[Are My choices too optimistic or too pessimistic]

I would suggest throwing in UCSD as it's really strong EE school, and especially a top circuits school.

 

"Competitive Institutions: We compete for students with peer institutions that have STRONG circuits research groups such as UCLA, UCB, UT-Austin, UW, Columbia, and Georgia-Tech (among others)"

 

http://hsic.ucsd.edu/Admissions.html

 

For your top choices, I would try to include some of these schools as they are recognized as the best EE and circuits schools. Cornell is great, but each school has different strong points. If you are interested in getting into a top school, I would apply to up to 6, then chose 2-3 schools with higher acceptance rates (something like University of Arizona -  a school that is well recognized for strong research, but won't be as hard to get into as the schools mentioned above). The key to the back-up schools is picking ones that are still strong in their field, but not impossible to get into. On the other hand, Duke and Dartmouth are not strong EE schools, but will still be difficult to get into (hence I would suggest rethinking them).

[What programs shall I look into.]

Check out UCSD, MIT, and JHU because they all have strong bioengineering/bioinformatics. From there, you have to find groups you like for yourself - I'm not sure of specifics for biomed.

[Materials Science & Engineering - Fall 2014]

Does any one know about Boise State University... Is it good??

All I know is that Micron recruits heavily from them. Micron develops semiconductor devices (particularly memory). Micron and Samsung are the largest semiconductor memory companies. My uncle works for them, BSU has a good reputation (and football team I... I think they are really well known?).

[Materials Science & Engineering - Fall 2014]

Hey Lizzie!

In the past days I have been reading a lot of opinions and comments on San Diego as a city and on one side I picture in my mind this stupid idea of an awesome city on the pacific coast with its mexican spirit filled with happy and tanned people who love their jobs, but on the other side I have discovered that in the last years crime and unemployment rates have grown, people are moving away from SD as crazily high housing rents and pollution are making living there quite frustrating for people who are not getting very well paid (let's say more than 50K a year).

My research topics and my match with professors would be greater at UCSD than at Davis and I can't get rid of this sensation within me that UCSD is somewhat more renowned thus allowing me to spend my degree better in industries after my Ph.D.

But I definitely would hate myself if I had to live the next 4 years in a s*#thole for which I am paying more than half of my monthly income being stuck on campus 365 days/year for not being able to save some money for Spring-break or vacations.

 

I do not know whether I am creating too many doubts in my head or not, but what I know is that an opportunity like this comes only once and this decision will impact my future in a way that almost scares me...

UCSD, UCLA, and Berkeley have much more known names than UC Davis. San Diego has a ton of engineering companies like Qualcomm, Solar Turbines, etc. As an engineer you shouldn't be worried about the increased income and opportunities for engineers in San Diego (where as others who likely won't make much money should be worried). You won't find many engineers living in the middle of nowhere, just the same as you won't find many non-engineers living in an engineering hotspot.

 

There are a lot worse cities to worry about for pollution than San Diego (LA for example) - UCSD is directly on the ocean. There are some parts of San Diego that are pretty ghetto (El Cajon, Chula Vista which are closer to Mexico than most of San Diego), but they are pretty far from UCSD. La Jolla is the rich part of San Diego and is very safe. Judging by conversations with people San Diego is a much safer city than LA. I think you're just being paranoid , San Diego is a pretty good place. Keep in mind you don't have to devote your life to San Diego, and that UCSD's name definitely won't restrict you from going where you'd like in the future. I talked to some of the current graduate students at UCSD and found the cost isn't an issue (sure it's not as cheap as Davis though).

 

I'd say go for UCSD because you seem to have a good research fit and it is a very strong name in industry. You're scaring yourself for no good reason lol - San Diego is definitely not a polluted crime ridden city like you're imagining (I personally prefer it after being in LA and San Francisco).

[UCLA vs UCSD, MSE]

i went to UCLA for undergrad and am going to UCSD for PhD this fall. Los Angeles is cool, but not nearly as nice as San Diego. I was getting a little claustrophobic in LA (especially UCLA). UCSD is a lot nicer and more spacious (and on the beach ).

 

Education-wise, they're both great but UCSD is really known better as an engineering and science school. UCLA is more of a business/law school than UCSD.

 

UCLA was great, but I was not interested in the faculty and research (so I didn't bother applying).

In addition to a better engineering reputation, UCSD also has way stronger bio (and thus bio connections in San Diego).

[Materials Science & Engineering - Fall 2014]

Wow! I noticed from your signature that you were accepted to great schools (Stanford, Berkeley), but chose UCSD. May I ask why you chose UCSD?

I never once looked at rankings until after I accepted UCSD (out of curiousity). I knew just from word of mouth and talk in class which schools were best for Materials Science and Engineering. I went to the visit days and was very impressed by both Berkeley and UCSD. I thought La Jolla was so beautiful and the professors were very kind. The research fit between the two was very comparable, but I liked the faculty at UCSD a lot more because they seem very motivated in an honest way (not that I'm saying there is a dishonest way lol).

 

I am pretty glad and proud I didn't look at rankings. None of the schools stood out as "superior" in any academic or professional sense. To be honest, this is why I know rankings are very biased and inaccurate. The top 5 schools didn't impress me any more than the others. The only reason people think this way is because of a webpage.

 

Assigning schools a number is just insane if you take a second to think about it. A number can't represent a schools true quality.

 

Lastly, UCSD has a great reputation (even amongst the kids who only fixate on "the rankings"). I know I would I would be happiest there, where as I knew I would be miserable at a couple of the other schools which other people would likely have chosen based on rankings. A professor I know got his PhD from Stanford and said it was the worst 5 years of his life and I know he really meant it. I knew it was a great thing for me to pick my own school (and UCSD is no compromise believe me).

[Materials Science & Engineering - Fall 2014]

Received my Stanford rejection earlier today - I think my decision letter has been available online for a while, but it was easy to miss.

 

I've officially heard back from all my schools - and trying to chose between UCSD and USC. Both have highly ranked engineering schools (USC ranked #11, UCSD tied for #14), both in great locations (I love LA and SD for different reasons). UCSD has more professors available that match my research interests, but USC's alumni network is very attractive (and one of qualities that I felt was lacking when I graduated from UCSD for my BS). Thoughts are welcome.

 

Additionally - does anyone have a link (or a list) of US World News & Rankings for Mat Sci? Their website only shows top 10.

 

I was also making a similar choice between UCSD and some other schools. I would ignore the US news rankings, UCSD seems to not be a priority for them for very business-like reasons (their goal is to make people happy with their rankings to they make money, not to be truthful in quality). UCSD's program is very strong and I find their faculty's research to be very promising, they definitely deserve a much higher rank (and will probably shoot up in the near future). And I love the campus .

 

My sister got an amazing job at Intel coming out of UCSD for an MS last year.

[Choosing a school with rotations vs PI lined up?]

Go for school A, don't be afraid of the rotation lol.