MS Aerospace Eng. (or Aero/Astro) Applicant: Ranking Departments

[iamthewalrus696]

I'm a physics & astrophysics student who has been accepted into a number of master's programs in Aerospace Engineering or similar. My number one problem: my school doesn't have an aerospace department, and I don't know anyone else who wants to do AE, so I have very little idea about the prestige/quality of different programs.

 

Basically, I'm wondering what the difference in future job (or maybe Ph.D.) prospects would be with an MS from Stanford vs. Illinois (or Purdue, or Minnesota, etc). From what people told me at Stanford, the generally accepted top 3 departments are Stanford, MIT, and Caltech. Beyond that, my only ideas of rankings come from the US News & World Report rankings.

 

I just want to get an idea of this, since Stanford is the highest ranked school I've gotten into, but I've gotten at least one offer of money from another school.  I need to weigh prestige/quality of department vs. who offers me money, since if I end up going to Stanford I'll probably end up with a bunch of debt. For my full admission results (so far) see my signature. Any info on how to weigh these departments against each other would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[ShortLong]

I am an undergraduate in Aerospace, for a bit of background, applying for Master/PhD programs. For starters, you applied to a lot of really good schools, and you won't be sacrificing much in terms of prestige going to any of them. 

 

Yes the generally accepted top 3 are MIT, Caltech, and Stanford, but Georgia Tech is also lumped into their category as an equal. The next tier of your admits would probably be Purdue, Illinois,  Minnesota, and Maryland, then the next tier is the rest of your schools. 

 

It is a very good sign that you were invited to visit Georgia Tech, and probably means you are accepted. I have a friend that was accepted, and not invited to visit. 

 

This decision depends a lot on what you are interested in within the field, but Georgia Tech is much better about funding than Stanford and can give you an almost equal education in terms of prestige. Purdue is very well known when it comes to space, like orbital mechanics and such. I am not as familiar with the last tier schools on your list (not overall, just the worst of the best if that makes sense. I think you should look at which companies recruit at which schools. For example, I am a space person and I would love to work for JPL. JPL recruits on campus at schools like MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech, Purdue, and UT Austin (with a few others I can't remember). 

 

I would recommend that you go back over the schools that have accepted you and figure out which ones are the best fit research wise, then look at prestige.

[aero9]

Yes the generally accepted top 3 are MIT, Caltech, and Stanford, but Georgia Tech is also lumped into their category as an equal. The next tier of your admits would probably be Purdue, Illinois,  Minnesota, and Maryland, then the next tier is the rest of your schools. 

 

I think this is correct for the most part. I would replace Minnesota with Princeton though.

 

It is a very good sign that you were invited to visit Georgia Tech, and probably means you are accepted. I have a friend that was accepted, and not invited to visit. 

 

Yep, Georgia Tech and Maryland aren't as 'methodical' when it comes to sending out admits but an invitation to visit is a very good sign.

 

This decision depends a lot on what you are interested in within the field, but Georgia Tech is much better about funding than Stanford and can give you an almost equal education in terms of prestige. Purdue is very well known when it comes to space, like orbital mechanics and such. I am not as familiar with the last tier schools on your list (not overall, just the worst of the best if that makes sense. I think you should look at which companies recruit at which schools. For example, I am a space person and I would love to work for JPL. JPL recruits on campus at schools like MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech, Purdue, and UT Austin (with a few others I can't remember). 

 

Yep, each school has strengths and weaknesses in terms of certain categories such as propulsion, fluids/aerodynamics, structures, and controls. MIT, for example, is very strong in controls but their fluids/aerodynamics is probably their weakest area at the moment.

 

I would recommend that you go back over the schools that have accepted you and figure out which ones are the best fit research wise, then look at prestige.

 

Absolutely. Figuring out a potential lab and advisor are very important so I definitely think you shouldn't over rely on the prestige factor. If you get the opportunity, visiting the schools to which you were admitted and talking to the professors will help you get a better idea if the school is a good fit for you or not. Since you were admitted to so many schools, you probably won't get to visit them all. To address the funding part of your post, I don't think it's worth going into huge amounts of debt at Stanford if you get an excellent offer from a school as good as Georgia Tech or Purdue. In the end, however, only you will know whether or not it's worth it.

[ShortLong]

I think this is correct for the most part. I would replace Minnesota with Princeton though.

 Oops sorry, I agree with this correction. I was only ranking the schools you applied to and overlooked Princeton.

[iamthewalrus696]

Thanks for your responses. Just got waitlisted at MIT... argh. It's a shame that the only place that has offered me funding so far is Minnesota, which you guys seem to put on the third tier or so (if the first is Stanford/MIT/Caltech and second is GT/Purdue/Illinois/Maryland). 

 

In terms of research interests, I'm more interested in the space side of things right now, which Stanford seems to be good for. I need to do a little more research to see how well the other schools will fit into that. I hope that GT will offer me some sort of aid (and accept me) since they seem to be a nice program. It's hard to tell for me which schools have the best space focus, since they all seem to have at least one lab or a couple professors working on it. Stanford seems to have several labs, but I keep coming back to the money issue with them (and the fact that I'd like to go somewhere other than the bay area, where I've lived my whole life).

 

I'd like to get a better idea of the programs at Purdue and Illinois since they've accepted me, but they aren't offering to fly me out so I'm not sure I'll be able to physically visit. Visiting Michigan would also be nice but I'm not sure about the quality of the MEng program that I applied to.

 

A professor at Maryland has also talked to me about giving me a TAship, but I haven't actually gotten a decision from them. Does this mean I'm in...? Thanks a lot.

[mnipenny]

If you are only interested in industry with a master degree, M.Eng in Umich is actually a very good choice. 

From what I know, SpaceX hires lots of space engineering people from Umich, and Professor Cutler are doing very well in his nano-satellite project.

[iamthewalrus696]

If you are only interested in industry with a master degree, M.Eng in Umich is actually a very good choice. 

From what I know, SpaceX hires lots of space engineering people from Umich, and Professor Cutler are doing very well in his nano-satellite project.

 

Thanks for this information. Currently I am actually very interested in just going into industry afterwards. I've heard UMich mentioned as a top 5 school, but I think that was more with respect to their MS program; hard to tell the quality of the M.Eng. program. I would DEFINITELY like to work at SpaceX, so that sounds quite good.

[aero9]

A professor at Maryland has also talked to me about giving me a TAship, but I haven't actually gotten a decision from them. Does this mean I'm in...? Thanks a lot.

 

Do you by any chance know which professor? Maryland was where I went for undergrad so I'm fairly familiar with the department. Quite a few schools send out funding offers quite a bit after they send out admissions decisions, so I wouldn't worry about that just yet.

 

I know it may be difficult especially since airfares are more expensive this year, but I would strongly recommend physically visiting the school if you can. Perhaps it will only be feasible to visit the ones you are most interested in.

 

 

Thanks for your responses. Just got waitlisted at MIT... argh. It's a shame that the only place that has offered me funding so far is Minnesota, which you guys seem to put on the third tier or so (if the first is Stanford/MIT/Caltech and second is GT/Purdue/Illinois/Maryland). 

 

I wouldn't say Minnesota is 'third tier.' They are consistently ranked in the top 15 I believe and I know one of the professors at Maryland went there for her Ph.D.

Are you interested in doing just a masters or are you planning on going on to do a Ph.D.?

[rossn7]

I have the same concern as you to a lesser degree.....accepted to Purdue, USC (Astronautical), and Virginia Tech. Applied to masters program for Virginia Tech and they accepted me into PhD program with 5 years funding. However, I know Purdue is held in higher regard in the industry but they haven't talked funding yet. Still don't know what to do yet.

 

For your situation, I would tough it out with Stanford even if you go into debt because with a PhD there you will have no problem getting a job or professorship anywhere. You may be better of financially going to Minnesota or a lower ranked school that's better funding you, but you don't want to spend the next 2-5 years wondering what could have been if you went to Stanford.