Nuclear programs Fall 14

[1535nuke]

Well to be optimistic perhaps those were first round acceptances that were top tier students- my hope is to get in as a late round acceptance- and they send rejection emails also but those take much longer since they will make sure they've filled their openings before sending out all the rejections- Clare Egan told me last week that "the committee is currently in the process of reviewing applications" so if you haven't heard anything I think it's safe to say you're definitely not a first round pick- but again just being an optimist, many students choose not to attend for various reasons- the guy I mentioned who got accepted in April chose not to go due to the cost of living in Boston- he was able to get a lot more money at another school when cost of living was factored in

[nukee]

Thank you for the information and advices!

[gregsinc]

I'm glad I found this. From looking at the results page, I wasn't sure if I was the only one waiting to hear back from schools. I have applied to the following programs, and have not heard back from any of them, except Wisconsin.

 

Berkeley 9 (PhD) - waiting

Purdue (PhD) - waiting

UC San Diego (Mechanical PhD) - waiting

U Michigan (PhD) - waiting

Wisconsin (PhD) - admitted to MS

 

However, even though I applied to Wisconsin's PhD program, they admitted me in MS. Has anyone received a letter of admission from U-W, like they mentioned in their acceptance email? Just curious.

 

Hoping for some good news soon.

[NuclearFlea]

I was admitted to the UW-Madison PhD program but I have not yet received word on funding.  I will be flying out there tomorrow for a visitation of the EP and NE departments.

[NuclearFlea]

Wisconsin's department was amazing. Will probably go there if they offer funding.

[SWEI]

Hi fellows, congrats to those who got offers.  I have applied to MIT and berkeley's nuclear engineering, and I am still waiting for results.  I have got offer from Gatech with generous TAship.  Should I wait for MIT and Berkeley?  I tried to email the graduate program coordinators and got no responses.  Any suggestions?   Such a long wait....

[PBD]

Wow, I'm glad I found this thread. Was starting to get stressed about how some programs have sent funding letters & some haven't, and some don't respond... anyway, here is what I have so far.  I applied for MS programs

 

UIUC- admitted in early Feb. with an TAship for 9 mo with offer to extend to 11 mo. I am enamored of their computational engineering minor!

 

Texas A & M admitted with a nice TA ship, same terms. Getting lots of mail from them- they do make one feel wanted, which is nice.

 

Wisconsin- admitted, no word on funding except did ask for some info and received a letter advising me to contact profs I might be interested in working with and a form to apply for TAship- it's not much, though.  Like 14k. Not encouraging, but the tuition waiver would help as I'm out-of-state. The letter was dated Feb 3 but was emailed to me last week after I asked about it. 

 

Michigan- admitted Feb 24, no word on funding, though I did ask.

 

And a couple of other places but these are my top schools. I think I did application overkill; lol, there weren't any nuclear profs at my school so no one could really tell me much about what to aim for, so I aimed for every place....

 

Really want to visit some of these programs but I'm having trouble getting a response from Michigan. Is it true that I can count on being funded there, or is that guarantee reserved for PhD students? 

Edited March 4, 2014 by PBD

[nukee]

To SWEI:

I also applied to Mit (MS) and Berkeley (MS/PhD) nuclear engineering programs. I did not get any answer from Berkeley but Mit sent me a postal mail this Monday. The delivery will take about a week because I am an international applicant. I have no idea what this will be because there were no notice regarding my admission until now and the application website stayed the same.

To PBD:

I also got a PhD admission from Texas AM nuclear engineering in early Feb but no words on funding yet. I think the delay is happening because I am an international student...

Anyway, Mit MS and Michigan PhD are my priorities.... I hope the postal package to be a letter of acceptance. I will post here when it arrives.

[nukee]

Michigan told us to apply for the PhD program if the final degree plan is PhD regardless of the current degree of the applicant holds ( BS or MS). Because of this, I think applying to the MS program will look like you are going to get a MS degree and that's all. No PhD. Also, they sometimes give MS admission to PhD applicants. So I think the probability of being funded will be very low...

[PBD]

Well, I had only decided to pursue NE in the last year or two, and I come from a school that doesn't have a NE program, so I don't feel I have a broad enough exposure to the field to really jump into a PhD just yet.  I told the programs (including Michigan) in my application that I'd most likely go on to get a PhD, though. One program has asked to place me into a PhD track right now, but I'd like to learn more before I commit to a certain area of study within the field. So we'll see what happens, but I'm not sad about the choices I do have so far, that's for sure!  It's already more than I had hoped for. 

 

Good luck, nuckee, hope that package is a big fat admission to MIT!

Edited March 5, 2014 by PBD

[NuclearFlea]

I haven't been accepted to Michigan and I worked in one of their labs for. whole summer last year...kind of insulting. Still waiting on Berkeley and UTK. Wisconsin admitted PhD. At the visit weekend Wisconsin said funding offers would come out this week or next week. It was really an awesome school and I hope they give me an RA.

[nukee]

Well.. this can be a bit off topic but I wonder how you guys think about the future of nuclear industry and R&D in the United States. (I found most of you are Americans)

 

Based on what I've heard, some high ranking universities such as Stanford and UCLA once had nuclear engineering programs but they disappeared one day. Also, other universities such as University of Maryland splitted their nuclear engineering department and put it to materials engineering and reliability engineering. Now, there aren't many nuclear engineering programs... (This is visible when you see US News graduate school ranking)

 

The reason why I'm asking this is because I do want to get a job in US after my graduate studies if given the chance. (I also heard that it is very hard to get a permanent job in national labs without a citizenship)

[PBD]

Well, I've heard that any engineer, no matter the field, ought to have a backup plan. My dad was an engineer (before he switched fields entirely) and they were all crushed by the oil crisis in the '80s- but now petroleum engineering is really hot. It probably won't be again in another 30 years. It's always cyclical. So I think a nuclear engineer should have a back-up plan but I don't think we're really special that way. In some ways all the negative talk about the field has kept people out of it and that leaves more for us!

[1535nuke]

I think that there are three big issues- the NRC prevents development of gen IV reactors, there are a lot of very wealthy people in the oil industry who don't want to see nuclear succeed, and the public is scared to death of radiation and reactors blowing up like bombs because of the media coverage of Fukushima and because of a lack of knowledge. That said, I think that the only thing that can be said definitively is that the industry will either go up or go down. So I agree with PBD on having a backup, I try to keep contacts in the mechanical/civil type fields from my hometown in case I ever need to jump ship and get a job designing buildings or heating systems.

[IbbetCodWuvivEgg]

Nuclear power provides the only clean source of baseload, and that's not changing any time soon. Unemployment amongst nuclear engineers is non-existent. Public opinion in the United States did not change significantly following Fukushima. The 'oil industry' does not generally compete with nuclear power, but gas does. The fact that gas is so cheap, combined with the incredible expense and long-term financial commitment entailed by construction of a reactor is why reactor construction in the United States is so paltry. There is no significant threat to most COBOLs by advocacy groups.

 

Mass retirement is looming for nukes working in utilities, labs, and vendors. There's space for you whether you overqualify yourself for most of those jobs or not.

 

Just because there are less programs doesn't mean the demand for those engineers has or will significantly contract. I would point to the median salary of US nukes as indication of this.

 

The industry is devoting significant resources to effecting a new regulatory regime which will put competitors of baseload at a significant disadvantage, and more and more green advocates are seeing the light. Public opinion is on the side of nuclear power, and I think this trend will only increase as the American public increasingly rejects the efforts of anti-AGW actors.

 

Worldwide, reactor construction is proceeding at a pace unprecedented since the initial expansion. If you're not tied to the United States, there are other opportunities.

 

Is there a single Gen. IV reactor proposal which is hampered more by the actions of the NRC than the technical challenges and consequential financial risk it presents?

Edited March 5, 2014 by IbbetCodWuvivEgg

[PBD]

Ibbet, that's a good point about salaries. The fact that pay is high indicates that, whatever else is going on, there aren't too many nuclear engineers. That gets back to my thought about "leaving more for us". Nuclear is small, but that doesn't mean it has poor prospects.

 

I read up on the  Berkeley department, just because I was interested in why they were the only one in California. And what it came down to was that after WWII, many individuals at other universities in California were opposed to nuclear weapons research. They got out of  nuclear fairly early on, or never got into it to begin with. I'm not sure what, if any, thought was given regarding nuclear power, and of course back then all the other uses of radiation, like medical , etc. were barely beginning.

Edited March 5, 2014 by PBD

[SWEI]

To SWEI:

I also applied to Mit (MS) and Berkeley (MS/PhD) nuclear engineering programs. I did not get any answer from Berkeley but Mit sent me a postal mail this Monday. The delivery will take about a week because I am an international applicant. I have no idea what this will be because there were no notice regarding my admission until now and the application website stayed the same.

To PBD:

I also got a PhD admission from Texas AM nuclear engineering in early Feb but no words on funding yet. I think the delay is happening because I am an international student...

Anyway, Mit MS and Michigan PhD are my priorities.... I hope the postal package to be a letter of acceptance. I will post here when it arrives.

Thanks a lot, nukee.  Wish you will get the best result. ))

[nukee]

Wow. More and more people are joining this thread. Thank you very much for the helpful information. And thank you and best wishes to you also SWEI!

May the force be with you.

[NuclearFlea]

Anyone heard from Michigan yet?  The coordinator told me they are still in the process of revieiwing applications... but the engineering dept. visits are next weekend.

[SWEI]

Wow. More and more people are joining this thread. Thank you very much for the helpful information. And thank you and best wishes to you also SWEI!

May the force be with you.

 

Thanks, nukee.  Though we probably cannot do much about the final decision, talking to folks going through the same process helps with my anxiety a lot.  I read some very thoughtful opinions about nuclear engineering in this post.  And I really enjoyed them.  Maybe we will work together sometime in the future.  Spring will come soon after a long winter.  

[1535nuke]

I've gotten to the point where I'm just not anxious anymore- I still think about it constantly but I too am just looking forward to spring

[nukee]

Finally....I've come to the end.

 

Today morning, I received an email from Michigan notifying that I am in the waiting list. However, this afternoon, the FedEx package I had talked about before has arrived and it was an acceptance letter from MIT NSE. Wierd thing is that I applied to their MS program but I got a PhD admission with sufficient fundings. Super excited!

 

I am going to send emails to other universities to tell them stop reviewing my application. I appreciate all of you in this thread for giving advises and hope you all to get admissions from universities you want.

[NuclearFlea]

wow, that's great! I got wait listed at michigan, too, but I got offered a full RA package at UW madison. Congratulations on your MIT acceptance! You aren't going to visit the campus before you decide?

[nukee]

Well... I live in South Korea so it will cost more than $2,000 to buy a round trip ticket to Boston...... I think it's the opposite site of the Earth (15 hours flight). I will visit if they ask but if not, I will move to US in mid July.

 

Contractulations NuclearFlea for the RA package. We will meet in a conference someday haha.

 

For the bright future of nuclear energy !

[Some1234]

Congratulations nukee

 

I am still waiting MIT decision... I got a PhD adimission from PennState and Tennessee and I am also in the wait list of Michigan...