Profile Evaluation | MSEE | Fall 2016

[mem7892]

Background:

• Undergraduate Institution - University of Texas at Dallas
• Undergraduate cumulative GPA - 3.435
• Undergraduate major GPA - 3.998
• Undergraduate junior/senior GPA - 3.823
• GRE - 332 (QR - 167, VR - 165, AWA - 6.0)
• No research experience
• Capstone project involved me designing analog sensor/comparison circuits and programming the controller for the solar tracking portion of our project, which we won 1st place overall for
• Currently employed at a large engineering company in Austin doing something related to my degree, but not really related to what I want to do in grad school
• My interests are in  RF/analog/mixed signal integrated circuits, which I understand is extremely competitive
• The MSEE will basically be used as a springboard to a top PhD program

Here's the problem, and I suspect it's what will limit me in my applications. I failed 15 credit hours of courses my freshman year; one class was in my major, two were related, and I got put on academic probation as a result. I've got an explanation, but I'm not sure if it's something that will make a huge difference. My father passed away during my last semester in high school, and the financial uncertainty and depression that came with that pretty much knocked me out for almost the next two years. I really should have just taken a break, but didn't know what else to do at the time.

A few professors that I asked about schools gave me the following list of schools based on my performance, but I'm not entirely sure most of them are realistic given my blemishes. Any thoughts on my chances at the schools, as well as suggestions for additional schools would be much appreciated.

1. University of Texas at Dallas
2. Texas A&M
3. Rice University
4. University of California San Diego
5. University of California Los Angeles
6. University of California Berkeley
7. Columbia University
8. Georgia Institute of Technology
9. University of Michigan Ann Arbor
10. University of Southern California
11. University of Washington

 

Thanks in advance for any replies.