babubot

Is anyone else waiting to hear from UPenn? I've already accepted another offer, so I'm not too concerned, just curious.

I've officially accepted my offer to the MechE PhD program. Time to start looking for housing! What neighborhoods is everyone else looking in?

Yes, please listen to this user. All these sort of requests do is annoy the staff (speaking as a student staff assistant). First they will tell you that they can not review your application again. If you bug them enough, they may tell you that you will be considered again. We will then set your application aside with a note to reject again in a week or two. I suppose it doesn't hurt, but it doesn't help either.

The isolation aspect is what actually made me want to live on campus in the first place, but now that I'm looking at a map, I see what you're saying. Thanks for the suggestions!

I'm not set on Cornell yet, but it's definitely my top choice for now - I would be studying MechE (robotics). Their website has a lot of information about on-campus housing: http://living.sas.cornell.edu/live/wheretolive/housingoptions/graduate.cfm/. Personally, I am interested in the coop housing. Seems a lot cheaper, and I'd rather live in a closer community anyways.

Same here! I'll be visiting as well, driving over from WNY. First acceptance, so I'm excited, even if it came only moments before rejection from Carnegie Mellon and Stanford... I saw in your other post you said you had an interview with UPenn? I haven't heard from them so I'm starting to get worried.

The only actual robotics program I applied to was Carnegie Mellon, but that is what I intend to study wherever I go. The rest of the programs were either CS or ME.

Copied from the CS thread since I'm applying to both: General Profile: -White Male US Citizen -UG: Top 50ish Public Research University -Major: Mechanical Engineering (BS) -Minors: CS, Math -GPA: 3.92/4.0 -GRE: 167V / 170Q / 4W Research Experience: -1.5 years of research in two different labs on campus -1 semester research in NASA internship, but in unrelated field -No pubs, but all the people writing letters are people I've done research for and I am fairly confident they will be strong letters Area(s) of Interests: -Robotics -Human-Robot Interaction -AI Schools Applied (ME PhD program unless otherwise specified): -Stanford (PhD in CS) -CMU (PhD in Robotics) -UPenn -Cornell -Berkeley (PhD in CS) -UMich (interview offer) I realize that there is a good chance I don't get into any of these, so I am also applying for year long internships with the intention of applying to more schools next year. I also noted on my applications that I would also consider entering an MS program if they did not think I was prepared for PhD.

Every school is going to be completely different. The school I work at just sends them to review as they come in. If the review committee does them in a certain order after receiving them, it isn't noticeable when they come back from review. It would make sense if the did international students first, though, just because visa issues can take a while to sort out.

General Profile: -White Male US Citizen -UG: Top 50ish Public Research University -Major: Mechanical Engineering (BS) -Minors: CS, Math -GPA: 3.92/4.0 -GRE: 167V / 170Q / 4W Research Experience: -1.5 years of research in two different labs on campus -1 semester research in NASA internship, but in unrelated field -No pubs, but all the people writing letters are people I've done research for and I am fairly confident they will be strong letters Area(s) of Interests: -Robotics -Human-Robot Interaction -AI Schools Applied (CS PhD program unless otherwise specified): -Stanford -CMU (PhD in Robotics) -UPenn (PhD in MechE) -Cornell (PhD in MechE) -Berkeley -UMich I realize that there is a good chance I don't get into any of these, so I am also applying for year long internships with the intention of applying to more schools next year. I also noted on my applications that I would also consider entering an MS program if they did not think I was prepared for PhD.

They only want to know if you've been corresponding with a faculty member so they can contact that faculty member before making any final decision. If you've contacted a faculty member already, there is no way listing them will hurt you.

At many schools, GPA minimums do not apply to international students because they know that grading scales are different. Your best bet is to email the schools you are interested in.

Not particularly difficult, I don't think. I suppose I am more uncertain of the situation where I am interested in professors who work in the same lab, but are from different departments.

Yes, this for PhD. I was initially of the same mind as you, but then I saw meche students doing their research under an EE professor and wasn't sure how that works with respect to admissions. Ill probably go the safe route and apply to whichever department has the professors I am interested in.

Hello all, I am currently a mechanical engineering undergraduate looking at graduate schools with the intention of doing research in robotics. If you are not familiar, robotics research is usually balanced between three departments, mechanical engineering, computer science, and electrical engineering. At some of the schools I am interested in, all the potential advisers I am interested in working with are outside of mechanical engineering. Looking at their websites, however, they have many mechanical engineering students working with them. I would prefer to apply to the mechanical engineering departments because I generally like the course offerings more, and I think I would have an easier time on the qualifying exam when that comes around. Is it acceptable to apply to a department and only mention interest in professors outside that department? Or in those cases, should I just apply to computer science or electrical engineering? Thanks!

It definitely can be very busy this time of year, so I would not worry if it takes a long time to respond. Generally, I'd say wait a week before sending an email a second time. Since graduate admissions is handled separately for each program, there may only be one or two people responding to emails. If this also happens to be the week they are hosting orientation for new students, they may be very busy.

Thank you for the suggestions, everyone! I'm definitely feeling better about applications now. I'll probably be applying to a mix of PhD and Masters programs depending on the schools and whether they will automatically review you for MS if rejected for PhD. It was an engineering internship, but my mentor didn't have any specific project that I was working on and I frequently didn't have contact for up to a week at a time. Overall just not a positive experience which is why I am hesitant to even mention it in the application.

Kaplan MST 1 (4 months before): Q167 / V158 Kaplan MST 2 (1 week before): Q166 / V158 Actual Score: Q170 / V169 / 4.0 About 20 hours of studying between second practice and real thing, not much before that. As others have said, I found Kaplan verbal prep more aggravating than anything. Their reasoning didn't make sense quite often.

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum, but I will probably be around quite a bit now that I am preparing to apply for grad school for Fall 2014. I'll also hope to answer some questions because I work in my schools graduate admissions office, but that is another matter. I am a mechanical engineering undergrad interested in pursuing a PhD in the robotics field (Mechanical engineering in a lot of schools, CS at others). I have a pretty good idea of what area I would want to focus my research on, but I am not sure if I have a chance at getting accepted in the schools I am interested in, primarily because I don't have any publications or an undergrad thesis. Here's what my profile looks like: UG Major: MechE Minor: CompSci, Math University: Large state university ranked ~60 in my field GPA: 3.9+/4 GRE: Q170, V169, 4.0 (Still have no idea how I pulled this off. It is significantly higher than my practice scores and I was working on very little sleep) Will have 2 years of research experience by the time I graduate, but I have not published anything yet which from browsing around seems to be a requirement for top programs/PhD. I expect to be submitting a couple papers as an undergrad, but it will be too late to be part of my application. I should have two strong letters from the professors I do research with, but I still don't know who to ask for a third. EDIT: Forgot to mention, I had a research internship at NASA, but I didn't have the best relationship with my mentor and it isn't in the field I am interested in continuing with, so I don't think it will help very much. Without publications, is it possible to be admitted to top ranked PhD programs? The two schools I am most interested in are Carnegie Mellon and UPenn. Is it realistic to apply to that caliber school directly to PhD? What about for Masters? I've responded enough "What are my chances?" emails as part of my job to know you can't tell me anything concrete, but I am just looking for a general idea of what level university I should focus on because right now my list of schools with programs I am interested in is way too big.