Fall 2015 Chemical Engineering PhD

[Jguo32]

Here are my statistics

Undergraduate student in University of Wisconsin-Madison Chemical Engineering

OVERALL GPA: 3.49/4.00

Major GPA: about the same

GRE: 317 (Q 160 V157 A 3 )

Research: 2 years research under one CBE professor with bio track  (4 semesters)

Award and Honors: 6/8 dean honor list

                                Honor in research

 

current list of school: all PhD chemical engineering

RICE

TAMU

U Chicago

U Coloumbia

Colorado school of mines

Auburn

U HOUSTON

UC-riverside

LSU

Any recommendations and input?

[Chai_latte]

Have you considered retaking the GRE?  With that said, you might want to check out some places like RPI, SUNY Buffalo, Va Tech or Iowa State.  But, if you're going for location (SW or west coast), your list looks okay to me.  

Good luck.

[Jguo32]

Yeah, I will retake it next week. But any reason for why you recommend these schools? I did prefer the locations because I will go to industry after graduation

[wha1eve1]

I think you are in good shape man! gl

[Lasserith]

Hey I see U Chicago. I'm guessing that means you applied to IME right? If you have any questions about the program or if you end up visiting hit me up, I'd love to talk to you in person, on the phone, via email w/e about the program. I'm a first year graduate student here and very excited about what's happening around me.

[Jguo32]

Yeah, I mean IME!!. One student in our department was accepted last year, and she is also first year graduate. Her GPA was higher than me, but I still want to give a try. We could email or chat in Facebook

[Chai_latte]

Yeah, I will retake it next week. But any reason for why you recommend these schools? I did prefer the locations because I will go to industry after graduation

Okay.  I was going for a little geographic diversity.  Whenever I apply, I always add in 1 or 2 equally ranked schools that aren't in "hot" locations.  They tend to have slightly higher acceptance rates, but still enjoy solid reputations.          

[Jguo32]

Updated List of School after consulting my Research Professor

Objective: Chemical Engineering Ph.D.

1. CMU

2. Rice

3.TAMU

4. Houston

5. Colombia U

6. OSU

7. CSM

8. LSU

9. UC-Riverside

10. U Chicago (IME)

[saxpack16]

Hey guys, 

How are the applications coming? I just submitted mine this week. Now the wait begins!

Where all are you applying?

[tulips]

Hi all.

 

Figured I'd bump this since acceptances/notifications have been trickling in (personally and from obsessively checking the results search).

I'm starting to think I applied to too many schools hah, but I guess better safe than sorry!

[cafe_au_lait]

I got into UT-Austin by phone on the 23rd. A bit shy to post stats on the internet for the whole world to see (may change my mind later), but PM me if you got in or want to chat about Texas!

[tulips]

I got into UT-Austin by phone on the 23rd. A bit shy to post stats on the internet for the whole world to see (may change my mind later), but PM me if you got in or want to chat about Texas!

 

Congrats! I may message you later about it.

I'm assuming you're going to the recruitment weekend in March? I wish they had two options for us. That weekend looks like it's going to conflict with at least two other schools' weekends. 

[cafe_au_lait]

Congrats! I may message you later about it.

I'm assuming you're going to the recruitment weekend in March? I wish they had two options for us. That weekend looks like it's going to conflict with at least two other schools' weekends. 

 

Thanks, congrats to you as well! I have not yet received any other acceptances but personally I'm not too worried about other weekends, as Texas was a top pick for me and there's really only one other option I'd strongly consider if I got in there. I'll look out for your PM.

[doomination]

has anyone else heard from uc berkeley? I saw someone submitted a result, but I don't know anyone else who has heard back

[tulips]

I was the one who submitted the result. Not sure who else may have heard back yet, but I also don't personally know anyone who applied there. Sorry I'm not more help!

[cafe_au_lait]

I got another acceptance! So 2/6, feeling very grateful and happy so far. But man this site is so unused that I'm worried that posting more details could out me to anyone who knows me. I expected ChemE PhD applicants to be a lot more neurotic and all over the internet anticipating this stuff, haha.

[tulips]

Congrats, cafe_au_lait! Haha yeah I'm starting to realize that too. I wish there were more ChE applicants on here too but maybe more will show up once more notifications start rolling out.

[ducktape]

Hey guys, at least one more applicant showing up-- got into Michigan so far with a call on 12/26. Pumped since it's a really solid research fit. 

 

Also hesitant to post stats (pretty unique background), but cool to meet you guys! Sounds like our lists have a good amount of overlap.

[tulips]

Congrats, ducktape! Ann Arbor is a great place to be, IMHO.

[doomination]

I saw someone submitted a decision from MIT. Did anyone else hear from them?

[cafe_au_lait]

Wasn't me There have been a couple submitted..

[teerav42]

Hey all! I went through this whole process a year ago, if you have any questions about how recruitment weekends and whatnot go let me know!

[tulips]

Hey all! I went through this whole process a year ago, if you have any questions about how recruitment weekends and whatnot go let me know!

 

Any information about recruitment weekends would be great!

On a less important topic, even after reading other threads on it, I still don't know what I should wear to these visits haha.

 

Also, if you don't mind me asking, how are you liking grad school so far?

[teerav42]

Recruitment weekends are a blast! I visited Northwestern, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and UT-Austin. I think 4 visits is about the perfect number to go on, it would have been tough to fit any more weekends out of town into my schedule since I was busy with senior design and other courses. I was extremely skeptical about grad school before going on visit weekends--before my first visit I was thinking I was going to accept a job offer I had in Houston. Visiting changed my mind though, obviously. Undergrad research was not strongly emphasized at my school, so I really liked meeting other students who were interested in it. Going into it all I thought I must be crazy for thinking about getting my PhD, and it was a big relief to meet so many other students who wanted to do the same.

 

Things to expect at recruitment weekends:

• Lots of free food and booze
• Poster sessions
• Information sessions (boring but necessary)
• Meetings with professors (sometimes 1 on 1, sometimes in small groups)
• Talking with grad students about their work and graduate life
• Fun things around the city the school is in
• It's common for grad students to take students out to bars every night of the visit. If that's your thing do it and have fun, but you still are going to have to get up early the next morning. I was not 21 when I was visiting so I didn't get to do this, which was unfortunate, but I definitely don't regret the extra sleep I got relative to some of the other students I met,
• You will see the same people at different visits. Make friends with them, you will definitely wind up classmates with some of them.

As far as what to wear, everything was pretty casual at all of my visits. Make sure you look nice, but no need to dress to the nines or anything. If any school has something specific they will want you to dress up for they will let you know. On all my visits I just wore what I typically wore to school--jeans/chinos and an OCBD/flannel shirt for example.

 

The first semester of grad school was tough. At Wisconsin we take 4 classes--3 core ChemE classes (thermo, kinetics, and a math class) and an elective (I took a computational math class offered by the math department). Courses were hard, especially thermo. In undergrad I was used to being at the top of my class in pretty much everything, but in grad school I have found I am somewhere around average to slightly below average, relative to my classmates. You also have to deal with advisor selection during first semester, which went perfectly for me, but was stressful for a lot of my classmates. My advisor, like most, didn't expect anything out of me research-wise last semester; I just had to worry about classes. Next semester I am taking 2 classes and will be starting my research. I expect to be just as busy as last semester but I am looking forward to the change of pace that will come from not having such a full courseload.

 

Apart from school, life is great. I wound up in a class full of awesome people and we made friends quickly. It's been fun getting to know Madison and discovering all the great stuff the city has to offer.

[doomination]

I received a phone call from U Minnesota this morning (from the graduate program director) if anyone else applied there, good luck!