Which tier of MSEE programs should I apply to?

[algorerhythm]

Hi all,

I recently graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering with a focus in DSP from a top 100 engineering school and am now looking to get my MSEE in signal & image processing. My GPA wasn't very high (3.28), but the majority of my lower grades occurred during my freshman/sophomore year (my senior year GPA was a 3.6). I did a 5-year program with 3 different 6-month co-ops (paid internships) at notable companies throughout my college experience. My senior design project was awarded 2nd place in the College of Engineering Competition (out of roughly 140 teams). The university took interest in our project and is sponsoring 3-4 patents on our design, which are currently pending. My contributions to the design were crucial, but dealt mainly with systems, controls, and robotics rather than DSP.

I have not taken the GRE and have not gotten my recommendations together yet. I think I should have some fairly solid letters from some notable professors of mine.

I know my GPA is not very competitive, but I'm wondering if my senior design project will help to counteract it. I really have no idea which tier of grad schools I should be looking into. Please help!

Thanks!

Edited July 7, 2011 by algorerhythm

[HassE]

Hi all,

I recently graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering with a focus in DSP from a top 100 engineering school and am now looking to get my MSEE in signal & image processing. My GPA wasn't very high (3.28), but the majority of my lower grades occurred during my freshman/sophomore year (my senior year GPA was a 3.6). I did a 5-year program with 3 different 6-month co-ops (paid internships) at notable companies throughout my college experience. My senior design project was awarded 2nd place in the College of Engineering Competition (out of roughly 140 teams). The university took interest in our project and is sponsoring 3-4 patents on our design, which are currently pending. My contributions to the design were crucial, but dealt mainly with systems, controls, and robotics rather than DSP.

I have not taken the GRE and have not gotten my recommendations together yet. I think I should have some fairly solid letters from some notable professors of mine.

I know my GPA is not very competitive, but I'm wondering if my senior design project will help to counteract it. I really have no idea which tier of grad schools I should be looking into. Please help!

Thanks!

I hate to always flood the posts with this question, but unfortunately it needs to be asked. Are you a US Citizen or not? Its a major deciding factor that separates one application to the next. Once that is answered, I can then answer your question about which tier you should apply too.

[algorerhythm]

I am indeed a US Citizen.

I appreciate your help!

[HassE]

I am indeed a US Citizen.

I appreciate your help!

If your a US citizen applying for a MSEE, you can almost apply to any school and get accepted. If you don't mind me asking, which school did you go to? You did a coop which is pretty rare, not many schools offer coops. I say that because my Institute has coops, but there are only a select few that do.

The school I went to was a very small engineering school, not even a top-100 school, and even at that, I was still accepted into USC, Michigan, and Brown. Michigan and USC being a top-10 school in Electrical. I also am going into the DSP/image processing route.

I believe my coops had a big reason for my acceptance, but like michigan said, in a graduate engineering program, there are about 80% international students. Its pretty rare to find a US student applying to graduate engineering, which is the reason I asked that question.

The problem isnt whether you can get accepted into the school, the problem is that for a masters program, very rarely will they offer you funding. For me that was an issue, for you it might not be. I applied to about 12 schools, accepted into all of them but Tufts. I get accepted into two top-10 schools, but yet rejected from a 70th ranked school? MIT and some of the real top schools it might be borderline, but i'd say apply to all and any schools that interest you. Whether its a top-5 school or a top-100 school.

PM me if you want to ask more in-depth questions, will be more than happy to help. FYI, GRE scores are important if you want/need funding, but other than that, they don't really effect the admission decision to much. Had horrible scores and was still accepted.

[pinnacle1406]

He/she is right.. being a US citizen is almost the most important thing on that ap to be honest with you.

I am indeed a US Citizen.

I appreciate your help!