Chances of getting into Masters Mech Eng.

[pathak5]

Hey guys...what are my chances of getting into some of the top schools in Mechanical engineering ... in Computational Fluids area...aerodynamics.. etc.

These are my choices:

Yale

Berkeley

Umich

Penn State

Princeton

MSU

Case Western

NYU

Carnegie

Upenn

Harvard

Brown

Ohio State

U of T

Johns Hopkins

Columbia

MSU

I might toss MIT an application just incase....

I will be starting my PhD in Materials Engineering at University of Wisconsin- Madison but would like to switch out and get a Masters in CFD because I have lost my funding for Materials Engineering 4 days before starting. I am supposed to start Sep 2nd. I want to stat Masters or Phd in Mech Eng - fluid dynamics area for January 2010 or Fall 2010. I will be doing 4 months of research and taking 3 graduate courses at Madison this fall though.

Education:

Post-Graduate studies - Phd in Computational Materials University of Wisconsin, Madison (Starting next month) (leaving possibly at the end of first semester). My advisors already know I will only be going for 2 semesters to do research with them and take 3 courses and the n leave.I will have references from prof at Wisconsin-Madison. Also I am projecting a 3.5+ish GPA for my first semeter at Madison (3 grad courses).

My strongest reference is from my advisor at Madison. He is one of the top profs in Materials engineering in the world. He graduated from MIT in 1978 and has been a prof for more than 25+ years at Madison with ground breaking research in materials science and transport phenomenon.

Underground: Mechanical Engineering, Univeristy of Windsor, Ontario, Canada

GPA: We are on a 13 grade scale in Canada..for my last TWO years of study I will have between 2.75-3.0 GPA on a 4 grade scale... B average. My cumulative will be around B-. Bad second year(D's and F's)... but a VERY strong upward trend in my last three semesters with numerous A's and A-. This past semester I have like almost 3 A+'s in a semester when I took course overload of 7 courses.

GRE : Quant = 710, Verbal = 420, ANALYTICAL=5/6 (I had to work on my final project thesis and had almost no time)

Work Experience: I was a research intern at Siemens VDO Automotive and did CFD research withm them.

Also Research Intern for Exxon Mobil Oil Sands research. did alot of research with them.

worked at Ford and General motors on co-op.

Research Experience : I have 1 published paper in proceedings by NASA Ames research centre in CFD. I Am SOLE author. It's in wind turbine related area.

I have an upcoming publication by ASME and have been nominated as Finalist for the Young Engineer Paper award. Top 5 in the World. Only Canadian and undergraduate student out of the 5. Other competitors are grad students from Illinois-urbana-champaign , arizona state, wustl and central Florida. It will be published in November. I won $850 for being finalist.

Technical paper publication by SAE in Finite Element Analysis. (in the end of September)

I hope to have one more proceeding publication within the next four months at Wisconsin-madison.

Thank you in advance guys.... If you guys recommend any other schools where I might have a shot please let me know.

[noojens]

Tough to evaluate your chances, of course. Publications are strong; GPA is weak. You can significantly improve your chances by studying for and retaking the GRE -- shoot for 800 quant and forget about the other sections. You'd be wise to shoot for higher than a 3.5 GPA too (grad classes have grade inflation -- a B- in a US grad class is roughly equivalent to a D in an undergrad class), although this isn't as important as long as you submit your applications before your grades get in.

Retake the GRE though, seriously. It'll help.

[pathak5]

I am pretty sure I will get an A in all my grad courses in the first semester...but my application will probably go in before the end of the semester(no grades yet). I will send out my grad transcript the moment the grades are in obviously.

So retaking GRE is the big thing eh. hmm.