bgk

I can't say for sure. Some believe that schools use the GRE package as a 'filter', but I find it hard to believe that they would filter on AW alone. For example if your verbal and quant were good enough, these are better indications of how you would do in an ECE program. ...

You're welcome. Good luck :-)

Hi there! I'm actually from the UK, studying in the US. I spent a bit of time thinking about this, and I'll tell you my observations. The UK A Level system is pretty good and produces very specialised students (at age 18), who have skills to go on to study a specialised degree at university without extra training. I was surprised that it is possible to get to a US university without ever having seen any calculus or linear algebra. (I know this isn't common, but it is possible). Where as in the UK if you want to do science/engineering, you had better have taken A level Maths and your subject. So that's bascially the first year of the US bachelors degree. Picking up the tools you need to do degree level work, which isn't necessary in the UK. That and a lot of what I call 'busy work'. E.g, unnecessarily long homework sets and short deadlines. I often marvel at the undergrads, seeing them working on a problem set at 2am in the morning or something(!) I think by the end of the bachelors degree the two systems (UK vs US) produce approximately equivalently qualified people. Where there is a difference, it's most likely in the breadth of courses/modules encountered. In the US, a bachelor degree tends to have a number of extra requirements (e.g. a "science requirement" or a "math requirement"), whereas in the UK, studying Physics, that's all you'll do from day one, unless you were a bit curious. You can say a similar thing about the graduate research degrees (MA/MPhil/PhD) too. Typically in the UK there is no formal coursework; instead you are set a problem and go about working on it on your own/with your advisor. Whereas, in the US it's typical to take a number of courses before even starting on your research. This is where the US has the advantage. It's great to be able to study a decent set of graduate level courses, across departments and pick up some useful things for research. When I arrived at my institution, I was worried that the students would be "light years" ahead of me too. But in fact, I found them to be pretty much in the same boat as me, same worries, same concerns, some deficiencies somewhere. But don't be worried. Make the most of it! The US is a great place to study, and the institutions are funded much more heavily than they are in the UK (and probably Australia). I find that the facilities are excellent, and so are the faculty and other staff.

Indeed it is. And on that note, I'll lock this thread. :-)

Hi Guys, I've just finished moving thegradcafe site over to a new server. Unfortunately this will mean a bit of down time until the DNS records update. Within about 12 hours everything should be back to normal again. Until then, depending on your ISP you might get redirected to the old server. If this happens there's a link back to the new servers (by IP address). Please don't bookmark these IP addresses as they may change in the future. Keep your bookmarks set to thegradcafe.com! Sorry for the inconvenience, but this is for the best :-)

Hi All, You may have trouble logging in or staying logged in. This is because I have changed the "cookie domain" that gets set when you log in. If you're experiencing these problems: [*:2vhf88kw] In your browser preferences, delete cookies for forum.thegradcafe.com [*:2vhf88kw] Click here to remove board cookies [*:2vhf88kw] Navigate to http://forum.thegradcafe.com and log back in This procedure should fix the problem. If not, in step 1 above, also delete cookies for .thegradcafe.com and try again. I made these changes for a good reason, but it may be several months before you get to see the result :-) Cheers

Hi, Actually, I changed the cookie domain and path, in preparation for a later project. So, as Minnesotan suggested - if you get problems, clear your cookies and try again.

See the announcement, you can change it back in your profile.

No problem. Good luck with your apps. Keep us informed :-)

No. Thank you for setting the thing up in the first place!

Hi Guys, I've added a "new" grey style to the forum and made it the default. If you miss the blue one (confusingly called "ProSilver"), you can go back to it from the User Control Panel - "My Board Style".

Hi there, I think it depends on the field. If you have a BA in a related area, I think you'll find you're actually taking the standard route into a PhD. If you had say, a BA/BS in Mathematics and wanted to do a PhD in History, then maybe you'd first consider an MA in History and then a PhD. I know many engineering people who go straight from BS to PhD and pick up their MS during the PhD program. Having said all that, I don't think it hurts to have an MA/MS. Simply because you have the chance to get stronger LORs, write some papers and be better prepared. Hope that helps a bit?

Not much help, from http://www.ese.upenn.edu/grad/faq.html :

Hi Guys, I upgraded the forum software this evening. Let me know if you notice any gremlins! :-) Cheers!

Hi guys, This is done. Sorry it took a while! -BK

Honestly? Probably not. WIthout some publication and/or connections (i.e. advisor knows someone at MIT) I think it would be very, very difficult for you to get noticed during the MIT app. phase.

Hi Eleanor, I think you should really see someone in your department about this. If it is really a psychological issue they should understand. I know at my school it is possible and not really frowned upon.

I'll look in to this for you....

Hi Luke, I wish I knew more about your field. I hope someone else can flesh out my answers a bit. And/or correct me. Your AW writing score could be important for Eng Lit? That you have a conference publication is good, and that you have some outside work is good too. You have a lot of schools in mind. You might want to focus it a bit more. Find out which of those schools have professors who do "Modern and Contemporary Drama", I doubt all of them on the list do. Maybe consider writing to them, or at least the admissions officers to get more information about the programs. Location is (for some) another way of filtering out schools. And see if you can find out average GRE admit scores, so you have a mix of 'reach', 'safe' schools etc. Hope that helps?

Hi Jennifer, It looks like nobody had any thoughts. I'm not in the social sciences, but I can tell you how it works for me as an engineer. Almost all of the programs to which I applied offer some sort of financial support. Usually the deal was, in return for some TA duties, you get tuition and a stipend to live on. The TA duty varies from class to class, some TAs work very hard, others less so. Some give sections/recitations, others grade homeworks. It really depends on the professor. Another option was RA (research assistant), where a professor takes you on from day one to do some research in his group. There are a few risks with this, since you are tied to the professor and if you don't get along with them and/or your interests change.... you'd be in a predicament. Finally, if your academics are excellent there are fellowships (either offered by the department/university or external ones). These give you ultimate freedom to take as many classes as you like and get to know exactly what you want to do. I can't really comment on MA/PhD in your area... I hope someone else can? Cheers

Hey there, If you ask around at IBM you'll probably find a bunch of managers with technical degrees (engineering, science, etc.) but no MBA. In my opinion an MBA is something that you would derive more benefit from after spending time in the corporate world. Going straight from undergrad to business school seems a little risky. There's the cost (both in tuition and the opportunity cost of lost earnings) and the chance that after 2 years you decide it wasn't the right thing to do after all. Plus some large companies will fund your management training if you entered in a technical role. Finally, some PhD programs are flexible and allow you to take classes from a variety of departments. You could even do a PhD Major CS and minor Business ... That's my 2c worth. Cheers,

Hey there, As far as I know they don't go checking your 'history' when you apply. It's possible that some applications ask whether you have committed a crime, but as far as I remember the Berkeley app. did not have such a question. I'd guess this kind of thing is more likely to affect you for fellowships and the like, where they are more careful about choosing all round excellent people. Hope that helps -bgk

Hey guys, Not that I want to scare off potential grads, but I thought it would be funny/interesting to hear of any advisor horror stories? I know of some students who see their advisor only once per semester, that's bad enough. On the other side of the coin, some advisors demand several meetings per week, sometimes at weekends. Personally I've had a good relationship with my advisors so far. But what do you do in these situations where they demand too much or offer little support?

Yes indeed it was :-). I'm glad people are still reading! I'll get the avatars imported soon!

Hey guys, I'm an ECE grad since Fall 06, if anyone has any questions about US ECE schools and the application process I'll be happy to try and answer. Cheers