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I'm looking to apply to top 10 MSc ChemE programs and at the least top 20. My GPA is 3.90/4.00 in Chemical Engineering at RPI. I have one industry research paper and one pending research paper at school. I have one summer of research completed and one spring of industry experience in RnD at Corning Incorporated. I also plan to do research this fall semester during applications. I took practice tests for the GRE and I'm getting roughly 165 Q and 155 V most times with a few higher scores in Q. Considering my strong interest in biotechnology, what are some schools that I should aim for? I really like the MSc research programs at UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Stanford, and UCSB.

Hello all, first post! I am currently refining my list of schools to which I would like to apply for a PhD in Chemical Engineering. I believe I am a fairly strong contender, so I was wondering which schools offered top competitive programs in the field of computational catalysis. I have conducted extensive experimental research in the field of heterogeneous catalysis, but I would like to branch out more into the theoretical and computational side if possible. Please, let me know your thoughts! Thank you

Applying for 2019 admission cycle. What I want to do, using quantitative tools to accelerate the development of therapies for cancer and other diseases, is a field that lies at the interface of chemical/biological engineering and biology, hence my program choices for graduate school. At this time I am still studying faculty research interests and narrowing my list. Please let me know how competitive I appear to be for my top choices, and where the soft spots in my profile appear to be. Thank you! Undergrad Institution: mid-tier, large public research university Major(s): Chemical Engineering (concentration in Bioengineering) and Biology (concentration in Biotechnology) Minor(s): Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering (using almost all graduate courses to complete these) GPA in Majors: 3.96 Overall GPA: 3.7 (due to poor initial showing in college 15 years ago; returned to school in 2013 and GPA is 3.91 over last 4 years) Position in Class: top 5% in major classes at current institution Type of Student: Domestic white male, non-traditional, first-gen college student, below poverty line GRE Scores (revised/old version): (estimates based on practice exam) Q: 165 V: 168 W: 5.0 B: Not going to take Research Experience: 4 overlapping years, spread across 4 faculty labs. Mix of bio/chemical engineering and chemical biology. 1 year pharmaceutical powder process modeling/simulation for NIH-funded project 1 year honors fellowship, mammalian cell culture engineering/analysis. -> led to symposium presentation summer REU in cancer bioengineering/modeling -> led to a national conference presentation; first author publication in review. (LOR) 3 years cell/bioengineering in nano and tissue culture lab. -> 2 presentations and 2 publications, one first author review, A second author experimental paper in high IF journal (LOR) 1 year in chemical biology, included computational modeling -> led to national conference presentation (LOR) Yearlong Honors Research and Thesis forthcoming during senior year, will be following the theme of biology integrated with chemical engineering principles. Planning to do another REU in Summer '18, and possibly a 4-month internship at a DOE national laboratory Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Goldwater Scholar, Honors College, several university scholarships, Dean's List, Honor Societies: Tau Beta Pi, Omicron Delta Kappa, Omega Chi Epsilon Pertinent Activities or Jobs I founded and am director of an NGO that designs, validates, and builds medium-scale (500L-2500L) sustainable biodigesters in developing nations. Founded in 2015, my organization has won various local innovation and engineering awards and raised large sums from various sources. 4 Grants total. Currently in an iterative experimental design/evaluation process at a farm near my campus, and looking to apply for EPA P3 funding in the next fiscal year. 6-month biochemical engineering R&D internship at Pfizer (poster presentation from this) Vice President and Secretary of two engineering student chapters on campus ChemE Car Design Team for AIChE Student Chapter Summer Internship Designing Fuel Handling Devices (oral presentation at competition) Peer Tutor in chemical engineering and biology Peer Mentor Member of AIChE and ISPE societies Honors Library Website Curator Designed and maintained a website for a biopharm conference My jobs have been mostly research-based in faculty labs, aside from some professional tutoring, web design, retail, and manual labor work. My poor GPA years ago was due to a family illness that is related to why I want to enter this particular field, but I don't want to dwell on that in my SOP. Special Bonus Points: Glowing LOR's, but not from particularly renown faculty I have earned three online verified Coursera Specializations (around 5-6 courses each): Statistics with R, Systems Biology and Biotechnology, and Python Programming (Did this mostly for personal enrichment, is there any value in mentioning this on applications?) I will have taken 4 honors courses and 16 graduate courses before I graduate, in math (experimental design, stats w/R), physics (medical physics), chemistry (computational biochemistry, quantum chemistry, advanced organic synthesis), chemical engineering (3 biochemical engineering courses), and biology (7 courses), with a 4.0 across the board so far I am a strong in-person interviewer Skilled grant writer and fundraiser Applying to Where: (my interests are based mostly on faculty fit; I have already researched which U's allow you to apply to multiple departments) MIT (chemical engineering, bioengineering, biology) Harvard (chemical biology w/ therapeutics certificate, systems biology, bioengineering) Stanford (Either ChemEng or chemical and systems biology) Berkeley (chemical engineering) Caltech (chemical engineering) Georgia Tech (chemical and biomedical engineering) UCSD (bioengineering) BU (biomedical engineering w/ biomolecular pharmacology sub-program) UCSF (CCB) Tri-Institutional Program in Chemical Biology Rockefeller Princeton (chemical engineering) UTAustin (chemical engineering) Delaware (chemical engineering) Tufts (chemE) Northeastern (chemE) Brown (biomedE)

Hi, I just finished my junior year at a mid-tier school in the US, and I am beginning to look into chemical-materials engineering PhD programs. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what type of schools I should apply to. For reference, here are my stats: GPA: 3.96/4 Research Experience: 2.5 years by the time I am finished with my undergrad Publications: A couple in the works right now, likely to have one published and another one (first author) being submitted by the time I start applying GRE: Haven't taken yet, studying for it right now LoR: Can likely get three good ones, one from my PI and others from two professors I know well I'm also an American if that matters As I said, I am unsure of which schools I should look into. I clearly want to go to the best programs possible, but I also don't want to be the person who only applies to the top 10 schools and is crushed when I get no acceptances. Is there a "strategy" I should use when looking at schools? Should I even bother applying to schools like Berkeley and MIT? My main concern is even though I have a high GPA and decent research experience, my school isn't very well-known for engineering. I'm sure you all understand how confusing this whole process can be, so I appreciate any advice. Thank you.

Hello guys, I am writing this post to get your advice. I am an international applicant who is admitted to both the University of Delaware and Penn State for Chemical Engineering PhD. Both programs have the research topic which would perfectly fit to me. I was wondering if you guys in the US have any preference on one of these two programs in the aspect of reputation, living quality (I have my own family), and future job opportunity. According to the US News, UD has a higher ranking than PSU. Do you think UD is better than PSU? I would appreciate any kind of your comment or suggestion.

Hi, My profile is as follows : Undergraduate major : Chemical Engineering (from a reputed public university in India) GPA : 3.96/4 (Gold Medalist) GRE : 317(V -150, Q - 167 , AWA - 4) TOEFL - 105 work experience - 4 years in national Oil and Gas company of India. applied at TEXAS A&M, UT AUSTIN and Penn State for Fall 2016. But, got rejected by all universities. do I need to retake GRE? What all other universities can I apply ?

Just when I was home and dry with my funded UT Austin offer, Gatech showed up with a similar GA Funding....and now I've got a decision to make. I would like any comments as to the prestige and quality of the ChemE PhD program in these two schools. Your advice on which would provide a more rounded experience in ChemE would also be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi guys, I just got the admission from UCB MS ChemE PDP, and I am wondering if this program is worthwhile attending. The only information I have right now about this PDP program is from Berkeley's website, and I will appreciate anyone who can tell me what they think of this program. If anyone you know is in this program, and how they think of it ( maybe in terms of academics, job opportunities and the learning environment). Thank you, and I really appreciate it! Best, Michd