2013 Applicant Profiles and Results

[ShortLong]

Undergrad Institution: UT Austin
Major(s): Aerospace Engineering
Minor(s):
GPA in Major:
Overall GPA: 3.80
Length of Degree: 5 years because took two semester off to co-op
Position in Class: Near top, I tihnk
Type of Student: Domestic female

GRE Scores:
Q: 166
V: 165
W: 4.0

Research Experience: In fourth semester working in a satellite lab, two summer internships at a DoD research lab, a 6 month co-op at a NASA center, two summer internships at a different NASA center, 5 month co-op at a private space flight company rocket test site

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Iridium scholarship, a couple internal school scholarships

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Internships listed above, 3 semesters as a tutor

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Applying for [ MS ] or [ PhD ] at:

MIT - Aero/Astro - Accepted/ March 1/ available depending on project

Georgia Tech - Aerospace - Accepted / Jan 28/ TA position for first year, assured for following years, nominated for $42,000 two year fellowship

UIUC - Aerospace - Accepted / Feb / $20,000 1st year fellowship

Purdue - Aerospace - Accepted / Jan 27 / No word

Maryland - Aerospace - No word

[schai]

Posted before, but can't figure out how to edit my post.

 

Undergrad Institution: Duke University (top 3 BME program, top 30 ECE program)
Major(s): Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering (applying for electrical engineering, concentration in signal processing or bio-electrical engineering)
Minor(s): Chemistry
GPA in Major: 3.90
Overall GPA: 3.88
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: Top 10%?
Type of Student: Asian male

GRE Scores:
Q: 170 (99%)
V: 164 (94%)
W: 4.5 (73%)

Research Experience: 
1 summer of unrelated research in a biotech lab
1 semester senior design project designing and implementing a Sleep Apnea monitoring and therapeutic device
Will be doing an independent study in Embedded Medical Devices and Systems next semester

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 
Tau Beta Pi National Engineering Honor Society
Dean's List with Distinction
likely Magna Cum Laude 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
Teaching Assistant in the ECE department (computer architecture, signal processing) - 4 semesters
Internship at OmniVision Technologies working with optical sensor verification, in the field of signal and image processing - 1 summer
Internship at a optical fiber communications lab at a university in Beijing - 1 summer

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:
Engineers without Borders - worked on a team designing and building a water storage and distribution system for a rural village in Uganda
Fairly extensive volunteering experience
Letter of recommendations are solid 

Applying for [ MS ] at:
Stanford - rejected
Berkeley - still waiting
UCLA - accepted
UCSD - still waiting
UCSB - accepted
CMU - accepted
UIUC - accepted
U Mich - accepted
USC - accepted
MIT [PhD] - rejected

[El ingeniero]

Undergrad Institution: Accredited international university, very well known in my country
Major(s): Mechanical Engg
Minor(s): Mathematics
GPA in Major: 3.7
Overall GPA: 3.6
Length of Degree: 4 yrs
Position in Class: Above average
Type of Student: International

GRE Scores: (OLD FORMAT)
Q: 800
V: 720
W: 4.5

TOEFL Total: 106 (Old Format)

Research Experience: Masters thesis (article not yet submitted) , Global intern- Advanced R&D group, Digital Appliance Division at Samsung Electronics, South Korea

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:  

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:  TA for 2 semesters (Fluid Mech & Thermo)

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Applying for [ MS ] or [ PhD ] at:

 

RPI - admitted

 

Texas A&M - admitted

 

UT  -Austin - reject

 

UC - Berkeley  - reject

 

MIT - Reject

[Bhrigu]

Undergrad Institution: Well known in my country
Major(s): Electronics and Communication Engineering
Minor(s): -
GPA in Major: 3.99
Overall GPA: 3.99
Length of Degree: 4 years 
Position in Class: Above average but not topper
Type of Student: International/male

GRE Scores:
Q: 169
V: 170
W: 4.0

Research Experience: n/a (co-authored 1 domestic paper, but didn't highlight it much)

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: n/a

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 18 months in a reputed consulting firm

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: College level student leadership, math-oriented projects at job (highlighted this in SOP)

Applying for [ MS ] or at:

UC Berkeley M.Eng in IEOR (Unofficial admit - 15 Mar, Waiting for formal admissions packet) 

Stanford MS&E (Reject) 

Carnegie Mellon MISM (Admit) 

U Cincinnati MS Business Analytics (Admit) 

 

Future classmates, please get in touch! Its hard to find people headed to UCB! 

[wabisabi]

U Col. (Boulder): Mechanical Eng. [2/15: accepted, told that they'll decide funding based on visits in March. Probably won't bother.]

 

Man, am I glad that I actually visited CU Boulder! Turns out Boulder is a nice town, my POI is a baller,* and the mechanical engineering department is going through a big expansion right now. All the students seemed happy, the faculty have a ton of interesting projects going on, and with NOAA, NCAR, NREL, and NIST nearby, it's like this little science mecca. And I really like the University of Colorado's campus.

 

I had been kind of turned off by the fact that they alone didn't offer to pay for me to visit . . . I thought that was an indication that they weren't enthusiastic about my coming there. That turned out to be totally wrong, and they did in fact cover my expenses.

 

It's going to be a tough decision. 

 

 

* actual quote: "Well we have our own cluster, of course, but for big things we'll also get you an account on the NASA supercomputers."

Edited April 4, 2013 by wabisabi

[budgie]

Undergrad Institution: UCSD (very good reputation for BME/BioE)
Major(s): Bioengineering:Biotechnology
Overall GPA: 3.90
Length of Degree: I was a community college transfer student, so this is a complicated question, lol
Position in Class: Top 5%
Type of Student: Domestic female

GRE Scores:
Q: 159
V: 158
W: 4.5

Research Experience: 8 months in biosensors lab, 8 months senior design project.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Leadership in BMES, TBP, and member of EWH.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA position in introductory bioengineering course

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Spent summer 2012 studying abroad at Cambridge University

Applied for PhD at:

 

Caltech - Rejected

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - Interviewed, then Rejected

University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) - Interviewed, then Accepted

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - Interviewed, then Accepted

Cornell - Accepted 

Attending:

CORNELL !!!

Overall, I feel that I've been really successful this application cycle and I'm very happy with all the options I was given. It was hard to choose, but I decided to go to the school that impressed me the most during the recruitment weekend with their research, environment, and resources. Message me if you'll also be attending Cornell in the fall, I'm thinking that I'll set up a Facebook meet and greet page =]


 

[phyzixguy]

Undergrad Institution: Large Public School in Virginia
Major(s): Systems Engineering (Ops Research)
Overall GPA: 3.7
Length of Degree: 4-years
Position in Class: Top 10%
Type of Student: Caucasian, Domestic Male

 

GRE Scores: 152V,166Q,4.5AW

 

Applied: Cornell M.Eng Systems Engineering (Accepted 4/16/13), Columbia M.S. Systems Engineering (Awaiting Decision)

 

Attending: Cornell M.Eng Systems Engineering (Summer 2013)

 

Cornell was my first choice over Columbia :-)

Edited April 19, 2013 by phyzixguy

[Visiting]

Undergrad Institution: Boston University

Major(s): Environmental Science / Environmental Remote Sensing & GIS (BA/MA)
Minor(s): Mathematics, Physics
GPA in Major: 3.87, 3.62 (BA, MA)
Overall GPA: 3.80
Length of Degree: 4 years 
Position in Class: No idea; probably top/close to top in department GPA wise, but certainly not school-wise
Type of Student: Male

GRE Scores:
Q: 169
V: 162
W: 5.5

Research Experience: 

Primary research: 2 years in environmental fluid mechanics - multiple undergrad research grants, first author publication submission (though it was ultimately rejected...), two international conferences (both first author)

 

Miscellaneous: 3 years volunteering in ecology lab, 1 summer of evaporation modeling work

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 2 departmental awards, 3 undergrad research grants, 2 school scholarships, Phi Beta Kappa honor society

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: probably wasn't relevant, but also worked two work-study jobs

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: good SOPs (at least one for certain; advisor read it out to me), met all my potential advisors at major conference which was a month before my application

 

Applied for PhD at:

Cornell PhD in Biological/Environmental Engineering: Never got a definitive admit or rejection at the end, though POI was interested and had an RA if I chose to come; rejected offer in early Mar

 

Duke PhD in Civil/Environmental Engineering: Admit (Unofficial/Visit, 18 Jan; Official, 30 Jan); $42k 4-year fellowship (large sum due to combination of funds from 3 fellowships)

 

Princeton PhD in Civil/Environmental Engineering: Admit (Unofficial, 24 Jan; Official, 4 Feb); $40k first-year fellowship, $4k stipend supplement for 3 years after first year - Heading here for the Fall

 

UC Berkeley PhD in Civil/Environmental Engineering (Environmental Engineering - Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology): Admit (Unofficial, 8 Feb; Official, 21 Feb); $26k first-year fellowship

[sidsm2004]

Non-traditional student here...

 

Undergrad Institution: Rhodes College  1st Graduate Institution: UT Austin 
Major(s): physics (both times)
GPA in Major: 3.5
Overall GPA: 3.5
Length of Degree: 4 years to BS, 2.5 years for MA (both in physics)

Position in Class: no idea, top half undergrad for sure
Type of Student: domestic, female

GRE Scores:
Q: 164 (800 on old system the first time around, but the scores expire after 5 years, took again with little prep)
V: 163
W: 4.5

Research Experience: 2 REUs in undergrad, then 2 years on a masters thesis in physics

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: tons of TA experience, high school math teacher for 6 years

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I think I had really good recs and my personal statement was pretty solid. 

Applying for MS in Aerospace Engineering at:

North Carolina State - accepted

U of Texas - accepted, no official funding offer, but met with a professor about a research project

U of Maryland - accepted, TA and fellowship offer that will cover me

WUSTL -accepted

U of Virginia - never heard back from them

 

Will be attending Maryland...really anxious to start!