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randyes

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    Minnesota
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  1. I finished my PhD in Mechanical from UIUC in 2010, so I think I can give you some advice that helped me out after going through the entire process. I'll echo that you sound like you are early in your undergrad, so don't fall into a trap of trying to decide something too soon. However, kudos for thinking about this already! Your early preparation will hopefully increase your chances of getting to do what you like. My second piece of advice is to not start looking at what schools you want to go to first. If you want to do PhD research, start looking at future advisors/professors that you would like to be mentored by who are active in the fields that you are interested in researching. Your relationship with your advisor and what you work on day-to-day are much, much, much (is that too many much's?) more important than the name of the school. I applied to several of the schools that you mentioned but ended up at UIUC because it was one of only two schools in the US that I found was doing research in the areas that I was interested in pursuing as well. Most schools have lists of faculty and their research interests listed (e.g. http://mechanical.illinois.edu/directory/faculty) often with links to a prof's home page. Although these rarely are kept up to date, you may be able to get some emails from grad students who are working with the professor. They are more likely to respond to your questions than a professor will be. (If a prof does reply to you, that is a really good sign too).
  2. Take a breather. Stay calm. Call (don't email) the admissions department and ask them straight up about your probable GPA for this semester. And then tell your bosses that you need to take a break. Do your best to finish strong. You will need to prioritize your time better in graduate school, believe me.
  3. As someone who has been in this position before, go to the school that you feel has courses and professors that follow your interests the closest and that demonstrate actual job placement for their graduates. It may be easier for NYU to place you in a good internship or have connections for getting a job in the future. Never make a decision on graduate school because rankings say one school is better than the others. Each school is different and will be good at some things and great at others. Make sure the school you choose is the best for your criteria. Nationwide ranking criteria may be nothing close to what your criteria are. Reply back and tell us what you decided and why!
  4. I finished my PhD from UIUC in ME in 2010 and I think that I can help you if you haven't already made your choice. Urbana/Champaign is very affordable and the pay for TA/RA is plenty to keep you comfortable. I applied and visited UMich Ann Arbor and selected UIUC because the program and advisor were best for me, but in general I liked Urbana better than Ann Arbor by a long shot. Granted, I spent 6 years in Urbana and 2 days in Ann Arbor. If you are interested in Auto, they are at UIUC as well, especially Ford. What are you interested in studying specifically?
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