cs99

Disclaimer that MechE isn't my field, but MSc vs MEng doesn't seem to be a very big difference. Especially given that Berkeley is one of the best engineering schools in the US, you'll easily find a job in the US after graduation. The skills you gained from the program matter a lot more than the title of the degree itself.

I suggest reaching out in August or September. October is also acceptable. Now is too early and they may not be sure of their plans for the next year. They also might not remember you by the time they begin reading applications. Note that some professors put on their website specifically not to contact them if you haven't already been admitted to the program. If this is not the case, then there's no problem sending them an email expressing your interest. Worst case scenario, they just won't reply. When you email them, make sure you attach your CV. If they like it, then this increases your chance of getting a response.

The university that waitlisted you will not be notified if you accept an offer from another university. Is this a large program at the universities you've applied to? If these are small programs (think < 20 people), it isn't very polite to accept an offer and then bounce without warning. What may be possible is for you to request an extension past the deadline to accept. This may give you time to hear back from the school that waitlisted you. I would also email the university that's waitlisted you to say that you'll be accepting the offer if you're admitted, and ask if they plan at this time to accept people from the waitlist (they may not know for sure at this point but they could have an idea). The university will understand that you have other offers and that you have to accept an offer by a certain deadline. If/when you accept the other university's offer, let them know that you've been waitlisted at another school and may be accepting an offer from them if given the opportunity.

I think this score is perfectly fine. Honestly with the pandemic grad schools overall seem to care less about GRE, but a lot didn’t care much to begin with. I went to a top ten school for undergrad and I had a professor tell me point blank that they just glance over the score and as long as it’s not super low then it’s fine. I’m assuming you have a degree (or will soon) in a STEM major, and any college should be able to trust that you know how to do the level of math on the gre — I think the timing is often the reason people miss a few points, at least that’s why I missed some points as I got a bit pressed at the end. Regarding the verbal score, I can’t imagine they care. The verbal is hard enough for a native English speaker that I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for someone who has more limited English experience, yet in any grad program there are many people (probably close to half) who come from non English speaking universities or don’t speak English as a first language. Point being, your score isn’t low by any means, and I wouldn’t retake it (especially if you’re hard pressed for $200, sh*ts expensive). If you do want to take it again I’d focus on practicing the timing, then for the verbal part I’d review as many vocabulary words as possible — there are flash cards online specifically for the gre.

The short answer is no, and that you’re overthinking this. If you fail a course and as a result do not graduate, then that would obviously be a problem. However, as far as I know, PhD programs in STEM aren’t going to ask for your final transcript. What matters most to them is how they think your research quality will be, and getting a C+ in a math class really won’t change that. Everything will be fine, don’t lose sleep over this :).

I honestly don’t know the statistics behind waitlist acceptances, but I would email the head of admissions at both schools and tell them that if you’re accepted off the waitlist then you’re prepared to commit immediately. You can also put in the email that the program is your top choice — I don’t think it’s right to lie but you could put this in the email to the school you would want to go to most. Note that this strategy means you’d have to accept the first offer you get, but the chance of being offered a spot from both schools is low anyway. Any school would rather admit someone they know for sure will come than start admitting people off the waitlist randomly and having to deal with people declining until someone finally accepts. It may not be clear who the head of admissions is — in this situation I would email a POI or the head of the department directly and ask if the information could be passed along.

I know this question was posted a few weeks ago, but for what it’s worth, I wasn’t accepted into any PhD programs when I applied last year (fall 21 admissions cycle) during my final year of undergrad (graduated 6/21). I ended up doing a research project with a faculty member from my school after graduation and reapplying for fall 22. This year I’ve gotten accepted to 2 programs so far, with more decisions to come. I don’t know exactly what made the difference but here are some things I did differently 1) my gpa improved in my last semester of undergrad 2) I now have more research experience from my current project 3) I submitted four rec letters when applications let me (research advisors + academic advisor) and 4) I got more people to look over my SOP. If grad school is something you really want to do, don’t be afraid to apply again next year. It may work out :). The specific names of the programs I applied to varied a lot, but were all something along the lines of applied math/computational science/computational mathematics. Best of luck in any future endeavors!