teerav42

Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Wisconsin, Princeton, UT Austin, Minnesota, and Northwestern all would be decent choices. Those were the schools I applied to last year haha!

The biggest reason I picked Wisconsin is that there were multiple professors that I was interested in. All the other schools I considered really only had one professor I could see myself working for. CMU probably would have been the best fit for me research wise, but they didn't let very many people in last year as they had a large 1st year class last year and didn't have room for many new students this year so I didn't get in. I heard MIT had a similar situation as well. Other than that, although I liked all the schools I visited (Northwestern, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and UT) I did feel Wisconsin stood out a little. And it wasn't anything specific that they did on the visit, because all schools know how to treat their recruits well and make sure they have a good time--it was more that I could see myself being comfortable and happy in a smaller city like Madison easier than a bigger city like Chicago, Minneapolis, or Austin. That's just personal preference though. Also, I connected the best with other prospectives at my Wisconsin visit--I made friends with several of the people I met pretty quickly and knew that several of them were either definitely going to Wisconsin or probably going there. That definitely helped when I moved to Madison as well, I already had a few friends which made the transition easier. Definitely PM me if you want, I'm happy to answer any other questions you think of!

Recruitment weekends are a blast! I visited Northwestern, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and UT-Austin. I think 4 visits is about the perfect number to go on, it would have been tough to fit any more weekends out of town into my schedule since I was busy with senior design and other courses. I was extremely skeptical about grad school before going on visit weekends--before my first visit I was thinking I was going to accept a job offer I had in Houston. Visiting changed my mind though, obviously. Undergrad research was not strongly emphasized at my school, so I really liked meeting other students who were interested in it. Going into it all I thought I must be crazy for thinking about getting my PhD, and it was a big relief to meet so many other students who wanted to do the same. Things to expect at recruitment weekends: Lots of free food and booze Poster sessions Information sessions (boring but necessary) Meetings with professors (sometimes 1 on 1, sometimes in small groups) Talking with grad students about their work and graduate life Fun things around the city the school is in It's common for grad students to take students out to bars every night of the visit. If that's your thing do it and have fun, but you still are going to have to get up early the next morning. I was not 21 when I was visiting so I didn't get to do this, which was unfortunate, but I definitely don't regret the extra sleep I got relative to some of the other students I met, You will see the same people at different visits. Make friends with them, you will definitely wind up classmates with some of them. As far as what to wear, everything was pretty casual at all of my visits. Make sure you look nice, but no need to dress to the nines or anything. If any school has something specific they will want you to dress up for they will let you know. On all my visits I just wore what I typically wore to school--jeans/chinos and an OCBD/flannel shirt for example. The first semester of grad school was tough. At Wisconsin we take 4 classes--3 core ChemE classes (thermo, kinetics, and a math class) and an elective (I took a computational math class offered by the math department). Courses were hard, especially thermo. In undergrad I was used to being at the top of my class in pretty much everything, but in grad school I have found I am somewhere around average to slightly below average, relative to my classmates. You also have to deal with advisor selection during first semester, which went perfectly for me, but was stressful for a lot of my classmates. My advisor, like most, didn't expect anything out of me research-wise last semester; I just had to worry about classes. Next semester I am taking 2 classes and will be starting my research. I expect to be just as busy as last semester but I am looking forward to the change of pace that will come from not having such a full courseload. Apart from school, life is great. I wound up in a class full of awesome people and we made friends quickly. It's been fun getting to know Madison and discovering all the great stuff the city has to offer.

I'm a 1st year ChemE PhD student in a controls group, so I can give advice on controls at least from the ChemE perspective. Although controls is an extremely important aspect of chemical engineering, particularly at the industrial level, process systems/controls do not get as much attention at the academic level as areas like bioengineering, catalysis, advanced materials, etc.... From what I can tell, it is extremely common for PhD students in process systems/controls to do industry internships during their PhD--I know everyone in my group does this for at least one summer, and usually two or three summers. For all engineering PhDs, the most common path after graduation is industry, and I think this is probably especially true for controls/process systems people, because expertise in those areas lends itself extremely well to industry. Let me know if you have any more questions!

Hey all! I went through this whole process a year ago, if you have any questions about how recruitment weekends and whatnot go let me know!

Not recommended. VG/G, E/VG, G/F. I'm a senior in undergrad and I have a little research experience, but not a ton which made writing my proposal difficult. I did my best but it was a longshot. Oh well, the program I'm heading to in the fall is fully funded anyways. Congrats to all who were offered awards!

Has anyone decided yet? I signed my acceptance to Wisconsin today. Excited!

I just decided today, I'm coming to Madison this fall as well. Extremely excited!

Austin was okay. I still think Madison is the best fit for me though. I'm basically 99% sure I'm going there, I'm just waiting a few more days to make sure I'm really sure before I make it official.

My top choice right now is Wisconsin, but I still have to visit UT Austin this weekend. You've got some good choices there!

CMU is the only school I haven't heard from, I'm assuming it's a rejection at this point.

Congrats! I'm also a prospective ChemE PhD student. I haven't decided where to go yet, but I'll be visiting Madison next weekend.

Anyone else going to the Minnesota visit this weekend?

There are plenty of people who have done this, but you are right about having to take undergrad courses to catch up.

Anyone know what's up with Carnegie Mellon? My advisor told me he was pretty positive I'd get in, and I thought I would hear back by now. I emailed them earlier this week and they just told me that they'd have all decisions out in the next few weeks. Can I assume it's a rejection at this point? Because that is what I am thinking.