Beaudreau

@lanlan My son is a PhD student at Michigan in Aerospace Engineering. One of his housemates is a PhD student in Michigan's great Robotics program. Here's a list of current graduate students. https://robotics.umich.edu/people/students/ Many of the students are from China and list their email addresses. It couldn't hurt to send out some emails to ask for advice.

There are a lot of CS grads in Michigan's robotics program. Admissions are very competitive. https://robotics.umich.edu/academic-program/

Ivy league schools are not necessarily elite in STEM. For engineering, the large public universities such as Michigan, Cal, Illinois, and Purdue, plus MIT and Stanford, dominate the rankings (with Caltech in some areas). These same schools are very strong in other STEM fields such as math, physics, chemistry, etc. There are very few Ivy league schools ranked in the top ten in any of the engineering disciplines.

In most engineering programs, direct admissions to the PhD track is the norm. Requiring a Master's degree first is rare. I haven't looked at other STEM fields, but my impression is that direct PhD admissions are quite common.

My son's favorite undergraduate professor at Texas A&M is from Tokyo. He absolutely loved his PhD studies in Ann Arbor, saying that it was the best five years of his life. Now my son has followed his example and is just finishing up his first year in Ann Arbor for his PhD in aerospace engineering. My son loves Ann Arbor. He lives on the old west side area discussed above and walks to Kroger (even with his car). Next year he is moving into a house with new friends in the Kerrytown area.

Srini Raghavan, a UA professor, lives near me. He is on sabbatical this year, consulting at Intel. You might contact him; he's an extremely nice guy, very down to earth. His dog's name is Kumar (as in Harold and Kumar). https://chee.engineering.arizona.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/srini-raghavan

My son got this email on 1/24 concerning UCSD's Master of Engineering degree.. He did not interview. Of course, this may an entirely different process for MS and PhD applicants, so I wouldn't read too much into this. (His older brother had a very short interview on 2/1/18 with Michigan for its aerospace engineering PhD program and got his offer letter the next day.) Anyway, good luck. Congratulations! On behalf of the Graduate Admissions Committee in the Department of Bioengineering at UC San Diego, I am happy to inform you that we are recommending you for admission into our graduate program in Bioengineering effective Fall Quarter 2019 for the Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) degree. Please read through your offer letter carefully as it contains important information. Please note, we are recommending you for admission to the program but the Graduate Admissions Office in the Graduate Division will be the one to send you formal notice of admission, so look for an e-mail coming soon from the UCSD Graduate Division that will contain more information. At this busy time it can take up to 10-12 business days to receive the e-mail. Once you have received this notice, you will then be able to log your decision on the application site.

I can't find data for design engineers, but here are some links where there are highest demands for engineers: https://www.gobrightwing.com/2018/02/06/highest-demand-for-engineers/#!/ https://magazine.engineerjobs.com/2015/engineering-jobs-february-2015.htm https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/where-to-find-engineering-jobs https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathryndill/2015/02/24/the-top-cities-for-engineers/#3ca0519922a6 https://www.engineering.com/JobArticles/ArticleID/7541/Which-Cities-Have-the-Most-Engineers.aspx My oldest son just started his PhD in aerospace engineering at Michigan. My middle son is applying this year for an M.Sc. in biomedical engineering at UCSD, UC Berkeley, USC, Washington, Purdue, Georgia Tech, ASU, and Duke. He is interested in Medical devices. If you have any questions, please let me know.

My son started his PhD in Aerospace Engineering in August at Michigan. So far he loves his lab, fellow students, most of his (three) classes, and Ann Arbor. He has been applying for fellowships (NASA, NSF, and DOD) and getting started on his research. For AE master and PhD degree questions, check out the links on the New Graduate Student Orientation page.

My son will be junior at Iowa State in the fall. If you have any questions about Ames, shoot them this way. What are you majoring in?

No contest: Route 1. I'd do South Dakota instead of ND: Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Badlands, Wall Drugs.

So everyone is celibate?

Thanks. Here's more evidence that women are self-selecting fields other than STEM, or conversely that men tend to focus on STEM (perhaps because they can't compete as well in other fields.) Women outnumber men in grad school 135 to 100. More women than men enter medical school. More women than men in law school. Anecdotally, I have three sons in college, all studying engineering. They went to a very strong STEM high school, so not surprisingly their female classmates largely went into STEM fields for college. But those girls had already self-selected (with parental encouragement) STEM studies. With the boys, my wife and I visited 21 schools and their engineering colleges. Every single one of those colleges emphasized recruitment and retention of female students. Many had female students leading their tours or had female professors making presentations. I lurk on this site a bit because my oldest son has been going through the graduate school admission process. He is heading to Michigan in August to pursue a PhD in Aerospace Engineering. Two of his best female friends from high school are also continuing in engineering. One will be at the University of Colorado in their biomedical engineering PhD program. The other (his prom date) is starting at Boeing next month as an aerospace engineer.

The More Gender Equality, the Fewer Women in STEM University of Wisconsin gender-studies professor Janet Shibley Hyde: “Some would say that the gender stem gap occurs not because girls can’t do science, but because they have other alternatives, based on their strengths in verbal skills,” she said. “In wealthy nations, they believe that they have the freedom to pursue those alternatives and not worry so much that they pay less.”

My son has applied to live in Munger for 2018-19, along with Northwood. He has not heard back yet. Many things about Munger look awesome. It's brand new with awesome amenities at a great location right by the Student Union and West Quad. They are six or seven-bedroom apartments, with roommates selected from different graduate disciplines. This appeals to my son. He will be pursuing a PhD in Aerospace Engineering but has many other interests. Most of his college friends are not engineering majors. But he is concerned about sharing a kitchen with five or six other students. He likes to cook and worries about access to the kitchen facilities, cleanliness, and the willingness of roommates to pitch in and work together. Tragedy of the Commons. One other issue is that unlike Northwood, there is no student parking. If you have a car, figure on another $165/month for a parking permit in one of two garages about three blocks north of Munger. The building was a gift from John Munger, a billionaire Michigan alum, and his wife Nancy. They also funded a similar graduate dorm at Stanford, Nancy Munger's college.