jacket24

After taking a couple of years to get a MS degree from my undergrad institution and strengthen my resume, I am applying for a PhD in Environmental Engineering and certain that I am not the only one here. Who else is applying for civil or environmental this time around? Interested in who your competition is? Want to give/receive advice on previous or current applications specific to our field? Feel compelled to vent your application anxiety? Let this be the venue.

Feels great to have everything submitted...now on to the next thing until it's time to start obsessively checking for notifications.

My understanding is that you can choose which test results you want to send by date, but you cannot send sections of each test individually. For instance, you can send all results from test 1, all results from test 2, or all results from both but you cannot send AW and Q from test 1 and V from test 2. For what it's worth, most programs will only be interested in your highest scores anyway and will not likely care if your AW score dips a bit on the second attempt.

This question may have been addressed in a previous year but I was not able to find an answer in my initial search. I am entering my third semester in a Master's program (nearing the end of my eligibility) and plan to apply for the 2014 GRFP. I attended the same institution for my undergrad and MS degrees, so I plan to apply to different schools for my PhD in Fall 2014. I can either frame my NSF application as if I plan to stay in my current lab/program (I don't), or state that I will be applying elsewhere. As I see it, the benefit of the former would be a greater sense of "feasibility" since I am already in the program and have generated data related to my proposed project, while the latter is more truthful/realistic. I assume that the proposed institution is not considered too heavily when reviewing applications but I am a bit unsure as to which approach I should take. Which course of action would be more advantageous in creating the strongest possible application?

This is not based on my personal opinion, but on those of professors that I have spoken with in my department. I didn't pay much attention to the AW section my first time around but was advised to try to bring it up for PhD applications. That is not to say that there is much merit behind the score, but if some adcoms weigh it more heavily I would rather not leave it to chance.

I applied last year with 159V, 159Q, and 4.5AW and got into more than half of the MS environmental engineering programs that I applied to. That said, I'm applying for PhD programs next fall and plan to retake it since my scores were lower than I hoped due to minimal studying. I advise you to focus on bringing up the writing score since some professors may view that as indicative of your ability to generate and dissect arguments, an important skill if you plan to pursue research.

http://db.tt/n0ig0taC

Thank you for your input, I will keep your comments in mind.

I'm not sure if this topic has been covered before, but I was unable to find anything while searching on this forum. I am a current Master's student who will be finishing in December. I plan to apply for PhD programs for Fall 2014 and would also like to apply for several fellowships to 1) refine my research goals and 2) increase my chances of admission to desired programs. My question for you all is this: is it considered strange or too forward to ask a POI for help in developing a research plan? I understand that most professors will be too busy to consider helping someone that is not even a part of their current research group yet, but would asking for their input come across as ambitious or presumptuous?

Just got word that a certain packet from the EPA was received on Saturday at my parents' house. Haven't picked it up it yet but it looks as though I'm out as well (FON = E1, location = Georgia).

Does no news count as good news? Still nothing for E1 in Georgia.

I'm just finishing up my first year as a thesis based master's student. I'm not sure if my experience is typical since I sort of fell into my assistantship position as soon as I started grad school but I average around 20 hours per week in the lab/analyzing data and 20-30 hours on classes and studying. Although I'm sure some students work on a much more regimented schedule, the way I manage my time is largely dependent on what I have on my plate at any given time. My adviser has been very understanding in terms of not demanding an unreasonable amount of lab work when projects and exams are looming. Having said that, the end of this semester has been killer and I'll be lucky to escape it with what's left of my sanity. I plan to focus heavily on my research this summer since I will not be taking classes and hope to finish up and publish my work in December.

Nothing here either (applied for E1).

Hello everyone, I went to GaTech for undergrad and it looks like I'll be staying on for grad school as well. It sounds like you've all got a pretty decent grasp on what to expect with the areas around campus. Having a car definitely makes life easier in Atlanta since Marta isn't exactly the most efficient public transit system. Although they charge a pretty penny for parking passes (~$650/yr), you will save a substantial amount of money living a little farther from campus (with the exception of Home Park and the associated security issues). I would suggest that you look into M Street apartments (very close to campus), and other apartments along Howell Mill (just northwest of Tech) as well. Best of luck to you all and hopefully Geogia Tech lives up to your expectations.

I felt mostly the same, except my weakness was in electrical engineering so I didn't even attempt most of that section. I found that some of the questions from the environmental afternoon exam were very specific and qualitative (things that you either knew or didn't know but probably were not taught in school), not sure if it was the same for other versions of the test though. Despite the 8 hour exhaustion, it could have gone much worse.

Did anyone else take the fundamentals of engineering exam this time around? Thoughts, comments, concerns? Also, does anyone know when the results should be out?

All first round funding offers for CEE at Cornell have been sent out...second round offers will be sent after the April 15th deadline.

I'm still waiting to hear about funding from CEE at Cornell, although I applied in Environmental Processes. Their graduate program coordinator is on leave until June but her temporary replacement told me that they were making decisions this week and into next week. Hoping for the best...

I called a few weeks ago to check my application status and they said their visitation day was March 2nd. I don't know if that means the first round of offers are already out but I think they're still reviewing applications.

Nothing yet...I think they already had their open house though.

I haven't heard about funding yet either...I was told that financial decisions would be made around mid-March as well but no specific dates.

US News has released updated rankings for graduate schools...out of curiosity, does anyone have access to the 'US News Engineering School Compass?' There has been some shuffling of Environmental Engineering programs among the top 10 but I'm curious to see rankings for the top 20 or so environmental programs for the new year. http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/environmental-engineering-rankings

When did you hear from Michigan? I've been admitted to a few programs but have only been notified by one school regarding funding (Washington is unfunded), which almost makes it worse. So close yet still so far away...

This sort of thing seems to vary between programs but I think it is possible. I was admitted to Cornell's MS/PhD Civil & Environmental Engineering department and expressed interest in some professors in the Biological & Environmental Engineering department with positive response. I'm not sure if the same would apply to your case since the departments that I contacted are so closely related but it would certainly be worth asking the program director.

Looks like results are starting to be released for some environmental programs. I've seen Northwestern and Texas posted recently so hopefully that's a sign of (positive) things to come for all of us.