child of 2

well I really hope you're wrong .

There is absolutely no way I could afford to pay for a MS by myself, and I'm not going to work part time to try to pay the bills and lose precious sleep. Research interests me the most, so PhD is the final destination. I should get two good LORs from my research professors, and a third ok one from either my adviser or TA mentor. I didn't know the ARRA had anything to do with school grants. I thought PhD's simply get their tuition waved by the university, and the stipends come from the grant moneys from NSF and private companies. By the way, the stats I was looking at was for MS&E (management, not materials). So hard STEM might be totally different. And yes, I did see the acceptance for MS drop from a ~30% to ~20% in MS acceptance rates for MS&E between '10 and '11.

I'm going to get a BS in chem e from a top 30 engineering school, and I really want to further my education in polymers in the SF bay area (eg. stanford or berkeley). However, I'm worried about my GPA - 3.50 (3.61 eng core), and GRE score (148V, 154Q practice test that I rushed through in 1/2 the time allowed). I speculate that I can definitely score higher on the GRE if I study some vocab, and practice the math section. I do have several years of research experience, and I will have 2 publications in good journals. I also TA general chemistry. It's really hard to gauge whether my research experience is really good or just average. I mean publication is good, but I don't have any internships, REUs, or outreach activities that would seem to enrich my experience beyond just research assistantship. After some searching, I found that stanford's graduate program consistently has an average GPA of ~3.73, and GRE of (600+V; 760+Q). Going off by the information I have provided, should I even waste my time and money applying to these schools? Or should I place my stake between top 10 and 20? I'm also interested in UT-Austin, GA tech, UMass-A, CU-B and UC-D, and I think these schools are reaches for me. Any input?

I thought they don't look at appliations until January, or at least don't start until after the deadline.

A guy I know, who knows a guy, told me the guy already got accepted by UT-Austin in chemical engineering for a Masters. I'm like wtf?? First of all, UT accepts maybe 1 MS in chemical engineering a year, and it HAS to be a continuing degree, not a terminal masters. Second of all, it isn't even the deadline yet, which means he must have applied to start in the Spring. So my question is is the spring applications just as competitive as the fall ones, even though less applications are processed? Also, if I get rejected in the fall, can I apply immediately for the spring? (not saying I will, just wondering)

nerds always have the internet. they don't need girls

Would this depend on the school and department? Is it beneficial to finish your app early and submit it? Would it be one of the first applications to get reviewed if you submit it early? or does it not really matter...

damn. I don't like work

now as far as the application is concerned, all you have to do is modify a paragraph or two on your SOP to accommodate for all the schools you're applying to, right? Everything else is a matter of sending the LORs, scores, transcripts and cost of all of the above + application fee. Is this correct?

^ I've heard it doesn't matter. As far as I know, most schools don't do rolling admissions. They just stack all the applications somewhere and wait till January or something to start deciding. **Someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong** I don't know if sending the applications early would affect the order though. I mean of course you would want to have your application looked at first.

um no. GPA is in up the top 1 or 2 parameters under consideration with LORs. GRE is at the bottom. I'm a STEM major, but I believe GPA should be a even more valuable indicator for non-STEMs.

For some, this is the only opportunity for them to network with professors. Has anyone actually done this? Do you have any tips?

now before you say "as many as it needs" I would just like a good ball park. Unfortunately, I haven't started yet writing my SOP. But I'm going to get cracking this weekend, get my first draft done soon, and have someone else review it. I feel like I'm a little behind on grad school stuff right now. So that's why I'm asking for some feedback.

I hear it's pretty important to have some sort of contact with the professors you're interested in in the field you're interested in. This way, you can know whether they have the money to support you, and whether or not they like you. But aside from walking up to them in conferences, there's really no way to contact a professor other than emailing them. I mean I'd consider myself lucky if they even bother to respond to one of these emails. How do you network?

I got different people telling me different things. I hear things like PhDs are typically overqualified, and a masters will give you more opportunities. Then, I hear masters are overqualified because most post-graduates can do most of the things masters can. And finally, my friend urges me to just find an oil company and get filthy rich... the more I think about it, the more confused I get. I guess the only way to find out is to try to find some good opportunities in industry and see what's out there, get my priorities straight, and then make a decision. Going to grad school right away is a decision you can't really undo.

At this point, I'm striving for working in R&D at a manufacturing company. I don't think I'm driven enough to go into academia. If I can get the same positions in industry with a masters as I can with a PhD, then I'll just do a masters and finish school. In addition, there is also the issue of over qualification for phd's. on the other hand, I have heard mixed opinions on getting a phd that oscillate between 'rewarding experience' and 'waste of time'.

I got the Kaplan 400 list. quick question... would it be useful to know the synonyms? Because I don't know most of them!

I'm graduating in December, and I have this summer to pretty much figure out what I want to do with my life. The problem is I have no industrial experience to help me gauge a real opinion. I like doing research, but I don't know if I like it enough to commit 5 years of my life to a phd program. I don't even know what sort of research I would like to do, and for that reason, I have no idea where to start my grad school search. In short, I need to get out more, and this summer is my chance to do it. I'm committed to doing research for two professors, and on top of that, studying for the GRE. But in my down time, I would really like to get around a bit to get a better idea of my aspirations. I'm sure some of you were in my shoes not too long ago. What did you do?

can someone please help me? there are so many word lists out there, and I'm not going to go through every one. I just need a really good, complete word list to help me survive the verbal section. Also, Barrons, Princeton, Kaplan, or something else? which is better? And what was your study habit? I'm going to try to go for 1 hr/day or 2 hr 3 days/wk just for the GRE

Are there any good GRE vocab audios I can listen on my mp3 player while I'm doing mundane things this summer?

how long did you guys spend on your SOP? Would you say that writing your SOP helped you solidify on what you think you wanted to do with your life? I'm facing this predicament where I really don't know what I want to do (I'm a senior), and I feel like NO decent employers/grad schools will want me because I don't have enough conviction in what I do. I'm just like meh.. My college career was not eventful, I didn't really get involved with clubs/organizations, and I don't really have any special experience I can talk about that might put the hook into the reader.

thanks for the info. I was just told by my adviser that applying to fellowships is a plus because money is important too. What would would suggest I do in order to show my face? Conferences with posters? How can I get into one?

does your school just pair you up with suitible fellowships? or do you have to apply for them yourself? I don't really stand out in any way, so I'm a little worried in this area. All I've done is research, and ultimate frisbee. Not so impressive.

how come you all switched fields going from college to grad school? eg. math to m e, neuroscience to genetics, psychobiology to ee. Maybe your GPA would have been better had you chosen the right major? how did you get accepted into a field completely different from your major anyway?

the vibe I've been getting from companies since last year is that they don't just want some guy working for them in a summer internship and then just send him off. They want potential employees working for them. I've talked to several people and asked them to look over my resume and cover letter, and they said I should have no trouble getting an internship. But I feel like my resume, with all the research positions and almost no campus involvement, looks more like a setup for grad school. Also, there's not really much I can talk about in terms of work experience other than my research experience. I think for these reasons, my job hunt hasn't been so great.