New year new app (mech eng)

[ponja]

I know it's a bit early to throw in the towel but with 1 rejection and acceptances for three other universities having been sent out I feel a bit gloomy.

I also that what the heck it won't hurt starting to plan for next year a bit early.

So this is what I have so far:

English top science university (65% average, equivalent of about 3.6 gpa, top 25% maybe? not sure)

GRE: 770/520/4.0

2 relevant summer internships in engineering and 1 research internship at a Swedish university.

Recs: 1 excellent rec from the research internship, 1 from third year project which is also excellent but recommender is not PhD but senior lecturer. 1 rec from another prof which knows me a bit and likes me but no amazing rec.

A's in relevant courses for fluids/mechatronics/control except for 2nd year maths - C.

Profs liked my SoP but I will go through it again I guess.

So my plan for the coming year:

Summer internship, applying for UROP at my university which would be a 2 month pure CFD internship. Also got accepted to a 6 week internship at Stockholm royal institute of technology. Now I'm not sure what to pick here if I get the UROP as well. The UROP is pure research with a known researcher who could have useful connections. The Stockholm internship involves setting up mechatronics equipment for a new course and also creating notes for laborations. However the Stockholm internship gives a sizeable amount of money while the English one barely allows me to survive in London. In any case this should take care of summer.

After this I'd love to get a research internship somewhere for a year but I highly doubt this will happen so my options are to take 1 year of either advanced engineering courses or maths courses to boost my foundation or even get a job.

What I'm looking for is to boost my application as much as possible, looking at top 10 mechanical engineering Masters degrees (could be non-funded). So my question is what would you recommend me doing in this scenario given my opportunities and background.

Sorry for the long post =)

[liszt85]

One way to gain entry to a dream school is to try to do a summer project with a professor you'd like to work with there. Batchmates of mine, with very average profiles (compared to some others here) got to do projects with professors in places like UIUC, UTA, etc.. and made connections from there. One of them just got accepted to Berkeley. One person did his summer project at UCSD, his photo was on their lab website and he got accepted to their PhD program as well.

So you may be better off looking for short term research opportunities at your dream schools than going all the way to the Stockholm Royal Institute of Technology. Also setting up equipment for lab is not exactly work I'd do to boost my resume. What I'd do would be to try and get started on some research with the hope of publishing some original work. If you have one or two strong first authored papers to prove your research orientation, schools normally find it easier to admit you because they would be confident that you'd contribute to their research activities (esp if you apply to be a thesis student). So that way, I'd probably go for the UROP (if I'm to choose between this and stockholm) even if it only pays for basic living expenses, esp since I perceive that money is not really a huge issue for you.

[ponja]

Some nice perception there :roll:

I have looked over their pages and it seems as though most of their research opportunities are only available for american students. In either case I believe it would be too late in the game to put forward any application now =/

[TulipOHare]

Some nice perception there :roll:

Well, YOU asked. :roll:

[ponja]

Just joking

You're actually right, just heard from my supervisor and he totally agrees, does not seem like it will be beneficial for next year at all. Unless I get the UROP fundin I'll probably do a UROP but without any payment as he's ready to use me for research (obviously)