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well there's a class at illinois under food science that is titled "Chocolate Appreciation". I wonder if they give PhDs in that.

If you're talking traditional instruments, pretty much any large engineering program will have professors in acoustics. They'll most likely fall under the electrical engineering or physics department. If you're thinking new media and electronic music, you'l want to take a look at MIT.

I get the feeling that it might not be as uncommon this year as it has been in previous years. There's most likely going to be a decline in graduate acceptances especially at state universities with the economy the way it is. UIUC (where I am) has just announced furloughs for all staff and faculty because the state has given the University less than 1/5 of what was budgeted. A lot of current grad students had funding requests straight-up ignored which leads me to believe that admissions may be down a little bit next year. Although Illinois as a state is second only to California in terms of how bad the state's credit rating is, a lot of other states are also facing similar difficulties.

For me, the big weak point was my GPA. Although I got all As or Bs in courses in my major, I did have some Cs from random and irrelevant courses that I thought would be interesting to take (I've since learned that organic chemistry is never a good idea). I found it incredibly disappointing that most of the feedback I got from schools that rejected me was about my GPA and it was obvious that they never actually looked at my transcript. in engineering I get the feeling that GPA is far and away the most important aspect of the application. Which is unfortunate because it discourages students who are looking at grad school from taking courses outside their comfort zone and undergrad is really the only time you can do that.

Focus on the figures. Most good engineering publications are written in the following manner. 1. take experimental/theoretical results and make some sort of statement 2. make a few figures that illustrate the key points of your results/statement (and how it improves or differs from previous work if needed) 3. Write the meat of the paper around the figures. Adding in whatever equations that were used. 4. Toss in abstract, introduction and conclusion and if applicable a section on experimental methodology. When reading a paper, I tend to skim the abstract and introduction to make sure that I know exactly what they're trying to say with that particular paper. Then I turn my attention to the figures and data presented, the majority of the text I treat as a reference that explains what's going on in the figures and I refer to it when I want an explanation about a particular trend or result. This way, I pick up the information in the order that makes sense to me rather than the order it was presented.

There are some pluses for the doctoral dissertation. Mainly it serves as documentation for everything you did so if anyone down the line wants to see how you solved an issue or use your methodology they can look it up in your dissertation rather than your published papers as most journal articles tend to skip the particulars due to space restraints. as someone from an applied sciences program, I would say that more than one publication (probably ~4 or 5) in a peer-reviewed journal is needed. I think the majority of the graduate students in my department are published in a peer reviewed paper within 3-4 semesters of starting and a decent amount (maybe 10% to 20%) were published before finishing the bachelors. This is most likely because so much of the funding for these fields come from organizations like NSF, NIH, DOE and corporations who are interested in specific technologies or issues. These programs, as a result, are solution oriented. Every project is defined to address a problem or fill a need. And whenever you get results you generally have enough to write a paper. graduate education really needs to become more results oriented. It's great if you invented a new material, but unless you characterize it and come up with potential applications it's completely useless. I would like to see more emphasis on graduate teaching in the applied sciences/engineering fields. As it is currently, it is possible (and relatively common) to make it through a phD in these fields without ever having taught.

there were ~1200 awards given last year, according to the most current program announcement, the estimate is ~1600 awards for this year although this number is capable of changing by quite a bit depending on what happens in Washington.

if you're into sports, a really good way to practice and apply your stats knowledge is to analyze statistical trends for teams and players. A friend of mine does this and he pulls raw data from the various sports websites and comes up with ratings for teams, predictions for games and projections on how a team/player might perform over a long period of time. It would also be pretty easy to start a blog or something where you can post your analysis.

I would imagine mostly for purposes of anonymity. If you write about a negative experience at your school and a faculty member or administrator from that school sees it and manages to identify you, it may create problems for you down the road. Keeping in mind that the academic community is a small one. If you annoy an established person in your field you may have burned quite a few bridges.

there's probably a dependence on discipline. In some fields it's standard to get new professors that are in their late 20's/early 30's which really isn't that much older than some grad students. graduate school is a strange entity. When you enter, you are advised by faculty and they are in a position of mentorship/authority. When you leave, you are their colleague and peer. Everywhere in between is one big blurry line.

didn't do great. didn't do horrible either. 2 classes, an independent study and some preliminary work on the ever important thesis. was also working part time which cut into study time. Biggest complaint is definitely the use of legacy textbooks (texts that are used because they're written by a faculty member from that university). overall, classes feel like a distraction. I'm probably going drop my credit load a little next semester so I can focus more on research.

so what you're saying is we need to package this as a miracle weight loss solution and make millions.

there aren't very many engineers on these forums so you may not find the specific advice you're looking for. I know very little about chem eng programs and the best I can offer is stuff that would apply for most engineers. your research experience is very good and likely to be among the best of the applicants. your GPA isn't bad either, it's not spectacular but these days nothing short of a 4.0 is. try asking grad students in the research group you're with what schools they applied to when they were doing this and look around the web.

publications are certainly a plus but since you're applying as an undergrad it's not uncommon to be without that particular credential. GPA is one of the most important aspects as well as previous research experience so you definitely have decent chances. It all comes down to if professors in your area of study need more grad students, definitely start contacting the ones you want to work with.

theory of drunken recall?

also, talk to their grad students. They'll be able to tell you more about the lab's atmosphere and how they conduct research and so forth. If they have review papers that's generally a good sign because you have to be invited to write those which means that they're recognized in their field as a valuable contributor.

regarding transit. the buses go pretty much everywhere and your University ID will get you on any bus for free. www.cumtd.com (website for the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District) For housing, Orchard downs is a bit more expensive but it's also more like a small village with lots of open space. It's also located next to the University's Arboretum and is directly on a bus line that goes to the heart of campus. It's a pretty good place for people who have kids and they have playgrounds scattered throughout. For schools. In Urbana there are a few elementary schools (Leal, Yankee Ridge and others?), 1 middle school and 1 high school. The middle school and High school are right next to each other, about 3 blocks away from the public library and they've recently built the Urbana Aquatic center right in between the 2 schools. As for educational quality, they're not bad, definitely not top in the country or anything like that but you could do a lot worse. In Champaign there are more schools and for the most part I think the education is roughly the same as in Urbana. There are also a number of Christian schools in town such as St. Thomas Moore and Judah Christian. The standards at these schools are probably higher but they charge tuition. There is also a laboratory high school run by the University. This is a small academically selective (technically public) school that consistently ranks among the top high schools in the country (University Laboratory High School). They do not charge tuition but your child does have to buy their own textbooks like in college (the university bookstore has a section for them). This is probably the school to aim for if your child wants to go (it is a pretty isolated environment). The school is 8th-12th grade, and is limited to ~60 per entering class. http://uni.illinois.edu/ as for things to do. There are the bars and sports. There is also Assembly Hall which is a stop for most major concert tours. The Krannert Center for Performing Arts which hosts world class orchestras and other performances throughout the year. The Virginia Theater which hosts Ebert-fest (Roger Ebert's film festival) each year. We're also 2 hours from Chicago, <2 hours from Indianapolis, and 3-4 hours from St. Louis and it's quite easy to drive over on a weekend to catch professional sports games or whatever. Regarding the condition of the campus. It is a state University so money for large projects (renovations and such) often sits in the state senate for years before getting passed. As of now, Lincoln Hall is slated to start renovations this coming spring and several other buildings are on the list to be next. The Engineering campus tends to be much more updated than the rest of campus because of the amount of research money it brings in and many of the remodels that have occurred have been funded by external sources.

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1078 and http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1086 we should all become football coaches. I'm sure we can research our way to a perfect offense/defense.

because experience in the sciences generally means familiarity with experimental methodology, specific equipment types, etc. All of which can be gained in either grad school or industry. Also, for most of the applied sciences, it's beginning to shift towards the M.S. being the professional degree.

Hopefully everyone got all their rec letters in. the waiting game begins. If things go well, we'll all get a pleasant surprise about the time we start thinking about finals next semester.

the changes are interesting and certainly seem to be positive. It does raise the question of how the scores will be viewed by admissions committees for the first few years. Even though there will be statistics from all the exams taken that first year, they may not be available before admissions decisions are due.

you should be fine. although for PhD programs it really depends on individual professors and departments. your numbers are quite good and it wouldn't be out of the question to include some top tier schools.

I started at 21 and roughly half my class is straight from undergrad and the other half went to work for a while first. regarding the parental information thing for those under 21 I believe it's because in some states your parents are partially legally liable for you until you turn 21.

a lot of those universities also have completely different demographics at undergrad and grad levels. For instance, Notre Dame is something on the order of 95% catholic at the undergrad level and 30% at the grad.

the sources of funding for 2010 thread has a list of fellowships that you can apply to. Although most of their deadlines are already past, but worth a look anyways. external funding is considered a plus by schools because they get a grad student that they don't have to pay for.