Interdisciplinary engineering and policy applicant - Incredibly worried...advice, please?

[anidude95]

Hello all! I am a final year Chemical Engineering undergrad from India, with a broad interest in energy, environment and climate issues - not just technically, but also in their economic and policy aspects. While I certainly do not wish to do away with or dilute my engineering background, I also have a keen (albeit informal) interest in areas like economics, finance, politics, policymaking etc., and I feel that a career in energy and climate policy would be an excellent way to combine my engineering skills with my policy interests. I intend to apply to most of the following interdisciplinary graduate programmes that I believe fit best with my aspirations:-

1) Technology and Policy Program (TPP) at MIT (MS)
2) Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) at Carnegie Mellon University (Ph.D)
3) Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at University of California Berkeley – Concurrent double degree programme with the Goldman School of Public Policy (MS+MPP)
4) Management Science and Engineering (MS&E) at Stanford University (MS)
5) Engineering and Policy Analysis (EPA) at TU Delft, Netherlands (M.Sc)
6) Master of Energy Science and Technology (MEST) at ETH Zurich, Switzerland (MS)

I am also applying to around 4-5 Ph.D programmes in Chemical Engineering (mostly looking at Cornell, UT Austin, Purdue and maybe a couple more), again mostly aimed at the energy and environment sector.

My profile:- I have a GPA of 8.4/10 from a top 5 institute in India. GRE = Verbal 166, Quant 170, AWA 5.0. Did a summer research internship in a (not highly ranked) US university in my second year (mostly experimental work in polymers and some materials science), which most likely will lead to one publication (although surely not in time for my applications). Did an industry internship in third year summer, but in an entirely unrelated field. I have no energy or policy experience so far, but my final year undergrad project (which is only just taking off) is certainly very relevant. I will be getting one LoR from my current project guide, one from my US research intern, and one based only on my coursework. I have had a healthy academic track record in high school with a few good scholastic achievements at the national level, but I wonder if that means anything at all here.

I finalized these programmes and have just started working on my SoP, but then over the last few days I have been freaking out and am scared that I may be applying way too high! I certainly do not want to end up without any admits, but am also sure that these programmes, though highly competitive, would be an excellent fit for me given my interests and skills. Could you please provide feedback on the strengths/weaknesses in my profile, and tell me if I am aiming too ambitiously? Or do I actually have a reasonable chance at cracking any of these places? Also, please feel free to recommend any more programmes that I may have missed out on that you think would probably be more achievable. Thank you so much!  I shall be pleased to help any of you guys out too, if I can.

[anidude95]

Hello again, Cafegoers! Could you please, please go through and comment on my post above? I do understand that my long post kind of reduces to a "what are my chances" question which a lot of folks here dislike, but I am quite sure that there are people in the Cafe who have applied to the above (or similar) programmes in the past (or know someone who did), and would be very well-placed to give me some advice and reassurance or, as the case may be, help me out with a good reality check regarding my profile and corresponding ambitions. People applying to/studying in/working in energy, environment, public policy and Chemical Engineering programmes are welcome to chip in with their two cents (or more) as well. Please, you guys? Thanks a lot, any response will be highly appreciated!

[Rahul Bhandari]

Hi Ani, 

Good to find that there are other people who are interested in it. I am also interested in it. Just like you I am also screaching for details on such interdisplinary programmes. Your post was the latest post on MIT tpp topic. Keep in touch, we could help each other. 

Rahul

[andrew]

Anyone Apply for ERG berkeley ?

[ani11]

yep, did you apply for the masters?

[gecs-ams]

On ‎11‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 10:58 AM, andrew said:

Anyone Apply for ERG berkeley ?

yeah. I applied for the masters/phd track, had an interview 1/30, and was accepted on 2/6.

they said that they have a short list and are hoping to make final decisions for the rest of applicants by the last week or so of February.

 

I was also accepted to Carnegie mellon EPP on 1/18, but I don't know anything about their plan for sending out decisions.

Edited February 10, 2018 by gecs-ams

[ani11]

On 10/02/2018 at 7:23 PM, gecs-ams said:

yeah. I applied for the masters/phd track, had an interview 1/30, and was accepted on 2/6.

they said that they have a short list and are hoping to make final decisions for the rest of applicants by the last week or so of February.

 

I was also accepted to Carnegie mellon EPP on 1/18, but I don't know anything about their plan for sending out decisions.

Hey, I was also accepted into EPP but not heard from Berkeley yet. Which one are you planning to take on or are you waiting on more unis to get back?

[gecs-ams]

11 hours ago, ani11 said:

Hey, I was also accepted into EPP but not heard from Berkeley yet. Which one are you planning to take on or are you waiting on more unis to get back?

Still waiting to hear back from MIT SES, but I think it will be between Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon. Not sure which one yet - I am visiting each in the next few weeks, so hopefully that should help.