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Honestly, I'd create a rapport and slowly develop it into a professional and educational relationship. Stop by his office and just introduce yourself to him, tell him you admire their research (they love that), talk about his career and educational path (and yours). Slowly progress into asking him the question once he knows you. THIS IS HUGE, but if you could somehow take the guys course that first semester, you really gain yourself much experience with the professor as well as you prove to him your interested in that topic (which must be somewhat close to his research). I'd say this is the number one best way to get in with him, take his course (if he has one), periodically keep stopping in to talk to him, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, ask the professor if you can do research in his lab. What professor does not want free labor? Your a guaranteed in his lab that way, all you now have to do to prove him is that you can do research. If given that opportunity don't blow it. After a month or so the conversation should be fluent and your goals should be evident by him. Why wouldn't he want to take you in then?

i'm not sure if your coming to the United States for graduate school and came from an international school, but my best advice is to allocate so many slots for top schools, but also save a few slots for some backup school. I know we all don't want to go to a top 50-100 ranked school, but unfortunately that's what it comes down to many times. Apply to a couple schools where you know you'll almost be in. Also, not sure if your talking about a master's program or a PhD program, but if you were to think about it, the year that you spent off, if you applied to a lower tier master of science school, you could have acquired your master's degree from a US school, and this year around start applying to PhD program. Surely, having a MS degree from a US school is a major difference maker which could have allowed you to get into those top-10 schools. I'm assuming Carnegie Mellon is at the top of your list since their one of the best in Robotics. You most likely have a very competitive application, but don't cut yourself short by not attending graduate school at all just because you applied to the very best of the very best and did not get in. Make your schools well-rounded to cover yourself in case your worse case scenario occurs again.

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Well no disrespect, but if every school rejected you, what makes you think that your application did stand up to the schools level? Maybe another year of experience will help, but your not really improving much to your application. Now a better/higher GRE scores, maybe a few grad classes taken, etc would help, or different other recommendations or research experience, but the call is yours. You have to ask yourself the question, if you apply to the same schools again and get the same response from every school, you just wasted 2 years. Would you then reapply the third year? If you don't mind asking, what schools did you apply to?

Not sure where you applied to before, and no disrespect, but if you got rejected from every single school and your application did not change much, then do you really expect a different response from every single school? Clearly, evident by the response from the schools, you most likely applied to schools that did not stand up to your level. If you apply again, I would try lowering your ranking of the schools you applied too. If you applied to top-50 schools, i'd think about applying to schools in the 50-100 rankings.

very well said. I wish you the best of luck and if you have any questions along the way feel free to PM me or ask away on this board. I'm in a PhD program and hope I have the strength to finish it. As a professor once told me, with a master's degree you will earn 50% more salary across your career compared to a bachelors degree, with a PhD you will only earn 10% more than a masters, but a PhD grants you opportunities and power. The PhDs in Engineering are the ones creating the new technology - otherwise they wouldn't be getting there PhD since it isn't original new research so the opportunities to sell off your invention, create a startup, or sit on the executive board of a company are very high. Most companies want their signature and the PhD title next to their name signing off on a new design just to have a "name" backing up their idea.

That's a very good post, I think we can all attest to that a little. An MD is very prestigious, but I don't think it is anymore prestigious than a PhD, not at all. Second, if you want to just do a MS, then just do an MS, if you want to do a PhD do that. Don't do the degrees because someone else wants you to or for prestige because you'll never see the end of the tunnel if that's all your aiming for. A PhD drop out looks a lot worse. My perspective on this whole MS/PhD is this. Take a look back about 30 years ago, the predominant degree in the world (at least in the US) was an associates degree and if you had a bachelors degree then you were doing very well. Then this shifted from a bachelors degree being the minimum and a master's degree being able to be sufficient and "good enough". Very few people 30 years ago had masters degrees (never mind PhDs) and surprisingly enough, the percentage with people with PhDs now are very low as well. Master's degrees today is going to to be the minimum we're going to need if this trend continues. A master's degree will no longer hold prestige or be "good enough" in 30 years because the market will be overpopulated with them. A bachelor's degree will be nothing equivalent to an associates today. Getting a PhD today if you want to go into the industry is a way to almost help repay you back in the future. It might offer you very little if not the same compared to an MS, but in 30 years, i expect it to start paying back (if not much sooner, but you get the point). As a family friend once said to me who was a professor at GeorgiaTech and graduated from MIT with his PhD as well as got his JD. "A degree only helps you get your first job, after you get your first job the degree does not reflect you, but you reflect the degree." At work if you are a good hard worker, your employees will say, wow this person came fromm XYZ school, it has a very good program. Howevever, if your lazy and you don't put in enough work, they'll be saying wow I thought XYZ school was much better in producing engineers. If you enjoy learning and enjoy school, then you can always apply to PhD programs and see how it goes, worse comes to worse if you are depressing and hate the atmosphere you can always leave with just an MS. If you enjoy it then you stay and continue for the full PhD.

Well welcome to college then my friend. During the road of college your going to have to learn a lot outside of the books, like time management and how to overcome the stress factor, along many other emotions and entities you might come across. Don't worry to much about it, there's nothing you can do now. Just take it one step at a time. Remember, you still have 3 years to go which will easily average that 3.45 out into possibly something else.

Don't worry about the AW score. In terms of applying to graduate schools, I was rejected into Tufts MSEE, yet I was accepted into UMich MSEE, USC MSEE and Browns engineering program. A top-10 school accepted me and an ivy league, yet a top-60 school rejected me...Didn't make sense. My perspective? What's the only thing stopping you from deciding what school will accept you or not? About $60 for the application fee. I applied to 12 different schools ranging from top-10 to unranked and from MS degrees to PhDs, my biggest fear is that I wasn't going to be able to find my limit, and frankly I did not. I was expecting a reject from Mich and Brown, but did not get it. Now I question whether I could have gotten into Stanford or GTech Berekley, I'll never really know now will I. Don't have any doubts, just pay the fear and once you get all the acceptances you can make a decision then.

Your fine and still young. if you can complete all that you've said, your odds of a top-10 engineering school is still high. Remember, a 3.45 freshman year is darn good for an engineering student. Don't downplay that. As a professor once told me, for graduate school there's two different categories. a 3.0-3.49 is one category. and a 3.5 to 3.9 is a second category. A 4.0 is still in the second category, but obviously sticks out much more, but is pretty rare anyways in engineering. Just focus one step at a time. The semester's get much harder, trust me.

People will surely disagree with what I say, but take what I say as a grain of salt, it is only my perspective and opinion. First off, if you want to eventually create a start-up, you don't need any education. You just need a dream, some goals, and a hole lot of luck with a product people want. Now having said that, many questions (including myself) have pondered if you don't want to work in academia, would a PhD offer you anything. I ultimately chose to start a PhD for similiar reasons your questioned, I'd want to eventually move up the ranks (including my skill level) to have enough experience to open a startup. First off, what do you do in a PhD program. You do research that has never been done before. If it's a topic your interested in - which is why your their anyways - your getting funded to work freely with top-of-the line equipment and advice from some of the smartest experts in your field. Your also surrounded by other extremely smart PhD students who share a similar goal as you, and that's engineering and research. I don't have any statistics behind this, but the number of students that have created some type of startup company out of a PhD must be extremely high, much higher than say a BS/MS student. You have all the resources right there. Now beyond that, say you have your typical graduate with your PhD and start working in industry or in research. With enough experience you have the credentials, knowledge, and experience to also open up a startup. With a PhD, your more respected and have a much higher potential to move up the rankings in Industry. Maybe you eventually become CTO - chief technology offer, an executive engineer so-to-speak. From their your now given all the responsibility to direct the company of future technologies. Once again, it would be very easy - i use "easy" very lightly because a startup is never easy. A PhD is never easy and I pray to God I can handle and complete it long enough to see the end of the road, but acquiring a PhD gives you many opportunities and resources a MS student just does not have. This isn't always the case, but if your real serious about a startup, what's really the difference between a startup and a PhD, you both need to do research - in it's own way - one way your getting paid to gain an education, the other way has a higher risk versus reward. If the startup fails, at least with a PhD you end up with some amazing contacts and the highest level of education to go along with it. Just my take on things. If you have any intention on gaining a PhD, it's best not to take any time off after a master's. If anything, take time off before the masters, then go straight to a MS then PhD. My advice is to not even stop before or after the MS. Once you start getting a task away from school, your life starts to take over and the consistent money starts to make it extremely hard to leave that for a measly ~20k a year in a PhD.

umich has a hugeeee engineering school, plus it's also a public school. They can accept more students which slightly lowers the average.

you come from one of the best engineering schools in the country...you have a high GPA, the GRE score range is good, I think if you come from a top-10 school and you need to drop down in rankings for a top-20, you should be able to apply to all top-20 schools...take your pick...you probabely could also apply to top-10 schools and maybe even top-5 schools...obviously the more narrow your ranking choices the more your odds decrease. Are you a domestic student or an international student?

No disrespect for any German universities, but if you come from the "best Indian University" and are only looking for "top universities" why would you want to settle on a German University where we all know the US houses the top and best engineering schools. I'm sure Germany has a good University there, maybe even a top-10-15 in the world (not sure) but even if they do, they most likely only have one university. The US has plenty top university.

Generally in the US, there are few (possibly no) schools that offer a graduate degree in telecommunications. You will need to look for Electrical/Computer Engineering degrees with a specialization in communications. I'm assuming by telecommunications you mean the communications route, yes?

Well you have a lot of what it takes, but mind you, saying you went to a top-10 liberal arts school does very little justice since you were in a STEM major. That's like saying you went to MIT for English, if it's not their specialty that you went there for, what's the point of mentioning it? In terms of your credentials, like many, you have a lot of what it takes, however, you are applying to some of the best schools as well, which is very difficult to judge. You also seem like your only applying to 4 schools, and they are some of the best 4 schools in the country/world. When I applied to grad school I applied to 12 different schools to give me the best odds of acceptance. I'm not saying to apply to 12, but 4 of some of the best schools really puts you in a tight position if they all reject you. You have very good credentials, but so don't the other hundreds of students applying as well. My advice, add a few other schools that might also be in your interest to aid as an added backup and make sure you explain in your SOP why you want to do a operations research/probability/financial engineering. You need something that is going to really separate you from the other students who came from other top math/engineering schools. In terms of GRE/GPA you can't really get any better. If you can get some type of conference paper out of your research it will really set you apart and really give you that added advantage to get into those top schools.

I can't see a reason of why you wouldn't be accepted into these schools. You have high grades, a high GPA, and research experience. The only thing I see your missing is that you don't necessarily have any publications. As a professor from UC Berekely said to me, once you have an MS degree, schools hold you to a higher standards than students coming out with just a BS. Having said that, i'd say about at least 75% of the students will accept you. You got your BS and MS from USC, so I think you will know if you get accepted into USC more than we will. If they don't accept their "own kind" though, then goes to show forth how they feel their curriculum is. Send me a PM so we can talk further about this, have a few questions regarding this for you.

In the United States, MOST Ph.D students are fully funded, for a MS their rarely funded. So it will actually cost you less in the short term. Also, in the US, you'll have to get a PhD in Electrical/Computer Engineering with a concentration or specialization in Embedded Systems. Getting any more specific than that and it will most likely come up to your PhD adviser to guide you better, however course wise in a concentration in embedded systems will be slim.

A research MS is a MS that you do a thesis for, a professional masters is a non-thesis MS or a MENG(Master of Engineering). If you have absolutely any intentions at all to do a PhD, do it now. We only get older not younger, so if the motivation is there now, might as well go for it. Otherwise once you start working and gaining a salary who actually wants to turn their salary down just to get their PhD living like a poor college student again. If you still just want to do a MS and have any intention at all to do a PhD, you want to do a MS with thesis, this would also be impressive to your manager at the research company you'd want to work for. I've searched at nearly every school, and almost every school has the thesis or non-thesis option, you'd want to do the thesis in which UC berekely has this option.

Are you referring to undergrad or graduate enrollment? Can't really offer much advise as to the schools, only question is why don't you like the quarter system? Why do you prefer the semester system? I've never done the quarter system, always been on the semester basis, but I always imagined that the quarter system allowed you to learn more and take more classes in the same time period of the semester system.

you have every right to explain to them. I would explain it to them, but make sure its only a few sentences at most explaining you were working and on travel....try to make it seem like you learned a lot from doing so.

listen, no disrespect to anyone else, but right now you have absolutely everything to at least be considered (if not accepted) into every single school that you applied too. UCLA is a top-20 engineering school and your GPA is fine. For meticulous reasons, I would try to get your GPA up to a 3.50 solid, although it would have a very little effect anyways. They say that a 3.0 to a 3.49 is one class, and a 3.5 above is another category. Here's my biggest question, are you a US Citizen? When people always post their profiles and ask, this is the biggest deciding factor. If your a US Citizen, I'd say your current profile, you have a VERY HIGH shot at every single on of those schools. If not your a US Citizen, you still have a very good chance, but you might want to try to shoot your GPA up a little higher (maybe a 3.65 since there isn't much time left) and try boosting your GRE scores up. Remember, as the CTO of my internship told me, graduate school is a business. They will gladly accept you and take your money, however, it's another story when your looking to get funding. For a MS student, you have a very rare and slim shot to receiving any funding (although it is possible, just rare). As sad as it is, I was accepted into Brown, Mich, USC, Iowa, and others, I only had a 3.5 GPA and a 620/370/4.0 GRE scores. Only took them once as well, I feel a major portion of this is because i'm a US citizen. When I visited the Michigan campus, the assistant told me that 80% of the students there are non-US citizens. So they are desperate for domestic candidates. You can't have a US school with all students from outside US. This is just some food for thought, feel free to PM me and I can advice you better.

If your a US citizen applying for a MSEE, you can almost apply to any school and get accepted. If you don't mind me asking, which school did you go to? You did a coop which is pretty rare, not many schools offer coops. I say that because my Institute has coops, but there are only a select few that do. The school I went to was a very small engineering school, not even a top-100 school, and even at that, I was still accepted into USC, Michigan, and Brown. Michigan and USC being a top-10 school in Electrical. I also am going into the DSP/image processing route. I believe my coops had a big reason for my acceptance, but like michigan said, in a graduate engineering program, there are about 80% international students. Its pretty rare to find a US student applying to graduate engineering, which is the reason I asked that question. The problem isnt whether you can get accepted into the school, the problem is that for a masters program, very rarely will they offer you funding. For me that was an issue, for you it might not be. I applied to about 12 schools, accepted into all of them but Tufts. I get accepted into two top-10 schools, but yet rejected from a 70th ranked school? MIT and some of the real top schools it might be borderline, but i'd say apply to all and any schools that interest you. Whether its a top-5 school or a top-100 school. PM me if you want to ask more in-depth questions, will be more than happy to help. FYI, GRE scores are important if you want/need funding, but other than that, they don't really effect the admission decision to much. Had horrible scores and was still accepted.

I hate to always flood the posts with this question, but unfortunately it needs to be asked. Are you a US Citizen or not? Its a major deciding factor that separates one application to the next. Once that is answered, I can then answer your question about which tier you should apply too.

chriss really? you got rejected? They had a very high acceptance rate so I assumed everyone "almost" got in. Not trying to put gas on fire, but are you a us citizen or not? And what did your profile look like? just curious how USC goes about things.