ponja

Sure, whatever makes me sleep at night :roll:

I'm in the same predicament. I have a year now before I reapply for Masters/PhDs nad am wondering what I am gonna do. I'd love to get a research assistantship but really don't see how that's possible in Sweden without a prior PhD. So what I am gonna do is over the summer do a research internship for 2 months which could hopefully lay some foundation for later being published. Then I am gonna go to the local university for advanced math and engineering courses. I do not see how one could do research independently without the support of a professor. Is this actually possible? If not how do people utilize their gap years to get published without doing research internships?

Just joking You're actually right, just heard from my supervisor and he totally agrees, does not seem like it will be beneficial for next year at all. Unless I get the UROP fundin I'll probably do a UROP but without any payment as he's ready to use me for research (obviously)

out for Stanford, 0/3 good fun

Some nice perception there :roll: I have looked over their pages and it seems as though most of their research opportunities are only available for american students. In either case I believe it would be too late in the game to put forward any application now =/

Out for Harvard, 0/2 now

I know it's a bit early to throw in the towel but with 1 rejection and acceptances for three other universities having been sent out I feel a bit gloomy. I also that what the heck it won't hurt starting to plan for next year a bit early. So this is what I have so far: English top science university (65% average, equivalent of about 3.6 gpa, top 25% maybe? not sure) GRE: 770/520/4.0 2 relevant summer internships in engineering and 1 research internship at a Swedish university. Recs: 1 excellent rec from the research internship, 1 from third year project which is also excellent but recommender is not PhD but senior lecturer. 1 rec from another prof which knows me a bit and likes me but no amazing rec. A's in relevant courses for fluids/mechatronics/control except for 2nd year maths - C. Profs liked my SoP but I will go through it again I guess. So my plan for the coming year: Summer internship, applying for UROP at my university which would be a 2 month pure CFD internship. Also got accepted to a 6 week internship at Stockholm royal institute of technology. Now I'm not sure what to pick here if I get the UROP as well. The UROP is pure research with a known researcher who could have useful connections. The Stockholm internship involves setting up mechatronics equipment for a new course and also creating notes for laborations. However the Stockholm internship gives a sizeable amount of money while the English one barely allows me to survive in London. In any case this should take care of summer. After this I'd love to get a research internship somewhere for a year but I highly doubt this will happen so my options are to take 1 year of either advanced engineering courses or maths courses to boost my foundation or even get a job. What I'm looking for is to boost my application as much as possible, looking at top 10 mechanical engineering Masters degrees (could be non-funded). So my question is what would you recommend me doing in this scenario given my opportunities and background. Sorry for the long post =)

alum 1umt wow man, I thought you'd be admitted for sure with that profile. Good luck with the rest of the applications!!

I applied to Cornell MS. This is the email I got from them: "I am sorry that Cornell University is not able to offer you admission for the Fall of 2009. We had nearly 500 applications for an incoming class of around 20 so the competition was extremely high. I hope that you are able to find a program that fits your needs and wish you the best for the upcoming year." You see it on the results search as well. What's so hard to get?

20/500 means 500 applicants for 20 places...

e-mail, applied to MS which seemed to be a mistake, something like all of them being funded? I mean accepting 20/500 is ridiculous of course I didn't have a chance.

First result in, Cornell masters rejection

Shit I think this means I'm out :cry:

I really can't see why dropping out of your MS (or MEng but I think that's Cornell's equivalent) would take you more than 2 years which is the common amount of time required at most universities. He is right about your supervisor potentially giving you some grief but from what I have read, if you feel that it is not the right fit for you after two years and you'd want to be somewhere else, your supervisor would pick up on this and hey they're not evil people they won't force you to do research you don't want to do. There are conflicting taughts on the matter however and it is considered bad practice, but if you don't have a choice, hey what can you do you know...

Yeah, good job on all your achievements. Sorry about MIT but that probably won't hinder you in any way. On the bright side if you decide to go Cali-ways you might even get to enjoy some real weather =)