child of 2

Would I be able to get a good position with a good company if they know I'm going off to grad school? Besides, I haven't been involved in student organizations very much, and not having prior industrial experience doesn't help either. Also, I'm not entirely confident I will get into a good grad school, so I'm looking at industry as a backup plan in case I want to get back into academia in the future.

I'm graduating in December, and I still haven't had an internship yet. I really want to get my toe in the water in industry to see if it's something I like more than grad school. The problem is that I haven't been very proactive in looking for internships. Most of the places I applied to this spring still haven't replied back. These internships won't be the best, but they still offer good engineering experience. On the other hand, I'm part of two research projects, one of which will have my name in the paper. Not only that, the two people who are sort of leading these projects (one graduating this summer, the other one graduating in two weeks) are leaving, and it seems like I'm the next in line to take the reins, and this summer would be a prime opportunity for me to put some serious hours and get some work done on these projects. So my question is: would it be worth waiting for the companies to reply back to me about my internships, or should I decide to stay for the summer and be part of these research projects?

my laptop webcam has 0.1 megapixels. It's total crap

For liberal arts majors, a high GPA is mandatory. However, the OP is in aerospace engineering. I believe like all engineering disciplines, aerospace grad programs do not focus on GPA as much as research experience and LORs. It sounded to me like GPA is becoming more and more of an excuse to weed people out, just like the GREs. That both worries me and confuses me, because very few people in engineering have a 3.9+ GPA (VERY few), and my GPA is right around 3.5, so I'm f*ked either way.

that's depressing to hear

^ sounds like outsourcing. apparently, these people overseas can do American things better than Americans can. I have heard of a story of a guy, who couldn't find a job, then hired an outsourcing agent in India, and was employed within a week.

is there a specific name for this sort of thing? I would assume that companies that prioritize in R&D will do this a lot. How can I find more info?

Some companies pay for their employees' masters if they decide it's worth the investment. Does anyone have any details on this? I have always been research inclined, but I have absolutely no money to pay for a masters, and I don't want to go into debt. so if you're under a program like this: 1. does the company make you sign a contract that basically tells you they own you? 2. is this only restricted to public schools with cheap instate tuition and are really easy to get in? 3. how much of the expenses do they cover? thanks

I would take that with a huge grain of salt. This is the kind of advice I got from my idiot adviser in high school (not calling you an idiot emmm ). "don't give up on your dreams" or "you never know" and I ended up getting rejected by every private school I applied to. I think your publications are definitely a plus. One thing to note is that you're already in SF, so it is a lot easier to try to network with some of the professors, and try to let them get to know you a little bit. I don't know about global health, but maybe you can get a part time job doing research assistance or volunteer as research assistant. Positive exposure will definitely give you an edge over people who only have the chance to communicate through papers and test scores.

gee idk about that.

chemical engineering to be more specific. how difficult/unlikely would it be to have tuition/living fully covered by TAing, fellowships, scholarships and FA without having to work part time or graduate with debt? I figure someone is going to tell me this will depend on the school, but some examples would be more helpful. thanks

Do any of the top 30 schools offer this deal in chem e MS?

I will likely end up with a 3.5-3.55 GPA by the time I graduate/apply for grad school. This seems to be a very mediocre GPA, and there are definitely things I could have done differently. What caliber of schools should I apply to?

thanks for the responses. the LOR was one of my major concerns, and it's good to know that I should keep in touch with the professors. The thing is, I'm kind of intimidated by my professors, so I'm always really formal in front of them, whereas I'm much more open in front of students. My parents want me to go to grad school and become a tenured professor (lol; they're crazy). But I will put more consideration into this, and hopefully get a decent internship soon! I actually don't have experience in industry yet, and it would be important to get to know what R&D is really about.

What are the pros and cons of taking a year off after graduation? It might be a good thing for me (mentally) to take a break and do something else after graduation. What I'm worried about the most are not getting anything done during that time, and not having LORs when I decide to finally apply.

Suppose I'm applying for grad schools in the fall... Currently, I am really busy with classes, so I can't start studying until summer. My vocabulary and reading are horrible, so I will need a lot of studying. This would mean that I can only take the GRE in the Fall of 2012, and it will be my only chance. Is this good, or should I take the GRE more than once?

In my polymer class taught by the professor with whom I'm working with as an research assistant, I would say 80% of the people have no idea wtf is going on... We had our first test today, and I'm hoping the average comes out to be something like 50%, because I doubt I got even 40%! He posted the solutions online today, and there was one problem I knew how to do. The other 3 problems were chicken scratch BS in the campaign for partial credit. I will definitely be spending more time on this course and try to finish strong. It has been waaay more than what I had asked for. The homework makes you work your a** off, and the exams are pretty much a test of your IQ. I'm pretty sure this will affect my LOR negatively. So other than focusing more on this course for the rest of the semester, what else can I do?

can I consider my polymer course a grad level course, even though a lot of undergrads take it? I'm taking it as something that's not required for graduation. And the course is basically the same as the grad school version, the difference being a poster presentation given at the end of the semester by grad students.

4/150 = 2.6% You're saying they managed to bloat a 2.6% up to a 46% acceptance rate? that's impressive. Which school is this? ----- Also, I checked my current school's acceptance rate (Iowa State CBE - 15%). I don't get it. Do a lot of people simply get a storm of rejections in grad school admissions? Is it because people who can't find jobs decide they want to stay for more school? Why are these numbers so low? I'm really scared now. I might not even get into my own school...

I'm not completely rejecting it, just taking it with a grain of salt

I don't think so... you don't see a lot of places that hire new professors or expand their labs every couple of years. Also, why would there be a batch of students that stay longer at one given year, but not for other years? I just don't see that happening. Professors don't hire a batch of students, give them PhDs 5 years later, and then hire another batch. It's not the bakery.

U of M has a 26% admission rate for PhD in chem e?? that doesn't make sense. why are these numbers all over the place???

I'm not going to select my grad schools based on acceptance rates, but I still want to know. On another forum (CC), I saw that CU-B accepted something like 40 out of 450 applicants for chemical engineering. They're not even in the top 10, but they have a <10% acceptance rate. That's very scary for me. Where can I find these data? Do I have to contact the departments?

I feel like everytime my professor asks the class a question, he's looking in my direction, like he wants me to speak. But I sit near the back with my friend, and I don't really want to talk. If I have questions, I like to ask at the end of the class period. That's just how I am.

I did go through depression in college, but that was when I still lived with my parents. Now that I moved out, I can finally put my past behind me. the thing is, this is kind of personal, and I don't really want to have to explain it in my application. What can I do?