justinmcummings

I can only share my experience, but for University of Wisconsin I was emailed saying that the department had recommended me to the graduate school and that I should wait to be officially admitted by them. About a day later the graduate school admitted me.

It's still an engineering degree, they are going to look at all math, science, and engineering courses you took to evaluate your eligibility. You should google the cost of attendance for your schools, but just to compare it was around 82k for a masters in EE at Uminnesota and 120k at UMichigan. That's if you take loans for everything room, board, tuition, etc.. I think it its very unlikely you could count AP credit toward a masters. Ga tech was on your list and a good number of your question are sorta answered on their faq page, other schools should have them as well. http://www.isye.gatech.edu/academics/graduate/faq/ They are always going tho encourage you to apply, but they do have on there that if your background isn't math science or engineering you have to prove yourself more to them, as someone else mentioned linear algebra looks recommended. They also address low gpa from top school on there too. Just being realistic, not trying to discourage you/anyone from applying. Just know you will need to show the admissions committee even more why you deserve a spot, and you did very well on the gre. You might look into the gre subject test they mention too.

Haha I don't know about that, but I'll have to start watching more college sports. My undergrad wasn't big on sports, but it looks like that's about to change with my new grad school :-)

You have good GRE scores, are you hoping to get funding as well or are you prepared to pay for the masters with loans? For me personally I think economics to anything engineering seems like a large leap, I'm not positive though. Is this common for industrial engineering? Your GPA is on the low side for the top schools that you are looking at applying too, if there is a solid reason for it you could maybe explain that in your SOP. Anything is possible though, I had terrible GRE scores and I still got into a PhD program so best luck to you! Hopefully someone else can be more helpful on the specifics.

I was suprised how competitive funding for my program is, even after being accepted :/

Congratz winitheju! I can't wait to move . I can't help you out about roommates, but if you find an apartment complex you like you can ask them if they match roommates. I saw a couple of the smaller apartments near downtown have 3 bedroom shared each roommate with a separate lease. There is always craigslist, but that seems a little sketch for me. If I find anything I will post it here.

Thank you @DorisDad for the information and everyone else that voted. After much consideration I decided I am going to go to UW - Madison! The more I research the university and Madison, the more and more excited I get about moving there! Congratz to everyone on their accomplishments, I'm pretty sure I would have gone crazy if I didn't have thegradforum to talk all of this out. :-)

Awesome! Thanks for the response, it confirms what I had been reading online. Looks like the right area for me :-)

Hey all, Decided I am coming to Madison for my PhD in Electrical Engineering! I have started to look for housing has anyone heard good or bad things about the hilldale area, specifically the complexes off of sheboygan by the target?

Is there any neighborhoods that anyone would not recommend? I am looking to live within 3 miles of the engineering buildings and so far I have found the park tower apartments in the hilldale area, seem affordable, quiet, and close to shopping.

I'm from nothern California, about an hour south of lake Tahoe and did 3.5 years of my undergraduate in Flagstaff, AZ. Spent a good deal of my free time rock climbing (indoor gyms mostly), road bicycling, and hiking (mnts upwards of 7k ft). Got a good amount of snow at my undergrad for 4-5 months of the year. I know I won't find any mountains out that way, but any information you could provide about the cities, campuses, or general atmosphere would be awesome :-). Oh and I'm 23 and not a crazy wild party type if that helps. Oh and Ideally I wanted to move towards Seattle, but that didn't work out for me :/

Yup got the same rejection today too, I figured it would be, but they did wait very long

Hey guys I am trying to decided what to do, I have this posted in the Engineering section

Hey all, I am still trying to figure out which one I should go with. I eliminated University of Michigan because it is just too expensive for a masters degree, and they offer no financial support to MS students. My other two options are University of Wisconsin - Madison (PhD) and University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (MS). I want a PhD, but my problem with UWisc is that most of the professors I have emailed do not have money to take on new PhD students...and some of them just did not respond at all. I've talked this over with family, undergrad professors, and in my head multiple times. My family says that I should go somewhere that I will enjoy more in my free time since I will be taking loans out either way. My professors think I should go somewhere the research interests me more. And in my head I keep switching my mind. On the one side, I can't help but think that I will eventually get funded at UWisc, if not the first semester possibly after once I get there and forum a better relationship with the professors. UWisc also is a PhD acceptance so that is a big plus. It is also much higher ranked than UMinn The downside if I do not get funded in the first 2 years (or MS equivalent) I will have to defer my degree to a MS and I heard that is not a good thing to do. On the other side, since I will be paying potentially an entire MS degree why not go somewhere that interests me more. Minnesota has more activities that interests me more. They also have the potential to continue to the PhD program if you pass the qualifying exam and get a professors to sponsor. What does everyone think? Any input is helpful at this time...I keep switching my mind on which one will be better for me.

I can't speak for SDSU, but for electrical engineering graduate students as a whole, RA/TA and other financial support is typically not offered to masters students.

It is overcrowded, in my undergrad it was difficult to find classes. In general I felt like the professors didn't care about your education. I lived on campus and I quickly found out that the university has the commuter mentality. To be honest if you have even the slightest desire of doing a PhD after you need to be at a research university. edit: but the campus is really nice to look at, they have wild(ish) Arabian horses and a huge rose garden. I will say that some of the EE industry like JPL and others look at Pomona for hires first, why I am not sure but the clubs I was in while I was there always had people from industry coming looking for new hires.

Admissions is competitive, but I had low gre scores and an undergrad from a non-ranked school and I was still accepted. The part where it becomes extremely competitive is funding, masters funding is extremely rare, PhD funding is reserved for the top of the top.

Just my two cents here but every communication I've had with University of Wisconsin about funding has been negative, of course I was accepted for PhD in Electrical Engineering. Department talked about lack of money, professors I emailed talked about being able to take on PhD students but not having any funding. The general impression I got from this university is that funding is lacking big time this year. It suprised me when I read your insights about funding so I thought I might share the facts I've gathered.

I did my first year of my Electrical Engineering BS at Pomona, I would highly advice against going there.

I am still waiting for Cornell as well as to officially hear from Michigan State University. Cornell I am assuming I was rejected or forgotten about. MSU I was invited out, given a tour place to stay, met with professors and so on...I emailed and they told me no one has come forward to fund me so it was basically unofficial acceptance to rejection? but I guess someone could still come forward to fund me at this point? Anywho that's what is going on with me. I accepted my admissions offer to University of Minnesota - Twin Cities a couple days ago, mainly cause I wanted to secure my spot and partly because I have no hope left of getting funded any these other schools. Oh I forgot about University of Wisconsin, I've emailed professors about potentially funding me and the answer has been along the lines of I have absolutely no funding for a new PhD student or no response at all. So there is that... edit: Oh and if you are wait-listed I would imagine you would hear on or potentially after April 15th, when everyone else finalizes there admissions and rejects their other schools.

Right now I am thinking about doing my MSEE at University of Minnesota, the city looks and sounds awesome from what I have been able to research. I am going to visit there in the next month and start looking for housing if I don't get any other offers or funding elsewhere. I have also been applying for jobs there and the medical field is huge. For me personally I am going to go on to a PhD hopefully so I am taking my time and doing the thesis track which I would imagine would be difficult to fit into one year. I was trying to decide between a top ranked prestigious program (Umich) and a slightly less but more interesting city life and I ultimately am going with UMinn because the job field is much better and I will be able to get a job in that city rather than having to move right after graduation if I am not accepted to the PhD track. Not sure if any of that helps you out but if you have anymore follow up questions I could maybe help you in the right direction. Also a side note on funding, the university as a whole looks like they really try to support their graduate students ONCE they are actually enrolled and taking classes. So you might not have funding now, but it seems obtainable after like the first semester or once we get there.

For me personally, something I've noticed about EE's is they don't seem to like to fund us right away. Unless you are one of the TOP TOP students that they can't live without. My one PhD admit to University of Wisconsin is still without funding even after contacting professors I am interested in :-/. Many of the professors I've talked to said they like to have me in one of there courses before they can offer me anything, to better evaluate the students. Anyhow good luck, this is just what I have experienced so far. My current game plan is to knock it out of the park during my masters to make myself one of the super desired PhD applicants.