ankurshah

Hello Everyone, I was a fellow PhD applicant. An international applicant with a master's degree from US but currently residing in my home country. I has applied to around 8 uni for PhD program in chemical and/or materials engineering. Out of the 8 based on my personal experience, quality of program and quality of the past admit, i was confident of securing 2-3 admits. To my surprise, this did not happen and i got rejected from all the 8 institute. I assume it must be either my SOP or LOR(and if this is the case, i wont get an admit ever!!!). But having talked to fellow applicants from home and foreign land, there seem to be a notion that the number of PhD admits given out this year has reduced substantially. For Instance, Rutgers materials dept had only 8 open slot compared to 14 last year. UWashington-Seattle's at minimum 20 slots(number is from a student over there) has reduced to 11. apart slot reduction, does age factor does come into play?. I am 27 yrs old/young guy. over the last few years, i have seen the pattern of admitting students directly from bachelors there by reducing the average age of the class to around 22-23. I do not know if the age can be a big impact but the pattern of lowering age averages of incoming class suggests so. Well, all in all, this might just be figment of my imagination. As getting 8 reject, i might me looking for answer where it might not exist. Do feel free weigh in on above notion. It might help others, well at-least me when i start making 2nd round of application. Just hoping my LOR were sting and my SOP was crap

is anyone rejecting rutgers?

anyone hear anything from Rutgers

any new about Cornell? have they started sending out rejects?

anyone heard of reject from cornell today?

seems like there is a cornell admit in the result sectino. I assume is would be the above poster, lion hunter. Does any one have an admit or news o asmits coming out?

well thats what the admission officer in the dept told, Also looking at the admission thread in the result section, first wave in jan end (two results are out) and the next wave is in midish of feb so i hope to get some decision this coming week BTW i need some info on the movement in the in the Delaware materials Dept. Any pointers?

International studentship? like the CERN labs in europe? something too add if you think its important make your App standout.

cornell is suppose to send out the admit tomorrow onwards for the next two weeks, well thats the reply i got from mat.sci dept. Also, i have applied to the Delaware's dept and i do not haave a clue about the movement in that dept. Even the result section here seems empty. from 6-7 post in last 3-4 years admits are usually in amrch - april. Not sre if thats the right thing. Does anyone have an idea about the movement in that dept ?

does anyone know if cornell materials dept have sent in the admit decision for internationals?

research wise, there is a great edal going on with you, and you have published in CELL, a massive impact factor of 32? i think you are good at the research level, i think you will get into a decent prog but you are looking for a Plan C. instead of working as RA in a prof's lab, I would suggest you to try hospitals(weil-cornell, MSK,) which might do the kind of research you want to do. One of the major aspect will be your SOP. re-polish it and make it stronger. You have substantial research creds and you cannot do anything about your UG. best option would be to to meet potential advisor in conferences and try discussing the same. I am sure, if you make a very strong impression, ur UG score will be pushed aside. Also, if you want another Master's prog, just check out BME at City College-CUNY which in my opinions is much better than poly. They do have substantial funds and its an upcoming name

i might be wrong but i feel ranking are just hogwash and money making gimmicks a stupid propaganda esp by US News by creating a system to fool many young minds. my personal belief is, in the present technologically driven society it is very easy to understand the kind of research each faculty does. As a potential PhD candidate you should be able to understand the impact of research when you read it. We are not defined as "LAY MAN". If you want to now how good is the dept, try to see the kind of funds they have, how well their labs are developed (ex: a dept having 4 TEM is well funded dept), see the # of post docs, where do they come from, see the graduates where do they go, try looking deep into the university research centres the kind of interdepartmental research going on, etc etc and based on that and your research interest make a convincing decisions if the dept is good for you or not. and if you dont agree with one form of ranking why do you have to look for other form? everyone follows its own algorithm. Especially the student of the country who get a chance to first hand visit diff prog for multitude of reason and exchange opinion wirh N number of faculties? Also how diff is it if you get any uni if you get to do research you want to do? cant a low ranked uni have a great prof? cant you publish in nature if you are from low rank institute? and i think i am very sure, the uni fall in form of a band, going to Cornell for MSE or GaTech or Penn State or UFL would not make any diff if you find right project to work and i dont understand why would anyone take an unfunded PhD admit? for internationals its a very bizzare statement to digest

for you, i think you SOP will make or break your case, plus getting very high GRE is by a default

any of you know, when does the international student admit start coming out? does it come out after the recruitment weekend? i do know few uni like UIUC NW RPI etc etc have out started giving result but the cont is very small

International Student with American Master's applied to washington-Seattle, Utah, Notre Dame, Florida and NCSU I already have a master's and am working in research from 4+ years. I have patent but no publications. PhD application have a confusing ride. Done with apps jus on or a day before the deadline.. missed priority deadline for seattle by 2 weeks so am not hopeful about it. Am hoping to receive a admit at least from one place

that is true. ONe of my recommender insisted that i contact prof to be on the safer side but i decided against it. As i would not have anything concrete to say about the work or a specific project it better not worth contact them. Although i did receive positive reply from notre Dame. They said as i have submitted my app i can try reaching out to profs. either ways, at time PhD application is such a confusion. You can never be sure about how thing work out. i word term the process as evolutionary mutation

what about Rutgers. I did find the decent research going. DOes anyone have an idea about the internal working of the dept? They are crowded my internationals? does dept with more inetnational then american is a bad thing? since i am not in the US i have not contacted prof from any of the uni i have applied to. Does this hurt the application a lot?

well, i have mainly worked in polymers and composites and for PhD i want to shift for energy harvesting devices. without any relevant exp i did think too much about contacting professors and applied directly. Well being from India from a regional uni i think my chances were slim to begin with. anyway hoping a strong recommendation turns decision in my favour

thanks about the review, i did like few prof's project and research profile. I was impressed by ICE with the Chem.E profs

any idea when Cornell might start giving out admit for internationals?

thatsa good thing mate and now they do change... well you have be a bit more specific in your research area. since you are jumping from phy to bio, you need toexplain what made you take this decision and how is this a right decision for you. Also, you need to explain the kind of project you would like to work in the bio dept. With a MS and a decent GRE all you need is a SOP explain the why phd why this research and why this school. Tie it with your future plans and i thin you may def target some decent schools. Am a materials engg guy so my advice on life sciences will of limited scope

do you think you have sufficient time t write a great SOP? also, without research exp do you have internships or co-ops? well your GRE are good but if i am right, doesn't bio dept require Subject GRE? i think it would be good for you to jion masters is some decent unis, get a lot of research exp, take grad courses and top in that. start applyig for fellowships while working. You can even work part time in some R&D center for free. Working free will give them incentive to let you work more, possibly on some better projects I did my ME in city College-CUNY so i do know that they have relatively relaxed admission guidelines. You can look into City College, Hunters' for research in bio domain. While doing research you will have a opportunity to interact with fellow peers from Columbia, NYU, Rutgers & Princeton. That would b an advantage of being in NYC. A PhD in an institute without showing prior research aptitude is going to very very hard. Plus, since you say you are confused how are you going to explain the knd of research that you would like to pursue?

i guess 5 should be fine if you a hopeful of an admit. Usually 6-8 apps are good. Many people even apply to more. I guess its a personal opinion, anything more than 6 is your call. when i had applied for master's i put in 16 apps while when applying for PhD am happy with 8 solid applications.

Thats true abt football but being at ND i would def look for their games and hopefully some parties otherwise in a nearly dead town Yes Prof.Kamat is a POI for me. I have mentioned him specifically in my SOP and in the online app as my first choice.

hows is the rep of Delaware's Materials Program?