Do I have a chance?

[Chanda]

I am senior Chem E

I go to University of Maryland, College Park

GPA: 3.48

Taking GREs in november

Research:

3 Summers of Research at the National Institute of Health

I won a research award there in a competition among the 90 summer interns

This semester I am doing research at school in a chem E nanoparticles lab

Other ECs:

Vice President of Debate Team

Engineers without borders - I spent my junior year designing a water purification system for a poor village in Peru. Went to Peru during June last summer and implemented the designs.

My advisor keeps telling me i need above a 3.5 for graduate school. I am close but I was wondering my chances at the top Masters Chem E programs.

Am I being to ambitious trying to get into the Stanford Master's program?

I dont mind not getting funding.

Would I be competitive for top 25 phD programs?

My advisor (who I do research with at school) said he can get me into the maryland phD program.

But I think it is generally frowned upon to go to same place undergrad and phD.

So I may just do Masters at maryland to boost my GPA and then apply again to competitive pHD programs.

Do you guys have any insights?

Should I bother applying to Stanford M.S?

thanks,

-Chanda

[zilch]

in short. yes.

Stanford is actually pretty lax in terms of GPA requirements, the impression I got is that they focus more on rec letters, essays and previous experience.

Graduate school in engineering is something of a trade, the university needs qualified people to assist the professors in research and the students need an education. If you can prove that you're an able researcher (and given your experience I'd say you'd have no issues with that) then you have a big advantage.

You have a shot at top 25 programs, but keep in mind that competition will be stiff, especially with a slow economy and more people applying for grad school.

Although for our professors (ie when they went to school) it was frowned upon to get all your degrees from the same place, I don't think the stigma is quite as strong for our generation (I've met a few younger professors who've gotten they're degrees from the same place). UM - College Park is also a very good university, and you can always do a masters there and somewhere else for a phD

For reference, I am doing my master's at my undergraduate institution. In my case I was already at a top 5 institution in the field, going elsewhere just seemed like a step down (also, MIT rejected me )

[whitemud]

Yes, apply. At worse, you'll be out the application fee.

To me, It sounds to me like your advisor is discouraging you so that he can keep you all to himself. A 3.48 gpa just means that you need to focus on showing your research experience (which is quite impressive), and have an extra special personal statement. It's not a bad idea to contact professors you'd like to work with, too; they can certainly help with the application/funding process.