anxious prospective grad student seeking feedback

[hfrood]

Hi all. I'm graduating in about 3 weeks from now with a BS in computer engineering from a top 100 school. I just recently decided that I want to go to grad school in the Fall of 2010. Understandably, with the end of my undergrad coming up, along with my Senior Capstone presentation, and everything else that's happening, I'm feeling very anxious, nervous, and uncertain about my future. I thought I would post here to get some feedback and input.

I think my track record as an undergrad has been average. My cumulative GPA is a 3.35, although my major GPA is a bit higher at 3.495. My grades have gotten steadily better as my coursework got more challenging, and I've received "Dean's Honor" for the past 3 quarters. As for research, I'm working with one professor this quarter, but that's it. I've participated only marginally in extra-curricular clubs such as IEEE and ACM, but I've been working for the past two years while going to school. First I worked on campus in an IT department, but I got tired of it and got a job at a nearby software company as a developer, where I work currently. In my free time, I love to learn about new things and mess around with programming, circuitry, and general Linuxy sort of things. In this way, I have general knowledge and interest in many topics. However, I can't see how I can express this on grad school applications, unless I find a way to work on research that combines some of these fields of interest.

My interests are wide ranging, and I had a lot of trouble figuring out exactly what I would do in grad school (and to be honest, I'm still not entirely sure). I searched around a little bit and found CMU's robotics program with their "Neural Basis of Cognition Option." I thought this sounds perfect for me, because it's a mix of computer engineering and biology in exactly the proportions that I like. I'm very interested in cellular biology, neuroscience, and robotics. In fact, I almost double-majored in bio-psychology and CE, but settled for taking as many psych classes as possible as electives. However, when I looked a little more into it, I felt like perhaps a PhD at CMU is a bit of a lofty goal for someone with my record right now (average incoming GPA for the program is 3.8!).

To that end, I realized I have to do more to build up my research experience and get nice letters of rec. I'm at the point now where I'm planning to talk to some professors on campus to see if I can find one to do research with over the summer before I apply in September. I've already made plans to continue researching with the one professor I mentioned before, but I'd like to do more. I'll also continue working at most 30 hours a week.

What do you think? Am I off to a good start, or am I starting too late? Is a PhD program a bit unrealistic for me now? Should I go for an MS first? The company I work for now is entirely high level software. Should I quit, and try to work for a more engineering-based company for the next year? One thing to note about that: my work schedule is extremely flexible, so I'd be able to balance work and research this summer. This will probably not be the case if I worked for an engineering company.

Thanks in advance for your input! Writing this at all has done a lot to ease my anxiety.

--hfrood

[Stories]

You're on the right path. Your GPA is fine. Keep on working in the industry you're wanting to get the degree in and refine your research goals. Once you've set out what your true research goals are, you can then tackle good fits for doing a PhD. If you want to do a MS, just in case you're unsure if the PhD is the right path for you, go ahead. But if you know you want the PhD, apply straight for it. Keep your options open, though, and don't set your heart too much on one program because you're setting yourself up for disappointment if you do (graduate admissions are in no way predictable).

[hfrood]

Thanks for your reply! I feel a bit better now. I think my main areas of concern are letters of rec and research. Hopefully if I manage to get some good research this summer, the same professor will write me a nice letter.

--hfrood

[tarski]

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