Jump to content

Hyraxes

Members
  • Posts

    12
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    USA
  • Application Season
    2015 Fall
  • Program
    Bio/Biomedical Engineering

Recent Profile Visitors

1,232 profile views

Hyraxes's Achievements

Decaf

Decaf (2/10)

1

Reputation

  1. I recently received an acceptance to a PhD program at a large public school. In the acceptance email, they say (as expected): "The Admissions process is related yet distinct to the process of receiving research assistantships that support your tuition, healthcare, and provide a stipend. "The majority of our research assistantships are provided directly by individual faculty. We encourage you to contact [department] faculty and affiliated faculty members in your particular areas of interest to inquire about research opportunities both before and during your visit. Information about faculty and their research interests is available on our website at [website]. This advice also applies to students who have won external sources of support such as NSF Fellowships." Some university fellowships are awarded, but I don't know when we are expected to receive information about them. I am guessing the most likely situation is I rely on a RA for funding. My Questions Are: What type of email do I write to PIs asking about possible funding? I assume it would be something like: a) what draws me to their research b ) what I could offer the lab c) are there any opportunities for me to work in the lab? I'd love some specific advice about the language. What happens if a professor is interested in funding me and then I do not attend the program? I assume it means they just fund someone else... Should I really be contacting professors about funding before the campus visit this spring? What other questions should I be asking? I plan on contacting the department and asking some more informational questions, but I'm not sure where to start/what to ask. Thanks so much for the help!
  2. Anyone else going to be at the on-campus visit? Any idea what that means in terms of acceptance?
  3. Round one Skype interviews have happened, then there was that great fake-out email about "reserving Feb. 16th" for second round interviews. Has anyone heard back since Monday about actual on-campus interviews?
  4. Oh, also something else to mention. I was originally going to apply to just MS and MSE programs, but multiple discussions with faculty and a thorough examination of the results page here made me change my mind. There are many instances of people with GRE scores in my range and GPAs even slightly lower who have been accepted to my top choice schools. I don't think they throw out your application if you have under a 3.9.
  5. I chose schools based on whether they had professors who were in my field of interest, had the right graduate culture, and many opportunities for collaboration and interdisciplinary research. This involved a lot of reading faculty descriptions on websites to start off with. I actually wrote a little script that would find keywords for me, which accelerated the process, but it was still labor-intensive. I have a rather narrow set of interests, so I actually knocked off some schools I was originally interested in due to the lack of relevant professors. I'm a champion of cold-emailing, which has worked out for me alarmingly well. Leverage your network to see if you can get any introductions. There's a lot of material out there on how to write good POI emails to professors. Aim for professors and programs that look like good fits. Make sure you feel ready for grad school. Take some time off to develop your skills if you think you have any areas of weakness. You do (as do/did I) have some ground to make up in terms of GPA, but I think there's more to an application than just your stats. That said, make realistic aims by looking at the results search. I'm aiming high with some of the schools on my list, but I'm okay with that!
  6. I have a pretty comparable background if it might help to hear my approach. Graduated from a tip-top, non-Ivy university with a barely relevant non-engineering degree. Stats as follows: Overall GPA 3.56, Major 3.88, Jr.-Sr. 3.86, Science/Math 3.25 GRE: 162 Q, 166 V, 4.0 W (87/98/56 percentile) 2 years of social science and public health research undergrad 2 years in industry working for a startup (pharmaceuticals) 2 presentations (1st and 2nd authors), one pending research paper (3rd author), one paper where my research was included but not cited (I was a lowly undergrad at the time) Currently working in a mech eng lab at another top-5 university Only took through single variable calculus, currently teaching myself differential equations and some more phy sci math I am applying to bioengineering or biomedical engineering at Univ. of Washington, Stanford, Boston Univ., U Mich, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, UC Irvine, and UW Madison. I'm also applying for a terminal Masters at JHU, Bioengineering Innovation and Design (cool program, look into it). It's too early in the game for me to tell you my success or failure rate, but I think I'll get in at least somewhere. My tactic is to really highlight my differences, not apologize for them, and be super enthusiastic about the program. You're in a good position now, because I didn't really decide on my specific path until a bit later. My biggest pieces of advice are 1) Start thinking about specifics soon. Try and even draft a SOP so you can really flesh out what your interested in and why, and what your strengths and weaknesses are. 2) Contact professors of interest sooner rather than later. Try to get an idea of who might be interested in a candidate like you and open up a line of communication. I didn't do this enough. 3) Apply for NSF, NDSEG, and maybe even Hertz. Look into taking a year with a Fulbright, Rhodes, or Marshall Scholarship (or similar) to get yourself in a better position for grad school. Don't sweat your GPA. It's not bad (the highest cutoffs I've seen are 3.5), and it's from Berkeley, so it's taken with a grain of salt. Also, programs in BME accept students from non-eng backgrounds all the time. It's an interdisciplinary field, so they want people with diverse domain knowledge. Finally, if they want you but think you need more training in a specific area, some programs will let you take some "catch-up" courses prior to starting your actual degree. Hope that helps. I totally wish I had known about these forums when I was a junior! You're in a good place. Good luck!
  7. Are you looking for terminal master's or research-based? Are you planning on pursuing a PhD after? How are your letters of recommendation? Are you a good writer who can craft a really solid statement of purpose?
  8. With just your stats available, there's not much that anyone here can say. It may be more helpful to do a results search on the grad cafe for each school where you're applying.
  9. If you have three schools you're applying to, where all are a good fit and all seem like likely acceptances, then three is not a bad number. It's definitely lower than the average, but you should ask yourself if there are really any other programs where you could see yourself. If the answer is no, then you're fine. You've self-reported that you're a strong candidate, and you're applying for some competitive programs and fellowships. These are all positive signs. Kill it with your 3 apps and you should be set.
  10. I'm sure there are people who are in a better position to offer you advice, but here are my two cents: People often think about working for big names in their industry before grad school. Chances are, however, that with just a BS and not much experience, you'll get a rather low-level job with wrote responsibilities and not much flexibility or room to prove yourself. This is not particularly helpful for grad school prep. The cleantech industry is FULL of startups. In fact I just left your area, where I worked in an incubator full of clean- and bio-tech startups. They're always looking for young talent willing to work long hours for little pay. You learn an absolute TON because you have to do so many different things when you're with a company of only a few people. Also the shit pay and shit hours are great preparation for grad life.
  11. A good way to gauge if your stats are in the right range for the schools you're applying to is to look at the Grad Cafe results page. In general, I would say that your verbal score is rather low (could be helped by a good TOEFL score) and your GPA is low, seeing as you're not coming from a top-tier university. No one on this forum knows your application like you do. There is more to applying than stats and publications. If you think you can write a killer statement of purpose and get fabulous letters of recommendation (both of which you should really have by this point) then aim high. Otherwise, it might be a good idea to get a great MS under your belt first. Just keep in mind that a research-based MS is not necessarily, 100% of the time easier to get into than a PhD. Doing well in a research-based MS makes PhD committees more willing to take a chance on you. Good luck.
  12. Undergrad Institution: Top American University (Ivy+) Major(s): Philosophy of Science Minor(s): Not a real minor, but Pre Med GPA in Major: 3.88 Overall GPA: 3.56 Length of Degree: 4 years Position in Class: No idea, but if I had to guess, top third at least. Type of Student: Female, white, highly nontraditional GRE Scores: Q: 162 V: 166 W: 4.0 Research Experience: Public Health and Interdisciplinary History/Life Sciences research from Undergrad. 2+ years of work in the private pharmaceutical sector at a startup that provided published research. Awards/Honors/Recognitions: General Honors, Dean's list all quarters. Applied for NSF GRFP Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Have run a lab in an industry setting and an academic setting Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Startup and entrepreneurship experience. Work at another top American university under a prof interested in having me as a grad student. Applying for [ MS ] or [ PhD ] at: [PhD] Bioengineering: University of Washington [4] [PhD] Biomedical Engineering: Boston University [6] [PhD] Biomedical Engineering: University of Michigan [5] [PhD] Biomedical Engineering: Carnegie Mellon [5] [PhD] Biomedical Engineering: Northwestern University [5] [PhD] Biomedical Engineering: UC Irvine [8] [MS] Mechanical Engineering: Stanford University [5] [MSE] Innovation and Design: John's Hopkins [8]
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use