[Research experience for admission into stanford/carnegie mel]

Hi

I am currently an senior undergrad student in bachelor of electrical and computer systems engineering at Monash Univ. in Australia.

I am hoping to be able to get into Stanford or Carnegie Mellon for postgrad.

My overall gpa is 3.45 now but since I still have two semesters left, I am trying to improve it, hopefully to about 3.6.

I was awarded a summer research scholarship last summer.I haven't taken GRE yet. I am going to get a publication (or two)

from my current thesis.

For this summer, i'm wishing to increase my research experience. I have two options:

1- another summer research scholarship at RMIT uni(which is not as good as monash)

2- volunteer research asisstant at my own uni

The first one would be in the field I want to do my postgrad research in, but the second one won't be probably.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me which one will increase my chances of admission more?

Thanks a lot beforehand.

pari