HassE

Thank you for this advice, I will surely use it for my future decisions. What engineering program is your friend in? Is he in a graduate program? Electrical Engineering? Harvard is heavy on GPA, how much do they value GRE scores? Although I will need to retake them again if I plan to leave Iowa to go to other PhD programs, I am a very bad GRE tester. Thanks for your very good advice.

Thank you for all the comments guys. I appreciate it. To give feedback, I applied to the MS at Brown/Michigan/Ohio State/USC and was accepting into all of their programs. I did not think my GPA was high enough (3.5) to apply to the PhD at those top schools, never mind the likes of Harvard etc. I applied to the PhD at some lower tier schools, University of Iowa (ranked 60th), and Michigan State and most likely am planning on going to the University of Iowa. There not comparable to the likes of Brown/Michigan/OSU/USC, however Iowa is providing me with funding. I plan to go there to exceptionally well and complete a thesis. Depending on how much I enjoy it there all depends then whether I will continue doing my PhD there or go off to another school. The reason why I don't plan on applying to just the heavy engineering school (MIT) is simply because MIT is the best at what they do which attracts thousands of applicants. I personally would rather the smaller engineering program at Harvard/Princeton compared to the much larger one at MIT, neither do I think I can get accepted there either. Stanford attracted me due to being in or near silicon valley, the heart of engineering job city. Likewise, the odds of me getting accepted into the one of the Best in the world reduces my odds. If I complete the MS and still feel the desire to continue to the PhD yet get rejected from all 5 schools, then I'll remain at the University of Iowa and finish it there.

I'm from the Boston, MA area so if I were to do my PhD, i'd want to try and stay closer around my family. However, Stanford is obviously on the list. To me, it just seems like it will be harder to get into Stanford than Harvard. My list includes: Harvard Stanford Carnegie Melon/Portugal Dual PhD Princeton and maybe Yale If i get rejects from all of them, then most likely i'll just stay and continue on at the PhD other than MS. "My advice is to contact current students since the admissions office usually tries to be politically correct (i.e. we look at everything)." Thank you for that. That is very good advice as well.

my most likely scenario is going to acquire a MS first. Do a thesis and try to get top grades. Then apply to Harvard and others and see what happens.

thanks for you response. I appreciate your feedback, however i think you have it mistaken. Just because someone wants to explore the business side, does not mean they lose all credentials on their engineering. As mentioned, I said I wanted to work in R&D with the hopes of eventually becoming a CTO years later. If your not clear what a Chief Technology Officer is or does, let me refresh your memory. They are the main ones who direct the future of the company in terms of research and engineering. I also said I wouldn't mind creating a possible business venture with an idea i've created. In order to start a business, you need to understand a business, which is partly what education will do. "I want to get a PhD from an IVY/top school to be a CTO of a company or start a successful company"....I also never said this either nor was this my main goal or reason. One thing we all need to remember, is WHY are you doing what your doing. Myself? I have a goal or dream. Will i ever accomplish that? Probably not. So if I shoot high, and get above-average, then great. My question was not placed as a way for you to evaluate what I'm doing. My question was HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO GET INTO HARVARD. I was already accepted into Michigan and Brown, but like the dean of electrical from Michigan told me, All these top 30 schools are going to teach you the same thing. You go to these schools to get that powerful name.

no one???

19k for two semesters i'm assuming? What work would you be doing TA? RA?

Not trying to drag this out any longer, but you guys both read into the rankings well to much. I had a meeting with the dean of engineering from the University of Michigan - a top 10 Engineering school and one of the best in the world. When i asked him what a Michigan degree would offer me compared to another school, and his response was "Michigan is not going to teach you anything new or different compared to other top-30 ranked schools. When you go to a Michigan/MIT/Stanford/Illinois/Princeton/etc all that your paying for is the name of the school because any top-30 ranked school is going to teach you nearly exactly the same. There are amazing professors at all of these top schools." He also told me not to get too caught up into the rankings. So for the discussion you guys were having, Sure MIT has that BIG BRAND NAME, however, i'm not sure, but Santa Barbara might actually have a better more focused department in something else. But what does "better" mean? MIT has that BETTER name? Are they really going to teach or challenge you more though than Santa Barbara which is still a top top school? I doubt it

AGREED....whats the stipend that their offering you? Take into consideration that the DC area is not a cheap area to live in either. But some money is better than nothing.

Hey all, I know most of you don't respect Harvard for it's engineering degree, however, after I complete my masters in EE i plan on applying to Harvard for it's PhD Engineering. Frankly, combined with the name and the long list of entrepreneurs graduated from there, I feel networks wise I'll be in prime position to be in the atmosphere of a entrepreneurial community. I plan on doing R&D with hopes of either two things. Become a Chief Technology Officer planning a companies future with advanced technology, OR An entrepreneur starting a company off with a research idea I came up with. What's it take to get into Harvard engineering? Have to imagine it would be much easier compared to Stanford engineering, but then again Stanford accepts many more students than Harvard.

man howd you get full funding for a masters? wanna list your stats? Fully funded MS is generally rather rare, i'm assuming its gonna involve a thesis

mind sharing your stats that got you into the PhD program?

bump

i could be mistaken but i believe for photonics university of arizona (or arizona state always forget which one), and either rochestor institute of technology (or university of rochestor, again forget) are top and well known for optics/phontics the difference is, most EE-photonics grad programs make you take quite a few EE courses which is not what a photonics person is going for. This would allow you to focus on ALL photonics instead of the rest of EE.

I was also accepted into WashU for their MS EE not PhD. WashU is a great school that is still emerging. My friend went to their campus and fell in love with it though. Depending on what you do and what you want to do upon graduating all depends on whether the school name will be significant or not.

Hello all, So as mentioned before, I got accepted into University of Michigan for an MSEE and as of today it was my number 1 school of choice, no funding was offered though. However, today I received an email from the University of Iowa saying that I got accepted into the PhD program with Full Financial Assistance. I'm so confused now. U of M is a top 10 prestigious school and I was looking forward to going there, but there school is so expensive would cost me 60K+ At University of Iowa I'd not only go to school for free, but they'd pay me 17K+ for every 9 months, how do you turn that down? Thats an overall difference of over 80K PLEASE HELP

are you a US citizen? If you are, you should receive a full loan plus living expenses from the government. Believe its called GraduatePLUS or something. Otherwise i'm not sure.

You cant go wrong with any of these options. GeorgiaTech i believe is the highest ranked and closely followed by UIUC right after it. Princeton comes in a little later but is much more prestigious in terms of the overall brand name. Not sure what you mean by GeorgiaTech just recently being in the top-10. Its been there for quite some time now. Overall, CHECK OUT each and every campus and see whered you would thrive more. Also, one of the other decisions that I took into consideration is how is the rankings of their other programs, such as business for instance. I want to be able to take entrepreneurship/business courses. Its much better to go to a school that offers a top-ranked program if you have slight interest in other departments, other wise not so much.

Originally I was in their controls major, however i'm planning on doing signal processing, possibly even more specific image/video processing. Idealy, I'd want to get into real-time signal processing (or video processing). I see you got into UMich, what school you plan on going to? Whats your major/concentration? Did you apply to the MS or PHD?

I've said this a few times, i'd go to uClemson. You have your support and your PhD degree there. Guess what, if you go there and decide that your extremely not happy, leave with your masters and move on to elsewhere. For all you know you might love it. No school wants you to be there if your not happy. After your masters you can apply to OSU or anywhere else. However, having said that. Check out OSU and UClemson and their campus. If you go to Clemson and are depressed just being there. DO NOT GO! Spend the money and go to OSU, at least you'll be happy.

You already have a MS in Mechanical Engineering - not technology - you have taken courses at Stanford and have excelled, you have your PE, and very high GRE scores. I see no reason whatsoever why you should get a rejection. If you do get one, it wont be because of the technology degree. I have a technology degree and about to proceed to Michigan for my MSEE. Gosh I would hate it once i get my MSEE someone would still question me because of my bachelors degree. Just curious, whered you get your MS from?

titles says it all. I got accepted into michigan for their MSEE program and still waiting to hear back from USC and ohio state. Would any of those schools be a reason for me to change my mind? Michigan is top 10, USC is close behind, and OSU is close behind them. Any advantages/negatives? Is one school more prestigious?

this is the way i've been thinking about it on my own end. IF your absolutly near positive you wouldnt be able to get a research/teaching assistantship second semester in at Columbia, meaning you have to pay the whole way, get the degree from UNC. Think about it like this as well, say Columbia is definitely where you want to go. Have UNC pay for you to go to school, get your MS from there on their dime, drop out and apply to columbia to get your PhD. Some might not think its the most ethical, but for all you know you might love UNC and go the full way, if not, then theres nothing unethical about being unhappy somewhere and transferring else where. Bottom line, go to who gives you money and decide after what you want.

what do you mean by "but there comes the qual examination concern"....what concern is there? either way man you cant lose, MIT has a world renowned reputation for Engineering, but I think Stanford has a world renowned education for not just Engineering, but for business/law, etc. I know your getting a PhD, but if you want to do and become more than just a research/professor, i'd go with Stanford for the combination of a great everything, networks from other departments, etc. Also, check out both schools because there location's are completely different. My Engineering school is located in Boston and I was just by MIT yesterday, its a beautiful campus for a city person, but if you don't like the city life or a non-campus like feel, stay away from MIT. Can't say the same about Stanford - never been there - but to me it seems like Stanford is in a litle more residential area with a more campus-like feel, aka a little slower paced lifestyle/atmosphere.

yes, i also got a reject from Tufts MSEE program. The amazing part is I got accepted into U of M a top 10 ranked program and into Browns MS program.....go figure that one.