metalgirl22

I was accepted into Ohio State for Aero Eng PhD last week. British International Student, GRE V157 Q157 AW4.0, lots of extracurriculars. Will not be attending.

Oh nice you have a scholarship! I think grad schools are much more likely to take someone they do not have to support Actually in all British Universities there is no guarantee of funding (due to most funding coming from professional bodies), there are just 5 studentships available at UCL for Mechanical Engineering and they are they are £15k + tuition waiver (the standard amount, but literally impossible to live on in London). £15k is about £1300 p/m without taking out taxes. Rent in london for a 1 bed flat is £1k+ p/m, plus bills etc. How did you live in London on less than £850 p/m? Thats amazing Most phd students have to take out a big loan here They say they disregard applicants but they like and get credit for diversity, if you have a load of people who just sit at a desk all day and do not socialise, make friends or have any hobbies imagine how boring working in that group would be! But having said that if someone is an international student and their IELTS (or equiv.) score like GRE verbal and AW are not up to scratch you can't blame a university for saying no. Most European universities have graduate studies in which English is the medium - Denmark and Netherlands are excellent at it, would be cheaper for you there and you could save money for afterwards There are lots of excellent universities outside London Cranfield Uni is a specialist engineering graduate only institute, then there is Bristol, Edinburgh, Bath, Loughborough, Leeds, Southhampton, Nottingham, Manchester, and of course Oxbridge, all worth a pop if not too late.

UCL is a great uni, but it is in London which is just so expensive! With regard to funding again, remember all universities in the UK are state run and state funded so there really is not much money around, so I think British applicants get funding priority because there parents (and them sometimes) have paid taxes which contribute to the running of the state. From my understanding, graduate schools do not expect you to have publications when applying to graduate school they expect to have done internships etc but publications and conferences no. Good luck to you, I like the USA application process because it is holistic and looks at the person as a whole rather than your scores on exams. They literally could not care less about extra-curriculars in the UK which is misguided and wrong.

Yes British Universities are good, but there really is not much funding around and career prospects and pay for PhD holders are really no different from BA, BSc BEng holders. Also Engineer is not a protected title so Car Mechanics call themselves engineers, electricians call themselves electrical engineers and the people that come to fix your internet problems are called BT Engineers. So engineers have little respect in this country - one of the reasons I chose to do Aerospace Engineering was because at worst people would think I fixed rockets and planes! The main driving force for me was the career prospects and pay prospects, in the UK engineering salaries are substantially less than in the USA and there are fewer options to chose from - go into academia and get paid a pittance or become a corporate clone in a company. If I was fluent in French or German I would probably study for a PhD there as Engineer is a protected title and respected, but as I can't the USA is my only option.

University of Leicester

Oh yay, a thread was finally created! I'm going to do a standard-type post for these threads Undergrad Institution: UK Top 20 University Major(s): Aerospace Engineering BEng (Hons) Minor(s): GPA in Major: N/A - Predicated an Upper Second Class Honours (2:1) Overall GPA: Length of Degree: 3 - graduating this year, July 2015 Position in Class: No ranking Type of Student: International (British) white female GRE Scores: Q: 157 (68%) V: 157 (74%) W: 4.0 (56%) Research Experience: None except my final year project Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Student Union Award for Leadership and Management, Student Union Course Representative Award - Bronze, National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth Pertinent Activities or Jobs: President of Engineering Society (2014/15), Social Secretary of Engineering Society (2013/14), Treasurer of Handball Club (2013/14), Membership Secretary of Swimming and Waterpolo Club (2013/14), Course Representative (2012/13), Academic Officer on Student Union Parliament (2012/13) Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: England National Development Squad for Competitive Swimming (2009-2011) - 50+ County Champion, Top Girl in County 4 years in a row, and other generally awesome sports achievements. Applying for PhD at: University of Virginia (MatS&E) - Accepted 30/1 - Guaranteed full funding including fee waiver, nominated for Rolls Royce Fellowship Virginia Tech (MatS&E) Pennsylvania State (MatS&E) Ohio State (Aero) Oregon State (MatS&E) Colorado School of Mines (MatS&E) Applying for Masters at: University of Toronto (MatS&E)

What is The Range like? Is it really hard to get in if you are not from the US?

University of Aberdeen is the more prestigious as it was founded in 1495, it is the third oldest university in Scotland and fifth oldest in the English speaking world. Its one of the richest parts of the UK because of the oil and is full of Scottish people who want to leave the UK, very cold. Also its a beautiful university, really old buildings etc. You will probably end up working in Aberdeen for the rest of your life because its an oil hub. Have fun with the cold! Robert Gordon Uni has got the highest employment rates in the UK: 97%. Ex-poly.. Buildings are modern. I would definitely go with Uni of Aberdeen, the course sounds better anyway.

In England and Wales you can graduate without Honours if you get don't finish with enough passed credits for Honours, or you pass with the very minimum average percent to pass the degree, or of course you choose not to do Honours.. but it is the default to do the Honours course. For an Bachelor Honours degree you need 120 credits passed per year (360 altogether) and for an ordinary degree its 80 passed credits per year (240 altogether). You can opt I think to do an ordinary degree but it is very unusual in Eng & W, but in Scotland they can start university at 17 if they choose to do that they have 3 years for an ordinary and 4 years for an Honours degree - if they start at 18 its 2 and 3 years for the same. With regard to Honours designating performance/standing, when we graduate we are given a degree classification 1st Class, Upper Second Class , Lower Second Class, and Third Class, depending on how well we do so our weird system shows both increased requirements and performance. I am not a massive fan of my country's education system to be honest because a GPA gives a better show of how well you are doing/have done and I would have loved to have done a minor. I should also point out we have zero flexibility for how many courses we take per year or semester I don't even get to choose what courses I do - currently doing six only two I find interesting! And we cannot spread out modules to make our degrees longer unless we go part time - but most courses cannot be part time. So it is very hard to work to pay for university - partly because under uni regulation we are limited on how much we can work per week. With regard to Masters degrees (MSc and MA they are 1 year long (12 full time months of torture), there is also the MEng which is confusing to explain, as it is a BEng with an extra year of combined management and research/project work but you only graduate with an MEng. I am applying for Masters and Masters with plan for PhD

I have applied for Toronto, and am planning to applying for McGill as well. I haven't had any negativity from Canadian institutions I have contacted - they are probably more aware of the British system as they are part of the Commonwealth

I think its like 8% of the UK population is in scotland - but they still like to make a fuss and stick out Yes it is really confusing, I believe also in scotland 3 years of study will get you an ordinary degree

A few I contacted have their own 'professional credentials experts' and didn't want to know about WES and others just said B equivalent or above - which according to WES is a lower 2nd lol. Not complaining if that is the case.It seems the bigger universities have more of a grip on international credientials than smaller institutes.

Thank you for your reply, i have emailed lots of different universities and some have just said flat out no (NYU and TAMU) and others have said conditional or yes. It is surprising that it seems to range from state to state!

Hello everyone! I am new to the gradcafe and in the process of applying to US graduate schools for PhD/Masters in the field of aerospace engineering. I am a bit suprised that some US universities do not accept the 3 year Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) degree (we do only engineering from day one of university!) and am trying to identify the universities that definitely accept British bachelor degrees so that I do not waste my money when applying. I would really appreciate any wisdom and help from everyone here if you have any information. Universities that have confirmed with me they accept British Bachelors are below: Purdue University Ohio State Penn State Uni of Southern California University of Illinois UC and Chicago University of Notre Dame - Indiana Thanks for reading!