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As mentioned, a degree from OSU and you will have a very nice career, I wouldn't worry about this school in terms of engineering. In terms of rankings in the US, it all depends on your career objective. If you get your PhD and look to go to the industry, ranking has no relevance whatsoever, its just the name that you reflect. If your talking about academia or research, then yes, the better "ranked" school you go to the better chance you have. Now although this CAN happen, don't expect to get a PhD from OSU and expect to be a professor at MIT or Stanford, most likely that won't happen, or would be very tough. Generally, for academia, the school ranking that you go to, you have to drop further down the list to get a teaching job. So if OSU is ranked at 30th, you'll need to look at schools at the 40th/50th etc schools to have your best chance at a teaching position. Whats your main intent?

Well remember, your not going to school because of the "well this school is rich" and "that school is that". Your going there for the education, which is why and how schools are ranked (most the time, not always). Go for the school that will allow you to excel with opportunities, in which both school should help you do that. My advice? Let's phase it USC and Brown will cost you about the same after its all said and done with since you got no scholarship and most likely will not get any. When I was accepted into Brown they told me for the entire masters expect to pay a good $70,000 total for housing, tuition, fees, food, etc. $70,000 is a lot of money to make a decision by people online. Here's my advice, TAKE A PLANE RIDE TO GO VISIT THEM. You might go to Providence and hate the campus and hate the snow in the winter and feel that the Cali weather is much better. On the flip side, you might hate LA and the location of the school (heard it's in a ghetto area). At most you'll spend 2 grand on a plane ride. Whats 2 grand when your talking about 70 grand.

Well most likely you will need to re-apply again for the PhD program. Depending on where you want to go, I think you will have very good odds of achieving entrance into a PhD once you have a MS. I don't know what you can do (obviously other than research) to try and gain admission into a PhD. You proved you can do the coursework, all you need to prove is that you can do research and I don't think they could really say no. If you mean applying to Columbia PhD, you have an MS from Columbia, your recommendations should be from Columbia, if they don't accept and recognize their own program and the difficulty within, I don't know what would then. Other wards, the chances are very likely.

I agree, I am from the Boston area and although BU and WPI do have very good names around hear, there is no doubt that Cornell would be the BEST option for you. Cornell makes people say WOW, WPI and BU dont.

I must admit attending Brown does give you that "Ivy Leage" "WOW name, however, Brown isn't really known for its engineering. USC on the other hand has proven successful engineers and networks to go forth. They also have a better name (and ranking) than Brown in Engineering. A plus is that Brown has a very nice campus (although it is in a small city of providence) and the class sizes would be very small compared to USC.

I would be honored to say that you accepted into OSU and would not worry about that ranking. The reason why I say don't worry about that ranking is because anything thats within the top-30 schools are all considered about the same academically wise. Granted a top-10 school sounds a lot better, there not learning anything more or different than you are. When i visited the University of Michigan (not sure what they are for your program), the Electrical Engineering dean told me straight up that all schools in the top-30 give or take a few are very well respected programs and that your only paying to get that top-10 name. just curious what your stats to get in were?

hey OH YEAH, saw that your at the Princeton PhD program. Mind sharing your stats as to how you got in?

when and how did you hear back from USC? i also got an admit to Brown, waiting to hear back from USC. Although no funding and its a no go for me at USC since I didnt get funding at Brown either.

according to one of my professions, a MS degree will get you 50% higher salary compared to just a BS degree, so yes i fully recommend getting the MS degree as soon as possible. And im about 99% positive you will get into all of the schools mentioned, just most likely no funding. Thats the problem. If your just going for an MSEE degree and don't care about funding, you can EASILY shoot higher, Stanford, Berkeley, Gtech, MIT MIGHT be a reach, but it might be worth it for you to apply. Now if your looking for funding, thats another story.

in other words your saying its not worth the 100k to go to your "top-10" school, huh?

If your a US Citizen you will have great chances of being accepted, use this to your advantage. I saw the degree over at Stanford, that is an incredible degree especially if you do a dual degree. I was accepted into the MS program for EE at UMich, Ohio state, NYU, and was accepted into UIowa into their PhD EE program. Received a full financial funding fellowship to Iowa and will be going there. They have a decent Business/Entrepreneurship program and will take the elective courses in the business section. You being at UCLA with a very good GPA, i think you'll have no problem getting into many schools. The problem you need to start thinking/considering is finances, this was my biggest factor. Stanford will not provide you with funding, which was a no-go for me.

well you can always apply for bioengineering jobs for an entry position with hopes to get a position. However, the easiest and shortest transition would be for you to just get an MS in bioengineering. Depending on what engineering route of bioengineering would all depend on what courses you'd need to take as prereqs. This is obviously if you know thats exactly what you want to do.

Although i hate to ask this, are you a US Citizen or an international student? Thats arguably one of the biggest decision makers right there. You said graduate school, for what an MS or a PhD? How are your GRE scores? many different factors to consider, but i'll be more than happy to help you out. You have a similiar background and interest as myself with the business twist to it.

First, correct me if im wrong, but a Doctor of Engineering is the same as a Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering, no? I forget what school, but one school allowed you to choose what you wanted upon graduation since it was the same requirements. My first question is why would you choose the D.ENG over the PhD? The PhD seems to be the more common route and its the common proven route that people know of. Second, if you already have a faculty member willing to "sponsor" you i'm assuming is what you mean, then you should be in fine. When i spoke to the dean of engineering at the University of Michigan, he told me it wasnt about my GRE scores or GPA, it was simply down to the fact if a Professor was willing to sponsor you, you'd be in. That was the most important part he told me. I'd say you have a great chance of getting in, no problem.

Hopefully my response is not too late. First off, Congratulations, these are some of the best schools and you should be proud of youself. If you dont mind me asking, anyway you can post your stats that got you in? Now talking about prestige, princeton certainly out beats cornell or cmu in terms of name recognition. When you tell someone you went to princeton its a lot more flashier. In terms of engineering, CMU is a top 5 school and has much more power on the engineering and research world. Cornell, might give you the best of both worlds because it still has prestige and is one of the best ivy league schools for engineering. There is no right decisions though. Pittsburgh is an area you might enjoy, same with princeton. Cornell is "out in the middle of nowhere" but like you said its a beautiful campus and has everything right there located. You need to decide what type is best for you. If you like and can picture yourself going to the city quite often, then princeton would be your best choice. But if you plan on going to the "big apple" just once or twice for site seeing? well that can be done anytime. MY BEST ADVICE..if you haven't done so, MAKE sure you visit each of these schools at least once. Get on campus and see if you'll fit in.

yaaa, although it is frowned upon, i'm curious as to why you'd want to switch to school B anyways? If your reason is "it has a better name and rank", it's not worth the hassle. HOWEVER, just because your at a school doesn't mean you have to stay there permanently, if you want somewhere else, you better have backups as well because your relationship will be tainted afterwards. My friend is in a similar situation, he was accepted into a PhD program at school A, and plans on completing the MS there first en route and apply to PhD programs at school B. He says if hes not accepted anywhere else then he plans on continuing his PhD at school A. You have to be straight up with your advisors though, my friend said hes going to tell him he needs a recommendation to try and apply to schools closer to home, but fully expects if the schools closer to home dont accept him he'll be back there to finish. I question why you would even waste a year at a school and come out with nothing. You'll end up taking about 6-7 courses during this time and when you transfer to school B they'll take AT MAX 2-3 courses. The rest will be a waste. If you stay an extra semester (possibly even the summer to finish up before you go to school B in the fall), you'll come out with your MS, and going from an MS to PhD is generally an easier transition course wise compared to a BS to PhD - although this is not always the case.

im not to familiar with imperial college and the rankings... but uMich is one of the only/few schools in the world that has a top 10 engineering program/top-10 medical program/ and top-10 business program. this makes them a prime candidate for biomedical engineering. visited their school....man do they have money there, the about of equipment and labs is unbelievable. I think michigan is like top-20 for engineering in general in the world...so not sure where imperial is, but a top-20 school in the world isn't bad at all.

I see no reasons why you wouldn't be a top-candidate for consideration. Many factors will effect the overall acceptance, but you have everything. High GRE scores, an MS with a 4.0 GPA, a thesis top 5 school... not sure you have anything to worry about I think your chances are relatively high from at least one of those schools. Dont think grad schools will care about your undergrad....your last degree was a MS with a perfect gpa.

hey thanks for the tip...thats why I posted here. To try and go to schools that are not necessarily the BEST engineering schools (although that is important), i'm looking at schools that is going to submerge me around that kind of atmopshere. I can almost gurantee it, even if I don't start a startup, if one of my classmates has the idea or is thinking about it, i'll be sure to jump on board.

In terms of funding, you have plenty of money to live near the school and enough to have living expenses. Now you don't have enough to have a grand time, but sufficient to live well enough. Your from Egypt congratulations on your acceptance. I'm an Arab-American (Lebanese and Jordanian parents), I also applied and was accepted into GWU, but I decided upon another school, otherwise I would of loved to meet you on campus. If you don't mind posting your stats for getting into GWU and McGill, i'd be appreciated. Are you coming from a BS or a MS?

just remember, a MS degree from Berkeley will cost nearly 80-100k after its all said and done with. If someone is providing you funding, most likely that will include a stipend. So the net total different would be well over 100k JUST FOR A MASTERS. you need to make the decision about how long it will take to pay off that 100k loan. Even if a Berkeley degree will give you 10k extra a year for your salary, it would still take well over 10 years before you even start having a chance to making money on the degree. After 10 years of experience a degree from Berkeley will not be the main focus, it's going to be 10 years of experience. A top-40ish school is still something to be proud about and will still be respected. If you ever have dreams to go back and get a PhD THEN you could always get it from Berkeley or any other top-10 school. On the flip side though, you can say you went to a Top-5 school. Is that worth 100k+ in loans though?

Again, like you said earlier I can not plan my future. It takes a very serious individual with an amazing idea to have the slightest shot to start even a small company. My whole thing about going to a big entrepreneurship school and well-ranked for engineering is to be submerged in that type of atmosphere and environment. If your around this type of atmosphere all day, eventually your mindset will be different, which is what i'm trying to accomplish. Combine a rigorous engineering program with an entrepreneurship/business mindset relating to engineering.

I can see Stanford first, however UIUC has great (better) networks over Harvard?

Thank you. I know it wasn't my GRE scores that helped me get in there, nor my school. I attended a small private engineering school in Boston, MA - not ranked or anything. My professor and research advisor graduated from Michigan from their Biomedical Engineering program and also did post doctorate research there. I'm assuming his alumni status helped me out big time. I had my heart set on Michigan and was planning on attending there. It wasn't until I heard back from Iowa saying they were going to offer me tuition waiver plus stipend. After I calculated out the costs for Michigan, a MS there including housing/living expenses would cost me nearly 90-100k. I just can't justify turning down admissions into a PhD program being funded for spending nearly 100k, even though Michigan is a top-10 school. You are also correct, the competition at Michigan must be intense. As mentioned I attended a small engineering school where there competition was only amongst 3-4 students in the class. The other students were smart, but did not apply themselves. I'm not saying i'm the smartest student in my class, but I invest significant time into my studies. I also don't think i'll be the smartest student at Iowa either, but I feel I can be an above-average student there with the potential to do research. At Michigan i'd feel i'd barely have my head out of the water there and have close to a zero chance of doing research there. Although I'm not proud of this, maybe at Iowa will be a good way to bridge the gap if I were to do a PhD elsewhere instead of jumping into a highly competitive program -like Michigan- right off the bat. I also don't want you guys to think i'm one of those students that only wants Harvard "because it's Harvard". I picked only a select few program due to what it would contribute to me and my networks, which is why I didn't choice MIT/Berkeley/GTech/UIUC/etc. All those schools are arguably better than the schools I have on my list, but I pick certain programs for what they offer me, not because of their rankings or "program name". For example, I really like the Dual PhD Carnegie Mellon offers with a Portugal partner. I like the fact that I can gain international experience while still doing my PhD. Meeting many new people especially from different countries. At the end I learn at two different schools and get two PhDs from both of these schools. CMU also has a research mobility lab in Silicon Valley which could also foster my networks and learning from others. Otherwise, I wouldn't apply directly to CMU's regular PhD program.

Yes, I am a little disappointed I didn't suck it up and apply to PhD everywhere. At first I was happy just to get accepted into the MS program to begin with, but once I was getting accepted into all my "top choices" I started regretting the decision. My GRE scores were not that impressive at all and my low GPA scared me away from other PhD programs. mechengr2000....your advice. Iowa clearly is not that popular or recognized compared to the likes of Brown/USC/OSU and especially Michigan. Do you feel applying to the big name PhD programs Harvard/Stanford/Princeton/CMU coming from an MS from Iowa will hurt my chances of getting accepted into their program compared to if I say went to Michigan instead? Would saving a 100k by going to Iowa instead of a school i'd have to pay for the best decision? Or does a name like Michigan really put me in a prime position whereas Iowa schools will shy away from it?