Applying to PhD after MS

[brahmin]

I will be graduating with a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering in about 6 months from Stanford and I'll be applying to other schools this December for PhD and wanted to know what to expect. I have seen similar posts online but with my profile I'm still not sure.

MS GPA = 3.6

UG institution = Georgia Tech

UG GPA = 3.85

GRE = 800/520

3.6 isn't all that great but it's improving. It took me a while to kinda get used to the rise in standards and to figure out how to study better.

I got rejected from all PhD programs I applied to when I applied after UG, I should have had some safety schools. The worst school I applied to was UMich. This was partly because I had a spot in Georgia Tech. I was told though that I was really close to getting into Cornell.

In stanford, I did research with 3 profs (working on a project with a third one right now)...I have no exceptional results to show from my research, like publishing reports. And in both cases, my work didn't lead me to a funded position in the prof's lab which kind of hints to the quality of my work.

However, I liked the projects I worked on and on a personal level, was satisfied with my results/reports and took a good amount from my experiences. They are also much more related to the field I am interested in. My research experiences in Georgia Tech were from different areas. The 3 LORs I will be submitting this time will be from prof's who I did research with as opposed to 2/3 from Georgia Tech so I have that going for me.

I will be widening my selection of schools this time. Any advice and thoughts on my application will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[intirb]

Um.. have you had frank conversations with the professors you've worked with in the lab? I'm not sure whether or not getting a funded position in the labs necessarily means they approve or disapprove of your work, but if you're worried about how they perceive the quality of your work, I think it might help to ask. Then you'll also get a better idea of how strong of a recommendation they're writing for you, and maybe where you need to improve.

Don't worry about the GPA at all - mine was much lower, and I did pretty well last year. It's ALL about your research experience and LORs. (ok, not ALL, but like 95%)

[Radian]

Well, but with all due respect, when you are not getting funded on a project it means that there is not enough money for you. How it seems: the project was not funded well enough for the professor to support the working student meaning the project was not something either worthy or solely defined for that student.

THOUGH, the Stanford brand should help you a lot in getting you somewhere very good.

Edited October 23, 2012 by Radian