tcable7127

Here's my dilema, I have my BS in mechanical eng. and I'm about to start my MS work in mechanical engineering with a focus in turbomachinery. For my PhD I want to do Aerospace engineering and have my research focus on turbomachinery applications in aerospace propulsion (i.e. axial jet engines). The problem is that the only programs I've found that do research on this stuff are the top universities in the nation... MIT, GATech, and Stanford all have programs with similar research to my interests, and great Aerospace Departments. MIT definitely matches me the best, but it's obviously extremely tough to get into. My UGPA is not good (3.05), and I'm thinking that will prove to be my downfall when applying to these programs even if I do really well during my MS work. Does anyone know of any other programs that specialize in my research interests? Purdue and Texas A&M kind of do (I'm doing my MS at A&M), but A&M doesn't have a great Aero department and Purdue doesn't exactly fit my research interests. I've googled this topic to death and I've researched the top 20 Aero programs in the nation but haven't found anywhere else so any help would be appreciated, thanks!

So my MS research is going to rely heavily on numerical methods and coding in both VBA and Fortran. I have little to no experience with coding / numerical methods with products like this (other than one undergrad class in numerical methods with MATLab). I currently purchased a book to learn VBA "Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers by Joseph Billo", but I haven't come across anything for Fortran. So my question is, does anyone have a lot of experience with either or these programs, and if so, what book would you reccomend / how should I get up to speed on these programs. I should also add that I only have about a month to go through these books and get a good grasp of the programs. Any help that you can offer would be appreciated!

Bump, guess not?

Honestly the way I did it was to visit the University and set up a meeting with the professor through his secretary. I know it's expensive and a lot of people live outside of the country, but that's how I did it with another school where I did not do my undergrad at. I think that taking the time to actually visit the department shows your dedication and can help the professor actually put a face to you and your emails, which makes it harder to ignore you. That's all I got, and I know it's unrealistic for a lot of internationals.

Just thought I'd share my experience as well, so here it goes. UG GPA 3.05, and decent GRE scores 158/164/4.0 (V/Q/W). I applied to only two schools MIT and Texas A&M for Mechanical Engineering. I definitely didn't get in to MIT, which was expected, but I also had a very difficult time getting into A&M, which I found surprising because I did my undergrad there in Mech. E. Long story short, I got into A&M, but it was only because I had made great contacts with professors during my UG and did research with a few. The combined letters of rec from the current faculty as well as the help of my POI helped to get my application noticed and helped the board overlook my dismal GPA. If you have a lower UG GPA the only advice I can give is, rock the GRE, and establish contact early on with a professor at the program you are applying to. The more that the professor likes you, the more likely you are to be considered by the admissions board. Cheers and thanks for all the great posts.

I'm going to be starting my MS this coming Fall 2012, are there any other Mechanical Engineering MS students who will be starting at TAMU as well?

I graduated last summer and have been working in industry as a mechanical engineer since then. After speaking to different professors about their opinions, it seemed clear that if your end goal is a Phd, and you know the area you want to work in, you should go get your Masters. Industry is good for identifying what you would like to do if you don't know quite yet. That's just my two cents...

Hey everyone, I am an upcoming MS student in mechanical engineering for Fall 2012. My undergrad GPA was not good at all (3.05), and I have decent scores on the GRE. I took the GRE three different times, because the first two times I thought "I'm an engineer with a math minor... this is algebra how hard could it be?", and the last time I actually studied. My scores are below for the three different attempts: Old GRE - 610 (89%) VERBAL, 690 (72%) QUANT, 3.5 (29%) WRITTING New GRE - 156 (72%) VERBAL, 156 (74%) QUANT, 4.5 (72%) WRITTING New GRE - 158 (79%) VERBAL, 164 (91%) QUANT, 5.5 (89%) WRITTING I am trying to get national fellowships and entry into the top schools in the nation for my Phd in a year or so. Apparently they are changing the score reporting for the GRE this July 2012 to where you have the option of only reporting your best score. Sooo, my question is, is it worth it to take the GRE again if I know I can do better?

Well I have taken the GRE three times now (1 Old, 2 Revised) and the best advice I could give you is: Take advantage of your breaks like said above. Use every one (even the 60 second ones at the end of each section) Make sure to do your best on the first section for the Verbal and Quantitative (The test will adapt based on these sections). If you do do well on the first couple sections, realize that the test will get significantly harder (so don't get bogged down on any single question in later sections) And to get your best score I would reccomend treating every section like it is the ONLY section on the test