I would like to start by saying these type of chats are really interesting especially the physics and math ones. Hopefully, the engineering one becomes booming like that soon. Also, I would like to write small details about mine if it is interesting 
 
Undergrad Institution: Small Midwest Liberal Arts School, known regionally and pretty good in engineering to my surprise 
Major(s): Mechanical Engineering 
Minor(s): Engineering Management, Mathematics (Just added the math one my final semester because I had time) 
GPA in Major: 3.944 (got my first B+ in an engineering subject in my senior design class because of a bad team) 
Overall GPA: 3.817 (had C average in the two freshman year seminar classes...its a  bunch of BS anyway) 
Length of Degree: 4 years  
Position in Class: either 1st or 2nd (the girl doesnt speak of her gpa...haha) 
Type of Student: International male 
 
GRE Scores (old version): BTW the GRE is just an annoying exam I had to prepare for while working full time at an engineering firm 
Q: 800 (94%) expected it going in but didnt after taking the test but thank God it happened 
V: 370 (26%) I memorized a lot of frequent words from Barrons, only 3 came out...hahaha my luck right 
W: 3.5 (27%) expected a 4 cuz I did not prepare for this section and I thought I nailed one of the essays down 
 
 
TOEFL Total: graduating from the US so it would be waived...hopefully...haha 
 
Research Experience: not really. My senior project is on study of vortex shedding frequency of a wind turbine blade. I am in charge of the experimental part using a suction type wind tunnel to test it. Wrote all the LabVIEW programs, designed the experiment. Also perfoming modal analysis on the blade model to compare my results to the natural blade frequency 
 
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list every semester...kinda cool I thought....in various honor societies...nothing overly special 
 
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: well I am working part time at Dana Holding Corporation after my full time job during the summer...not research related obviously 
 
Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Not sure 
 
Special Bonus Points: One of my recommender graduated from MIT and Michigan and gave me a stellar LOR (He is quite famous and studied witha professor at Clemson) Also, another one is the Dean of the engineering department and knows me quite well (school is quite small so no biggie....besides I am the only black guy in the graduating mechanical engineering department....hahaha). All the rest were great LOR apart from my academic advisor who wrote one for Michigan (that may just kill my application there...ow well). Had a decent SOP that reflects my interest a little.  
 
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I m 20. I am from Nigeria ...just wanted to say that somewhere...hahaha. Taking a percussion class because I want to learn to play the drums...dont judge me...hahaha. Also not a lot of tough classes this final semester. I have already taking Combustion which is done only in graduate school..I think...haha. 
 
Applying to Where:  
 
All PhD positions in mechanical engineering except for MIT and Stanford because they do not accept direct entry into the PhD programs. Research interest are in Thermodynamics (Energy Conversion..more or less), Combustion, Fluid mechanics and heat transfer 
 
MIT 
Stanford 
Caltech 
CMU 
UTexas 
Michigan 
Rice 
Cornell 
Princeton 
Georgia Tech 
Clemson(my only safety)- Accepted (no funding yet) (Jan 2nd on the site) 
 
Hope this is good for everyone and yeah...GOODLUCK to everyone and I hope you get to the grad school of your choice 
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