peiann

It's good that you're thinking about this so early. I think minimum GPA should be 3.0 .. more competitive GPA is probably 3.5 . Then again GPA isn't all that important. Your research is probably what's going to be most important for those high caliber schools. I'd try to find research positions during the school year. Try to get your name on publications...Get to know 3 professors really well (they'll be writing you LORs) Applied to: Duke, WUSTL, Stanford, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, MIT/Harvard

lol, yeah tell me about it. at least it looks awesome on a resume and you can get publications. I'm not sure if a summer program would be enough to get a journal paper. Probably wind up doing a conference paper if anything. Nonetheless good experience and resume booster. Good luck with everything! Applied to: Duke, WUSTL, Stanford, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, MIT/Harvard

That's hard... I would ask professor L over professor M - did well in both difficult classes. L knows you more than M. I don't think M's writing ability trumps that. L should be able to get the point across. C becomes more difficult. I think that it's important to have someone put that you can write well in their recommendation. Can L say that you write well? Did the classes you took with L or C involve a class project of any sort? How does C know you write well? Is it just from written exams? Does C know that your research interests match his? I'm leaning towards C more. He can say you write well and you did well in a grad class. If he knows your interests he can perhaps expound on that and about your curiosity in that particular field. That trumps L's PhD at Stanford...unless of course L knows someone from the adcom at Stanford ? For that second question: from my perspective I think incoming PhD students should take the summer off unless you fall into a category I list below. First off, it won't hurt you because you already got in a program. Secondly, you're about to spend the next 5-6 years of your life working. Taking a vacation prevents burnout. And plus after all the grad apps and interviews, etc. you deserve to take a break. Caveats: 1) you need money. If you need money or would like to make money then get a job - preferably not just any job but a job in your field that you can write on a future resume 2) if you really like resume boosters and are able to land an internship. An internship usually lasts around 10 weeks. That gives you half a month to a month of vacation time depending on when your grad program starts. 3) you get a job that's exciting to you. If you find a job that you're really interested in I would take it. If you do decide to get a job try to make sure it's relevant. Looks better on a future resume for post-grad/industry work. Personally, I would've taken my summer off. However, I'm stuck in a year long fellowship which ends at the end of August lol. At least I have three weeks to relax...though driving across country isn't really all that relaxing ? Applied to: Duke, WUSTL, Stanford, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, MIT/Harvard

Well lol you changed my mind! prof c sounds like a good rec writer then. Make sure he writes something else other than the fact that you kick @$$ in difficult classes. It's cool that your research interests are like his..maybe he can write about that as well? I'm a big proponent, if you can't tell, that making the case that you can do research is of utmost importance (especially for good schools). Yeah, tell me about nice weather. Originally from Los Angeles - on the east coast now at a fellowship - cannot handle the weather, cannot wait to get back to Cali ? Good luck with your schools!! Applied to: Duke, WUSTL, Stanford, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, MIT/Harvard

There's nothing wrong with a professor not being in your department or your phd program. I assumed all of your other professors were in Material engineering so it would be "more" relevant. That was the only real reason I chose the rest over C. If he can write about your potential then by all means! If I was faced with a similar situation that being whether or not I should get a rec from someone in bioinformatics or from computer science even though I did good in a cs grad class, I would probably choose the guy from bioinformatics. One, there might be an off chance that a person from the adcom will know the guy from bioinformatics rather than computer science (in my case it's a very small group of people who do this stuff). Two, the bioinformatics guy can talk about much more relevant things in the rec letter than a cs person. I actually did this now that you reminded me. I could've gotten a rec from an algorithms professor, database professor, or my biodatabase systems prof. I did well in all the classes, all grad level but I chose the biodatabase systems prof. You're right, chemistry is definitely a big player in material engineering - I didn't even consider that actually. I'm not sure really sure about how disjoint or connected the two are honestly. In my case CS is close..but not close enough to bioinformatics. Couple of questions: Does professor C remember who you are? Can he write a recommendation that takes into consideration something other than the fact that you can do graduate work and something that might focus on the type of program you want to get into? If you're applying to top program they'll know you can handle graduate work. This fall I'll be attending Stanford actually. Applied to: Duke, WUSTL, Stanford, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, MIT/Harvard

Heh, well that’s a good first question. Pressure is on. So I’m assuming you want to aim for tier one schools. Personally, my train of thought is as follows. The most important thing is a rec showing that you have research potential. Not only that, but that you have done good research. Second should be a professor that remembers you. It seems like you got good grades in all your classes which is awesome, but who remembers you. The worst kind of rec is something like “He got an A in my class. He’s a good student…blahblah Applied to: Duke, WUSTL, Stanford, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, MIT/Harvard

Hi everybody, I recently went through the whole graduate school application process and am now free and eager to help or give advice to future applicants, whether for grad app preparation, statement of purpose, test taking, getting letters of recommendations, interviews, and inevitably turning down acceptances. If anyone has any questions feel free to private message me or post questions here. I’m more geared toward the engineering/hard sciences. I’ve been through both MS and PhD app processes so I can answer questions for both types of programs. Field: bioinformatics Applied to: Duke, WUSTL, Stanford, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, MIT/Harvard