oknowwhat

Thanks for replying Noojens. I was hoping the British MSc and research paper would help boost my chances with regards to the competitive schools. I was also pondering the possibility of applying to Columbia and Cornell as well, but after reading your reminder about safety schools, I'm rethinking the same. Would you reckon one of these - Virginia Tech/Ohio State/UCLA/Texas@Austin - would be good choices for safety schools ?

Hello All, I'm a masters graduate in Mech Eng from a reputed university in U.K , top 5 for Engineering some would say. I've got 3 recommendation letters, one of which is from a Prof well known in his field, one from a professor who I'm sure is virtually, if not literally, unheard of outside my university. And the third from a Research officer at my university (falls into the same category as the second prof). I really do want to do a Ph.D in the U.S, but at the same time , I've decided to be a bit ambitious about it and apply to only the best (ish) universities. My GRE being 1320. Here's my problem though. 1) I have ONE research publication to my name. It just so happens to be my masters dissertation which was converted to a research paper. 2) I have a 2.1 for my masters (U.K grading standards) i.e 68%. But I haven't the slightest idea how much this would be in the American GPA standard. 3) My undergraduate degree was again, 76%, but have no idea how much this is when converted to GPA. 4) I wouldn't mind sticking to the exact same field as my master's degree, but I've been toying with the idea of applying for something related within Mech Eng itself. Should I ? If you're with me so far, thank you for not abandoning the thread yet! So, as I was saying. . . I've selected Purdue, UMich, CMU, Duke, UC Berkeley and Stanford. What I'd like your thoughts on is, given the right Personal statement , do I have a realistic chance of getting into one of these Unis ? Or am I being too ambitious ? Are my chances hampered/boosted by whether I apply for Spring/Fall ? Thanks ! - V