. It's good to hear that major-GPA matters the most, since my applied math grades are really stellar. I've got all A's and a single A- to my transcript in that regard. Just a quick question about GPA: my school offers A+'s, and it's counted as a 4.33 on the transcript. I usually just convert my GPA to a 4.0 scale for resumes and applications (treat the A+ as a 4.00, since everything else is more or less the same). I know grad schools will have my official transcript that explains the grading scheme to them, but will they do their own conversion/ask me to convert to 4.0? I actually have have been going about my time as an undergrad as if I'll be applying to PhD programs, but am second-guessing that now. I have pretty good research experience at my home university and have published. This summer I'll be overseas doing research with a professor who is very highly-regarded in my field. I'm just not sure I'm cut out for 5 more years of university right after undergrad. I'm actually strongly considering a gap year after graduating. I'd devote maybe a month to personal travel (I've saved up enough this year and last), then the remaining time to research. I'm positive I could line up a meaningful experience overseas again since I'm quite well connected at my home university. I really do love the research scene and would find it relaxing during the gap year. I think it would help my application in the long run.

I'm unsure as of yet whether I want a masters or PhD but I'll have to start applying next semester. Anyway, I'm double majoring in mechanical engineering and computational math. I really love the latter and will be applying to applied math programs. I do like mech too but at this point, I've put in 90% of the work that it seems like I'm doing myself an injustice if I drop it now. My grades for the most part have been mostly stellar...cumulatively I have mostly straight A's, and a couple of A-'s. The thing is, with the double major the workload is pretty significant and my grades this semester are slipping a little. I'm under no illusions that they're still great, but do grad schools want to see a gradual increase in GPA throughout your undergrad career or will they take into account your workload, etc.? I started off as just a single major and only added the second at the beginning of my junior year, so my workload suddenly increased dramatically. Also, on the topic of grades, how important are study abroad grades in the grand scheme of things? I studied abroad and my grades were...not good. GPA was slightly sub-3.0. I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything and I'm sure it makes my application stronger (in terms of SOP, etc.) but the grades aren't doing me any favors. My school doesn't allow us to directly transfer grades from study abroad, but rather you just need to get at least a C+ in the course and the credit will transfer over.