Argon

I am accepted to the CSE PhD program, and there's a visiting day for CSE/CDO people on 3/12 with information sent out to accepted students. So, at least some people are likely accepted.

I know of one person who got in and is going to the visiting weekend, so I know at least some acceptances have been sent out. Unfortunately I don't have more information to tell you.

Hey Doomination (seen you plenty of times in the ChemE thread)! Your comment is too funny -- love it! Hey, always glad to help a fellow ChemE out, right? But actually, thanks for your input I know I'm the one that needs to make the call here, but it's good to get my thoughts out and to make sure they're not insane. If I'm to switch fields, now's the time I suppose! Will keep giving this some thought and see how the visiting weekend goes too.

I'm choosing between the joint MIT Nuclear Science and Engineering and Computational Science and Engineering PhD program and a few other top ChemE PhD programs (namely UC Berkeley and Princeton). I wanted to hear your input on my thought process. My undergrad is in ChemE, and while I love certain aspects of ChemE, I dislike quite a bit of it as well (e.g. process engineering, separations, biological applications). My real love is in the "physics" side of ChemE: transport phenomena (i.e. fluid mechanics/heat transfer), thermodynamics, and kinetics. Now, as for my research interests, I am mainly interested in computational projects. I'm much better at and enjoy theory and math more than I do wet chemistry or experimental lab work. With that out of the way, I am leaning toward the MIT program and want to make sure my logic makes sense. Although I have not had nuclear engineering classwork, I have done a summer of nuclear research and thoroughly enjoyed it. Further, my interests in transport/thermodynamics are all prevalent in nuclear engineering as well, and there are quite a lot of faculty at the MIT program that I'd be interested in working with. I'd even argue that there are more professors I'm interested in at the MIT nuclear program than at the other institutions. The potential negative is that it's in a different field from my undergrad with a bit more classwork than the other programs I'm looking at, and the job prospects probably aren't as easy as with ChemE since it's more specialized. This is my biggest concern. Also, I'm slightly less interested in the nuclear classwork, but I don't think that should be a huge factor. I will also most likely have to do a fair bit of self-studying before I enter the program, but once again this isn't a huge concern. Would I be making a wrong move to go into nuclear engineering for a PhD? Is this a case where there's really not a wrong move to make? I'm thinking that maybe I'll work on a nuclear project that is closely tied with chemistry/materials so that I don't have to leave behind a field that's still -- at least in part -- close to my heart. I'm not sure how much job prospects are linked to what you do your thesis on or what you get your PhD in or things like that. I'm not sure what exactly I want to do after I get my PhD. I just know that I want it to be research-oriented, although the thought of becoming a professor and entering academia for a career is admittedly a bit daunting for me. I guess I'm more or less looking to see if anyone has any input or things to consider that I might be overlooking. Thank you for hearing me rant!

Anyone going to the Berkeley visit this weekend? Feel free to shoot me a message if so. I am too

I don't have much input, but the UChicago program is brand new. I was a bit weary about this, but it seems the professors are all well-established in their field. Still, it'd be something worth looking into in more detail I'd imagine (personally).

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas! I know I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here, but I was curious nonetheless!

I'll be starting the first year of my PhD program next fall, and I was just curious: what does one put on their resume/CV as a first year grad student? Putting PhD candidate isn't right because you have to pass your qualifying exams, right? So, what would you reasonably put?

Congrats! I look forward to seeing you there -- I just got mine yesterday!

Thanks for the replies! I ended up searching for general academic calendars at each institution (instead of looking for the date on the graduate department websites), and that helped. It seems it'd in mid to late August or early September depending upon the school.

I wasn't sure where to post this, but when do most PhD programs begin? I'm trying to figure out if I can go to a conference in the middle of August, but I'm not sure the timeframe for most graduate departments. Any insight would be great!

CSE is reviewed at the same time, ktk. There was even one CSE/ChemE admit on the results board. I'd maybe contact the CSE coordinator if you're curious about your status - she's super friendly and helpful.

Same here. I know MIT chemical engineering puts quite a lot of weight on the GPA and GRE scores (the latter of which was a concern), more so than other schools. A shame, but it is what it is.

That's exactly what I did. I would have been flying to Illinois twice in consecutive weeks. It didn't make sense, so I tried to combine my visits. Definitely worth looking into!

You can contact the school and let them know you'd like to visit but have a conflict. They will very likely be able to schedule a time for you to come and visit and talk to faculty. I was able to do this with a few schools, and they were very accomodating. My advisor also said this is a common circumstance. At this point, they want to recruit you, so they're most likely going to be able to make time for you if you want!

Just curious.

I'm losing hope for MIT as well. I'm very pleased with my other choices, but it's always a bummer to let go of a dream ah well!

Just looking from the results board, it seems that Northwestern generally just does one main round of admits. Still, you never know! Someone was already rejected from Northwestern for F15, so you're in a better group than that person! The results board indicates that one or two people are accepted later (like in March), but the vast majority of rejections come in in the beginning of February. I guess I wouldn't hold out too much hope, but if you survive the impending round of rejections then you may be put on a waitlist of sorts? Anything goes, really!

Just stopping by and saying hello! I applied too That was an interesting app for a senior undergrad...

I'd check out the results board on Gradcafe and look at the schools you're interested in. See what the GRE scores look like and how yours match up. That being said, they aren't everything. My GRE quant score is a fair bit lower (~ 6-10 percentile points) than the average in each program I applied to and it hasn't seemed to hold me back (although I have other things to "boost" my application, so to speak).

I haven't signed up yet (if I get into MIT, I'm pretty set on going there so I'll wait a few days to see if I get some more good news), but if I visit it'll be the Feb 19-22 weekend. How about you?

I just got a call with an email said to follow (and thank you!).

Just got into Berkeley, so there is still hope for more of you!

I'm feeling the same way about Stanford and Berkeley. I'm thinking the first main wave of acceptances for them are done. Ah well!

Berkeley on 12/5, Stanford I don't know but probably the same day or so (i.e. ~12/5), and MIT ChemE mere hours before the deadline