chance to get into top graduate engineering schools

[Gullit]

Hello,

My name is Phong. I am going to apply for the graduate schools and my goal is to get into those top-notched schools such as: Stanford, UC Berkeley, Caltech, etc.

My concentration is Control Systems either ME or EE department, whichever has a better program.

My profile is:

I am doubling majors in both Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.

GPA: 3.95/4.0 at New Jersey Institute of Tech.

I have done a summer research program at Purdue University and have completed 2 senior projects with considerable work as research. But I have no publications at all.

I am planning to take GRE at the end of this August. My expectation is Math>760, Verbal >550

Also, I am an international student and English is not my native language.

I would like to ask what is the chance of my application? I really want to get into Stanford. How does GRE affect my app? What if my GRE <550?

Thanks for your advice so much!

[newms]

Hi Phong,

I think you have a decent shot with your high GPA and research experience. It would help a lot IMO if you were to get some of your work published. Your GRE is not the most important feature of your application, schools will look at your research experience, GPA, SOP and recommendation letters firrst. However you need to have a high GRE score to have a shot at Stanford - for the Math you really should be aiming for at the very least 780 - many EE applicants will have an 800 so if you get 760 on Math it may not be too impressive for a EE applicant. I wouldnt worry too much about the verbal score as long as you can put together a good SOP.

Hope this helps!

[Gullit]

Thank you for the reponse! I have completed my GRE score: M:800, V:590. I am not sure if the Verbal score is good enough for Stanford. Since I do not have any work published, I want to enhance my chance by other things. Anyone, please let me know if you have any advice!

Sincerely,

Phong

Hi Phong,

I think you have a decent shot with your high GPA and research experience. It would help a lot IMO if you were to get some of your work published. Your GRE is not the most important feature of your application, schools will look at your research experience, GPA, SOP and recommendation letters firrst. However you need to have a high GRE score to have a shot at Stanford - for the Math you really should be aiming for at the very least 780 - many EE applicants will have an 800 so if you get 760 on Math it may not be too impressive for a EE applicant. I wouldnt worry too much about the verbal score as long as you can put together a good SOP.

Hope this helps!

[Barca]

Hello,

My name is Kevin and I will be applying to several Ph.D. programs in Mechanical Engineering for Fall 2012 Admission. It would be greatly appreciated If anyone could please gauge my chances of being accepted by top engineering programs.

I'm considering schools like : USC, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard, Cornell, Johns Hopkins.

My profile:

B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Cumulative GPA 3.70; Major GPA: 3.84 ( USC)

M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, GPA 3.75 ( USC)

GRE: Q:800; V:730; AWA:4.5

3 years of research experience ; no publication

2 graduate-level projects

2 design projects

Thank you in advance

[newms]

Hi Kevin,

Perhaps you could have started a new thread, but here's my opinion on your chances. I think you'd have a pretty decent chance at those schools - your 3 years of research experience will be very helpful to your chances. Is there any chance that you could get a paper published during the application season? That would also improve your chances. The other aspects of your profile seem competitive. Keep in mind that the schools you are applying to are very selective since they receive hundreds of applications, and many qualified applicants will not be admitted. That said, if you wrote a strong, focused SoP that showed how your past research experience has prepared you to be successful at research in grad school and would make you a good fit at the schools you apply to; and your letters of recommendation were strong then I'd think that you would likely be able to gain admission somewhere among those schools that you listed. A lot will depend on how good a fit your research interests are for the schools you apply to (ie how well do they mesh with the research already taking place there). Good luck!

[Barca]

Dear newms,

Thank you so much for your valuable insight!

Take care

Kevin

[Sarp]

Hello,

My name is Sarp and and I am planing to apply for a Master degree in civil engineering (Structural Engineering) in Fall 2012. I will be greatly appreciated if anyone say something about my chances for admission for the following universities.

I'm considering: Berkeley, Stanford, UT Austin

My background information:

I am an international student and English is not my native language.

B.S. in Civil Engineering, GPA 3.97 in SUNY-Buffalo;

GRE: Q:790; V:310; AWA:4

2 Summer internships

1 Summer Research Experince

2 Internship Report published

Thanks for all,

[Barca]

Hi Sarp,

Your credentials are definitely strong--you have a very high GPA, work experience, and several publications.

I personally think you have a very good chance at UT Austin. Stanford and UC Berkeley are very selective, but I think you have a descent chance at getting admitted to one of them. So you should go ahead and apply. Just bear in mind that sometimes applicants with 4.0 GPA and several publications get rejected from UCB, Stanford and other top institutions. It is very important to get strong letters of recommendation from your professors and write a focused SOP. Are you planning to apply to other schools? If possible, I think you should apply to at least 6 schools (including two safety schools).

I wish you the very best,

Kevin

[Sarp]

Hi Kevin, thanks a lot for your reply. It makes me feel confident. I plan to apply other schools as well but these are also schools in top ten. Do you think my GRE scores are enough or do I have to retake it? I don't think that I can increase my verbal score a lot but I can try if it greatly reduce my admission chance.

Thanks again.

[Barca]

Hi Sarp,

I think it would be helpful if you could score at least 450 on verbal and 4.5 on AWA. I think most of the admitted students to top engineering schools have fairly strong GRE scores (i.e. Quant 780+, Verbal 550+, AWA 4.5+). Though your verbal score is on the lower side, I'm sure that the admission committees will consider the fact you are an international student. If you were to retake the GRE, I believe you will end up taking the revised version. I personally don't know what kind of questions will be tested on the new GRE. It may be harder. Furthermore some people have told me that top schools don't care too much about GRE scores. Your research experience, SOP, GPA, etc. are much more important.

Kevin

[Sarp]

Hi Aaron. Thanks for your reply. Actually I have 2 publications in my native language which is "Turkish" and one research report in "English". I don't know how important the language of the publications are but I can translate them to English if they want. The only problem is the total pages of my publications are more than 200, so it takes a lot time to translate. As a result of that I plan to send only the abstracts of my publications. Moreover, I don't belive that GRE verbal is somehow related to my communication skills. It is more like testing how much verb that I can store in my mind and as all you know an engineering student is away from "Verbs" during his career. Thanks for all of the replies.

Edited August 1, 2011 by Sarp

[alboities]

Hey all,

My name is Albert and I was hoping someone could answer a few questions I had.

I currently have a 3.7 GPA at WUSTL. Removing my worst quarter puts me at about a 3.85 (rough estimate, I didn't do so well freshmen year...);

Also my last 4 quarters are straight A's including 5 A+'s (these last 4 quarters are also the more difficult coursework areas)

-Will grad schools look at my GPA more "leniently" because I screwed up freshmen year? or am I labeled as a mere 3.7?

Do grad schools look at PHD vs. Masters applicants differently? I am leaning towards doing the 1 to 2 year masters program rather than a full PHD program.

For publications, I was also under the impression you have to be the primary author in order for it to really be signifiant? I have participated in 2 research positions and will hopefully write part of a publication on my specific area, but will not be labelled as the primary author.

I was hoping I could get an honest opinion about my prospects for getting into a top 5 engineering graduate program (stanford, caltech, MIT, cal, etc.)? I have not taken the GRE yet (i'm taking a year off first), but I'd like to forecast (800 Math, 650+ english, 4+ writing)

[Bhargava Chandra Devineni]

Hello everybody,

My name is Bhargava. I'm a medical graduate from India. Though I've got into medicine for some reasons I have a great passion for Robotics and AI. So could someone please let me know any way I can do a PhD in Robotic or AI in the Carnegie Mellon.

That being said, I would like to say that I'm aware of the fact that this path is extremely competitive and challenging. And since my aim is to dedicate the rest of my career life to the research, it doesn't matter how long it takes for me to get there.

Please suggest me any possible way to get there. It doesn't matter if I have to do masters or additional research prior to applying or any competitive test that I need to take apart from GRE and TOEFL.

Awaiting reply.....

Thank you,

Bhargava.

Edited November 7, 2011 by Bhargava Chandra Devineni

[Snowqueen]

Some acceptances are starting to come for PhD programs in engineering. Jan 08/01/21012

I am a Caucaisian woman in Dartmouth in Engineering, 3.8 GPA, top 10%, full time summer and part-time school-year research jobs in field I am applying in (Engineering- electrical nanotech), GRE (800 math, 780/780), 2 conference presentations, no papers, two academic awards. letters of reference from well-known profs who know me well and seem to like me a lot- one I do research for, the other I TA for. TAed for 3 classes. Taken many graduate level classes adn received 90% marks.

Caltec

Berkeley

UC San Diego

Columbia

U Penn

U Washington- accepted

Cornell-accepted

Duke

USC

.