Undergrad Institution (approx. rank/reputation in STEM): University of New Orleans. Not highly ranked
Major(s): Chemistry Minor(s): Math GPA in Major: 3.2/4.00 Overall GPA: 3.0/4.00 (returned to undergrad after 18 years off as a senior with a low GPA. 4.0 GPA within the 3 semesters I used to complete my degree) Demographics/Background: White american male
GRE Scores: Q: 165 V: 155 W: 4.0 LOR: One from a professor I worked for, one from his post doc I worked directly on a one year project with, and one from the dept chair whom I worked for as a TA
Research Experience: One year in a research lab at UNO in conjunction with the Advanced Materials Research Institute in an inorganic nanoscale materials lab
Publications/Abstracts/Presentations: None
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Outstanding chemistry senior at UNO (the competition was NOT fierce). Poster/zoom presentations
Fellowships/Funding: Funded by AMRI as an undergraduate researcher
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 15 years experience as a flight attendant for a major airline. This likely helped since I have corporate experience, am older, and plenty of experience working on a team with various personalities as well as safety/compliance experience that comes with working corporate
Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments: Learned portuguese by myself to fluency. Not sure this helped for chemical/materials engineering, but it sounds cool on an application
Anything else in your application that might matter (faculty connections, etc.): Being local within New Orleans likely helped get into Tulane, and my boss at AMRI has tons of connections at Tulane ChemE dept since UNO and Tulane are the only 2 research institutions in New Orleans.
Research Interests: Materials
Institutions/Programs: Tulane University Chemical and Biomolecular engineering, Accepted with funding. I was told to apply to other institutions by my boss (MIT, CalTech, Stanford, etc) but am too tied down to New Orleans (married/house/dogs) so only applied at Tulane
Comments: Accepted offer at Tulane with full funding