Hello All,
I am a rising senior studying Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, hoping to do robotics (particularly controls & planning) in a doctoral program. I am finding a lot of difficulty in deciding on my courseload the final semester before application deadlines. I unfortunately don't have the best GPA (3.6) although I have a nice upward trend in my junior year (graduate school was not something I considered until recently). I want to be able to show I can still succeed in more advanced courses and am planning on taking a somewhat rigorous mathematics department course in analysis and optimization (still an undergraduate course, but apparently it is quite difficult and time consuming). However, I also want to be able to devote significant time to research in my final semester to improve my LoR with PI as well as devote time to the application process to schools as well as fellowships. I am wondering if taking one less course than usual (usually I take 5 courses with research as a sort of 6th course) by taking 4 "real" courses with research as 5th would be viewed poorly with the admissions committee. I certainly want to make sure I get good grades in my final semester (although I'm not sure if it affects the application since grades come out after submissions...) so I don't want to overload myself. Of course, there's also the possibility that admission committees don't really care about what courses you take and only the grades... I'm unfortunately not terribly familiar with how the committees evaluate applicants. I would greatly appreciate the insights of you all! Should I just bunker down and try to take my usual courseload of 5 classes + research? Or is 4 courses with research enough?
Thank you all kindly in advance for your advice and kindness!